1) I need to get back in the reflection habit in general,
2) I miss my blog, and
3) Facebook and Twitter just don't give me enough characters to give the detail I need to bore people completely to their graves.
So, let this be the official comeback for this blog. To kick off the comeback, let's review my race this weekend, the Muncieman Olympic Duathlon. For those of you that don't know the distances for an olympic duathlon, those would be a 5k run, a 40k (24.85 miles) bike, and a 10K run. I signed up for this race because just running was burning me out, and while marathons are fun, the amount of training you have to do for those can get really old after a while. When I found myself just going NOPE to anything over 15 miles for training runs, I knew it was time to back off and train for something else. I decided to train for a half marathon over the summer and train for this duathlon at the same time, weaving in the bike rides on my non-running days two days a week. I also decided to weight train on the regular again with Cathe's Strong and Sweaty series, which I love so much I could marry.
Turns out, I made some pretty darn good decisions. The combination of cycling, running, and weight training made me strong, but I never felt completely worn out like I often do during marathon training.
I also dropped 15 pounds since January, which always contributes to your "I am freaking awesome" esteem. But I digress. Let's recap that duathlon, shall we?
Pre-Race: Holy sh*t what time is it? And where is this race anyway???
I drove into the town where the race was (near Muncie, Indiana) on a Friday night because the race was held Saturday morning. It was late when I got in, so I quickly got ready for bed after getting to the hotel, making sure to pack my race bag and lay out my clothes for the next morning. Good thing I did, because I shut off my alarm and ended up oversleeping by an hour. When I did wake up, I realized I had 30 minutes tops to get dressed, air up my tires, grease the bike chain, make and eat breakfast, and get the hell out of there if I was going to make it before transition closed. I must say that this was the first time I have ever greased a bike chain while slamming down some oatmeal. And I did consider just calling it quits and not going...but then I didn't drive for 5 hours through rush-hour traffic around Chicago just to not go to the race.
After getting out the door and in the car, I typed the name of the site where the race was being held into Google Maps and started crazily driving along Indiana country backroads. When Google Maps dutifully stated that I had arrived, I realized it had dropped me off on the west side of a lake...with no signs of a race going on anywhere. I quickly pulled up the map of the lake, noting that there were roads that went all around its edge. I decided to drive all the way around the lake to see if I could find this place. After about 10 more minutes of driving and almost turning around and heading back to the hotel, I finally found the race site. I realized I had 10 minutes to do all of the following:
- Unload my bike and my gear
- Go get my packet
- Set up my transition
- Get bodymarked
- Grab my timing chip
- Listen to the course talk
- Remember to put on my running shoes for the first run (I lined up with sandals on)
After changing into my running shoes and making it to the start line 2 minutes before starting time, I could finally relax, until...
Run #1: SO MANY RACES
...a freaking CANNON went off to start all of the races going on and everyone starting a duathlon jumped like scared cats and scampered down the road. When I say "all of the races" I mean they had all sorts of stuff going on-triathlons and duathlons of various distances, as well as just a 5K option. This meant that at any point in the race you wouldn't know who you were really racing against, which I found nice - that way I could just focus on my race and my goal.
The first 5K run was nice. A few hills, temps in the 50s, and one lady and I ran neck-and-neck the entire time. I happened to know she was doing the same olympic duathlon as myself, so I knew she would be my competition. At the time, I thought she was going to beat me because she was small and skinny and I was sure she'd float over the finish line well ahead of me. When we got into transition, she zipped through and was gone before I could even get my bike shoes on....and then, of course, I had to go to the bathroom, resulting in an almost 4-minute transition time. "Great," I thought. "I'll never catch this lady. Oh well."
And off I went on my bike...
Bike: So nice I biked it twice!
Or I biked it twice, anyway, because they had one 12.5-ish mile loop that you could do as many times as you needed to hit your distance. I felt good going into the first loop, and, despite some rolling hills, thought I did a pretty damn good job. A lot of college girls I passed would surge to pass me back, only to wear themselves out so I could pass them again without ever speeding up. It made the time go by a little faster.
I did manage to catch up to the lady I ran with on the first run at the start of the second loop. I thought for sure after I passed that she would come from behind to get me, but that never happened. I also passed more college girls, which made me feel a little better. But you could tell I was getting tired at the end of that second loop, because THIS FACE:
I managed not to fall when getting off my bike before the second transition, but still had a realllly loooong 3 minute transition time. What am I doing in there? Napping without knowing it? I gotta work on these transitions. Anyway, I managed to get my act together and make it to...
Run #2: College kids, frozen feet, and a side-stitch-oh my!
This was a 10K run, and there were college kids everywhere. (One of the races was a college triathlon championship.) There were also more hills, many of which I just rode over on my bike. But the one thing that annoyed me the most during the first three miles were my frozen feet. It was about 56 degrees at the start, and riding on the bike for over an hour had left my feet feeling like frozen chunks of meat stuck on the ends of my legs. So I ran the first half of the 10K without feeling my feet at all. Which is probably why I was busting out sub-9 times; my legs felt really strong despite the fact that my feet were incommunicado with the rest of my body.
So it was slightly tragic that I started getting a side-stitch in the last half mile of the run. I had been sucking down gels and water during the bike, and it seems I also swallowed a lot of air along with it, giving me a nice searing-hot stitch on my left-side making it feel like I had a knife stuck between my ribs. But I was not about to stop running with half a mile left, so I slowed down a bit, grit my teeth, and internally screamed my way to the finish line.
Post-Race: Holy crap what is happening
After the race I could relax and take my time putting all of my gear in the car, changing in the nice indoor bathrooms they had, and meandering over to the pizza truck for my free pizza. As I sat there eating my pizza, they announced that they would be handing out the awards for my race in about 5 minutes. Now, I had every intention of leaving after I had sucked down my pizza, but I was curious as to who had won my race, so I decided to wait 5 more minutes for the results and then I would leave. So you can imagine my surprise when this happened:
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| OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING is my internal monologue at that. very. moment. |
But no matter. On the drive home I stopped at an oasis and whooped it up with some popcorn and some lice.
I also celebrated by signing up for the June race events held in the same location, only this time it will be a 10k run/56 mile bike/10k run. Maybe this time I'll be able to find the race...and I will be sure to set two alarms.
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