Lone Star 1/2 IM: Coach Liz's Race

The post you have all been waiting for...to poop on! Sorry, I have this thing for Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.

O.K., I was up at 4:30 am and I had to get in some food and get dressed. The rest of the crew at the Beach House was still asleep and the gang racing the 1/4 IM race were getting up at 5:30. I had 2 bananas and a Power Bar Nut Naturals Bar which is glutin-free and corn free. I had some juice as well. I filled my Gel-Bot Bottles with Clif Shot and was almost ready. I got my kid up and got him dressed and then loaded the bike in the car. I had to get the kid to the Moody Garden's Kid's Camp-Day 2 by 5:45.

With the kid succesfully dropped off, I headed to body marking and to get my transition area set up. I was in my own world with my iPod on blaring Beyonce's Naughty Girl and Public Enemy into my head. These two songs would help me out later in the day. Bloger Jane had her bike on the other side of the rack from mine and I wished her good luck with the dog bite on her leg. I made my way up to one of the areas I knew had flush potties and there was no line! SCORE!!! After that I started to get the wetsuit on. I saw Greyhound and said hi to him. He is looking fit and greyt. One of my gals that I am coaching found me and I was glad I found her. I asked her to hold on to a bag for me that contained my flip-flops and most importantly my Proventil inhaler. This is a new pre-race thingy that the Allergist wanted me to use. I had taken my anti-histamin and the decongestant, but I was willing to try the inhaler to see if it would work. Missy was glad to see her coach nervous before the swim. Really I was nervous because I had a ways to walk to the pier and I could not remember what time I was starting. I took a Clif Shot and got going to the pier.

Once I got to the pier, I found Kevin who takes my indoor cycling class. He was ready to go and I wished him luck. I found some of my other HRTC gals and soon it was time to take a 7 ft jump off the pier and into the water. The conditions were cloudy and almost foggy. I was glad that I had choosen the clear goggles. When the gun went off, I headed out but I had the hardest time finding the buoys to sight on. I felt really slow on the swim, but I was getting it done. There was quite a bit of chop on the long stretch of the back side. Once on the way back in I had a huge paddle wheel boat to sight on near the finish.

On the way to T1, I had a smoking fast wetsuit removal by the wetsuit strippers. I dashed to my bike which was easy to find and then it was out on to the bike course.

Once out on the bike and after I got my feet into my shoes, I realized that I had forgotten to attached the wires to my SRM. CRAP! I pulled over hooked that baby up and got going again. Once up onto the Seawall I realized that it was going to be a crosswind kind of day. Basically that means that there was not going to be anything easy about the bike. On the way out through the fog to the first loop turn around I was hauling 20 to 21 mph and passing lots of people. I saw the pros heading back in. At the turn around, my speed dropped off about 1 to 1.5 mph. Two of my athletes I coach who are brother and sister found me along this stretch and cheered me on. That was great. On this part of the course back in to Moody Gardens, no one passed me. YES! Once I got back near transition and the turn around for the second loop, lots of my peeps were cheering for me. That always raises my spirts. I yelled really loud for this guy to get out of my way and that I was passing on the left. I guess I did a good job of yelling at him because the spectators went nuts and the cowbells went wild. My inner bitch was coming out. Beyonce was singing in my head, "I'm feeling sexy, I want to hear you call my name..." OH YEAH!!! I saw Terry, my 2nd place First Timer on the way out on loop two handing out fluids at the Houston Racing Aid Station. I would be glad to see him in his pirate outfit later. The wind had picked up and loop two was slower. I could not complain though, I was going a lot faster than the year before when I had done this race. I wanted to finish the bike in under 3 hours, but I did not have an acurate time since I had to pull over to hook up the computer. Oh well, I would be really close. I had consumed 2 bottles of Accelerade, a Gel-Bot bottle of water and 2 Strawberry Clif Shots, a bag of Margarita Shot Blocks, and Clif Kids Fruit Twist and 6 Sports Leg caps.

T2 was funny, I almost lost control of my bike running it back to the rack and then when I grabbed someone's water bottle to give my feet a quick rinse, red Gatorade came out all over my toes. YUCK!!! I found some water and cleaned that up. With my shoes on, I grabbed my Fuel Belt and I ran out of there.

As soon as I got out of T2 and on the run course, I paused to activate my Polar R400 Foot Pod and I got moving. I wanted to run a consistant pace. The readout on the Polar shows me pace, time, and heart rate in that order. I never once looked at my heart rate. I went totally by how it felt or rate of perceived exhertion. I glanced at pace every once and a while. I saw the a--hole from last year who did not like a girl passing him on the bike only to come back and kick his butt on the run. Well, I passed him again on the run around mile 1.5 and I thought that he was trying to keep up with me because I heard foot steps shadowing me for a good 3/4ths of a mile. Turns out it was not him but someone else. HA!!! I watched the port-o-cans go by and thought about stopping, but realized that I really did not need to. On my other races when corn and wheat products had been in my diet, by the run I was looking desperately for the little blue outhouses. Not this time. It was hot on the run and the sun had come out. I was dumping water on my head and getting some of it down my mouth as well. I had Accererade on the Fuel Belt and the plan was to use one 10 oz. bottle per loop. When I ran past the Team in Training tent I got a huge reception with cheering and cowbells. I had some guy say that he was gonna stick with me for all the support that I was getting. As I headed to the back loop I saw more TNT peeps. One gal I know told me to get out of my zone. NO WAY! I was feeling good and feeling fast. Lots of my other athletes were out there cheering on Coach! I was headed back to see Terry and the rest of the HRTC pirate crew. On the way back in at mile 5 I saw Major A--hole and he was pretty far behind me. LOL, sucker!!! I checked my time as I was just before the half way mark and I did a double take when I saw 57 minutes. I went nuts and kept myself on track to have an awesome run. On the bike it was Naughty Girl, but on the run it was Public Enemy with How Low Can U Go?!? I kept up my pace and started asking the aid staions for ice to dump down my sports bra. I was in the ZONE and no one was going to kick me out of it. More love at the Team in Training tent as I ran by on loop two. As I was heading out to the back of the run course, the fast people were finished and cheering us on. I saw Kathleen in her pink race gear and she was helping cheer on the sidelines. More Accelerade and S-Caps went down the throat. I got to see Terry one last time on the run. Sorry for not being more annimated on the run Terry, I had my game day face on. The only thing that would have cracked it would have been seeing an aid station run by nude people. I told myself that I was not going to look at my time until I got right near the finish. I was soaking wet from all the water cups and sponges that I had poured and squeezed over my head and my shoes were making that slurpy sound. On the last 1/2 mile in, I was still feeling good and really consistant with my pace. I had only walked briefly to stick a bottle back in the Fuel Belt or to swig down some water without having it go up my nose. I checked my time and I gave out a shout: 1:58 and some change. I could not believe it. I was going to have an awesome 1/2 marathon time. Possibly my second fastest one. When I ran into the finisher's shute, I saw the time clock and knew that I had once again completed a sub six-hour 1/2 IM race. By how much I did not know but it was sweet!!!

Finish Time
5:49:25
A NEW PR!!!
Age Group Place/Gender Place
19/39 (4 of the top 10 gals in my AG) 61/177

Swim Time and Pace
42:30 2:12/M

T1
2:07

Bike Time and Pace
3;01:01 18.6 mph

T2
1:44

Run Time and Pace
2:02:00 9:19/mile
SECOND BEST 1/2 MARATHON TIME!!!

Run Ave HR = 158, Run Max HR = 162 Talk about being dialed in!

Well, for feeling slow, I rocked that race. The nutrition plan worked and other than a few tight muscles in the neck that got worked out at a sports stretch session, I have had no muscle soreness. The best part is that my speedy guy Ryan that I coach called me "Wicked Fast". How cool is that!!! I'm still really slow, but now I am starting to catch up to the faster chicks. Whoo Hoo!!! I will post more pics when I get them from ASI.

I'm off to bed now.

Have a great day!

Liz