Race 4, the Half Iron or for some Little Smokies!

Again I probably stayed up later than I should've on Saturday night enjoying the bonfire and IPA thanks to CK!

Race 3 had pretty much taken us out of the running for any sort of competitive placing so the pressure was off and I felt pretty relaxed.  I really had no illusions that there would be any sort of hammer left on Sunday after my partner had the terrible leg cramps race 3.  I was just hoping the residual effects would not be too bad and we could finish!


RACE 4, the HALF IRON 1.2 mi Swim, 55.6 mi bike and a 13.1 M Run and again TEAMS MUST START AND FINISH TOGETHER!

Sunday's race was supposed to start at 7AM.  Now normally I would want to get to the race by 6AM but our group pretty much opted for some extra sleep and we set the alarm for 5:30AM.  I was sooo sleepy when I woke up but got up to start trying to get ready as quickly as I could.

First thought was, "NEED COFFEE STAT"!  Thank goodness I brought the husband along for that.  By the time we left camp it was already 6:20, so I was starting to get a bit antsy about the time but when all was said and done I did not feel rushed.  There was just less time to wait around and I was pretty much feeling like a pro setting up after so much practice in one weekend.

I knew it was going to be a warm day but I pretty much had the nutrition part down.  Full First Endurance liquid shot flask for bike, another one for run which I would likely not use all of and water for the aerobottles and 2 bottles of EFS Fruit Punch (my fav) with some prerace in my bike cages.  GOOD-TO-GO!

TYR wetsuit, check.  TriSlide, check.  Goggles, check.  Neoprene Swim cap, check.  Again I opted to go splash around in the water to make sure it would not shock the system too bad.  It was amazing.  The water had warmed from 56 to 61 by Sunday morning and the water was noticeably warmer and almost felt comfortable.

As we got lined up, I just kept thinking the 1.2 mile swim buoys looked so far away and I had to swim that loop twice!    But there was not much time to think about that, it was go time.  4 races over a weekend tend to help you feel pretty comfortable by the 4th one.  I was swimming pretty relaxed and again, I think I might have actually enjoyed the swim.

T1 was definitely on the leisurely side and then we were off onto the bike course!  After a few miles of nice easy riding, we turned onto  FR 1 and then long climb started.  I just switched into an easy gear and up Team Edwards when, switchback after switchback after switchback.  The grade did not seem too steep but holy crap did it seem like the the never ending climb up.  And as we crested the top the downhill switchbacks started.  There were a couple big corners with some holes where it was good to control your speed a bit but I was just feeling like a little kid screaming, "Weeeee!: all the way down.

I was taking out butterflies left and right (they were everywhere and it seemed anytime I was speeding along...WHAM, bye bye butterfly!!) and just truly enjoying the beauty of the course.  Forest Road 1 and 3 were cutting through the forest on what looking like a one lane park path.  It should not only be emphasized that these roads are hilly but perhaps more so, these roads are truly some of the most scenic beautiful roads to ride.  Great course!  As we turned onto FR 3 the decent sized rollers continued and then there was another steeper climb.  Lots of people were digging deep here after feeling the effects of the third day of racing.  I was actually feeling pretty comfy and taking it all in.  Then I was super excited to see my husband who had run into the woods as I came up the one roller.  He was cheering and snapping pictures!  Love that guy!

Seriously, check out that pic which shows the beauty of where we were riding!  AMAZING!

Finally we made the final turn back onto the fresh pavement of 125 which meant, one more good climb....on this loop!

Then it was another nice long descent back to transition.  My partner was refilling bottles so I had some time and made a quick stop to the POP.

Then we were back out to repeat the fun again!  Slow and steady was the set course for the day.  That long long climb up just before mile 4 on the first lap was even more fun the second time around.  Ha!

I was just plugging along.  I had two complaints as I was riding along.  My bike shoes kept rubbing away at the arch of my swollen foot from stupid bee sting.  Not only was it irritating, but it also was beginning to itch.  My lower back was a little sore too so I was definitely taking the opportunity to adjust my position periodically and it always felt good to get out of the saddle on the climbs and stretch out some.

As were back on the second loop, all of a sudden, intense pain strikes my belly which surely felt like another STINKING BEE STING!  This leads to me yanking my shirt up and freaking out a bit thinking the evildoer was still in my jersey but I never did see the a-hole!  Thankfully not sure what it was, but it did not seem to bring on the same level of swelling as my foot or issues that my foot had, and I just had a good old nickel sized welt on my belly.  (Still do...HAWT!)

Anyways after that little debacle, it was back to the regularly scheduled program.  My partner was suffering some from the leg cramping residual effects on some of the steep climbs so we were just working to get through it.  Alas we made our way back to transition.  Only a half marathon left.

Now it is boiling hot.  I have on 50 SPF suncreen on now but the fire red shoulders from Saturday evening's race was making those rays really hurt on my shoulders.  Thank goodness for the shade the course offered.

Time for that same run course again.  Yes, that fun one!  One goal, keep it together and finish!

Best part as usual was seeing all our friends along the way.  As we were headed out, Christian and Ed were already coming back in from the 6.55 mile first lap and they went on to really finish well.   Lots and lots of people fighting there way through it!  Got to see fellow Trakkers Teammates Laura W. and MJ throughout the weekend too!  The first loop was long.  And I was happy to come back around to see the other halves of Team Edwards!

The second loop was even longer.  My feet hurt.  I was wearing my small shoes that I wore the first three races but on this day I wore socks and it made my toes feel to crunched up in the toe box on the down hills.  I was hot and really starting to look forward to getting done.  The other half of Team Edwards was being a trooper and was taking caution to get in plenty of fluids.  Thankfully when supplies looked to be getting low, a golf cart came and saved the day and dropped more drinks and ice at the aid stations!  Thank goodness!

Team Edwards just kept plugging along.  It was definitely cool to see all the teams together out on the course pushing each other along!  I was really routing for a few friends that were going to have a hard time making it in from their first lap to make the run loop 1 cutoff time of 1:30.  Apparently HFP let people continue anyway, which I am sure meant a lot to those folks!  Very nice!

Finally after a lot of hills and a lot of sweat, we headed out of the woods to finally make our way to the finish line!

We did it!  Team Edwards TTT finishers!  It was my partner's first half IM distance tri.  It was his first time with 140 + miles of fun in a multisport race over the weekend!  This will be a medal and finishers shirt which will always have special meaning to everyone who got them!  We had lucked out with a great weather and in the end, we were able to finish together !!!  :-)

I CAN'T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!

TTT Randommess

So before we get into the last race, I wanted to share some of the other tidbits from the weekend.....

First off, have I mentioned how hilly it was?  The Shawnee State Park and Forest was the host for American Triple T Ohio and is located in the Appalachian foothills near the banks of the Ohio River! 

The literature stated that American Triple T Ohio "will provide you one of the most challenging weekends of your life-count on it."  YEAH, BRING IT!  

One interesting thing about this race was that we camped out for the weekend.  Even better we got to camp next door to our Cleveland area peeps all weekend!  Super fun!

There is also an amazing sense of camaraderie over the course of the weekend among participants as we all donned the same shirt.  The same shirt we would wear in all four races (Ewww, and I showered with that shirt on too!)

Recovering in the icy cold water was key, as well as keeping up on your fueling!
It is really hard to walk on little rocks when your legs are tired!

Always remember, this is what we do fun fun!

Always run with a smile!

Always look for me to try to sprint you to the finish!

Hallelujah, the finish line!

"All this racing stuff is tiring!"

TTT- Race Three

Race #3 is an Olympic Tri which starts at 3PM and starts with a 24.8 mi bike, followed by a 1500 m swim followed by a 6.55 mi run.

That order should make things interesting.  On top of that we would be starting in the heat of the day at 3PM.  AND this would be the first of the TEAM races in which all teams must start and finish together.


Now this was the part I was looking forward to.  It would be a chance that my teammate and I could work together on the bike.  My partner comes from a strong cycling background so I thought this could work out well for both of us!

Setting up transition was a bit interesting this time around.  I was not used to thinking through things in this direction.  I had brought thin grocery type bags for my feet so that I could easily slip my super awesome TYR wetsuit on.  And now it is time to give props to another of my other FAVORITE Trakkers / REV3 sponsors, TRISWIM!  I wiped my goggles down with FOGGLE in transition to make sure fogging would not be an issue.  Then I thoroughly sprayed myself and my wetsuit down with TRISLIDE.  I have learned that not only does TRISLIDE really make getting the wetsuit off fast helpful but it really helps minimize the effort of getting it on.  I thank TRISLIDE for significantly aiding me in quick transitions!

So now it was time to race!   My partner and I lined up with my number of 194 and they let 2 bicyclists off every 10 seconds of so.  So it took a bit to get going! The plan was to take ~1 min pulls on the flats to maximize our efforts. And we were off!  We started right in with the plan.  The race course was an out and back with ~1900 ft of climbing.  We started out climbing from miles 1-4 then another climb at mile 5-7 or so before a nice long descent.   We hit the turnaround at mile 12.4 or so and my partner mentioned his legs felt tight and I could tell the pace started to back down in hopes that his legs might not shut down.  Mile 15 was a brutal climb and I just geared down and tried to spin up it easy while conserving the legs.  Then there was another nice downhill section.  The thing about and out and back though is you know what is coming...one more big hill.  A top this hill were 3 guys donning some little shorts or perhaps speedos.  They gave me a good laugh cheering on my way out and I was looking forward to cresting that last hill and seeing them again!  They did not disappoint!  During the climbs on the way back, my partner got hit with major cramping in his legs to the point that he had to pull off alongside the road to try to massage them out.  It was a hot hilly course and to have leg cramping on top of that, had to be incredibly grueling and as he pulled into transition, the pain was very evident.  Yikes, what a trooper!

Not that leg cramping was going to stop my partner from heading into some 60 degree water for our two loop swim.  Surely this was a good idea...right?  I swam a nice comfortable swim.  The water felt considerably warmer than it felt the prior evening.  The really nice thing about the bike-swim-run format is how nice and spread out the swimmers were in the lake.  I felt very relaxed and I think I was actually enjoying swimming this weekend.  Now much of this was due to my sweet TYR wetsuit, but props are also owed to TriEric who let me borrow his neoprene swim cap.  As a side note, these elevation profiles and pics are all ones that I lifted from Eric's notes on TTT.  I cannot tell ya how thankful I felt that Eric had taken the time to share detailed course notes with several of us and also went over a lot of tips at one of CTC's gatherings.  It was very valuable and prior to every race, I reviewed the notes so I knew what was ahead.  THANK YOU ERIC!

Huge props to my partner for making it through the swim.  The cold water brought on more cramping and he was not alone.  I saw the medics helping another guy out who obviously was having severe cramping.  There were a lot of people fighting hard to get through this race!

With the swim behind us, there was just one more leg to fight through.. the run!  It felt boiling hot.  I knew at this point my skin was getting burned.  With my sweat providing an extra draw for the rays, I tried to stay in the shady spots as much as I could along the way.  The nice thing about doing this with a partner, is you are out there together.  We told stories and just enjoyed the course.  The other thing that I really liked about the run course was being an out and back course, you were able to see the front runners heading into the finish.  I was getting excited for several of my friends like CK and ES out there just tearing up the course!

As we hit the finish line, I was super proud of my partner.  He had cramped terribly on every leg of that race but still continued going which had to be an incredibly hard feat!  Team Edwards had just one race left to finish TTT.  Only problem, the last race would be the longest and included, (you guessed it) more hills!!!

Post race I grabbed myself a Muscle Milk as I came through the finish and headed back down to my lil watering hole to give myself another ice bath.  Not sure if these were really helping to keep my legs good, but why mess with what seemed to be working?

After a quick shower, 7 of us went to the Mexitali restaurant there in town and I gobbled down a bunch of food.  I was sooo hungry!  Then we headed back to the campsite for another bonfire while I again kicked my feet up in my recovery pants.  All in all, I was feeling very relaxed and finally I hit the sack.  Thankfully no bee stings this night and I slept like a rock!

Bee sting update:  Wednesday now, arch is still swollen and red.  It is becoming increasingly itchy.  Have I mentioned how much I hate bees?  Ironic as my partner is sponsored by Honey Stinger.

TTT - Race Two

Morning came early Saturday as the 5:30 alarms started going off.  I dragged my weary butt up and sort of limped around on my bee stung foot.  Thank goodness I run on my toes I thought!

I got ready, had some french press coffee (mmmm), a bagel with PBJ and 2 egg whites as I sipped on my First Endurance EFS mixed with some FE pre-race.  On the subject of nutrition, everything worked out very well for me with my nutrition all weekend.  For both olys, I had half a flask of liquid shot on the bike and drank water from my aerobottle.  I also had one bottle of EFS fruit punch sports drink mixed with PreRace in my cage which I drank from each race. For Sunday's half, I consumed just under 2 bottles of EFS with pre-race and an entire Berry FE Liquid Shot along with a fair amount of water.  I also had some coke on the course.  Energy levels and stomach were solid the entire weekend of all races.  No cramps, no issues whatsoever!  I am so thankful that I have discovered the First Endurance products and always use my own fuel now which I have found works for me.  I think this was lacking for many participants and when it was as hot as it was, this can make a HUGE difference.

So back to the morning.  I quickly setup my transition again and pulled on my damp wetsuit and hopped back down to the beach to take a quick dip. The air temp was much cooler and the water felt cold!  I was actually feeling very relaxed after getting my feet wet last night.  Yet the difference between a 250 m swim and a 1500 meter swim seemed so far!  I thought I might freeze to death.  We got lined up and soon I hit the water with one plan.  STAY RELAXED!  As I started swimming I was surprisingly comfortable.  Friday night I felt like my sighting was poor and I was all over the place but things seemed to click on Saturday.  I was clearly not setting any speed records but I hit the mat in 26 something and felt pleased with that.  Post race I noted CK gained 9 minutes on me in the swim alone.  DANG!

Yet, no asthma issues and now it was on to the FUN part!  We headed out for a 25 mile loop bike course.  We were warned to bring our climbing gears and to take caution on the descents.  The first mile or two I spent trying to get my heart rate down and several people caught me.  Once I settled in I passed most of them back and in many cases we played a lot of cat and mouse out on the course which became a joke between white sleeves and I.  I truly was enjoying the bike tremendously.  At mile ~18ish an ambulance passed us right when an oncoming car was coming.  It this led to a hard break by the female ahead of me, who apologized quickly which led to us starting to chit chat for a lil bit.  Although I was enjoying the conversation, soon I realized that I was supposed to be racing so I went on to try to change my position.

AM OLY BIKE ELEVATION PROFILE

Truly this race offers some of the most gorgeous roads and some good climbs.  I felt great the entire way.  I would say I pushed a conservatively solid effort on the bike and rolled in ready to run!  With my shoes lubed up with TriSlide, I slid them on sans socks and was off to run!

The run started and ended like Fridays race, but after the first half mile the terrain was a double track fire road which was packed dirt, rocky, and rutted.  Yet this girl likes soft surfaces so I was just making my way on the run picking off people in my lightweight regular shoes while many opted for trail shoes.  Thankfully it was a dry weekend so I think conditions were pretty ideal!

Run course, out and then turn around to do backwards for 6.55 Miles

The second half was faster than the first half and as I counted females, I was right around top 10 (but again hard to tell with TT start) so I was pleased with that.  I am not sure what my run split was.  I got done, got my chip off, grabbed a drink and walked over to the water when I realized my garmin was still going.   I give that Race 1 & 2 about a 'B' effort.  Solid but saving myself for what was still ahead and feeling pretty good!

Race Results for AM Oly:


Swim:  25:35  Rank 230
T1:  1:04
Bike:  1:21:28 Rank 140
T2:   :42
Run:  50:39  Rank 124
Total Time:  2:39:54  Rank 140


Again I headed down to the water to soak my legs in the freezing cold water before grabbing a plate of food to refuel.  I felt this horrible pain on the inside of my right foot extending up my leg and I started wondering what I had done as I limped around the finish area.  I was considerably worried wondering what I had done  until I realized I had forgotten about stupid bee sting.  On top of that, I was FREEZING from the water so when I got back to camp I changed into my bikini to lay out on my giant beach towel in the beautiful warm sunshine!  Happy me!  I was feeling great after two races!  Once I warmed up I sat in the shade with my legs up in my recovery pants as I rocked out to some tunes.  We had several good laughs around camp that afternoon like CK stating, "What is it about Journey that makes me sing like a 13 yr old girl at a slumber party?" and many other memorable laughs!

My husband spent a good portion of Saturday riding his motorcycle around the scenic Shawnee State forest roads.  He was also a bit bored and picked up my Born to Run book that I had brought for a friend to read.  He sat next to us reading and turns to us to remark "I'm reading this running book to remind me that running is stupid."  Ha....whatever!  He read the entire book during the course of the weekend and even as a nonrunner he actually enjoyed the book, albeit he said he could have done without the barefoot running tangent that he skimmed through! Anyways we were enjoying the time and before I knew it, I was getting ready for RACE 3!

TTT- Day 1

Back home after a whirlwind weekend.  4 races in 3 days sure seems to make a weekend fly by fast! The short of it is, TEAM EDWARDS FINISHED!  The rest, you will have to read.....

So rewind back to the beginning.  After a week of packing up a ton of crap to take, we left out at 8 AM Friday morning to make the 4.5 hour drive down to Portsmouth, OH.  We picked up my teammate along the way and I honestly had no idea if we were going to get everything into the truck.  Holy lots of stuff between camping, racing, bikes and my husband motorcycle!

We arrived down to Portsmouth about 1:30 and started setting up camp.  That is when the clock went into warp speed.  By the time we were setup it was time to get our packet, then back to camp to get ready, then back to transition to get started to get ready for race one at 5PM.

Race 1:
Race one was a super sprint.  It started with 250 yard swim which would go off as a time trial start with 2 people every 3 seconds based on a time we had put in when we registered.  I have no idea what I put in now but I was number 194 out of about 400 for the weekend.  Now it was such a short swim but the kicker was that the water was coming in at 56 degrees.  Between that and being a slightly weaker swimmer, I opted for the wetsuit and the neoprene cap.

Christian, the dolpin who zooms through the water and Team Edwards donning wetsuits!

It was quite warm Friday evening in the mid 80s and I was super toasty from the heat and getting on the wetsuit so I hopped in the water for a bit right before the race so I was prepared for what I was going to be dealing with.  The water was very cold on my face but I took some strokes to get comfortable and I thought with as short as the swim looked, that I would be fine!

The time trial start was sort of a new one and it was crazy to see many people done with the swim before I even started.  It was hard to tell where you were all weekend due to these TT starts, but I was thankful to have less congestion at the starts.

As I ran into the water, I tried to get moving quickly as this was going to be a fast race.  I think between my nerves, trying to go fast and the cold water, my breathing became very labored.  I tried to relax in the water but pretty much was wheezing the entire race..stupid asthma!

Side note:  This was the first time I had had the opportunity to use my new TYR Hurricane Cat 5 Wetsuit which I got hooked up with through Team Trakkers/REV3.  I had never even put it on as I was nervous about tearing it.  Yet when I put it on Friday night and first swam in it, I was immediately impressed.  The wetsuit felt very soft and had areas designed to catch water.  I was not sure if it was my recent swimming or this wetsuit, but I felt very good in the water and had a pretty comfortable swim.  All I know is that I am very thankful for this wetsuit as it ROCKED!

The swim was over pretty quickly and I made my way to transition.  As quickly as I could, I slid the wetsuit off and exited to mount my bicycle.  Going into the race, my plan was to have a solid effort Friday but I did not want to go gangbusters and pay all weekend.  The course included one big climb followed by one big decent with 2 hairpin turns.  Overall it was a decent effort although I know I could have passed a few others on the descent but it seemed a lot of riders were all over the road so I figured I would just be a little more conservative. I forget my exact splits but I think it is safe to say the bike course was short.  Official times have not yet been posted. The whole bike I continued to breathe hard and then it was out onto the run course.  The first half had a slight uphill grade and I was breathing hard.  At the turnaround I upped the effort and tried to pick some people off but passing with that many people going in both directions on a tight course was a  bit challenging at times.

Just getting a look now at official results.


Swim:  5:37  Rank 187
T1: 1:01
Bike:  12:48 Rank 208
T2: 0:42
Run:  6:41 Rank 128
Total Time:  26:51  Rank 155 


I was breathing hard and made my way down to see some friends sitting in the cold water and I plopped my heavy breathing butt down in the water and attempted to catch my breathe.  The nice thing about the weekend's races, was that they provided a good bit of food after every race so I helped myself to some pasta and a salad before heading back to camp.  Friday night was fun and we had a big bonfire at our campsite and the Cleveland gang gathered round for many stories and post race laughs as myself and a few others kicked our legs up in my Recovery Pump pants which were a hot commodity for the weekend!

Just when I thought the night was over and I pulled the covers up over my head, there was one last surprise waiting for me.  I started screaming and jumped out of bed after being stung by a bee right in the meat of the arch of my right foot.  Now anyone who knows me knows when I get stung this leaves some pretty good reactions.  My husband hopped up and grabbed some benadryl and sting ease ointment and I tried to take care of it right away.  My foot had started to swell pretty good and I limped when I put weight on my heels.  Seriously???  WTF?  Why me?  How does this happen on big race weekend to me right in such a critical spot?  I had trouble sleeping that night as my foot was aching but I was sooo not planning on letting this impact the weekend....to be continued.....

GO TEAM EDWARDS...TTT Bound!

Ready or not, here I come!  TTT weekend is here!

So I am not feeling as ready as I want to be, but I am going to go put my best foot forward regardless, if not for me, for my partner, Tim Edwards!  And yes, we have the same last name and even both with blond hair and blue eyes, but we are not related!  I am just fortunate enough to have him as a friend, who I have met through the wonderful Cleveland Triathlon Club network!

So TEAM EDWARDS will be in the house!  The fun thing about having a partner is that we can draft off each other on the bike the 3rd and 4th races and we are supposed to start and finish together!

Hopefully he does not give up on me waiting in T1 as I have no illusions that I can swim as fast as him!  Other than that I am thinking we should be pretty good partners on the bike and run...hopefully!

I am really excited about the weekend and there is a great group heading down from the Cleveland area and we will be sure to have some fun!  Even better, it looks like we are at last going to have a nice weather weekend, albeit perhaps on the warm side for racing!  I can hardly believe Sunshine is going to even make a guest appearance for the weekend (picture Daisy doing cartwheels)!

My main concern besides all the hills and pain that await, is mainly that freezing cold water to swim I know I am going to be swim in!  Janet=giant freeze baby!  Thank goodness I got a new fancy TYR Hurricane wetsuit to sport!  Whooot!

As Santa would do I have been making a list an checking it twice to make sure I don't forget anything this weekend!   First Endurance, check.  TriSlide, check.  Plenty of can-do attitude, check (  haha...ok but active always has that on the checklist and for some reason, it still make me smirk!)

Happy Thursday or Friday for me!!!!!

Super dooper busy!!!

So catching up in my very limited time!

Yes, it is the normal whirlwind of life in the world of Daisy.  All things work related are incredibly time consuming, had the CTC super fun training camp last weekend, put some time into the latest CTC newsletter, also worked on an article for OSF, tried to get some training in and yada yada yada...means no recent blog update.

Where to start?

Well wishing all my TrakkersREV3 teammates the very best of luck at REV3 Knoxville!  I did it last year and it was such a fabulous race venue and vibe!

Also the big Cleveland Marathon is this weekend and I got a whole lot of people I am routing for including training partner, CV and of course Salty and then there is Nicole and soooo many others!  I am really hoping I am able to swing getting down there to cheer everyone on!

On the subject of last weekends CTC training camp down at Mohican Adventures, we will just say it was awesome.  Our 2nd year was bigger and better than last year.  More people and expanded opportunities for newbies and vets alike!  I think one of my favorite parts about camp is getting to know many of the CTC members better.  I give huge props to my TTT teammate, USAT Coach Tim Edwards, huge props for really offering tons of advice and perspective for the newbies.


Here are a few pics from the last couple weekends of fun!

Swim clinic at Mohican Adventures!

Transition Clinic

CTC VP preparing for nutrition clinic!  

My bug KL and I WINNING pre-Nashville!

G-tucly peeps in Nashville!  Daisy-Sis-KL

Post race party like Rockstars Fun!

Nashville

Well it was no secret I was planning to run Nashville Marathon.  I don't even really want to comment on it or make excuses but I want to move on so here it is.

The training had went well, but it always seemed like one thing or another was forever bothering my left leg.  I can't seem to process how much of this is paranoia or if there is just cause to be cautious here.

Regardless, I feel like even before I went to Nashville, I had a lot of doubts about my leg and if I was smart I would have just opted to run the half and enjoy it.

But I figured I would line up and see how I felt.  There seemed to be more hills than I remembered and the heat was coming on fast.  I was enjoying the crowds and there were a ton of people!

By mile 11 still holding a nice 7:18 avg on the garmin, I started to notice a building pain in my left leg and it was about this time the half marathoners made the split to head in to their finish.  I was sooo wishing I was almost done too!  I now had a slight limp and I think I was already starting to mentally check out.  I just kept thinking B race...don't blow A race  in 3 weeks, don't blow the season.

Just after 13, I threw my headphones on hoping to try to just drown out my doubts.  All I could think is please don't let this race cost me another stress fracture.  At mile 15.77, the course came within a block of where the halfers headed in.  For the past 5 miles or so I could feel the crescendo type pain building in my tibia area.  I was not sure if it was the nerve or if the stress fracture was coming back and I just did not want to limp for another 10 miles and risk hurting myself.  I stopped.  I was soooo hot now.  Temps had risen into the 70s at this point.  Every part of me knew I could finish this race but I was just not thinking the potential sacrifice was worth it.  After borrowing a phone to let my husband know I was quitting I jogged down to the half and jogged the final 2 miles in with them to finish with about 18.  

I did not even get the medal when I crossed.  I sort of just wanted to hide and wished no one knew I was doing the race.  Once I quit running, the pain in the tibia area seemed minimal so I don't think any damage was done.  But now I continue to question my decision and am filled with disappointment.  

I suppose at this point, I am just going to try to close the book on it and try to focus on TTT.  I really want redemption from this pathetic showing and no more excuses.

On the positive side, the experience was still awesome.  My non-running friend KL threw up a 1:43 half with no real training, sis ran her first marathon with a 4:06 AND I had a blast with ET and all the other CTC friends that made the trip down.  Lastly Saturday, I celebrated my anniversary with my husband of 6 years as we partied it up Nashville style, and having an awesome little pub crawl listening to tons of great live music!

Splits through 15.77 where I stopped my garmin....

1	00:07:13	1.00	07:13
2	00:07:07	1.00	07:07
3	00:07:27	1.00	07:27
4	00:07:27	1.00	07:27
5	00:07:29	1.00	07:29
6	00:06:59	1.00	06:59
7	00:07:13	1.00	07:13
8	00:07:31	1.00	07:31
9	00:07:12	1.00	07:12
10	00:07:17	1.00	07:17
11	00:07:23	1.00	07:23
12	00:08:06	1.00	08:06
13	00:08:11	1.00	08:11
14	00:07:43	1.00	07:43
15	00:08:52	1.00	08:52
16	00:06:23	0.77	08:17

So going forward, my near term plan is to focus on biking and swimming.  I will race TTT May 20-22 and then do Mohican 100K MTB on June 4th.  I plan to keep the running to a minimum to let the issues simmer down and just enjoy the summer as I will later build back up for REV3 Cedar Point.  Lots of fun pics to come!