Kathleen's Adventures

(a little more on my race is here ) If you have read my blog any time over the 7 weeks leading up to Ironman Florida, you know that just a few days after Kristi McCarthy's death on September 19, this race took on an entirely new meaning. I was Racing Against Drunk Driving in her memory and honor. My initial goal was to raise $1,000, then $5,000, then $7,500, then $10,000, then...well, you get the idea. All in all, we ended up raising $15,000. I thought I was the third highest fundraiser when I arrived in Florida, which would have qualified me for an additional $6,000 donation from Janus to MADD . I was crushed on Thursday when I found out I was in fifth at best (qualifies for a $2,000 donation from Janus) because a few people had been raising money entirely offline so the information I had was not complete. That news ruined my day that day. I was completely bummed and felt like I had let a lot of people down. I woke up Friday though and decided it was time to get over it and tha...

Since when did my age group get so tough? It may not be very big, but gees, there are some fast ones. Looking at the FL results, you had to go 10:22 in my age group to qualify for Kona (darn, I was only off by a few minutes...), which is the fastest qualifying time of any female age group. Also I didn't even crack the top half in my age group with my little 12:47. My time in any other age group would have been top half no problem. Oh well - good thing I am not anywhere near trying to qualify for Kona , or placing, or anything other than just improving my own time - it could get pretty frustrating! I guess all the age groups just change with time. M35-39 used to be by far the biggest group in the first ironmans I did, but at IMFL M40-44 had 402 men while M35-39 had 385.

A full IMFL race report will be coming soon, but I always like to wait to get all the pictures first so I can put them together with the report. I probably should start on it soon though because I may forget everything. I have, of course, run a few numbers though that I think are pretty neat. Here is a comparison of my finish times for my ironmans and how I finished compared to the rest of the field: IMAZ 2007, finish time 15:31, 79th percentile IMAZ 2008, finish time 14:40, 58th percentile IMCDA 2009, finish time 13:29, 61st percentile IMFL 2009, finish time 12:47, 54th percentile So, obviously finish time/placement can vary greatly from race to race. IMAZ '07 was my first and I was happy to finish, regardless, but looking back at it now, I realize that race still had some pretty rough conditions (winds 20-25mph with gusts over 35mph). For comparison, the 79th percentile at IMFL this year was around a 14:25 finish. IMAZ '08 was the year of the awful heat - as in 97 degrees. Th...

The big day is almost here! Long it will be, but have no fear. You have put in miles and miles And will finish amidst numerous smiles. The hard work is over and done. Now is the time for nothing but fun. May your spirits be high throughout the day, And may nothing come along to stand in your way. Ironman is as much about the journey as the destination, And you will be rewarded for all of your determination. At 7am the cannon will blast But be sure not to go out too fast. Before you know it, you are diving in, Barely believing this race is about to begin. The cool water will run over your face, As you are now committed to the race. Those turn buoys will seem so far away But keep those negative thoughts at bay. 2.4 miles will be over before you know it, And you will start to realize your thoughts of Iron are truly legit. On to the bike, for the ride of you life you go, Be sure to give your friends a very loud “Yo!” Your legs will get tired and your body will get hot, But think of giving ...

I have swam, biked, and run more over the last 10 months than I ever have in my life. But then again, there are a lot of people who will be toeing the line on Saturday who can say the exact same thing. I guess for me I can say my base heading into IMFL is probably twice as big as it has been for any of my prior three ironman races. I guess I will know come race day how much, if anything, that is worth. I have ridden three century rides during the 8 weeks leading up to this race, and for me, I think that is about the perfect number. I know people do more and people do less. Any more and I'd go insane. One less and I'd still be okay, two less and I may start to doubt myself a little bit. My last century was three weeks out, right where I wanted it. My longest runs were awesome this time around, with my 21 mile run being four weeks out and an 18 mile run five weeks out (the day after the awful Lufkin ride from hell). If I can run anywhere near the pace I ran those training runs fo...

I'm trying to be the best girlfriend, aunt, sister, triathlete, MADD advocate, tri club president, employee and friend that I can be right now. I think I'm doing okay at some of those roles, but failing miserably at others. I think the emotional roller coaster we call Ironman is about to take off on its fastest and final ride before the race - an 8 day ride! I have not slept well in 10+ nights (but who is counting?). I needed to swim, run, and get my oil changed/car wash today but I think the rain is going to have other ideas. I woke up this morning to see Kristi's best friend donated $500 to RADD . Wow. That made me cry. Then I got on the trainer to ride my bike for a bit (only my 2 nd workout this week....not okay) and started watching the 2006 Ironman World Championships on DVR . That made me cry too! I have always said it is hard to cry and run at the same time...you end up not really being able to breathe...I don't recommend it. I learned the same goes for the...

Years ago when my sister danced the lead role in Cinderella (three years in a row, but who was counting?), her pictures graced the cover of the Weekend section of the Beaumont Enterprise. I was so proud of her and would always take the paper to school to show all my friends that my sister was essentially a total badass. At the same time though, I knew in the back of my head that my roles as a mouse, a bird, and Cinderella's ugly stepsister were most likely never going to land me the same kind of spread that playing Cinderella landed my sister. Well, here we are some 15 or so years later, and watch out Beaumont, today, I "grace" the cover of the sports section. I say grace loosely as there is nothing graceful about it and I'm not exactly sure they got my best side, but oh well. It is all for an awesome cause and I am beyond flattered they even wanted to do an article on my Race Against Drunk Driving at all. The online version of the article was posted last night. I ...

Ironman Florida bib numbers were just posted a few hours ago. I'm lucky #88. I think I quite like it! I was #99 in IMAZ in 2009, but 99 was closer to the air temp that day than anything else. I really wouldn't enjoy 88 air temp either, but we shall see what happens there. I have 11 days left until the race, but just a week left until I leave. I'm just a little stressed out right now, and we're also going out of town this weekend, so busy is certainly an understatement. I haven't slept well in about a week either, so that is not helping anything. I'm on the verge of sick but really think (and hope) I just need sleep. My to-do list is growing by the second but I think I will be able to get everything done that I need to. The good thing is that once I actually get to Florida, there will not be a whole lot of things to do. Since we are staying basically at the race site, much of the pre -race stress should be eliminated because everything I need to do will just b...

I picked the perfect Friday to take off work and have a three day weekend. I picked that Friday a while back to take off and go home to Beaumont to take my car in. The 5 year warranty conveniently expires while I am in Florida and I had no time between now and then to take it in to get worked on. I had to call in the troops (Mom and Dad) for help for this one as taking a car to get worked on as a single, working person in Houston is anything but easy. Friday morning was crisp and bright...and WINDY. I met up with Richard and Amie, a couple from Beaumont who I had only briefly met in person, but who I had recently started communicating with regarding The Gusher Marathon (Beaumont's first marathon, next May!), and my Race Against Drunk Driving. It turns out we have several friends/family friends in common, but it is Beaumont, so no one should have been surprised. They wanted to come out and help me with my last semi-long ride for Ironman Florida. How awesome is that? We were also j...

Apparently this is possible when there are only 12 people in it! I switched things up last week so I could do a long open water swim which included a 1/2 mile race and a 1 mile race on Saturday morning. It was so odd to not wake up early and do a long run on a Saturday! Sleeping in a bit was nice though. Tri On the Run hosted the swim race and it was a great idea for everyone doing fall half or full ironman races. I got in before the 1/2 mile race and swam 13 minutes (I kept doing out-and-backs to make sure I wasn't missing the race start!), then I waited about 2 minutes and started that race. I realized soon there weren't many other girls around me but knew some guys were still ahead. This race was just 1 loop on the course they had set up. Towards the back and all the way back, they were even able to give us some "realistic" training - as in the wind was howling and it actually managed to get choppy in a small neighborhood lake. I also picked it up a bit on the w...

I'm done running!! * * * * * Well, not really, but it makes me feel better to think so. I did my last official long run for Ironman Florida last night. Next weekend I will run 10-13 or so and then just 6-8 the weekend after that. It is sick and somewhat nice at the same time to say I only have to run 10-13 next weekend. I am so thankful to have been through this before because if I had not, I could see some serious freakouts on my part going on right now. It is soooooooo nice to not have the fear of God in me anymore like I did before my first ironman . I do think that fear makes that first experience that much more special, but at the same time, once you have even just one finish under your belt, things are a lot easier - if you let them be. Doing a long run after work on a Thursday night was definitely out of the norm for me. I was worried by about mile 2 that it was the worst idea I had ever had...not to mention the heat index was over 100 when we started, on a day that tied...

...I keep telling myself that anyway. I know next week when my "taper" will have started on paper it still will feel like I'm in full training because I still have to workout as frequently, just not quite as long. It will feel more like a taper after the next weekend. Jon and I met my parents in Austin this weekend to play and go to the UT/Colorado game. We had nice techno music so loud below us that the walls were shaking both nights we were there, so we didn't quite sleep as much as we had hoped for. Saturday morning I did my longest training run for the race, 21 miles. I ran with an Austin training group on a route they called "flat." Ha! The first half was almost entirely uphill and the second was almost entirely downhill. My mile splits were very even throughout the whole run, with my last 2 miles being a tiny bit faster than all my others. I also ran a little bit faster than my great 18 mile run the weekend before, so I'm satisfied with my running....

Thank goodness I made it out of that alive!!! On Saturday, several of us rode the Pineywoods Purgatory ride in Lufkin . Wow. That was 101 miles of straight hills. I'm not sure I ever need to go back to Lufkin again. Around mile 75 or so I texted Jon to say I was alive and where I was. He wrote back and said he was sleeping in the back of the car, with no energy to talk, because "that was a tough ace ride." He did the 70 mile route...so I felt a bit better about how awful I felt at that point! After approximately 6.5 hours of riding, I made it back to the car. We were at McDonald's in no time and I was hungry less than an hour after scarfing down a quarter pounder meal. Hmmm ..... I will say that the ride was pretty and well organized, but he road surface was awful from about mile 10-55, and that just takes a lot out of you. There were 1-2 twenty plus mile sections that were almost all up and no down. By the time we finally go to go down, the headwind was blowing r...

Wow. Knowing, without a doubt, you are doing a good thing or helping someone else is one of the best feelings in the world. I think this email is going to get me through more than a few of my toughest training days I have coming up: I think I can honestly say that there have been very few moments in my life that have made me feel as good as I do when I click on the link and continue to see more money being donated. It breaks me down to know that there are people out there who care. I can not thank you enough for everything you have done and continue to do for my family and I. You are absolutely amazing and I couldn ’t have asked God for a better best friend. So far 57 people have donated in memory of Kristi, in honor of the McCarthy family, or in support of my fight. Wow. THANK YOU EVERYONE, I AM SO BLESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think Mike and Katie are both going to come watch IMFL now. I am very excited. It will be great to have their support, and it will also be great to give them a mini beach vacation in the process. Adding them to the team of Mom, Dad, Jon, Mrs. Clark, and Dr. Doug and Linda just means the sea of pink will be bigger than ever! Now, I just need some sleep and emotional and physical focus to bang out these last 2.5 weeks of major training before I taper. In these next 2.5 weeks I will need to swim 15,000-20,000 yds , bike close to 350 miles, and run somewhere around 75 miles. That is a lot...but my " Ironman audience" has increased exponentially since Kristi's death, and I do not want to let anyone down. Yikes! that is a scary thought. I just need to figure out a way to take off work entirely between now and November 7 because it is really getting in the way of training and sleeping!

Only three more big weeks of training and then it is TAPER TIME!!! The realization that I have not taken enough down time lately slapped me in the face Saturday morning. I was hoping to run 16-17 miles and ended up with 15.5. Certainly not failure by any stretch of the imagination, but just a friendly reminder that I am not invincible and also that being emotionally exhausted can take a huge physical toll on your body. I had originally thought that last week ended up being more of a rest week than originally planned because I only got in two runs and one bike ride as opposed to the normal 2 bikes, 2-3 runs, and 2 swims. I was anything but rested come Saturday morning when it was time to run. The 15.5 miles that I did run were good and at a good pace, so no complaints, just the need to listen to my body. I had just come off two big weekends already (15 mile run/101 mile ride one weekend, then a half ironman race the next), so despite the reduction in workload during last week, I still...

I am not sure if I have ever felt as helpless as I have since Sunday morning around 8am. Buying cold medicine for Mike and Epsom salt for Katie feels about like the only helpful thing I have done, but that hardly even begins to help take their pain away. For the last 3 years, I have raised money for the American Cancer Society in memory and honor of several close family and friends, including Mike, Kristi, and Katie's mom who died six years ago. I had not yet sent in the paperwork for IMFL this year because I worry about asking people for money over and over again and that I just had not gotten to it. I had planned to do it in the next week or two, but did not want to be very aggressive about asking for money, especially given the current state of the economy. I woke up this morning and thought of one way I could possibly help in a very tiny way. I am going to race for Kristi at Ironman Florida in 6.5 weeks and raise money for the Beaumont chapter of MADD in the process. If you are...

Although I'm now left with what looks like an iron burn on my back, I had a great training weekend. Saturday morning I had a good 15 mile run with Shellie and the gang. I hadn't blogged about it, but last Saturday in Austin I had a minor (major) scare with my right foot. I was fearing I had a stress fracture, or the beginnings of one, around mile 13 of that run. The top of my foot hurt, bad. Had I been anywhere near any place that I could have gotten a ride back to Jon and the car, I would have, but the only way back was to hobble/run/walk 3 more miles. It had hurt in the same place the weekend before, again coming on around mile 10 of my long run. It felt like my shoe was rubbing, but taking off the shoe did nothing to take away the pain...I've also been running in those asics for a few years now so it would be weird to assume they were the problem. Anyway, after not being able to move my foot/toes after the run last weekend, the pain slowly went away just as it had the w...