Harvest Moon Race Report

Pre-race, I kept telling myself, "It's just a long training day." I was doing everything possible to keep my nerves at bay. My coach didn't make a big deal about it. I didn't taper at all. I had a three hour bike ride midweek and my legs were screaming from the long ride last weekend. It's just a long training day. You tell yourself that, but it's still a race. How can you not be nervous?

It began the day before... Packet pickup. We're rushing around trying to fit a zillion things into that day. We had a couples bridal shower that started at the same time as packet pickup. We did not look like triathletes at that moment. In fact, all my friends at the shower later gave me a really hard time because they haven't seen me in dress in a long time. Walking out of packet pickup, I ran into Tea and I recognized her from her blog. Scary thing is that I looked her up and down like I do every other triathlete--I looked at her ripped arms and immediately thought "That girl's going to kick my butt tomorrow." Then I recognized her... The Hi's and hello's ensued. I'm just now getting online and realized all the smack she posted on her blog after the encounter because I was in a dress and heels! Nice! As much as I would have loved to give her a hard time about it post-race, I'm glad I didn't read the smack beforehand. She did so great and smack talk would not have been called for at the finish line--just high-fives! (But I did get a kick out of it Tea!)

Race day. Emotions and jitters galore. It's just a training day, right?

As I picked up my timing chip pre-race, who should hand me my chip? DUANE!!!! Okay, if you want inspiration, check out his tri blog. He is one heck of a guy. And as inspiring as his story is, he is even nicer in person. I really felt like a met a legend yesterday. I'm a wannabe triathlete and sometimes blogger. He's the real deal. He is a standup guy all the way around. Thanks for everything Duane!

One of the things that really touched me yesterday was the support of my friends-old and new. It means SO much, but I'll save it for the post-race wrapup at the end.

The swim:

Water was cold, but not the worst ever. I've swam in warmer, I've swam in colder. Immediately I was side-by-side with a girl that started swimming off course to the right. She was pushing me off course. Eventually I just had to slow down, let her pass and head even farther off course, and then get myself straight again. Naturally I worry a lot about this with the 2000 person mass start in a month and a half at IMFL. But then again, it's not something I can control... Neither is the fact that I couldn't see the buoys as we swam straight into the sun, but I made due. I made the halfway point in 20 minutes. Not bad. At this pace I could beat my swim time from the Long Course a month ago. Only... At the turn... I got kicked or punched, I don't know, in the face. Didn't hurt and wouldn't be any big deal at all, it's pretty normal in a triathlon swim... Except that they knocked my goggles out of place... And they started leaking... And I wear contacts, so leaky goggles are my nemesis.

Now the goggles are another story in and of themself. My favorite goggles are the little ones that all the competitive pool swimmers use. After having them on for a while, they hurt and leave bad rings around my eyes that make me look like I haven't slept in two weeks, so I tried a new pair this summer. The new pair is a little bigger so I can see way better in the open water with them. Only they leak sometimes, so I have to crank them down tight... And that has given me a couple really bad headaches. So this past week I tried a new pair. Wore them in the pool last week without taking them off for an hour solid to make sure I didn't get the headache. They leaked at first, but I thought I figured out the trick. My IMWI 06 friend Kirk swears by the big honking goggles.

Except once they got punched or whatever, I was done for. Apparently big goggles get hit even easier. I'd stop, tread water, fix them, they'd leak some more, I'd stop, ya da, ya da, ya da. Oh well, I made it in for an uneventful swim other than that and I have no clue on earth which goggles I should wear to IMFL. Swim time: 45 minutes, a month ago it was 46, so I'm happy with that. Not sure about doing two loops of the stuff, but if I hadn't have had leaky goggles, I really feel like I could have swam the 1.2 miles straight without stopping or switching strokes. It was good!

The bike-

Oh my gosh... The bike... Everybody said, "Rolling hills on the first and last part, the rest is relatively flat." I've done a shorter tri on the first and last part of this course. They are some good hills. I knew this. No problem. I took it slow, dropped it into my granny gear whenever possible. No sweat. Two hours into the ride... No problem...

(Except for when I had to pee. I'm still not on the 'pee on the bike' band wagon. At the porta-potty, some guy went in right before I got there. I waited about 30 seconds, and realized he was taking too long. There weren't very many people around, so I went behind the porta-potty, dropped trow, and peed. I really had to pee. I went as fast as I could. I know the guy inside could hear me. We both finished at the same time. He came out, looked at me, I shrugged my shoulders and said "I didn't want to wait." He looked at me like I was the most immodest woman on earth, but I didn't care. In a race situation in the middle of nowhere... I really don't care. Best part was me telling my husband this story post-race. rather loud, and I see the guy two tables over... I had changed my shirt for the run so he might not have recognized me... But he did now!!!)

Okay, so two hours of feeling great on the bike. People are passing me (actually, there weren't very many people left to pass me) but I just kept telling myself, "You're gonna have a great half marathon today!!! You go girl! Save the energy!"

Then came the second half. Long story short, I didn't appreciate all the downhills early on. I thought I was on one big flat for an hour and a half... I wasn't. It was one big downhill. Because I spent the next two hours going up and up and up. And everytime I'd get to the top of a hill, I'd see the next hill, and it was higher up. And each time, you'd swear there would have to be a good down hill somewhere, but it wasn't there. I did in the last stretch catch and pass five girls. They were the only people I passed while I was on the bike, but I feel like I saved my legs for as much as I could, and in doing so, I was smarter than those five girls. Yeah me.

I FINALLY get off the bike (3 hours 57 minutes later). Yahoo! I was so happy to get my butt off that seat! I was a happy camper. I saw my mother-in-law and she was cheering for me. I saw Duane and he was cheering for me. I was happy to be off the bike, and for once in my life, I was happy to start running. Did I mention how bad my butt was hurting from that seat???????

The Run:

If I had started that run after two hours on the bike, I think I would have rocked. But those hills really burnt my legs up. My coach told me to speed walk the first five minutes. Check. No problem there. Then I was to work up to a jog. Check. Jog 9 minutes, walk 1 minute. That's what I was supposed to do. First 9 minutes and an aid station. Check. Next one... I wonder if I can do 8 minutes... That's what IronWil was planning to do for her full IM, and my coach told me to use this as training for the big race. So the next one, I only jog 8 minutes and start walking... Only, my legs are really, really tight.

The next mile got really bad. I had what I call "Water buffalo" syndrome and food and liquids just didn't sound like they were going to sit in my stomach and take the bouncing. This was not a good feeling when I still had 10 miles to go. Ugh. I don't remember if it was mile 3 or 4, but I did eventually force myself to take a power gel. I was hurting, and I just didn't know what the miracle cure was. Apparently, I really just needed to eat. I saw my husband not long after that because it was an out and back course. He did so well! I'm so proud of him. I also knew he would finish a good hour/ hour and a half in front of me. I felt bad that he was gonna have to wait for me to run 10 miles before he'd see me again. Boy, he must have rocked the house today. (And it turns out he did! He finished a full hour and a half in front of me, and he had started five minutes after me. He was a rock star!)

I did a lot of walking in this stretch. This isn't my race, this is just a training day, I don't care! I had all matter of negative thoughts going through my head during this point in the race. Bad, very bad. I knew this. I told myself that I would try to jog for five minutes before I walked next. Before I knew it, I could see the mile 5 aid station. Somehow, my tight legs carried me to the 6 mile aid station. I ran to the turnaround. I ran back to the aid station. I loved the workers at that aid station. They cheered me on both ways. "I just ran all that without stopping!" They cheered some more! I thanked them for everything and kept going.

I also recognized Tea just as I was coming into that aid station. She was behind me? Really? I was shocked. I thought for sure she was a long ways in front of me.

So now I've also got the self talk going "Five miles left, just five miles..." My mind wasn't working. I'm just now realizing that I had six, but at that moment I thought I had five. And I was questioning if I could walk five miles in 1:25 faster than I could jog it. I'm also eyeing the really, really dark clouds in the distance. Hmmm.... I wonder if I'm gonna make it in before that storm hits? And hour and a half left... Yikes, better not think about that...

As much as I labored about walking the rest, I decided that I had been doing well, so I would jog five walk one for as long as I could. It was taking me into the aid stations almost perfectly, too. I'll just do that until I can't do it anymore.

The clouds keep getting darker and darker... But I'm amazingly still jogging... It hurts, a lot! But I'm still doing it! My tight legs were just numb and running on auto pilot.

I'm watching the lightning in the distance.

Somewhere between 3-4 miles left, the fatty raindrops started. No sprinkles, just fatty cold rain drops. The wind had also kicked up pretty darn good. I just kept thinking, "Please don't hail, please don't hail." Brrrr...... Now I was getting cold. Best way to stay warm? Run!!!! No walking girlfriend! Unless you want hypothermia!

I was also thinking about my in-laws. Would they stick around until the finish in this stuff? I knew my husband would. He had to. Would they let him load up my bike and transition gear so it wouldn't get soaked (he didn't even try. It was completely soaked.) BOOM!!!!! Thunder and lightning. I jump about a foot off the ground. It's now pouring rain, it's cold, I'm soaked to the core. Nobody was at the aid station when I passed it, I was so happy they didn't make the volunteers sit through that. BOOM!!!! Another too close for comfort lightning and thunder bolt scare the wits out of me. Are they gonna pull me off the course??? OH NO!!! I have to finish!!! I can't DNF!!!!! I run, and try to run some more. I want to finish!!! But I still have at least 30 more minutes!!! AHHH! I bet my husband is worried about me. How on earth can I get there sooner? Gosh! Please! How? There is no way. You just have to run as fast as you can! But I can't any faster! It hurts! And now each of my feet each weigh about 10 pounds extra each because my shoes are just soggy waterlogged pieces of rubber sloshing the ground every step.

I pushed through about 20 minutes of a fantastic thunderstorm when it starts to let up. I'm now about a mile away. I just want to send my husband mental telepathy messages "I'm coming! I'm really trying to get there as fast as I can!" The last mile has some nice hills in it. I walk the uphills. Oh man, does it hurt.

I look behind me. I see someone about a 1/2 mile back in black. Oh my gosh! Is Tea catching me? I finally just met her in person, but I don't want her to think I'm a wimp walking! I start running again. Ugh. It hurts. Run faster. You can't let her catch you! I don't know if Tea is that competitive or not, so I imagine it's my friend Amy. Amy would totally play that game with me... Amy would run her heart out with all the pain in the world in an effort to catch me. Only I know I don't always have the mental toughness to push through the pain like she does. But this is a new friend... I'm a new person to her. I'm tough. I have to show her I'm tough. It's hurting. But she's not going to catch me.

There is now about 3/4 of a mile left. I'm giving it everything I have because I now also have the motivation that I'm going to beat the half marathon time from my last half IM. I don't know how that happened, but there might be some saving grace in this race after all. Some guy is ahead yelling. I don't know what he's yelling. I ignore the crazy person. Gosh, my legs are so tight. Did I mention it hurt??? Man, does it hurt. I get closer... And oh my gosh... He's yelling "Go Lori!" The guy in the hawiian shirt is yelling "Go Lori!" Do I know that person???? Who the heck is that? My eyes just well up in tears. It's Tim, the best man at our wedding. He's here to run me into the finish line. I asked how my husband did. He said great. He talked me to the finish line. I'm sure my pace was a crawl, but he made me feel like I just finished the Boston Marathon.

Then, with the finish line all blown over from the storm, maybe fifteen people still hanging around... I see Duane at the finish line. I hug him. My mother and father-in-law were STILL there! Almost eight hours from my start time that morning, and they were STILL there! Wow!

My legs immediately seized up, and they've pretty much stayed that way for the next 24 hours, but I did it. I still don't know if I can do the full distance in the time cutoffs, but I proved today that I CAN be mentally tough. I needed that.

I got to see my friend Tea come in. In true motherly fashion, she rushed herself and some of the kids at one of the aid stations into one of the cement restrooms to hide from the lightning. She wasn't the one running behind me. But I know how much training she's done--and it's a lot. If she struggled at all out there, I don't feel so bad about my own race. It was hard. Duane finally said goodbye. I can't believe he stuck around as long as he did. He cheered in several more runners. What a great guy.

And there are so many things I still want to digest about this event. (But it's a long post, sorry if you're still reading.) I'm trying to figure out what I can learn about this as I prepare for the full distance. Hmmm... Still working with that one. Need to figure out the goggle situation. Butt is gonna hurt massively, but for the first time, I'm really glad we chose the flat course of Florida for our first full distance. What else? Jog 5 walk 1 might be a good strategy for me. Eat something on the run even if it doesn't feel like its going to stay down.

I also need to just give a HUGE appreciative thank you to all of our friends and family. I don't know why we're doing this. I signed up to support my friend Amy that wanted to do it. We did it to take our minds off the fact that we can't seem to get pregnant for whatever reason. We signed up because we could. Because it's something we'll be forever proud of if we can do it.

But... In the process, your social life gets zapped. And that upsets me because I don't always feel like I have friends that are interested or support this huge feat in our lives. But then I remember Matt and Dani. At the shower the day before this race, Brian was giving us all sorts of props. I know Brian gets it. Chris wanted to come, but couldn't. And I know he would because he came to my last race. Mom and dad came and stayed all day. Kirk came to see us off for the swim. And Tim... Tim ran me in. Of course Amy called for the race report right after the race. Not to mention I got to meet two new friends. I am so thankful for our friends.

Thanks for reading. It might be awhile before I get to post again. It's a month and a half before the big race, and time will be tight as we fit everything in. Thanks for being a friend, and thanks reading.

AND... Good job hubby!!!! I'm so proud of how well you did!!!!! You look really great in this picture honey! I love you!