ChelanMan Olympic Triathlon - July 17, 2010

Pre-Race
Arrived Lake Chelan late afternoon on Friday for packet pick-up. This was my first Olympic distance tri was organized completely different than the previous sprint tri I blindly jumped in year back (Moses Lake). For one you had to arrive by a set time on Friday for packet pick-up, manddistance looked a lot farther than I expected. atory meeting, and bike check-in. Jody and I carpooled down together and this was her very first tri so both of us didn't really know what to expect or do :) When we got there the scene seemed overwhelming to me with bikes and tri athletes and we started to stand in queue to get checked in. Looking out at the lake and the buoy markers for the Olympic distance set fear in me. Although I knew I had the endurance from the pool and practice in the open water the

To give you some background on my first tri will help you understand why I was a nervous nellie....I blindly jumped in my first tri being overly confident as an endurance athlete that I could handle a sprint distance. I swam in the pool 1 time the day prior to the race and never got in the open water - yet alone swam with a wet suit. Had a bike I had moved out to Seattle with but rode it the week prior but was more or less just a bike commuter for cross-training. Running was obviously there so I thought how hard can this be?!? Well, Moses Lake arrived and the swimming part was by far the hardest for me. I did not think I was going to make it and every single time I put my head in the water to swim I started panicking and felt like I couldn't breath. I stood upright in the water multiple times treading water wondering how I was going to get through this race while in the meantime some idiot on his kayaking helping race official is yelling at me "Just put your head in and swim". I contemplated getting the energy to swim over to his kayak, pushing him overboard, and grabbing his loud speaker and yelling the same back at him. I ended up having to breast stroke and back stroke my way through the swim leg which by the way is the worst thing you can do because you just end up pissing off the other swimmers around you and it's not exactly safe since you aren't so aware of others around you. Point being triathlon swims are meant to swim free style....Got out of the water and felt like I was going to puke and then bared through the other legs finishing my first sprint but not gracefully. The good thing that I took away from this experience was that for one it humbled me and made me realize how hard triathlons are and second it got my butt to the pool. Since that summer I spent time in the pool doing endurance swim workouts through pro club and have come a LONG ways since! Yay for learning from bad experiences :)

Pre-Race Evening
ChelanMan is a multi-sport weekend consisting of a Sprint, Olympic, and Half IronMan Tris along with a 10K and Half-Marathon rae. Due to this our friends turned the event into a girl's weekend and we had quite the crew heading down and rented a condo on the lake for the weekend. The crew included Jody, Tesia, Cara, Tara, Robyn, and Paige. After check-in Jody and I headed back to our condo and started cooking dinner so we could get to bed early for our big day. We cooked salmon, spinach, and broccoli. Yes, I've decided to throw salmon back into my vegetarian lifestyle but only for pre-race meals since I wasn't feeling like I was getting in enough protein with vegan meals. With that said it was just right for a pre-race meal.

After dinner we started organizing gear and the amount of things you have to prepare for a tri vs. a marathon is insane. Reminds me of why I LOVE running so much - simplicity! Tesia just completed her first ironman so being a seasoned tri-athlete she helped Jody and I get everything ready for the race which was a huge relief. We ended up going to sleep much later than planned due to all the prep and laid down around 11pm.

Race Morning
Woke up at 4:30am - 3 hrs prior to race time to eat breakfast. Not that easy with getting to bed at 11pm the night before! Ate my usual breakfast routine for races - oatmeal, banana, and coffee. I was so giddy from getting up at the insane hour that I found myself laughing looking at everyone sleeping peacefully in the living room secretly hoping someone would wake up and join me soon ;) Eventually 5am rolled around and the others started getting up. After breakfast Jody and I packed up and got ready to head to the start line.

We arrived the starting area and immediately went to the transition area to setup our station and prep our bike and lay things out for the run. This involves setting out a towel, nutrition, shoes, etc... You set everything out in a position where it's easy to grab so you can limit transition time since that adds to your overall time. There are tricks of the trade that you learn with each race or by talking to people and incorporate those you seem to think will go well...Bike and station was setup and I started to gather the things I needed for the swim so I could head over and get in the water to start adjusting. There was about 20 minutes to go until race time. Suddenly I realized I did not have my goggles in my bag! Panic!! There is some history that goes with finally getting the right pair of goggles and me, but not having goggles you know fit your face and work is a serious race tragedy! I didn't have my cell phone and other athletes next to me immediately started offering help. One girl offered me her spare pare to use while another offered me her phone. I knew borrowing goggles I had not used for a swim before was not a good life choice and I had no clue what my other friend's cell phone numbers were so I could ring them to bring my goggles. Decided to deal with what I could, put on the wetsuit, and headed over to the beach area to get ready for the swim start hoping I would see my friends. Finally found Robyn and Tara who just got dropped off by Tesia and explained what happened. Robyn ran to find Tesia who was parking to ask her to go back to the condo which was a little under 2 miles away. Super Tesia ended up getting her bike out of the car and hauling back to the condo to get my goggles and miracously got them back to me prior to the start of the race. Thank you Tesia for saving the day!!









Swim 1500 Meters - 31:54

I started off to the right of the center of the pack and towards the back since I wasn't sure where I was at w/ my open water swim ability. I had been doing consistent pool workouts 2 X week and open water swims to gear up for the race but I assumed there would be some stronger swimmers that needed to be more up in front. I got in the lake 5 minutes prior and started doing some out and back swims to acclimate to the water and to get relaxed. The countdown started for the race start and I got into position. The gun went off and the chaos begins! Swim starts are nothing more than that. The first minute or more was simply just trying to survive the herd of people on top of you, below you, or to your right or left. For a few seconds I popped up in the water realizing that was a mistake before I quickly got back in and realized I needed to bring out the assertive side of Alicia :) You simply just have to force yourself to relax, get in the water and just push your way through the mess. Ran into one of the swimmers that I term "individual medley" doing the damm breast stroke and those are the people you definitely want to either kick or stay way away from since there legs and arms are going everywhere and that's a sure way to get your goggles kicked off. After a few minutes I seemed to get into a decent rhythm and found the underwater cable that ran below all the buoyies. Lake Chelan has clear water and the cable helps direct you on the course which is a huge plus since normal open water swims require you to pop out of the water slightly on your strokes to spot to make sure you are swimming a straight line. By having that cable I could almost adjust to what it feels like to get going in the pool and then the focus was just on relaxing, breathing, and long strokes. The swim went really well after getting past the start mess and I ended up getting 11th for females in the swim leg.

T1 - 2:37
First transition was a little challenging since getting out of the water I was a little out of it. I ran past my bike rack twice but eventually spotted my bike and started to prep for the ride. The wetsuit pulled off super easy since I lathered on body glide prior to the race. Ran the bike out of the transition area and as I was about to jump on kept hearing the loud speaker calling something out to 1503 to soon realize that's my number and they were notifying me that my race belt that I laid on my bike bar was about to fall off. Snapped on the race belt and right before I was going to mount my bike I ended up losing grip and dropped my bike - lovely....So overall not a smooth transition and could use some more practice for future races.

Bike 24.8 Miles - 1:22

Once I got on the bike the course was flat in a lot of areas with some moderate hills in the middle of the race. I recently bought the Cervelo I was racing on and was still adjusting to the bike. The bike strategy was to give all I could and try and hang in there. When I was on the flat ground I was holding a good pace but when I hit the hills I seemed to lose the pace and people would be passing me left and right. I was wanting the biking to get over so I could get them all back on the run :) I ended up taking 15th for women overall on the bike leg.

T2 - 1:52

The transition from the bike to the run went better. The legs felt like jello getting off the bike so I took a friend's advice and just sat down on my towel to put on my shoes instead of trying to wobble standing and do it. Raced in my Nike Lunar racers without socks and tried out the yank laces. Ended up running to the wrong exit out of the transition so ran a circle around the area before I got to the right exit - classic. Got out of the transition area and was ready to give this last leg a go!

Run 10k (6.2 Miles) - 41:56
The run started off how I expected where you feel like you are running on stilts and you don't have your normal legs back for the first mile so a lot of pulling with the arms to get adjusted. The temps were heating up by then so it felt warm for running but for some reason sometimes the heat feels good to me...I immediately started taking down road kill. I did not get passed once on my run and no idea how many people I ended up passing but it was a lot. I saw all my tri training buddies out on the course heading back and it was great seeing them and helped lift you up as you ran past. Other athletes were really nice to and as I'd go by they'd yell "great pace", "you look strong" which I loved because you don't see many people in road racing doing that. Finished the 10K pleased with the result after swimming and biking and ended up getting first for women overall in the run! Sweet :)

Overall 2:40:23
I placed 13th overall for women and 7th in my age group - the run being my strongest leg by far. I was super happy with my swim and that motivated me to want to keep at swim training so I can get that leg equally as strong as my run. The bike leg needs some work. Biking will be something I will need to grow into since it will require me developing more strength, stronger core, and flexibility required for that sport. It also requires hours of training on the bike so need to figure out that training strategy. Things I took away that I would do differently:

• Yanks (laces) - don't recommend these. They do save time from having to lace up shoes but they pulled the sides of my shoes up since they tighten the shoe up from the lacing and it made my shoes uncomfortable and led to really bad blisters.
• Socks - I didn't wear socks for my run but I will sacrifice the seconds next race and wear socks. The blisters I got from no socks and wearing yanks in my shoes were bad.
• Transition - study the transition area more to be acquainted with where I will be coming out of the water and heading out for the run and bike since they were different and I lost time trying to figure that out during the race. Additionally, just need to practice transitions more in training to get that to seem more seamless.
  

Post Race

Lake Chelan rocks. Spent the rest of the day boating with my girls on Paige's boat followed by dinner at a winery overlooking Lake Chelan. On Sunday we continued wine touring and had lunch at a beautiful winery overlooking the lake again. That place is so beautiful and perfect location for active people that enjoy wine + good food. Can't wait to go back - I heart Chelan!!

Boston Marathon 2010

16 weeks and 1081.7 miles later I arrived Boston to race the 114th Boston Maraton. This was my 3rd consecutive Boston and 4th Boston overall.

Going into this marathon race I was really nervous about what I should choose for a time goal. Based on the Ft. Steilacoom 15 miler performance (1:43) earlier in my training season Tom provided that was a 3:06 marathon effort. Based on my Mercer Island half-marathon performance (1:29) and the McMillan running calculator I was projected to run a 3:08 using their methodology. I wasn’t sure if 3:06 was too aggressive so I scaled back and advertised my realistic goal as 3:08 and stretch goal as 3:06. Boston is a tough course so I wasn’t confident I could run either of those times honestly.

The taper weeks leading up to Boston went well the first week since I was back home in Iowa which was relaxing. Once I got to Beantown being around friends helped clear my head and realized everyone else is just as nervous and having fun with them prevented me from thinking about those distractions.

I arrived to Boston on Friday evening and shared a hotel room w/ 2 friends – Jody and Robyn. Note to self – arriving Friday is the way to go. I felt a huge difference this year being able to get up Sat. morning and jog a few miles and going to the expo that day instead of Sunday. That leaves Sunday for a true rest day. On Friday and Saturday I managed to get 10-12 hours of sleep each night. Felt well rested by Sunday.

Day before the Marathon Race
Nutrition
Breakfast – Oatmeal, Banana, Coffee
Snack – Energy bar
Lunch – Veggie sandwich and Mushroom soup
Dinner – Bread, Salmon, Broccoli, Spinach

I spent most of the day relaxing - no running. Robyn, Jody, and I woke up and grabbed some quick breakfast from Starbucks, and David, Robyn and I grabbed lunch before heading back to our hotels to rest and stretch before dinner. The day flew by fast.

In the evening our Seattle crew along with one of my teammates (Jeremy) from college and a few of the parents joined us for dinner at Pap-Razzi. We all had a great time sharing our race plans and offering up the last minute encouragement needed for the next day.

Bedtime: 9:30/10pm. We started calling me momma king after the weekend since I was making sure we were well rested before our race. I did not sleep well at all the night before the race. I was sharing a bed w/ Robyn and we both tossed and turned the entire night and I only had a few hour pockets were I felt that I was truly sleeping. I don’t seem to sleep well the night before the race and wasn’t too worried since previous nights were solid on sleep.

Marathon Day!
Wake up Time: 5:30am
Nutrition: Oatmeal (almonds, honey, soy milk/water), banana, and cup of coffee

Our Seattle crew took a chartered bus from the Hilton Bay area at 7:15am. If you plan on running Boston in the future this is the way to go. Under $30 and bus leaves later than BAA buses and you get comfortable seats plus a bathroom right on the bus. You can stay on the bus up until the start and it parks right at the athlete's village. We walked about ¾ mile from our hotel to catch the bus at the Hilton and arrived to the athlete’s village around 8:30am. I started drinking water liberally from about 6am up until when we arrived to the athlete’s village. Dropped our bags off at the buses around 9:20 and started a light jog down to the starting corals. I had 30 minutes to spare to do some active and dynamic stretching. The start of the race was warm enough to stand comfortably in tank and shorts and I felt flexible from the stretching and ready to run.

I was seeded in coral 5 but dropped back to coral 6 to run w/ Jody since our race pace for the half-marathon leading up to Boston was within seconds and we thought we could encourage each other through the race and keep each other on par with pace. While I was really nervous to run alongside someone for the marathon it turned out to be a great experience! It was nice having someone familiar around during the race when you start to fall out mentally and need a smile exchanged time to time to get back into it. Jody occasionally reminded me to smile and I pinched her butt at one point to let her know I was still there.

My plan going into the race was to run comfortably for the first 10K and not micro-manage my pace too much for that first few miles. I knew the first part of the race was downhill but also knew from previous races you are at the crowd’s mercy since you're pretty packed in. My strategy has always been to stick to the far right curb and run alongside there for the first 6-7 miles politely letting people know you are on their right. Suprising I know for me but Jody can contest I was really polite to the other runners! Seemed to work well and prevented me from expending energy running around people or up on the curb. I wasn’t going to look at my watch splits for the first 6 miles but I caved in and did and started trying to nail the times on my wrist that I had printed out from the Nike booth w/ goal time of 3:06 (course adjusted). The pace felt awesome so I decided to stay with it since we were off to even pacing and it wasn’t too far off goal pace. The course adjusted pace band also called for faster mile splits first 6 miles.

Got through mile 10 and still feeling great and having the pace band helped me know which miles to expect some uphill parts and they didn’t seem to bother my pacing at all. We had a cross wind for the first 10 miles but then started taking on some headwinds after that part and trying to find consistent pacing runners was a challenge for a while so I weaved behind guys I could find to make wind blocks for a short lived period. Eventually after mile 13 this guy wearing a purple tank, pink short and socks came along and he seemed to know the course by the way he was running tangents. He had a consistent pace so I signaled Jody to let her know we need to tuck behind this guy for a while. We managed to stay with him leading up to the hills.

My strategy with the hills was to maintain a steady pace going up and run controlled by quicker on the downhill parts to get momentum for the next and make up time lost on the trek upward. Overall the hills didn't seem so bad and I think it's due to the hill workouts and training Tom had us doing back in Seattle. The first hill at mile 18 seemed to be the toughest for me out of the three hill segments. When I started up the second hill I was looking ahead and noticed some guy in my lane high fiving these kids on the side and twirling around. All I thought to myself is this guy. To my surprise it was Richard Chase! I started smiling and laughing to myself once I saw that because of all people he would be just the one to stop and entertain kids in the middle of his race. He said "Oh Alicia, it's not going so well." and I tried to quickly encourage in passing. My friend from high school; Mike, was meeting me at mile 20 so that energized me at mile 19 since I knew I’d be seeing him soon. He has paced me for a few of my marathons and always seems to say the right things during a race to encourage me. Met up with him at mile 20 and he offered the praises needed and distracted me up to the top of heartbreak hill. He had shot block packages all ready for Jody and I which helped for race nutrition. I ended up taking 3 gel packets up until I saw Mike (Miles 5, 10, 15) and at mile 20 started consuming the shot blocks package. That seemed to be the perfect balance for what I needed. Up until that point I was taking water and Gatorade and about every other station and if needed sometimes 2 in a row. I never drank a lot at one stop but maybe a few sips and noticed I flew through the stations really quick this race unless I was taking a gel which requires a little more focusing and consumption.

At the crest of heartbreak hill Jody cracked me up as she looked over and asked if we were done with the hills. When I nodded she double confirmed - funny. I assured her that was it which made me realize it really is more manageable from here and time to go! I put in my headphones (I realize this is kind of frowned upon but it does the trick for me at the end of races for now…) and let the music motivate me. I can mentally manage the last 5 miles of the race because I put what’s left in the perspective of time – i.e. only 40, 30, 20 more minutes of pushing (comparing to goal time) and just keep counting down from there. For most of the race I really wanted to try and achieve a 3:06 goal but with the 5 miles to go I reset my goal and saw that I could still achieve a 3:07 goal which I would be happy with and that’s when I got super excited and realized this is happening– I’m actually doing this pace woo hoo!! The crowds at Boston get intense with energy towards the end and that helps carry you through those last miles. I focused on running controlled and made sure good running form and posture was in place (something my PT Shelly has been stressing w/ me during sessions with her) – arms controlled to the side with thumbs pointed outward and long strides without crossing over my arms and legs in front. My breathing felt really controlled and I gave each mile all I could and just kept watching each mile mark off. I know the course really well so the closer that Citgo sign got to me the more I could push since I knew I would be finished soon! With only a few miles to go I glanced at my watch and at one point I think it was 2:52 and I was getting nervous I wouldn’t hit the 3:07 goal I reset to and did not want to give up that easy so picked up as much as I could. I felt like I was kicking in the finish of a 5K or 10K with the effort I was putting forward and by this time my quads were not loving life. They felt as if needles were being stuck in the front of them but I put it out of mind and had to keep rehearsing positive things to keep the strong pace (knowing walking afterwards was going to be a challenge). The mental game those last few miles of a marathon is tough but if I keep focused I always seem to pull through. I did and was very pleased w/ my race. I wanted this to be my spring baseline to work up from. Having a good time on a tough course gives me the confidence I need to go faster on a flatter or more desirable course. Now I say bring it on for fall (CIM marathon) – this is fun!

The Results
Big watch tragedy - when I recalled the saved time on my watch the splits recorded only reported back up through mile 16! I also had two occurrences where I missed the mile marker and had to lump the split together. I really wanted to see how I did on those hills but remember when I looked at the watch splits on those I was pretty steady w/ 7:13-16 pacing. Really bummed since I wanted to analyze the end of my race since I was more focused on the overall time showing on my watch at that point and not micro-managing the splits per say. I’m going to grab splits from Jody’s watch for mile splits 17-21 and after that point we separated so shall remain a mystery what those precise ending miles were…

Mile 1: 7:01:13
Mile 2: 6:56:07
Mile 3: 6:59:36
Mile 4: 6:52:92
Mile 5: 7:19:39
Mile 6: 6:58:09
Mile 7: 7:01:64
Mile 8 and Mile 9: 14:20:48 (est. 7:10/mile)
Mile 10: 7:13:14
Mile 11: 7:12:32
Mile 12: 6:59:48
Mile 13 and Mile 14: 14:13:45
Mile 15: 7:24:06
Mile 16: 7:01:90
Splits from Jody's watch since we were running w/ each other up to Mile 21
Mile 17 - 6:59
Mile 18 - 7:29
Mile 19 - 7:18
Mile 20 - 7:18
Mile 21-26.2: No watch splits were recorded :(

Actual BAA Results
5K - 21:35
10K - 23:39
15K - 1:05:47
20K - 1:27:59
Half - 1:32:47
25K - 1:50:18
30K - 2:13:14
35K - 2:36:17
40K - 2:58:18
First Half – 1:32:47, Second Half – 1:35:27

Pace - 7:10
Official Time - 3:07:34
Overall 2253
Overall Female 164
Division (18-39) 139

Total Marathon Finishers 22, 540 (26, 790 official entrants - does not include volunteer/charity runners which would make it more like 30K runners total, this was the 2nd highest entry year outside of the 100th marathon in 1996)

Total Female Finishers 11, 328 (record number of women entered - Rock on ladies!)

Elite Recap - Robert Chauiyot of Kenya set a course record of 2:05:52 while Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopa ran the third fastest time with 2:26:11. Robert walked away with $150K for the victory + $25K for the course record. Teyba walked away with $150K for her victory. Pays to be a fast runner! Ryan Hall ran the fastest time for an American with 2:08:41 which would have won him the title at any previous Boston marathon. His time now puts him at the top for American male marathoners. Our other amazing amercian runner Meb; with his recent comeback, finished right behind Ryan with a time of 2:09:26.

P.S. Ryan Hall was staying in our Hotel (Fairmont) and boy is he skinny! On Monday I see him walking around the hotel lobby more gracefully than any of us were and he was sporting some pink sunglasses - ha!