Proud to be in the 1%

Yup, I said it!  I am PROUD TO BE IN THE 1%!  And if you want to get technical it's LESS than 1%

Less than 1% of the population will complete an olympic distance (or longer) triathlon!  I am determined to fight my body, fight the EDS, and work toward my Ironman Journey!  I've come to terms that I cannot run, it is actually pretty bad on my body.  I didn't give up without trying though.  This year I went from not being able to 'run' for 10 min to completing 3 stand alone half marathons including one with a 2200 ft ascent in the first 3 miles! I completed numerous 5K& 10Ks, and triathlons including another half marathon at the end of a half ironman.  Running kills me, but I'm not going to let that stop my dream.

I have migrated to Aquabikes.  It is a controversial topic in the triathlon community.  Purists think that Aquabike is just a ploy to get more 'annoying people in the way' for  races, and 'make more money'.  I say too bad, aquabike can get many other people OUT THERE. People who have medical issues and can't run, well here's the chance to enter into that 1%!

When I signed up for the Providence 70.3 I knew it would be tough, but I really had an awesome time and when I finished I felt pretty good. (Minus the running issues: missing toenails, blisters, joint pain, etc).  I knew I needed to get closer to my IRONMAN JOURNEY!

Almost immediately I looked for the next race.  I wanted to do a Full Distance, but knew that I could not run.  I found Chesapeakeman Aquabike.  It is an Ironman distance without the run.  WOOHOO!  I knew I would try!  I'm kinda getting annoyed at providing this huge caveat though.  People ask when my next race is and I say "Sept 29, I'm doing an Ironman distance aquabike.  That means just the swim and the bike."  JUST??  JUST?? did I say JUST?  Plus that's a really long sentence.  Well, I feel the need to downplay the fact that I'm doing 2/3 of an Ironman. A small fraction of that 1% even attempt an Ironman so pishah!  I'm not fast, never will be.  But you bet your ass I'm going to try!

I really hate having to give the race a "well it's JUST an aquabike."  2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike is nothing to sneeze at.  I even had a friend correct me when I abbreviated one day, I had mentioned something about "my IM in XX days."  She retorted "I thought you were only doing the Aquabike?"  Well it still is an Ironman Distance! The 99% aren't even trying!

I completed my last workout this morning for Chesapeakeman!

I  am ALL IN!

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HEY YOU! Athletic Clothing Makers!

This is just a rant about athletic clothing for women with curves!

I want to know when society decided that all clothing should be TINY? I just googled Athletic clothing the first result was from Victoria's Secret.  Perhaps that's the problem?

I know the horror of finding a bathing suit so you can just lay flat on the beach and hope no one notices your legs or extra rolls in the belly. Now add that horror to running around, having endless people take pictures of you in those clothes during RACES.  Add to that, a westuit, which leaves nothing unnoticed! 

I'm a woman with curves (probably a few more than necessary) but still CURVES!  I'm extremely tired of feeling VERY FAT and UNCOMFORTABLE when I try to find any workout clothing!  As someone who spends 10-20 hours a week in those clothes, they should FIT and make me feel good!

My first rant will be to the BIKE SHIRT INDUSTRY!   I bought my first bike shirt a few years ago, forget the women's section, those cute shirts? nope.. off to the Men's!  NOT ONLY the men's, but XXL MEN!  Do manufacturers of bike shirts think that only 80lb women ride bikes? or 100lb men for that matter?  Yea these things are supposed to be tight, but I think circulation is required for riding a bike.  PLUS, I would love to wear some of the cute colors they have for women.  Right now my only option would be to use 2 of them, one on each leg for a leg warmer!

Next rant - TECH SHIRTS!  Tech t-shirts have gotten smaller and smaller over the last couple of years.  They have 'women's cut' and a 'man's cut. OK GREAT, the woman's cut is cute, I like how it comes in at the waist, EXCEPT I would need a XXXXL to fit my D's!   Not to to mention my WRIST barely fits in the armhole, how is my bicep supposed to fit? Are real women not supposed to wear tech shirts? I tell you I know PLENTY of jacked women who would rock a tech shirt, if manufacturers would use REAL MODELS to size them.  I'm tired of arguing with race volunteers "yes I need a Man's XL"- they just look at me like I'm crazy.

ONTO ZIPPERS!.. GOOD GOD leave the ZIPPERS out of athletic apparel. There is no point!  I've never had one work properly, again onto the D's- if I zip up one of these TIGHT shirts, guess what... zipper either breaks or falls down!

When I first started in Triathlon, I tried a 'tri suit.'  They all have a stupid zipper, and all do the same thing FALL DOWN!  In hindsight this is ok though, trisuits in my opinion are kinda dumb! You must get naked in a portapotty at races.  No Thanks!

I finally found my groove with Danskin tankini triathlon tops and Under Armour compression shorts.  WELL, they caught on to this WHATEVER train to alienate REAL WOMEN from athletics and discontinued the good clothing!

I have about 12 of the 'old' Danskin tankini's.  They wear out so I have to buy more each year.  To my dismay, they were discontinued. They decided to create a new one, WITH A ZIPPER!  ugh!  Well first one I wore, zipper broke.  Second, zipper fell down while riding.  Awesome.  I emailed them with a total rant and their response was "we'll send this to our product people." I want to know what size their product people are, 2? and no muscles? (or boobs).

So now I'm back on the prowl for a new tankini.  Which is very difficult, they make them cut so goofy.  Side boob falls out because they they have an "athletic cut." or the bottom rolls up to leave your belly hanging out.  I mean leave some material for WOMEN WITH CURVES!  I know many women who are athletic and could put those crazy skinny @ss models to shame in FITNESS, so how about you make some CLOTHING for us!?!

So, that's the shirt.. I have been wearing Under Armor compression shorts forever. Guess what, they are discontinued as well!  The discontinued ones have stitching down the leg and a seam at the waist.  Well the new ones are total flat panel.  Seriously WHO LOOKS OK IN FLAT PANEL ANYTHING? To top that off, they're SHORTER!  Yea, just what I want!  There is a 'point of no return' on shorts. They either stay on your leg, or ride up.  I don't know what % of the population can wear the daisy dukes, but seriously can we HAVE A CHOICE?   I like 9" shorts, those are NO WHERE To be found anymore, 7" is the longest you can get and most are 2-4.  SERIOUSLY? 

Can we PLEASE keep WOMEN WITH CURVES on the minds of product people. 

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When It Rains...

I had visions of what to call this post, WTH, WTF.. but when I wrote to my coach about the last week she said "WHEN IT RAINS..."  yea that about sums it up without swearing.

I've been having a pretty good summer, rode 2100 miles on the bike, ran 174 miles run and swam about 17 miles.  I guess increase in volume has an increase in 'issues.'   I've had my share of rain too.  We tried to do a hilly century in the pouring rain.

I can't even explain how wet that was!  But that isn't the point of  the post.

Then here comes the storm!

Last Wednesday I went for a swim with Ali.  We had plans on doing a 90 min swim.  I felt a little nauseous before we even got int he water, but decided I better get this long swim done!  I like to swim an out and back for long swims, that way I'm not bored with constantly turning around.  This also means we were out in the lake, subject to boat waves.  This day had some crazy guy with a boat way too big for Webster Lake, ugh, waves.  I had to stop several times to catch my head!  We turned around by 37 min, I just couldn't take it anymore.  Then Ali got nauseous, I thought "ok maybe it's not me!" She said "How the hell did you swim that whole way like this?" - dunno, needed to get it done?

Eventually we got out of the water, and I was still spinning!  Took almost 7 hours to get rid of the feeling!  UGH!   I wondered if I had an ear or sinus infection that I didn't notice.  I normally wouldn't even bother going to the Doctor, however I had my Aquabike Ironman in 18 days!

The Doctor said "people with high tolerance for pain just don't notice when something's wrong." (Awesome side effect of EDS?).  So.. 4 prescriptions later I have ear drops, nose spray, antibiotics, oh and allergy meds. I had no idea I had allergies!?!  Swimmers Ear, Ear Infection and Allergies.  She says "stay out of the water for 7 days."  UGH!

The antibiotics kicked my @ss. All I wanted to do was sleep!  I rode a couple days, then got ready for my last weekend of long rides.   Saturday I drove up to Maine for one of my favorite rides.  50 miles for Autism society of Maine.   Stunning ride!

I felt good!  Last time I did this ride, it was my first 50 and I took FOREVER to get back. I think it was close to 5 hours.

It wasn't a race and there certainly were stronger riders there, but I was the first rider to return.... in   3:09!  WHOOHOO!  Stacey and her husband Kurt did it as well, it was Stacey's first 50 and she came in just after me!

I had a long drive home, went to bed and the next day got ready for a 70!  My riding partner was running late so I moseyed along and didn't start until 8:30.  Starting late means more crazy people on the bike path.  You spend a ton of time playing chicken with people, or dodging wobbly kids on training wheels.  That and it was windy.  I need the wind to practice for the race, but still.

About 30 miles in it happened.  I stopped to go to the restroom, went to get back on my bike, I THINK I peddled a rotation or two and I just FELL OVER! WTF!?  I just laid there on the ground, right foot still clipped in. Seriously WTF happened? I have ZERO clue, I just fell over? This is my 3rd fall this summer. I normally go over once a season, usually forget to clip out at a stopsign. I think the extra falls are due to volume, NOT Me losing coordination.

The first one, my foot was stuck!  I had sand in my clip!  I knew I was going to go down so I looked for a spot and fell LEFT away from the crank.  (I thought after, hey dumbass, why didn't you just take your SHOE off and stand up! Lesson for next time).

The second fall was bizarre.  I was BLOWN OVER!  I made fun of Andy Schleck earlier this year for his skinny self being blown over.  Karma, I guess was after me!  I was actually getting ready to stop, unclipped left and leaned that way when a big gust of wind whacked me from the side and shoved me to the ground on the CRANK SIDE! UGH, but not too much damage. Never in a million years thought this butt could get blown over!

I really have no idea how I fell on this last one.  I felt 'ok' after.  I knew I took a handlebar to the rib, also knew I twisted one knee and skinned the other.  Other than that, I was in one piece.  Having EDS does have it's weird little blessings! Like the fact that yea my knee twisted around, but it goes back.  A 'normal' person would have probably had a car take them home. I rode!  Then I started to hear the clicking.  UGH!  Missing top 3-4 gears in the rear.  I thought NO not 2 weeks before my race!  I eventually got back to the car, packed the bike and went straight to the bike shop.

I got the news on Monday, rear derailleur hanger was dead, and I had a few nicks in  the derailleur itself and it should probably be replaced.  Ok fine, right? WRONG!  Quintana Roo will only sell parts to QR dealers! QR dealers are NOT convenient to my house!  I started to call around to find the part.  No one had it! I swear I called every QR dealer on the east coast.  I even found one in the UK that had the part and I contemplated shipping from there!  Apparetly there is a big trade show in Vegas and all the bike dealers are there, no one is shipping anything this week!  GRRRR!!!  I put a note out on facebook, and then came the support.  I swear this community is awesome. So many friends were willing to help!

By 8PM I had 1 part ordered and mostly likely 2 coming!  Bicycles East in Glastonbury CT stayed late to figure this out for me! Quad Cycles in Arlington was stalking the QR guy at Interbike, and VMPS in Millbury MA was digging through to find one!  Awesome, thank you all!  - so I will probably have my bike back on Friday- FRIDAY!  how's that for a taper, just stop working out!?

Oh wait, this get's better!.. as the week has gone on, I've noticed some pain in my shoulder. So twisted swollen knee, skinned other knee, purple bruised ribcage, and now.... drumroll please.. tear in my deltoid!   Seriously wtf happened on that fall?

When it rains!.. I guess I should just go sit on the couch!



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Aquabike

I completed my first Aquabike today.  I know it's not a "TRIATHLON" as I only had 2 sports, but it gives me the opportunity to race, without the sport I HATE!  I've heard little mutterings of hard core /competitive triathletes.  They don't think aquabike should be part of triathlons, they say "if you don't want to do all 3 sports then don't do triathlons."  I say the more people you can get active the better!

Well, I'm glad aquabike is now an option!  It was fun.  Kinda weird, but fun.  I think race directors are just trying to figure out what to do with it and today was no exception.  I couldn't figure out how to get to the finish line. You cross over the 'bike in' and that's your finish time, but HOW do you get your MEDAL? that's lame, right?   I asked 3 volunteers before I found out they open the fence and you can run through the shoot.  So today, I crossed a finish line of an Olympic in my bear feet!

Onto my race report!  I have to start this with last week.  We were supposed to do a century on Saturday but we had  torrential rains!  We ended up going out for 44 hilly, wet, scary miles! I knew I needed to get my 100 in for the weekend, so I went out on Sunday too for 55 miles.  Turns out I totally smoked my legs. I don't know if it was general fatigue from trying to ride on very slick wet roads, or if I actually did something. My knee was killing me for a few days, then the pain went from almost my groin area all the way to my big toe.  I finally went for a massage yesterday and turns out I had the fascia line completely twisted the whole way! bleh!  So the massage therapist beat the crap out of me, and fixed it.

In addition to the leg/knee pain, I woke up Sat about 3AM with a HORRIBLE migraine; about a 9 of 10 on the pain scale.  Nothing would touch it (and I do have migraine meds)!  I was thankful it was Sat and not Sun!  I just kept thinking "please please please go away for tomorrow."

Thankfully, about 5PM I started to come out of the fog a little and started to get excited for the race!

The alarm went off at 3:45AM and we made it to Lakeville for 6AM.  I like to get to races when transition opens. You get good parking spots, and if transition racks aren't marked, good spots!  I got my # and discovered I was in a marked spot at the very end. The furthest possible spot to run in bike shoes!  oh well!

I wandered around for a bit and came back to transition only to find that my rack-mate decided to take ALL the space.  She conveniently put her bike stuff to the left of her bike and everything else to the right of her bike.  Uh, your stuff goes to one side only, it's not your bedroom!

I moved some of her stuff as it was ON my towel, but the whole thing just annoyed me. I waited for her and asked her to move it.  Her excuse "the woman on the other side had her bag there." (note that's where the other woman's bag GOES).  Anyway I contemplated peeing in my wetsuit and throwing it on top of her stuff after the swim, but that was just a little vindication thought to myself.  I asked her to move it and she did.

It was pretty foggy when we arrived.  I hadn't considered just how bad the water would be until we walked down to the pond.

This is the swim area, the arrow is pointing to the first VERY LARGE buoy and I'd guess it was about 200 yards from shore (if that)!  Luckily they delayed the start so we could actually SEE 10 feet in front of us!

The swim was interesting, for some reason I was in with the piranhas.  The pond is shallow and the swim is around the edge.  I was swimming next to this one woman and for some reason we could not get away from each other.  I would sprint to try to get past her, she would stay there. Then I would slow down, she would stay there.  I think she had the same thoughts.  I think we finally realized we were just going to swim extremely close to one an other.   I looked around, saw a pretty big field in front of me, and only a handful of  people from other waves passed me.   I exited the water at 30:23.  3 minutes faster than 2010.   I was firmly average! (avg swim time for the field was 29:21).   Not spectacular but I'll take it! Plus I'm happy to be average and not DFL!  (Dead F&***ing Last).

I don't know what my problem was with transition!  4:18!  Now there's a LONG run, up slippery steps, across some rocks/gravel but still what the hell was I doing for 4:18? (granted 1 min faster than last time), but  I didn't put on another shirt, eat, socks.. just shoes and helmet?!?!  oh well.

I got on the bike and went.  I was pretty out of breath and a little fatigued from the run from the water, from my miserable week, and the migraine yesterday.  I was a little nervous about falling off the bike!  I ate my gel and cranked it.   There were many more incidents of inconsiderate athletes on the bike.  Normally, you find the most awesome people in tris.  Today had some crazies out!  I was actually going fast enough to pass people.  (LOVE This new found skill).  "On your left."  BUT I found that some of the really fast people would just creep up on me and overtake me while I am overtaking someone else- WITH NO WARNING. .  These would happen at pretty high speeds too, I would pass at 20-22 and they would pass me, I'd imagine 27-28mph!  Dangerous if you ask me!

Then we had several just non-compliant athletes.  I would yell "on your left" and they would just stay in the middle of the road.  One older dude was actually riding the center line (note, the road was not closed to traffic).  I needed to pass him but was afraid to pass on the right!? but where to go?  Then there were these two women, riding side by side covering/swerving through the ENTIRE lane.  I would pass them, then they would pass me and hog the road? really?

Then the kicker, we were approaching a rotary and the course actually turned right into a DUNKIN DONUTS.  I did giggle but I'm sure that bit costs me a smidge of time.

 I was expecting to work with 18-20mph today, but my legs were just not there.  I manged a 16.7mph avg on the course.  Now I should be doing cartwheels as I averaged 14.7 in 2010.  I know I should shut up and be happy, but I have a different bike and I'm SO much more trained this year.  I expected so much more!

I finally rounded the corner to end the bike portion.  The road is pretty tore up and has speed bumps, so no speeding there.  I got off the bike, racked my bike and then wondered "uh where to go now?"  The aquabike  conclusion was very anticlimactic.

It was pretty cool to finish early, there were actually people around, food was still open, you could get a massage.  WHAT A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE FOR ME!?!?!

My time ended up being 2:08.  5 of 8 for the Aquabike-Female, I cut 15 min off my time from 2010.  I swam faster than 34%  of the entire race field, and 17% faster than the bike field.  Eh.. I know I could have done better, but I need to shut up and be happy with this, I'm not DFL!


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The Aftermath

It's Wed, back to work, company gone.. NOW I'm tired!  It has been a REALLY fast week, kind of a blur! I can't believe how quickly everything went.  I also can't believe I haven't really sat down/rested since about Thursday last week.


Reflecting back, I'm sad I missed much of the pre-race AM.  I didn't really hang/chat with anyone as I was a bit frantic with the ambulance, but I thanked my brother for taking my 'issue' of the day away. I also told him if he didn't want to see me race, there were other ways out of it. He made it to the finish line though.

After the race was great.  It was so awesome to have my friends there and honestly being last I had what was left of the finish line to myself.  That was pretty cool, even though the shoot with all the ironman logos and the photo area was gone, WHO CARES!? right?


I didn't feel that fatigued after the race.  My body is fine with the exception of a couple EDS related pains.  Quads, Hamstrings, Arms, all GREAT!  I ran MY race and I didn't push to limits that would bonk, or just make me a pile of mush.  My foot and hip still hurt though.  They are both out of place and I will see the chiropractor to put them back today. I do believe if my foot was in the right place I would have been 20min or so faster on the run,  but OH WELL :).


I also have a nasty blister on my little toe.  I had a picture but I'll spare you.  It really looks like someone scalped my toe, 100% of the skin is gone from about 50% of the toe.  


But that's it!.. really!  I feel great!  I love the support from all of you, it was super awesome!


Of course though, there had to be one buzzkill, right? I thought "do I write about it or not?" well I am, partly because this woman is inconsiderate, partly because I want people to think about things before they post them publicly (yea I know this blog is public).


A woman complained about me on the Amica 70.3 facebook page.  Well not me, but she was mad that I posted my awesome finish photo over there.  Seriously though, cool picture if I do say so myself.

She complained that they arbitrarily pulled people from the course and she shouldn't have been pulled since I wasn't. This is from her: 


"....And if you say there are sbr cutoff times than that should be for everybody. Anybody who doesn't make the cutoff should be pulled. Especially the part at the athlete meeting when it was said 81/2 hours is the official cutoff time. So hmmmm how can someone finish in 10:05? Why didnt anybody say there was an unifficial cutoff and as long as you cross the finish line whenever you still get your time posted AND a medal?? I mean good for the woman who crossed last. But that also could have been me. . But I DNF BECAUSE I FOLLOWED THE RULES"


She said on her personal page "On the ironman face pages it clearly shows a woman who took ten hours to complete the race...so much for cutting her off at the time cutoffs. "

Well, I have a few things to say about this.  First of all, 10 hrs is the CLOCK time, not my finish time.  I finished in 9:31.  Since the last wave went off at 7am,  I was :31 min over the cutoff. NOT TWO HOURS LADY!  

Second I made EVERY SINGLE CUTOFF except the FINISH.  It is very clear in the rules that you WILL be pulled if you do not meet the cutoffs for swim, bike, and loop 1 of the run.  I called and made sure, I said  "will you stop me from walking the streets of Providence if I don't make the final by 8 hrs 30 min after the last swim wave?" I was told, no but your chip will be pulled and you will have to sign a waiver.   Fine with me!

I did everything I could to make my cutoffs and did it just fine!  8:15AM was the swim cutoff, I was outta there by 7:25AM.  12:30 was the bike cutoff, I was outta there by 11:40PM.  1:55PM was the first loop of the run cutoff, I was outta there by 1:45.  

Now the lady that thinks she was treated unfairly and that I didn't follow the rules:  She started at 6:05, and took 1hr 25 min for the swim with a 10 min transition time to get to her bike!   Getting her out of the swim area at 7:40.  She got to mile 47 and was pulled at approximately 12:30.  This means she was pacing to  take 5 hrs 30 min on the bike!  Last month She posted on the Amica facebook page that the "bike wasn't bad" and the "run hills were ok."  She also posted "I had a PR on my Providence half marathon: 3:06"  I have a question on this, how did she expect to not get pulled with times like that?  If she were my workout buddy I would have said "get it in gear sister, know your times."  Now if she could pull off another 3:06 (which she wouldn't compare like doing a standalone run), she would have had about 10:40 to finish.  A full HOUR behind me, and 100 minutes after the cutoff! 

I would normally be super encouraging to people that struggle, but she didn't have issues (her wall is PUBLIC), and she wanted to blame me. The only issue she thinks she has is that "that woman had 10 hrs to finish".  She had an extra 50 minutes to get to that run cutoff!  That's a TON of extra time. If anything lady, you were given a huge benefit over me. 

I have a problem with her demeaning my finish.  She did write back to me that "I should be happy I got to cross the finish line... and she didn't mean anything mean."   Well, I worked for it, knew EXACTLY what I had to do to make it happen, and I DID!!

I'm not particularly worried about me, I finished.. and other than my swim which I'm a little mad at, I'm very happy with my race.  That 10 min extra on the swim wouldn't have made a difference.  My bike was exactly where I thought it would be, actually about 20 min faster.   My run could have been better but I had a collapsed ankle and a hip out of place, so that's what it is!

She shouldn't have brought me into her excuse for 'not finishing.'  ESPECIALLY publicly. Well guess what lady, now you're public too!  Ironman did exactly what they said they would.  I would never blame someone else for my  race! It is MY RACE, I KNEW what I needed to do..

AND I DID IT!

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I finished a 70.3!

Yup, I finished the Providence Half Ironman! and YUP that's off the bucket list!  This week has been crazy, the weather has been nuts which in turn flairs up the EDS.  I thought going in I was going to be screwed.  I decided I DIDN'T CARE, I was going to ignore any pain.   I dedicated this race to Abby, my friend's 3 year old fighting brain cancer.  The caption says "Courageous 3 year old fighting cancer. Today my pain is nothing.. 4 Abby"  Any time I would have a hard time,  I just started singing "I run for life " from Melissa Etherdge! It was also an experience like the PMC, so many people commenting and cheering "for Abby."

Pre Race:
My family is here, mom, dad, brother and my mom's friend came up from Pittsburgh.  I was SUPPOSED to have Fri/Mon/Tue off from work, but someone left the team and I had to pick up some work.  To add insult to injury, not only did I have to do things DURING hours, but also after and again SATURDAY AM!  UGH!  So add that as stress #1.

I went to race pickup on Friday afternoon.  I was hoping to get ahead of the game.  Boy was I wrong!  It took me forever to get everything then it was completely stressful packing for a point to point transition!  You have to pack everything needed for the RUN in one bag, and everything needed for your bike in another.  Once you place your run bag in transition you don't see it AGAIN until it's time to run.  I had things in and out of that bag about 30x, as I went through the race in my head "oh I'll need that after swim..."

I woke up Sat, with intention on taking it easy.   I packed and went to the dropoffs, man that was a LONG day!?!  Everything is so far apart and annoying.

This is the run transition.  It is "CLEAN" transition too, so NOTHING can be out of your bag unless you're standing next to it.

The rack spaces were SOO close together! They told you that you 'had' to rack by the seat, but my bike is so tiny and it dangles if I do that.  I have to hang by handlebars or I will mess up my bike AND the ones on the side of me as it blows like a flag!

We got back so late on Sat, I just had time to eat and go to bed.  Of course I woke up at 1AM instead of 2:30!  And of all things, a MIGRAINE!  I started to feel one on Sat and thought "no frickin way, you CANNOT have me today."  I took some drugs and ignored it. (see above Abby pic).

Race Day:
We loaded EVERYONE in the van at 3:30AM: my mom her friend, my dad, brother, John and TWO DOGS!  I got to transition with my mom's "golden ticket" as we joked.  Her handicapped sticker let us park 3 feet from transition.  It was nice because they just went down to the water and had a GREAT front row bench seat for the race.

I went into transition to begin my day. I pumped my tires and then my whole plan was shot. This is what happened next:

John came to find me "I have to take your brother to the hospital." well, his pain was so intense we opted for the AMBULANCE.  I spent the next 45 min standing there, making sure he's ok and of course taking pictures :).  Turns out he had a kidney stone, but I wouldn't know anything for several hours as I was going out to race!

So with that, they were closing transition and I had to give John my phone and get my rear end to the beach.  I hadn't done ANY of my pre-race things.  I didn't recheck my bike, tape on my feet, nothing.   Luckily I got down to the water and got in. Once there I realized my tape on my foot was loose. GREAT just GREAT! I ran back to see if anyone had any scissors to see if I could trim it.  Then I hear the national anthem.  UGH another thing I missed!  I was quite disheveled at this point.

A few min to go and my wave was off!  The water was SOO hot, I was actually sweating.  No wetsuit, and no tempo trainer too.   This made me slower, but the water was so thick and it really felt like it was a mile longer than it should have been.  I don't mind swimming and can swim for days, but this ws just LOOOONNNG!   A few men tried to climb into me and I swim on the OUTSIDE.  No need my friends, no need. One dude was swimming next/on to me, and kept hitting me so I had a few wide strokes with my fingers extended and he went away.  Other than that the swim was mostly uneventful.

About 1/4 mile in that tape on my foot was flapping with my kick!  I knew I had to take it off or I'd get a blister later.  I also knew I NEEDED the tape to keep my foot together for the run, ugh choices!  I reached back and pulled the tape off, stuck it down my shirt so I didn't litter the pond.  When I got out, I couldn't find it in my 'girl pocket' so I figured I just lost it. **note when taking a shower later Sunday I found the tape.. stuck to the outside of my chest!!!!**

Got out of the swim and onto the bike!  I wasn't happy with my swim time but I was racing "my race" and that's what my body wanted to do yesterday!

The bike was from hell, but doable.  I KNEW we had to climb for the first 45 miles.  I drove the course AND part of it crosses roads I ride often.  Long rolling hills and one MISERABLE hill at mile 28.  Sun was in your face, no shade, and it was LONG!  I was dripping sweat into my sunglasses and my eyeballs and there was nothing I could do about it as I needed to keep climbing.  Once I got to the top of that, I didn't have a dry spot on me to clean the glasses so I had to take them off!  

The last bit of the course was downhill but crappy roads.  You had to zigzag all over the place and cross about 3 or 4 railroad tracks.  I would have loved to FLY, but I just couldn't safely do that!

Overall I was pretty happy with my bike. I anticipated with those hills I would be between 4-4:30, I was expecting 4:30 actually.  4:10 is just fine!   I felt good getting off the bike too, (does that mean I didn't work hard enough?) Actually I don't care, I ran "my race."

Then to the stupid run.  Man I hate running, yet I can't understand why I have done now 4 half marathons this year!  Although what I did wasn't "RUN" but it's not called the "WALK" portion.  

I made the first loop with people still around.  I was desperate to get to the first loop by 1:55 as this was the cutoff for removal from the course. I made it, but not much time to spare.  That missing tape on my foot was a disaster. My ankle was collapsed by mile 1.  Fun!  Then I had a blister that looked like someone scalped my toe!  The entire top of the toe was split off.. also FUN!

As I was coming around the corner to get to loop 1 finish, a cop stops me "are you Laura?" -- I of course think it's about my brother.  He said "someone was looking for you."  um ok?  I kept going, next cop said the same thing.  um ok?  I finally get up around the corner and see John.  He didn't call the police on me.  Then I see my friend Pauline.. it was her LOL!

Loop 2 she decided to come with me, she brought a cowbell and chased me with it..... for six miles! Love her :).  I also had a police escort!

 My swim coach and friend Stacey joined us for the last 2 miles too.  She tried to get me to run HAHAHA!

I'm not sure where this pic was taken but I'm guessing it's about the time that they took my chip and made me sign a waiver that I wouldn't get run over, but then another police officer said "you know they're waiting for you, they are holding the finish line until you get there."

I can't believe they held it for me.  All the workers stopped what they were doing to come to the finish and cheer me on.  Thanks to my coach Hollie, without your guidance this would not be possible. Thank you to everyone of my friends  & family that stayed too!  It makes a difference..

Also thanks to John I couldn't have done this with you!

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Race Day Anticipation

The week is here! I'm a weird combo of stressed and excited.  My coach Hollie  has been super encouraging and so have my friends.  A few of us keep going back and fourth of being freaked out ourselves, then  we suddenly switch gears to the "you can do it" song and dance as soon as we hear a comrade freaking out!

I THINK I can, for real though I KNOW my numbers, I know what I can do and the gap is TOO close to call!    Hollie has been great.  She talked me off a ledge yesterday.  I really am worried about my times.   I know my times for each sport.  I am ahead of many in my training and 'mental' preparedness, however my stupid EDS puts me behind in many physical respects.  I have done the distance in each sport, MANY times. Some people going into a Half may not have done this many miles until race day!  My brain knows what to expect, I just need my body to cooperate.

I did an open water, no wetsuit swim on Tue, 1.2 miles in 40 min.  I think I'll be faster than that on race day. My swim wave starts at  6:30AM so that puts the time around 7:20-7:25AM to start the bike.

The 56 mile course is very hilly. You pretty much climb the first 45 miles, then when you come into Providence the roads are a mess, you cross several railroad tracks and just have to hang on.  I will do well on the bike If I have room to descend.  It sounds stupid but I can descend and hit the flats like a speed demon, but if there's no room to pass on those opportunities I may be screwed. I am an absolute terrible climber, so I have to hope I have room on those downhills!  I should be between 4-4:30 on the bike.  That puts me into T2 by noon and off to the RUN!  


I thought I might like running by now.. NOPE I don't!  But to get this off my bucket-list, I have to run my 4th half marathon for the year!  I'm a 15 min miler and I'm not afraid to admit it.  I'll actually be pretty darn happy if I can pull 15's for the whole 13.1 miles!  I should get to loop 1 of the 2 loop run course by 1:45 (1:55 is the cutoff).  I can crawl for a little bit, then I HOPE to get back to the finish line by 3:30!  

I hate how close my times are to the cutoffs!

I sit here and dwell on this whole thing, and another thing that is so irksome.  I don't expect people to understand what goes into training for a Half Ironman.  Only those that DO it (or the tri-widows) would get it, but I want to walk away from some people in just disgust.  They think its like going for a little hike over the weekend.  I was basically asked to not take PTO from work, or to 'reschedule' the race. - UM NOT!   Luckily my direct boss gets it!

Another of my favorites is "good luck in your Marathon."-- Um, no.. I don't wish to run 26 miles, but this is 70.3!  I bet half the people that do 'marathons only' couldn't workout HARD for 5 hours BEFORE They started their 'run.'  Yea Bring it on One sport only people :).

Now that I've said what some of you are thinking... onto a different subject:

It's  pretty funny to see people that are freaking out that are SOOO much faster than I am!  They are a good 5-7 min /mile faster than me on the run and are still freaking out.  Hey it is what it is now. 


The training is done!
The race is Sunday!  
We just have to bring our game face and attitude that WE CAN DO IT!


Because you know what? we WILL do it!


I know I WILL because I am dedicating this to Abby!  


You will see me with her picture on my back.

"Courageous 3 year old Abby fighting cancer, My pain today is nothing."

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Mental Cluster F

I know I should be writing LOTS more, especially since I'm almost ready to start my Half Ironman.  The irony is that I am getting so close to my goal, and DON'T HAVE TIME to write!  If I could dictate while running or riding I would have 387 more posts!

The last month or so has been interesting, well really a mental and physical cluster f.  Trying to schedule in a full time job, partime training (yes you need as much time as a parttime job), and just life's little chaos's! 

I don't want to complain, but apparently everyone that get to this stage does.  They go through fear, anxiety, confidence, back to fear, disgust, 'what the hell did I do that for?"  rinse and repeat!

I've completed a ton of races this year, including 3 half marathons!  Seriously? that alone is insane for me!  in Feb I could not run for 10 min without WALKING!  I'm not fast, but I get the job done.  I'm super slow, but I don't think I will ever be 'faster.'  I blame the Ehlers Danlos!  

I've become a better biker through this process, although I still can't climb for crap!  This could be a problem on Sunday.  The last month has sent me through so many emotions.  "I'm ready"  to "SH!T there is no way I can do this."  I even called and asked about the disability wave.  I really never considered myself disabled with the Ehlers Danlos but it can REALLY slap me in the face! (and legs, and arms, and head, and hips.....). I don't know how I feel about things like EDS not being part of the 'disability' category.  I certainly am not there with the people who are missing limbs, are BLIND, or other more severe disabilities than mine.  I do feel bad for others who have EDS, or other invisible illnesses - there are no breaks. But  I have to think, should I there be? Not really.

Last week, I felt that my legs could NOT carry me through the run.  The Fairfield Half Marathon was a disaster.  The weather was uncooperative and my EDS was aflame!  My hips were super out of place, I had a migraine, and my stomach stopped working.  I managed to get to mile 10 before lying on the side of the road and throwing up!  I just thought to myself, "WTF??? HOW AM I GOING TO DO THE 70.3???"

Ericka was there with me, encouraging and stayed with my pathetic pace.  I eventually got back up and finished.  We did not make the cutoff, but we FINISHED!  I was so deflated, I figured that's exactly how next Sunday would be.  Unless they drag me off the course, I will wander to the finish line at some point.

A couple days later I tried to ride the official bike course.  It was 95 degrees out and HILLY!  I lasted 6 miles before I turned around.  I spent 4 days doing NOTHING, just sitting around eating!  The mental stress of 'not finishing' is pretty unbearable.  You sit there and think "I've spent 10-14 hrs a week for 7 months, countless $$ on coaching, gear, entry fees,etc" and I'm going to throw it away?

My brain says "you can do it." my body says "are you CRAZY?"  But this apparently is normal.

I think about the swim, mostly no problem except there's a big unknown of the wetsuits.  I am faster in a wetsuit, and I could use that extra 10-15 min!  I hope to finish that in 45-50 min!  The bike is a big unknown, I was planning on finishing that in about 4 hrs, but  it is super hilly and if it's 95 degrees, well it may take me 5HRS!  Then there's the run! I will be 3:15, unless I have a run like the Fairfield Half!  I just hope my legs work.  That is such an odd thing to need to 'hope' for, but that's part of who I am.  If I have an EDSey day, I  am like a rubber band and my joints don't work properly!

So, I've done the training, I have my gear.  I need mother nature to cooperate and I really just have to hope for the best! I will give what I can and we'll see if I make it to the State House (on time).

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The coolest thing I'll never do again!

I had 12 miles on my training schedule for Sunday.  I like a race atmosphere so I am basically 'forced' to do the whole thing and I have water support along the way.  I searched for a half marathon in the area for June 17.  The ONLY one was a trail run.  I've never done a trail run, but thought, hey why not try?

I emailed my coaches, they both said "cool, go for it." So I sent out my note and two of my crazy friends said "yea sure, why not?"  So, on to the Mt Greylock Half Marathon we went!

We arrived early, actually Ericka and I were the first ones there so we had a killer parking spot.  I had been reading about the race, many people were saying "wow, hard" or "this is NOT for a first time trail run, as a matter of fact, it's pretty hard for a Half Marathon." - I should have known.  BUT, I have never backed down from anything.  I can do whatever, just takes me longer :).

I knew we had a 2200 ft climb in the first 3.2 miles. I figured we would walk that, whatever right? To give yo an idea of how high that is: if you are one of my Pittsburgh friends, the highest point at Seven Springs Ski resort is 2994, the base is 2240 - a drop (or climb) of 754 feet.  This was THREE TIMES Seven Springs.

For those that live in MA, Wachusett has a  945 ft vertical descent. Sunday River in ME has a 1758 ft descent.   None of these are close to Mt Greylock, Which is the highest peak in Massachusetts at 3491 ft

Not many people do this race, they consider it 'intimate' - or if you are smart enough, 'intimidating.'  Apparently I'm not smart enough.

If we had one thing here, BEAUTY!  It took us 2.5 hrs to get there, as it's in the Northwest corner of Massachusetts, almost Vermont. This pic is where the race started.  

We looked up and saw nothing but fog when we first got here, but as race time approached we saw the tower.  Yup, we're going to the tower, that tiny blip at the top of that peak!  YIKES!

There were actually two races, a 5K and a half marathon, both were longer than normal too.  The half was 13.5 miles, 5K was 3.5.  For the start, everyone collected about where that guy is in the pic, and see that flag? about 200 people funneled into that hole between the trees.

We didn't care, and stayed to the back. I'm sure that many who were 'running' did not like that bottle neck.  As soon as you got into the trail it was single file. Then immediately the incline started.  It was hard, rocks, mud, tree roots and in many (I'd say most) of it the trail was about 12" wide.  It was shady, that was nice.  We climbed for 3.5 miles.  We saw a road and assumed that was the top, nope cross the road and keep going UP UP UP. The view was breathtaking here and we weren't at the summit yet!

It was very hard to get a picture of the incline, this sort of gets you an idea. This section was actually pretty nice, larger path, not as many rocks/boulders!

Then came the top.  Amazing!  You can see 3 states from here.  We saw the tower, but I didn't know the significance until the next day.  It is a war memorial at the highest peak in MA.  Pretty cool, I'll probably DRIVE up there again someday!

We made it!  5K straight up!  I'd think about doing that part again again, but the hell was yet to come!

We got to the other side and saw the descent.  We had 10 more miles of DOWN.   I can't explain how painful DOWN is.  When we first saw this, we all thought 'yea tough climb.'  I never even considered how awful the downhill would be!  It is so steep that you are really stressing your joints.  If you are a chi runner, you really have to sit back, which in turn really works your quads!  There were boulders, roots, large puddles (aka ponds) to navigate.  Many required a backwards climb down.  I have no idea how most of the people RAN this course without breaking their necks.

Of course we were next to last, but they knew us.  I warned them at the beginning, so we were "the three." I couldn't imagine navigating that with more than a few people either!   The path would go down a few hundred feet, then back up.  It did this for miles.

Then it opened up into this really cool meadow.  Of course I don't have a picture of it, but hey I was taking pics with my phone while doing this 'run' and my brain was gone by then!  The meadow had tall grass, really different flowers and a view.  Until about Mile 6, we kept saying that it was worth it, so beautiful.  We kept saying "oh yea this is going to make ANY other race seem like a piece of cake."

Mile 8, one of the 3 of us said "I'm done."  Well guess what, there's no where to go but DOWN, so we pushed on, pain, mud, sweat, and all!  Right about the same time the bugs were insane.  They weren't biting, but they were buzzing, flying into mouths, noses, ears.  The ear thing was making me insane.  Ali said "we're getting a real upper body workout too from swatting these damn things."  With each swat I would hit 3 or 4 of them. YUCK!  bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz.!

The nice thing though, was we passed several little brooks, waterfalls, and the air was not that bad.  Shady, a little breeze, and it was still pretty!

Luckily I had my Garmin, we knew how far we were.  No mile markers would make me insane.  We knew we were close when we crossed a road and we saw the tower, it was WAY up there again and we could see the itsy bitsy hang gliders flying around up there. (Look to the left of the peak to see them).

Eventually we made it to the finish line. We did it!
The volunteers waited for us too!  Thank you!

Then a 2.5 hr ride home, yuck!  It is now Tuesday, I still cannot walk properly.  My calves are so tight that I'm not sure there's muscle there anymore, perhaps just cement!

So, yes, this was the coolest thing I'll never do again!  Definitely worth a bucket list, or to say you did it, but WOW, just WOW! Hopefully that will make the Half Ironman seem easy!


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 I know I owe a ton of blog posts! I'll get there, it's hard with scheduling training and that pesky work thing.

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