Quick check in to say hello! I’m smack in the middle of race(s) week and having a good time. I say raceS because I have three races this week. I didn’t even really realize that was the case until a day or two ago. Two of the races down, and one, the big one, still to go.
Race #1 – Silicon Labs Marathon Relay
This was Sunday morning and I had a blast. The relay was split into a 12k, two 10ks, and two 5ks. I ran the 12k (first leg) for my team. I saw my friend Alisa in the start chute just before the gun went off and was so happy to see her. I knew she was running that morning, but didn’t know which leg or anything. We ran together the whole way and had a great time. We ran strong and steady – not too fast and certainly not too slow. There were a few mean hills throughout the course, and the extra 1.2 miles we did over the 10k course were the hardest part. The hills were small but gees, they just kept coming! I was very happy with our effort – I didn’t want to go all out because of my race this weekend, but still wanted to run faster than my normal long run pace. Mission accomplished.
I had setup camp with Stephanie and her crew before my leg and went back and hung out there while our other members ran. I was awaiting the arrival of our queen bee, aka Molly, and her entourage (the rest of the family). She was running our last 5k, the anchor leg. I was so excited she was running – her 2nd 5k ever, and fresh off a 4th place finish at her cross country meet the day before. She ran very well and brought us in right under 4 hours for the total team finish. I’m not sure I’ll ever run a sub-4 alone, but doing it with a team wasn’t so bad :-)
Race #2 – Pure Austin Splash ‘n Dash
Last night I did the Splash ‘n Dash at Pure Austin Quarry Lake. This is where I do most of my workouts, and I usually swim on Tuesday nights, so in some ways it wasn’t far from my normal routine, but in other ways it was far different. First difference – they wanted to see my USAT card. What? Oh yeah…this was a USAT sanctioned race. Back to the locker room to grab it. Then they wanted my ID. Really? Oh yeah…they usually need that too. Luckily someone vouched for me and I didn’t have to go back the locker room again for that.
I had been looking forward to splashing, but not so much dashing…especially right after splashing. No bike in between? Hmmm….the race was a 750m swim followed by a 2 mile run. The women all went off in the first wave and the men came 8 minutes later. The course we swam is the loop I swim on a regular basis, so it was nice to have previous times for comparison. I swam the loop faster than I had before, so I was pleased with that. I guess I would hope to swim it faster in a race than I usually do in practice though…right? The run was three .67 mile loops around the lake on a gravel trail. I actually don’t like running on that trail at all – way to squashy and movey (yes, I’m making up words, but its necessary). I was pleased that I felt okay on my run. I did NOT feel okay Monday night during my spin class or my short 1 loop wetsuit swim. I guess a day can make a good difference. I wasn’t blazing fast on the run, but I wasn’t dead slow either. I felt good – that’s the important part. When I finished I realized I could have been in trouble had it not gone well and that I took a fairly big risk racing a few days before a big race. Not necessarily a physical risk, but a mental one.
I saw several friends there and really enjoyed hanging out with good company and good weather! A couple from Beaumont was even there, so it was good to catch up with them. I checked the results on my way out and was shocked to see my name fairly near the top of the first page. I ended up in 11th place out of ~75 women. I’ll take it!
Race #3 – Halfmax National Championships, Myrtle Beach, SC
This is obviously the big one. I did not do a full this year, so this one is “my big race” of the year. I feel weird saying that sometimes though because I feel like I haven’t trained well or nearly enough. Then at other times I look at my training and think I’m doing about the best I can, so I better be okay with it. I think moving to Austin will ultimately help my training and strength (and hopefully my speed, but who knows), but feel that moving in the middle of summer, taking on a new job, etc have all perhaps put a dent in my training as opposed to helping it. Three weeks of business travel during the last 1.5 months before the race certainly don’t help on the training front. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t regret moving in the least, and would have still moved had it meant I didn’t get to train at all or even had to miss this race, but it just means I hope I have realistic expectations going into this race. Of course a PR is always at or near the top of the list for wants for a race for most people. Will I get a PR this weekend? I have no idea. I think it is a possibility, but there is also a possibility I could be far from it. Lonestar was a good example of that – I was no where near my PR. There were probably a lot of reasons for that, but I think even had I been in stellar shape, that day just wasn’t conducive to stellar performances. So this Saturday could be the same. I think I’m in better shape now than I was for Lonestar in April, but probably not nearly as in good of shape as I was for Redman last September, where I set my PR.
Regardless, this is my “trip” for the year and I’m looking forward to it. I didn’t really travel for any other races, so this is the one. I’ve never been to Myrtle Beach and it is always fun to go somewhere new – especially a beach. After that little tropical disturbance does its business, it looks like we will actually have pretty nice weather…if anything a tad on the cool side for beach going, but I’ll gladly take it. It had been in the upper 80s there until the past few days.
Race #1 – Silicon Labs Marathon Relay
This was Sunday morning and I had a blast. The relay was split into a 12k, two 10ks, and two 5ks. I ran the 12k (first leg) for my team. I saw my friend Alisa in the start chute just before the gun went off and was so happy to see her. I knew she was running that morning, but didn’t know which leg or anything. We ran together the whole way and had a great time. We ran strong and steady – not too fast and certainly not too slow. There were a few mean hills throughout the course, and the extra 1.2 miles we did over the 10k course were the hardest part. The hills were small but gees, they just kept coming! I was very happy with our effort – I didn’t want to go all out because of my race this weekend, but still wanted to run faster than my normal long run pace. Mission accomplished.
I had setup camp with Stephanie and her crew before my leg and went back and hung out there while our other members ran. I was awaiting the arrival of our queen bee, aka Molly, and her entourage (the rest of the family). She was running our last 5k, the anchor leg. I was so excited she was running – her 2nd 5k ever, and fresh off a 4th place finish at her cross country meet the day before. She ran very well and brought us in right under 4 hours for the total team finish. I’m not sure I’ll ever run a sub-4 alone, but doing it with a team wasn’t so bad :-)
Race #2 – Pure Austin Splash ‘n Dash
Last night I did the Splash ‘n Dash at Pure Austin Quarry Lake. This is where I do most of my workouts, and I usually swim on Tuesday nights, so in some ways it wasn’t far from my normal routine, but in other ways it was far different. First difference – they wanted to see my USAT card. What? Oh yeah…this was a USAT sanctioned race. Back to the locker room to grab it. Then they wanted my ID. Really? Oh yeah…they usually need that too. Luckily someone vouched for me and I didn’t have to go back the locker room again for that.
I had been looking forward to splashing, but not so much dashing…especially right after splashing. No bike in between? Hmmm….the race was a 750m swim followed by a 2 mile run. The women all went off in the first wave and the men came 8 minutes later. The course we swam is the loop I swim on a regular basis, so it was nice to have previous times for comparison. I swam the loop faster than I had before, so I was pleased with that. I guess I would hope to swim it faster in a race than I usually do in practice though…right? The run was three .67 mile loops around the lake on a gravel trail. I actually don’t like running on that trail at all – way to squashy and movey (yes, I’m making up words, but its necessary). I was pleased that I felt okay on my run. I did NOT feel okay Monday night during my spin class or my short 1 loop wetsuit swim. I guess a day can make a good difference. I wasn’t blazing fast on the run, but I wasn’t dead slow either. I felt good – that’s the important part. When I finished I realized I could have been in trouble had it not gone well and that I took a fairly big risk racing a few days before a big race. Not necessarily a physical risk, but a mental one.
I saw several friends there and really enjoyed hanging out with good company and good weather! A couple from Beaumont was even there, so it was good to catch up with them. I checked the results on my way out and was shocked to see my name fairly near the top of the first page. I ended up in 11th place out of ~75 women. I’ll take it!
Race #3 – Halfmax National Championships, Myrtle Beach, SC
This is obviously the big one. I did not do a full this year, so this one is “my big race” of the year. I feel weird saying that sometimes though because I feel like I haven’t trained well or nearly enough. Then at other times I look at my training and think I’m doing about the best I can, so I better be okay with it. I think moving to Austin will ultimately help my training and strength (and hopefully my speed, but who knows), but feel that moving in the middle of summer, taking on a new job, etc have all perhaps put a dent in my training as opposed to helping it. Three weeks of business travel during the last 1.5 months before the race certainly don’t help on the training front. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t regret moving in the least, and would have still moved had it meant I didn’t get to train at all or even had to miss this race, but it just means I hope I have realistic expectations going into this race. Of course a PR is always at or near the top of the list for wants for a race for most people. Will I get a PR this weekend? I have no idea. I think it is a possibility, but there is also a possibility I could be far from it. Lonestar was a good example of that – I was no where near my PR. There were probably a lot of reasons for that, but I think even had I been in stellar shape, that day just wasn’t conducive to stellar performances. So this Saturday could be the same. I think I’m in better shape now than I was for Lonestar in April, but probably not nearly as in good of shape as I was for Redman last September, where I set my PR.
Regardless, this is my “trip” for the year and I’m looking forward to it. I didn’t really travel for any other races, so this is the one. I’ve never been to Myrtle Beach and it is always fun to go somewhere new – especially a beach. After that little tropical disturbance does its business, it looks like we will actually have pretty nice weather…if anything a tad on the cool side for beach going, but I’ll gladly take it. It had been in the upper 80s there until the past few days.
This race is the qualifier for the US Team for the 2011 Long Course World Championships. Had I not been turning the big 3-0 next year, I probably would have had a fairly good chance at grabbing one of the team slots. But not so much now. They will take the top 20 people per age group, rolling down to 25th place (i.e. if someone in the top 20 doesn’t want to go, they ask the next person in line to go) to worlds; if I were only going to be 29 in 2011, I’d only be competing against ~25 people for those slots, however there are 40+ people competing for the slots in the next age group up where I will be racing. I’d have to finish in roughly the top half of the field of 29-33 year olds’s to get a slot. At most any other race I’d say I had a decent shot at placing in the top half. This one? Not a chance. I have to remind myself this is a national championship and that I, along with everyone else there, had to qualify to get there…meaning there are some very talented athletes racing. I qualified by a whopping 3 minutes. So where does that put me? Roughly 3 minutes from the bottom of the barrel! So I’m happy to be able to compete in a national championship – this will be my 2nd sport now to do so. Qualifying for nationals in waterskiing was a HUGE goal of mine back in the day and I was ecstatic when I finally did. Thankfully I’m starting in the 2nd wave of athletes – hopefully I won’t be dead last across the finish line! I think most of the other people I know racing have a good chance at getting a world’s slot, and that is their #1 goal of this race. I definitely have different goals as I think I’d be hard pressed to come through on that one if it were my goal! I’d love to pr, but instead of even saying that is my goal, I’m just telling myself I want to do the best I can on Saturday, and want to walk away with a smile on my face and the contentment in my heart that I did the best I could.
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