Saturday the 5 Fast Femme Fatale Freaks walked away with second place in the Akron Marathon Relay with a time of 3:02:47, with a 6:58 pace!!! They only lost to Kent State cross county...but we will be back next year to go after them!!!! It was quite a morning! Beautiful day, lots of friends, and free beer! All I can say about this relay team is CHICKS RULE!!! It was an absulute blast and I highly recommend this race.
Congrats to all the other finishers that day...Salty with your sick fast relay, Brian and Adam with their mary's, Brandon with your half mary, running friends Bob, Pat and Jen on their halfs, my cousin and high school friend completing their first mary's in under 5 hours, and so many others!!!
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After the relay, I headed downtown Cleveland for a picnic with the Cleveland tri Club!!
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Sunday I had another wake up call in the 4 o clock hour. This day was just plagued from the start I think. I had a major panic attack upon arrival to my destination. I had checked in and went to put on the numbers only to find out my helmet was not in my bag. I was so screwed and I had drove over 100 minutes to get to this race.
I had taken everything out of my bag earlier this week to let things dry out. I have no idea how my helmet never made it back to my bag!
Luckily I walked by one of the bicycle support vehicles, John from Trek Bicycles out of Columbus was handing out free water bottles and asked if I needed one, and I asked if there were any chancce he had any extra helmets. My little savior for the day said he had personal ones in the car and let me borrow one!!!
So I waited around and finally it was time to start. The 8K run started with a steep one mile ascent and then the descent sized rollers just kept on coming. This was the last chance du to qualify for worlds and the field was amazing. The women in my wave were moving. They had the course marked in KM and I really could not think what the conversion was to figure out how my pace was at the time. Only the last mile seemed kind...definitely a very challenging run course. As I came into transition in 37:25 (7:07 pace) I grabbbed the bike and took off.
I took in a gel which ended up on my aerobar pads and all over me somehow! A few miles into the course and onto the chip and seal. 3/4 of the course was crappy chip and seal. It was jarring everything like my aerobottle like crazy and it just felt like I could not keep speed up as well on this surface. Several of the chicks came blowing by me on their sweet bikes with race wheels and disc wheels and I just kept thinking, my bicycle is not even in the same league. Oh well, I was doing my best to keep up.
After the grade 8 climb I was sailing down one of the descents and I dropped my chain...crap! After greasing up the fingers I was off again. But then I ended up dropping my chain again .....and again! By the third time I was frustrated. It was costing quite a bit of time and several women had passed while I was pulled over.
My back was killing me!!! The rollers and hills kept coming. I was hating the road surface for much of the course.
And then things went from bad to worse. I screamed ouch in pain. I had been stung by a bee in the inside of my bike shorts on my groin. I was not sure if the bee was inside or outside my shorts. I had compression shorts on so I did not think it could be inside but I could not get it out of my head that the bee was trapped in there and would be stinging me more. I was having issues my chest felt tight immediately. I thought about stopping in transition for some Benadryl just to make sure I would be OK but then I just wanted to get this stupid course done even if my time was going to be a real disappointment at this point.
Finally I pulled into the transition 2:07 later...a pitiful time which averages out to 17 mph. I suppose all my issues had taken their toll.
Out for the run. Only problem was at this point, I was not in it. I was tired, pissed, and my leg kept hurting from the stupid bee sting. There was a girl ahead of me and everytime she would walk, I started walking up these big hills. My chest felt so tight and I was so dehydrated as I had run out of water on my bicycle and I was just dying for the water stops. It was one of the most miserable runs of the year. One volunteer was so great with inspiration. Seriously I ran one section of the course by the turnaround just for him as he was saying to keep up the pace,I would pass at least 5 people. I started to get some motivation back. Volunteers really can make a difference. I legged out that last mile descent well but I had such a pathetic start the first 4K that it did not help my time that much. I finished the second 5K in 45:29 (~9:08 pace) and a total time of 3:30:07.
I am a Powerman...only thing is I just felt so crappy about the whole performance. Oh well, I kept going and finished what I started. Also I finished out the Battle of Ohio Long Course Du Series. Now it is just a waiting game to see if this performance will knock me out of first. We shall see!
For now my leg is still killing me from my second stupid bee sting on the bicycle this year. It is nice and red and swollen!
This week will be a nice easy week leading up to Chicago marathon with my cousin!! I am so excited!!!!
13 comments:
Way to go on the relay! Next year you'll beat those Kent State bustas!
an talk about your highs and lows! Sounds like that course was brutal. I think you did well considering everything that was thrown at you.
Rest up now and get ready for some trails! I think the winter Buckeye 50k is calling your name!
Ouch! Way to persevere through a kinda nasty set of curcumstances. You're one tough cookie!
Anyone who races as much as you is bound to have a not so perfect one every once in awhile. But you made it!
:-)
Jodi
The 5 Fast Femme Fatale Freaks rock!
wow what a race!!! i cannot believe a bee stung your ahem, area! holy crap! you still managed to bust out a great finish. congrats!
Good to see you @ the Akron mary and congrats on the hardware. Indeed, you fast and freaky femme's had a nice day out there....and you were obviously having fun @ the afterparty.
WAAAY to go! You never cease to amaze me :) Good work persevering- hopefully it won't take you out of first!
Sorry about the bad race. Never know when you are going to have a day like that and it just sucks when it happens at a race. Great job finishing anyway.
Geez, that's a hell of race report. I always think it says more about a runner when they're able to grit through "less than ideal" circumstances than when things are going smoothly.
BTW, what kind of bike do you have. I'm giving some thoughts to doing tris, but dropping 3 grand on a bike isn't sitting well with me.
I am very inspired by your gutting out the duathlon with so many setbacks. That is so much harder than anything else - especially when you know you are out of it and the motivation is low. It takes a lot of guts, and you definitely have that.
Big congrats on the relay!
And goodluck in Chicago! I'll be looking up your results!!
Great job! Best of luck in Chi-Town!
High five on the relay! It was a beautiful day at the races.
And, umm, I've had some serious GU problems myself. I spent half the Akron Half trying to figure out how and why I still had GU on my hands (and then, of course, my forehead, face, shirt) miles and miles after I'd sucked it down.
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