Hope you have an INCREDIBLE day!

More pictures later gators,

Liz

Around here...

Thursday at 5:30 am I am holding my annual Halloween Spin Class. I have a great line-up of spooky tunes and I give away 13 Lucky door prizes from gym bags to Starbucks gift cards. Everyone will get a treat of a mini Clif bar or mini Luna bar. Here is the line-up of tunes if you want to head on over to iTunes and make yourself a play list.

Jerry Sienfeld-- Halloween "Get Candy" skit
Van Halen--Running With the Devil
Bow Wow Wow--I Want Candy
Beatfreakz--Somebody's Watching Me
Oingo Boingo--Dead Man's Party
CCR--Bad Moon Rising
Ray Parker Jr.--Ghostbusters
Rocky Horror Picture Show--The Time Warp
Mitch Ryder--Devil With the Blue Dress On
Michael Jackson--Thriller
Santana--Black Magic Woman
Warren Zevon--Werewolves of London
Blue Oyster Cult--Don't Fear the Reaper
The Classics IV--Spooky

I have been working hard getting my Halloween costume ready and it is going to rock the house! Buddy's costume is pretty dang awesome as well. I will do the reveal on Friday!

Stay Tuned!!!

Liz

21 Miler and Weekend Fun

Since last week I promised that I would comment about the FUN I had last weekend and I never got around to it, here it is... KOI!

Alright, I saw more than koi. I took my son to the Houston Zoo for Zoo Boo! Special Trunk Or Treat stands were set up around the zoo and kids were handed a bag for their goodies when they entered the gates. There were also Tattzoo stations, places where you could make animal masks, and a pumpkin patch where all of the kids got a mini pumpkin to take home. The Extinct Species Cemetery was next to the Children's Zoo where special animal encounters were taking place. We got to take in the Sea Lion show and paid a visit to the Elephants. I could not resist getting a picture of my son drinking out of the lion water fountain because my dad had taken a picture of me in very much the same pose at a lion water fountain when I was a kid. After the zoo, we walked over to go take a ride on the Herman Park Train. The train has been around for years but last January it was shut down to make way for the new train which made it's debut in March. Since then, more track has been laid around the park and the journey lasts a good 20 to 25 minutes. A new depot is being built and should be ready next spring.


Ok, for this weekend I was getting ready for my 21 mile run leading up to the San Antonio Rock n' Roll Marathon. I had been experiencing congestion, but a relatively dry nose. Houston had a wonderful cool front that rolled through on Thursday morning and had dried up the humidity. I felt like my sinus area was swollen and restricting breathing, but since there was no mucus I knew it had to be swelling due to irritants. I picked up a Netti Pot sinus cleansing system at the local CVS. This had been recommended to me by both my allergist and my sports doc so I thought I would give it a try. I never knew how much fun pouring water up my nose could be! Well, I followed the instructions on mixing the saline solution and started on the right nostril. Constant breathing through the mouth is necessary to keep the saline solution from draining down the back of the throat rather than out the other nostril. It was a very bizarre feeling. I was having tears streaming out of my eyes from the saline solution coming up the ducts that drain tears away from the eyes. I had some clear mucus and then some yucky hard green junk come out of my nose. It was not much but it looked like it was dried stuff that had been stuck up in the upper part of the nostril. I repeated the process on the other side and only clear mucus came out. Immediately I felt like I was able to breathe better through my nose rather than feeling like it was corked up. I am still breathing easy tonight but the best part was waking up without being plugged up and a dry mouth from not being able to breathe through my nose while sleeping.

So I got up early and had my pre-run banana and Nutella breakfast and then started rooting around in my gear box for my gloves and my run vest. The temp this morning was a brisk 48 degrees. I know most of you are laughing at me right now, but for Houston, that is chilly. I put on my TNT run shorts, TNT jog bra, a long sleeve Under Armor type of shirt, my TNT thin run vest, and grabbed my new Headsweats hat from the Longhorn 70.3 race and my gloves and rolled out of the driveway a bit late to go to Terry Hershey Park for our "All Team" 21 mile run. I hate running in Terry Hershey Park for 2 main reasons. First, there is only ONE bathroom. ONE! You hit it at mile 3.5 and again at mile 10 and then if you have to go, you hit the woods and you had better have some TP or wet wipes on hand. Trust me, I have had to resort to this and it is not fun because there are a lot of people who are running and biking the trails and you end up mooning someone as you take care of business down by the bayou. Well, the West Houston group rented a port-o-can this year! It was at the end of the parking lot and no where near the trail that we would be running on, but it was better than nothing. I did not have to use it, but lots of people in the group did. Hats off to the West Houston group for making life a little easier this morning. The second reason I hate running in Terry Hershey park is that each year, we get sent out on the easy part of the trail first and the last 9 mile out and back is four and a half of the most hilly miles in Houston. These hills are steep and sharp. We basically have to go from street level down to bayou level to go under the roadway and then back up to road level. This happens 5 times before you get to the turn-around point and then you have to do that up and down C*R*A*P 5 times on the way back when your legs are screaming tired. Oh, there are sprinkler systems to dodge as well. Needless to say, my calves are trashed and my left knee is sore tonight and it has never given me problems before.

I pretty much ran by myself which is odd since there were about 100 of us out there to run. I am not as fast as my buddy Terry and the other fast boys, but I am faster than many of the gals. Many of the fast chicas had done their marathon last weekend in San Francisco at the Nike Women's Marathon. They came out to cheer us on at the 12 mile/Finish water stop. We took off in the dark. There are areas along the trail that has no lighting so I had gone to REI and purchased a new Petzl LED light that I ended up strapping around my chest and made fun "I am IRONMAN" jokes with Ryan and Terry. The Petzl light was great! I was heating up and I stuffed the gloves in the back pocket of my Race Ready shorts at mile 3 and I stopped to use the bathroom and peeled off the long sleeve shirt and tied it around my torso and took off again. So now I only had on my thin vest with a mesh back over my jog bra but it seemed ok. It was still dark and I had caught up to a few people that I had passed early on and who had passed me while I was taking the bathroom/clothing break. At the far west end of the trail there is a dam at a reservoir and I ran with two other gals and the Clear Lake coach only so I would know where I was going once we passed the dam since this was a new part of the route that had been added. Once we ran a mile south, there was a gravel drive that went up to the top of the dam and then we ran back along the gravel path on top of the dam and down a paved hill that got us back to the spill way. From there I got back on my own pace and left the gals I had been running with. I saw lots of people on the way back in. I hit the bathroom again at mile 10 and I was starting to feel my calves mildly tightening up around the 10.5 mark. I had Coach Dan run with me for a 300 to 400 meters and he said I was looking strong. I ran it in to the 12 mile water stop and dropped off the long sleeve top and filled up all the bottles on my Fuel Belt and started out on the dreaded last 9 miles. The Nike team gals were cheering me on and I would need it for the last hilly stretch. I was running into the sun now and the run vest was getting a bit warm. I saw Ryan heading back in and a mile and a half later I passed Terry headed the other way towards the finish. Then I had to play chicken along a 200 yard stretch where the sprinkler system was running and the sprinkler heads were shooting over the path. I managed to stay dry but my shoes got a little wet dodging into the grass. This made those super steep accents and descents a bit dicey. I felt like my feet were going to either fly out from under me, or I was going to topple forward and do a face plant on the paved trail. I finally made the turn around spot, downed another Clif Shot and took off for the last 4.5 miles with my screaming calves. There were many times that I contemplated walking up one of those steep hills, but I just leaned into the hill and took dorky little baby gate running steps to the top. What a relief it was the see the cars passing up on the road ahead when I came over a hill. I had not even seen the TNT tent yet. When I finished, the gang was all ringing cow bells and then Ryan yells out "Keep Going!!!" WTF??!!?? was my response and then everyone started laughing. It was all good fun. We cheered on other finishers and I was able to get a cup full of good salty Chex Mix even though it was going to make me itch.
Yea!!! Glad to be done!
Me and the Nike gals. The Nike Women's Marathon raised over 19 million dollars for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to go towards research and patient aid! WHOO HOO!!!
Jarntip and me after my finish. Jarntip had to call it quits at the 12 mile mark due to a problem with her left arch. I coached Jarntip to finish her first triathlon this past spring.
Terry and Me at the finish tent that is stocked with all sorts of goodies that I really can't eat. Dang it!
Dave and Ben shortly after their finish. Way to go TEAM!!!

After getting in an ice bath and chowing down on some Pepper Steak at P. F. Chang's I took Buddy to the Fall Festival and 35th Anniversary at our Church. It was a good outreach program to invite the community to bring the kids to. There were lots of carnival games and big inflatable mazes, climbing walls, slides, and bounce houses. Lots of candy was being given out at the games and there were free hot dogs, bags of chips, drinks and cupcakes for everyone. Here is Buddy enjoying his hot dog.

So far the weekend has been great and I hope that yours has been just as enjoyable!

Later Gators,

Liz

Rollback and Crank Up...

Alright, for clarification, I was not let go from my managerial position because I was a lame and incompetent worker. It seems that of the 220 Group Exercise Directors that were employed nationwide by my company, only 22 were retained and the others were released of their duties. I just feel sorry for the 22 that are left. They have to pick up the slack that the other 198 of us left upon our departure. One of the 22 who works in my city is freaking out with all the stuff they have to do and how they are not going to be able to get it all done. I'm glad I don't have that stress.

So, this weekend was a rollback week in my training and I only had to run 10 miles. My treat was that I was going to get to run with the super awesome Greyhound. Greyhound informed me that we would be meeting up with a running partner of his along our way. Saturday morning was perfect running weather in H-town. The temps were in the mid- 50's and the humidity was not that bad. I wore a "Shrug" over my running singlet to keep my arms warm until I got the heart rate up. I met Greyhound nice and early at Memorial Park and as soon as I got my Fuel Belt bottles topped of and said good morning to all my TNT buddies we were off. Secretly I was hoping that I would be able to hang the entire run with Greyhound and that I would not bonk out halfway or almost near the end of the run and he and his running buddy Teri would have to drop me like a bad habit.

The "Shrug" was great! It kind of fell off my shoulders so it let the cool air to my body, but it still kept my arms warm. Our pace was quick and we could do a little chatting here and there, but it was fun to be pushed a little and to see if I could meet the challenge. We were the first to arrive at water stop #1 and I left the "Shrug" in the back of one of the coaches cars and would get it later. We took off again into the dark and did our best to not hit any runners coming the other way on the trail. Again our pace was quick and I ventured a look at my watch to catch our pace when we ran under a street lamp. OMG! at the 6 mile mark we were around a 8 and a half pace still. I was feeling pretty good about that and also feeling like I needed to make a pit stop at the Double Tree Hotel when we entered downtown. Feeling constipated and plugged up? Forget the Ex-Lax, just go run! We ran to the Sabine St. bridge and water stop #2 where we were going to meet Teri. Greyhound had told me that Teri was around 25 and a pretty fast runner. She had also been asking who I was and was I worthy of running with them. Crap! I had to make sure that I would not flame out and prove to be lame.

We made our way into downtown and I stopped off at the Double Tree and ended up feeling 3 pounds lighter and ready to hit the fast pace again. I like running through downtown early in the morning. We ran past Main Street and turned around just past the new House of Blues that opened up this past weekend and started heading back. We were supposed to turn around at Main, but we went to the 5 mile mark according to Greyhound's Garmin. We saw other people from the group who had only 8 miles to do at the water stop at Sabine and my Home Chica Lauren asked what pace we were running. When I told her 8 and a half she said that we were way too fast for her. I stayed just behind Greyhound and Teri as they chatted and we dodged runners coming in the other direction. There seemed to be tons of them. I did not think that we had started out that early. I was hanging with them and that was all that mattered.

We got to the last water stop and I retrieved the "Shrug" and tied it around my waist. Teri pulled off her long sleeve top and tied it around her and we took off. Greyhound had mentioned something about picking up the pace and then he and Teri put the hurt on me. I was hanging, but it was hard. I was doing the best I could but i could feel myself slipping back a bit. I did not want to slow them down. I slipped back about 15 yards and could hold that. There was a local high school cross country meet getting ready to get started and all the little markers were out and the athletes were milling about in their lettermen's jackets. I wondered if they thought we were a bunch of slow old people or not. We hit an intersection and Greyhound and Teri had to stop for traffic. I was able to regroup with them. Thankfully, the pace would not be as fast for the last 2 miles. Again, I shadowed the two of them and I did not have to slip back. Greyhound and Teri stopped at the Starbucks to hit the water fountain and we took off again. Somehow I ended up in front. I hope I was not too slow. I guess the pace was decent because I did not hear them chatting and I looked back to see if they were there and I saw Greyhound over my left shoulder.

We made it back to the park and finished in a an hour and 40 minutes. Not bad since I had my Double Tree break and we made 5 quick water stops and waited a bit to pick up Teri. I was happy with the fact that I was able to hang! My heart rate was higher, but I needed that type of an intense run on a short roll back week. All in all, a successful run workout!

I will have more adventures from the weekend in a later post but it is bedtime for Bonzo.

Later Gators!

Liz

Translation Provided by 50 Cent...

(Sign from the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island, Hong Kong)

I need all the comedy I can get these days! As you read in one of my previous posts, I was not so kindly let go as a Group Fitness Director of the health club that I work at. Not only did they shut me out of the time clock so that I could not clock in for work, but they failed to tell me until much later in the day (past 5 p.m.) and on my birthday no less. Well, all I can say is that now that I have gone a week and a few days without having to do payroll, find subs for my instructors, send off attendance reports, take care of bonus uploads, promote the special classes going on for the month of October, and updating the class schedules, I am finding that I have quite a bit of time on my hands now.

I had a pity party for the last week and was a lazy sloth and went to the movies quite a bit, but now it is time to kick the training back into practice. I have a marathon in one month!

Last Saturday, I went out and ran 18 miles but it felt like 21. The stress had fired up my adrenal glands and it caused my posterior tib muscles in both legs to be really jacked up. As a result, my calves were taking the brunt of the work. By mile 15 I was dreading any and all curbs. My calves were so tight and I probably looked like I was suffering. Add to that the fact that I was running faster than the coaches were at putting up the water stops. I found them setting out the jugs at mile 5.5 and I saw jugs at mile 8, but at that time I thought I would see them at mile 10.5. WRONG! I had to conserve my Fuel Belt bottles until I got to mile 15 by taking smaller sips. I got to mile 15 and there was no water stop! I had one 7 oz. flask left and I had 3.5 miles to go. I felt like I was running in thick pizza dough at this point and not making much progress with my calves. I stayed on top of my salt/electrolyte caps and Shot Bloks.

When I finished, Terry was there waiting for me, he had skipped the two out and back legs of about 3.5 miles because of the lack of water stops. He said he ran dry on his Fuel Belt. I heard later that the water stops got set up, but the two of us were too speedy, I guess.

I headed home to get cleaned up because I was having some tri buddies over to the house to watch the live feed of the Ironman World Championship Race. Terry, Luke, Norma, Jay and Sunny, and Louis and Angela all stopped by and we enjoyed sandwiches and a Tres Leches cake that El Esposo picked up for a late birthday cake. Ok, so shoot me. I am Hispanic and I really don't like Tres Leches cake. To me, it is too soupy, soggy, and runny. I know that there is cow's milk and goat's milk in that thing but what is the third "leche"??? Cat's milk? Well, everyone else loved it and I sent the rest of the sheet cake with El Esposo to his office and he said it was devoured by 9:10 a.m.

This weekend is a rollback week and my long run is only 10 miles. I am taking an adrenal support vitamin suppliment and hopefully my calves will be better this weekend. My Sports Doc, Dr. H, gave me a birthday tune-up today and I am feeling less pain in areas that were excruciatingly painful this time last week.

I am looking forward to Saturday's run because I get to run with Greyhound! He is probably going to kick my rear since his Yasso 800's have been going very well. I am all signed up to ride 180 miles to Austin, Tx with Greyhound in April with the Houston to Austin MS-150 ride. It filled up in a record 7 hours. Dang! It is just as bad as trying to sign up for an Ironman slot.

I leave you with one more funny sign. Trust me, these are real signs. Something somewhere got lost in translation. The English teacher in me is giving a big "F" to whoever approved these signs. Gads, I hope it was not one of my former students from 12 to 15 years ago!



Later Gators,

Liz

Longhorn 70.3 Race Report

Thank you for being patient while I got my act together and got some pictures. No bike or run photos are available yet because the company who took the photos runs a little slow. Add that to the fact that there were over 2,000 athletes and that means I should get my photos by Halloween at least.


Last Saturday morning I had the car loaded and as soon as the sun was up, I hit the road for Austin, Texas. I wanted to be early so that I had enough time to drive the bike course and see what I was in for. I was going to be doing this race with my buddies Luke and Terry. This would be Luke's 3rd half IM distance race and Terry's first. Terry had driven out to Austin a few weeks earlier when we had no power after Ike to ride the course and he said it was pretty hilly with a big Kick-Ass hill at the end of the course. I wanted to see how I needed to plan for gearing.

Here is my "Ghetto" Kutoa with the mis-matched "Booger Green" fork. Hey, I'm not complaining. I got that fork for only $50 from the guys at the shop after I had power lines rip my bike off of the top of my car on the way home from the Cap Tex Tri in May. All I know is that my bike is one of a kind! No one else in the world has a Kuota with a custom paint job just like it.

Once I got to Manor, Texas, I headed over to Walter E. Long park and started making the trek around the course. I was glad that I did. Austin has not had rain in a long time and the ground is so dry that the pavement on the roads has big cracks in it. Cracks big enough to swallow a front tire! The race production company did a good job of spray chalking all of the wheel sucking cracks and chunks of asphalt missing from the corners. I stopped to use one of the port-o-cans at the side of the road and found that they had turned them to face each other so you could not open the doors. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I had to do a Paula Radcliff squat along the side of the road and take a leak out the leg of my shorts. Gads! The Big-Ass Hill that Terry had warned me about at the end was impressive, but after Switzerland, it was not scaring me at all. I filled up the gas tank, found some lunch, and headed into town for the Packet Pick Up and Athlete's Meeting.

I found Terry and Mari in line at the packet pick-up. The line was super long, but it moved fast. The expo was super small and there was nothing I really needed. I watched the Athlete's Panel with Simon Lessing, Michele Jones, Lisa Bentley, Andrea Fisher, Richie Cunningham, Bree Wee, and others. After the panel I was too much of a dork to walk up and ask for a photo with Michele Jones or Bree Wee. I found my buddies Luke and Norma before I headed out to go back to Walter E. Long Park to do bike drop off. We got a nifty TYR drawstring bag with a long sleeve Zorel race shirt, a Headsweats hat, and a bunch of other goodies from the race sponsors. I loved the fact that we got a nice long sleeve tech shirt. I will put it to good use this winter.

Once I got out to Walter E. Long Park I got the bike out of the back of the car and pumped up the tires. The guy parked next to me was doing the same thing, but not having much luck with his pump. He asked to use my pump and I watched him as he continued to struggle. I offered my help to get my pump to work for him and found out that he had not opened the valve on his tire, so basically, no air was getting in. Was it nerves? Was it his first 70.3 race? I took care of the front tire and he started struggling with the back tire. I again offered my help and found that the valve was stuck and no air would go in or out of the tube. I asked the guy how old the tube was. He said a few months. I asked him when he last had a flat on his back wheel. He could not remember. I told him that he might want to change the tube out right there rather than get a flat on the course. He was not sure what to do. As we are chatting, my hands are getting greasy and filthier by the minute. Dang, when was the last time this guy cleaned his bike. I stand up and the cat is wearing a Ironman CdA Finisher's shirt! "Oh, you did CdA! My friend did that race and said it was beautiful." He responds back that it was and shows me his tattoo. Nice, you somehow finish an IM race and you don't know how to maintain your bike??!!?? I sent him off to find the Mavic tent for repairs on his wheel. What a tool!

I got my Kuota in place on the rack and it was time to go check in at my hotel.



I met Luke and Norma, and Terry and Mari at Carraba's for dinner. It seemed that every other triathlete in the race was eating there as well. We had a nice dinner but I will say that there was way too much garlic on my food. I love garlic but it was not setting well with me that evening and that is not good before the race. Norma and Mari were going to be our cheerleaders and motivators out on the course. Norma is a photography buff so most of these photos are from her gallery. As I sat there at the table I reflected on the fact that I had at one point coached each one of these wonderful people through their first Olympic distance triathlon. I must have done a good job because they were back for more racing!

Ok, I'm going to just come out and say it...I hate my hair! It is in that odd growing out stage and sometimes I look like Kristi McNichols with her feathered cut from "Family" in the 70's and at other times I look like Uncle Jesse from "Full House". One day it will look presentable but right now it looks awful.

I was able to get to sleep early around 9:45 pm and I slept like a log. I felt rested when I got up. I took my time getting dressed and eating as well as taking care of bathroom issues. I headed off for the race parking around 5:30 am and then stood in line for 15 minutes or so waiting to get on a school but that would take us over to the race site. It was still dark as I got the last of my stuff set out in transition. The buses were backed up so the race director pushed back the race start 15 minutes. I found a port-o-can without too much of a line and then it was time to go back in and grab my water bottle out of Transition and start getting my wetsuit on.



The water temperature was 77.5 degrees! This was not supposed to be a wetsuit race but I was sure glad that the gals at the TNT office let me borrow this wetsuit since I broke my zipper on my suit at the Austin Tri a few weeks ago. Here I am getting ready to head in to the water. I look WAY TOO HAPPY to start that swim. I also look like a Troll doll. My Hot Pink swim cap needs to be Hot Pink flaming hair!

Looking for a good spot...

And Wave 6 is off! Usually I am in the last wave, so it was nice to be up near the start of the race rather than in Wave 13 or 14! The swim was rough. There was the W 35-39 and the W 25-29 in this group so there were well over 150 of us. It was a slug fest! I got kicked in the gut, slapped in the mouth, and hit over the head, but I am sure that I did my fair share of clobbering as well. I felt really good on the swim and once I got to the first turn buoy, I started seeing the blue caps of the men's wave in front of ours. I kept my head tucked and got down to work as I moved my way up past more men in blue caps and then men in green caps who were in the wave ahead of the blue caps. I focused on streamlining and pulling through with my arms. I rounded that last turn buoy and started sighting for shore. I made sure that i drained the bladder and kept on target. It was not until I was almost ready to finish the swim that I saw a large group of 6 or 7 yellow caps come past me from a wave behind. I swam in as far as I could while people were popping up and trudging through the water.

Once I stood up, I looked and saw all sorts of blue and green men's wave caps and pearl pink W 45-49 wave caps all around me. I guess I did ok. I did not hit my watch for this race. I was just going to see what I could do without much training in September due to Hurricane Ike.

Total Swim Time--29:33, 1:32 M pace, 17th out of 93 in my AG. Ok, I am going to be honest and I am sure there will be some haters out there but since the Switzerland 70.3 on June 1st I have been in the pool two times and I swam the Austin Tri Oly swim leg in 27 minutes. The swim is my strongest leg and I hardly train for it.

I heard Norma yelling for me as I started making my way to T1...

Transition was dirty and dusty and my feet were caked and yucky. I was moving as fast as I could but this was a huge transition area. T1--2:51.

Once out on the bike I started taking in some water and trying to settle in for the long ride. I did not feel like such a geek in my Aero helmet this time. Sure I was being passed by the fast men from the 35-39 AG that I passed in the swim, but I was passing a lot of the W 18-23, W 40-44, and W 45-49 age groupers who were already out on the bike. I stayed on top of my fluids taking in both water and Accelerade and dipping into my Bento Box for Clif Shot Bloks every 15 minutes. I felt on top of my hydration because I was able to feel sweat rolling down my arms out of my arm pits. That was good because it was a very windy morning with a steady breeze of 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 20 mph that dried off much of the sweat on the body. It was hilly and on a few short steep ones I saw people fall over with the wrong gearing or have to stop and push to the top. I seem to do pretty good in the hills. I will say it is because I don't have much "junk in the trunk" to haul up to the top.

Here is the route and elevation map...


Luke caught up to me around mile 27 and he was motoring. I had my own pace going on so I was no going to try to follow. There were lots of officials on the course and I was glad to see that. I did not experience any flagrant broken rules by other racers. I was waiting for Terry to catch me and pass me up but I never saw him on the bike. On the last two miles there were two good sized hills. A guy who comes to my indoor cycling class found me on the first of these two hills. I started chatting with him as we were climbing and he was passing me up. I did have a moment's thought that the other cyclists wheezing around me as we climbed the hill were staring daggers at me as I cheerfully said "Hi" to Rick and asked him how he was doing. I passed Rick up on the second and bigger hill and then it was time to start pulling my feet out of my shoes and start getting ready to dismount.

Total Bike Time--2:59:06, 18.8 mph pace over 56 miles.

T2 was faster, but just as dirty. The gal next to me was not back and she had a big ol' yoga mat down on the ground for her transition mat. I wiped the bottom of my feet off on her yoga mat before putting on my socks. Did I feel bad about doing that??? No. Not at all. Socks on, shoes on, grab the Fuel Belt and go! T2--1:42.

The run was two loops straight out of the 7th circle of Dante's Hell (middle ring, lol)



In the first mile, my right Vastus muscle of my Quad cramped up. I had been taking Enduralytes on the bike but I guess they were not enough. I popped three more in my pie hole and walked a bit because my leg hurt so bad. I finally stretched it and it loosened up. The aid stations were great! There were lots of sponges, misting stations to run through and icy cold towels to wrap around your neck. The sun had gone behind some big fluffy clouds, but it was still hot and in the 80's. The run course was very hilly and there was no shade at all. at mile 5 there was a big long brute of a hill that was called "Quadzilla". There were timing mats at the bottom and top of the hill and awards were being given to the fastest male and female up the hill. Needless to say I was walking that hill with everyone else. Half of the run loop was on pavement and half was trail running.

I had cracked out a brand new pair of shoes for this event. The store where I picked them up said that I could wear them for 60 days and for any reason that they did not work out for me I could bring them back. Well, I had a feeling that if I brought them in looking like this after the race, they might not hold up their end of the agreement, lol.
They started out white at the begining of the run!

I had to do more walking than I wanted to but that's life. Terry caught me at mile 1 and a half. He was smoking me! I saw my buddy Rick caught up to me at mile 3 and he was running and walking just like I was. Rick took off around mile 4 and I lost him on the big downhill before hitting "Quadzilla". I was happy that the volunteers were handing out more Endurolytes and there was plenty of ice to stuff down the front of my run bra. "Quadzilla" was painful but at least the aid station at the bottom had a great group of volunteers all dressed up like super heroes and there were funny signs all the way up the hill that said things like, "Red meat won't kill you...it's the green fuzzy meat that will." Or my favorite, "You can soar with the eagles, but weasles never get sucked into jet engines." I think I did better at more running than walking on the second loop. I found Rick again and I could tell he was hurting. Around mile 9 I looked around and I guess I had left him behind. I had seen Terry earlier at mile 7 as he had made the out and back and was at mile 9 1/2. Luke was not too far back and I saw him when I was at mile 8 and he was at mile 9. I just kept plugging away. I knew once I got to the top of "Quadzilla" again then I only had a mile and a half left. It was hard to have to walk that close to the finish but my legs just felt zapped. My sports Doc told me later that it was due to the fact that my adrenal glands had been running high.

As I came to the finish line, the clock read 6:15 and some change. Dang! I guess I did pretty good even with all the walking!

Total Run Time--2:28:41

Total Race Time--6:01:56

Luke and Norma found me right away at the finish. Luke had crossed the line about 10 minutes ahead of me.

Do I look WAY TOO HAPPY to have just hauled myself over 70.3 miles???

We got our nifty Longhorn 70.3 cold towels, water bottles, and Finisher's Medals!

You have to get that race backdrop photo at the finish!

Luke had a PR of 5:41! Way to go Luke!!!

We found Terry. He had already been through the food tent and had a can of beer in his Fuel Belt! Terry had a great first 70.3 race and finished in 5:12 or something crazy like that. Way to go Terry!!!

Yummy Freebird's burritos, fruit, Jim Jim's Water Ice, Oreos, Amy's Ice Cream, Sweet Leaf Tea, and Bud Beer!!! I didn't care if it was going to make me itch, I was eating that food!

The Three Triathlon Stooges! The three of us will be TEAMing up again for Ironman Cozumel in 2009!!!

My picture with the guest of honor at this race. This is a big deal because I went to Texas A&M University and we are the rival school of the University of Texas Longhorns. So notice that I am not giving the "Hook 'em Horns" sign, but instead giving the big Aggie "Gig 'em" thumb's up. Whoop!!!

I was very happy with this race. I SMOKED the swim and did well on the bike. The run was nothing to write home about, but something had to give somewhere. I was only 12 minutes off of my PR that I set at the Lonestar Half Iron back in March on a totally flat course. I went out there and had fun and did not even worry about splits and finish times. I have finished this triathlon season satisfied.

Sorry this post was way too long, but I hope you enjoyed it. As soon as I get photos from the bike and the run I will post them.

Enjoy watching the Ironman World Championship race this weekend on www.ironmanlive.com !

Later Gators,

Liz

Birthday Blues

Yes, i know that I have to get my race report out, but I just got word that I was demoted at work due to restructuring of the company. I self medicated with a brownie as a birthday treat that is now making me itch all over.

Well, I am now finally the age that I have been racing at all year long--38. It really feels like should be turning 39 instead, lol.

O.K., race report and pictures soon,

Liz

Longhorn 70.3 Stats

Hey There,

I just drove in to Houston and got my kid off to school and I have to get changed for work so I will write my race report later tonight. I was happy with the results. Here they are:

1.2 mile swim--29:33, Pace 1:32/M
T1--2:51
56 mile bike--2:59:06, 18.8 mph
T2--1:42
13.1 mile run--2:28:41, Pace 11:21/M
Overall Time--6:01:56

More later!

Liz

Take One...