Glenda's World

Hel of a Du

I'm starting my duathlon training for the spring, and decided to kick things off doing a small local duathlon, the Hel of a Du.  I'd done this race its very first year back in 2006.  On Friday, Suellen flew back to Austin for the Christmas holiday, so she was here to drive with me down to Helotes, TX (just outside of San Antonio), to cheer me on.

When I did this race three years ago, it was COOOLD.  35-38 degrees if I remember correctly.  This year it was a bit warmer (45) but a foggy morning with near constant mist & drizzle.  We kept hoping the weather would clear as we drove down from Austin, but after going through several patches of dense fog and bits of rain, I resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be wet and chilly.

When we got to Helotes, we could tell it would be a pretty small race, about 70 people.  The weather probably caused a few of the smarter folks to stay home :)  But I love small races like this, it just feels so much less stressful and more casual.  I was a bit nervous about the slick roads- the last two times I'd biked in the rain, I'd taken a spill.  So I planned to go extra careful around the turns on the bike.

The course was challenging, a 3.5 mile run through neighborhoods with some hills, a 26-27 mile bike with about 7 miles of constant climbing up 700 feet.  Then repeat the first 3.5 mile run.

After milling around the start for a few minutes, we got the "ready set go" and everyone took off.  As usual, lots of folks went out like a shot.  I'll never understand why you'd run til you are out of breath in the first mile, when you've got a couple more hours of running & biking ahead of you!  I tried to settle into a comfortable pace, with my goal being 7:05 to 7:15 pace for the first run.

I was pretty bundled up (arm warmers, two pairs of gloves, ear warmers), so I actually got a little warm on the first run, but I knew I'd be glad to have the protection on the bike.  After the crowd thinned out I found myself running along with a group of about 4-5 guys.  The farther we went, and then up into the hills, the more we got strung out.  I at least could always see a couple people ahead or behind, but it was definitely a quiet race scene!

I finished the run in about 25 and 1/2 minutes, a 7:18 pace.  I might have backed off a little too much, but wanted to have a strong bike & second run.  Coming into transition I saw Suellen cheering, and found out I was the first non-relay woman to come in!  I had a bit of trouble getting my helmet buckled with the gloves on, but eventually got everything set and ran out with my bike.

The roads were bumpy and slick, and I was really jumpy about riding in the rain.  The first turn was about a half mile down the road, and I slowed down almost to a stop, since you had to dodge both a puddle and a giant pothole.  I just hope no one was behind me cursing at how slow I took the turn.  There's nothing like the memory of your bike going one way and you going the other (downwards towards the pavement) to make you a little hesitant to take chances.

Luckily after the first turn we had a long straight stretch. I finally got comfortable in my aerobars and started to get up to speed.  I passed a couple guys, including a 10 year old kid.  I'd get to know him pretty well over the next 6 miles...

We came up to the next turn, and as I slowed down to carefully go around another big puddle, I looked behind and noticed the 10 year was right behind me.  Hmm, I thought, I wonder if he's been drafting off me since I passed him?  Sure enough, I kept an eye out for the next several miles, and he was glued to my rear wheel.  Geeez.  Either he didn't know that was against the rules or didn't care.  It didn't really impact my race, but I could just see him not noticing me dodge a pothole or changing my water bottles, and then plowing into my back wheel.  I figured even with his advantage of drafting off me, I'd drop him going up the hills.

Sure enough, when we got to the seven miles of climbing, I looked back after the first hill and saw no sign of my little buddy.  At least from then on I didn't have to worry about someone taking me out from behind.  

The climbs went on forever!  I'd averaged about 21 mph for the first third of the course, before the climbs, but things were definitely grinding down as I went up and up.  I concentrated on pedaling smooth and knew I'd get a chance to make up some time after the top.

Finally I hit the summit, and had a nice downhill for a half mile. Unfortunately the roads were still so slick I was pretty conservative going down.  Plus, at the bottom we had a sharp right turn onto the highway that took us the last 7 miles back into Helotes.  And I remembered we had one last big hill right after the turn.

That list big climb killed me, even though I knew it was coming.  I was down to 7 mph by the top, and struggling.  But after that we had some rolling, mostly downhill, fast roads to the finish.  I shifted into my higher gear and started flying.  I averaged around 25-30 mph for the next several miles.  Now that was fun!  The only downside to this final stretch was I noticed my right eye was getting blurry from the wind.  As I feared, I'd lost my contact.  So now I could only see clearly out of my left eye.  

Coming into transition, I glanced at my bike computer (with my good eye!) and saw I'd finished the bike with a little over a 20mph average.  With all those hills that was quite good.  And one of the volunteers yelled that I was the first woman to come in off the bike!

As I racked my bike I proceeded to get rid of a few layers - off came one pair of gloves, the arm warmers and ear warmers.  I took off my bike shoes, put on one running shoe, then got all confused and started to put my bike shoe on the other foot.  Ooops!  That wouldn't work so well :)  Finally I got things straight and grabbed my running cap before jogging out for the final run.

It was still cool out, but I was so relieved to have made it through the bike in one piece I was quite enjoying the run.  Without all the extra layers I felt better pushing the pace, and passed a guy I'd been going back and forth with on the bike down the last few hills.  After a few encouraging words I went on ahead.  I couldn't see anyone ahead of me, and it turned out I never saw another runner the entire rest of the race!  It was a odd and lonely run, but it did help me just kind of zone out.  I felt very strong, and was clipping along at a 7:05 pace for the first couple miles.  The steepest hill broke me down a bit, and I really lost some steam, but recovered well on the back side.  Then I was just cruising along, surprised I felt so good after a lot of climbing on the bike. 

Finally I came on to the last street, with the finish about a quarter a mile away. I'd peeked behind as I rounded the corner, and saw no one in sight.  I kept up a strong pace, and before I knew it I was at the finish.  My second run was even faster than my first, just a second over 25 minutes, or a 7:08 pace!  And my total time was about 2 hours and 10 minutes, 12 minutes faster than when I'd done this race three years ago.

I finished as the first overall woman, winning a $100 gift certificate for some new running shoes.   What I didn't realize until one of the race people stopped by to chat was that they also had prizes for the fastest overall woman's bike split and fastest woman's second run time.  It turned out I won both of those, getting two other gift certificates to spend at the local triathlon shop - that was quite a holiday bonus!

Newport Pie Run

If it's Thanksgiving, it must be time to do a race before stuffing ourselves with turkey!  Normally I'm in Austin and do the Turkey Trot, but this year I was visiting Suellen in Rhode Island.

Luckily, there was a race across the bay in Newport, the Newport Pie Run.  A 5 miler along the beach and over a hill in a big loop.  It's called the Pie Run because the age group winners used to get pies as awards.  Now they actually give everyone a little mini pie with their registration.  I got a cherry one, and suellen banana creme.  They made quite tasty post-race snacks :)

 

The weather up here in RI had been rainy most of the week, but today things held off.  It was overcast and about 48.  Very good weather for a run!  It was  pretty humid, but with the weather so cool that didn't really bother me.

There were about 1200 runners doing the race, and it started on a nice wide road by the YMCA.  So it wasn't too crowded.  I lined up about 10 yards from the front, as I didn't need to get caught up in a bunch of guys (and a few girls) running 5-6 minute miles!

This was mostly just for fun, but I still had a goal. I wanted to run a sub-35 minute race, to go under a 7 minute mile average.  I thought if I went out conservatively and was patient I'd be able to hold on for 5 miles.

As was usual with a New England race, there was no fanfare at the start, just a sudden air horn and off we went!  I went out around 7:15 pace, then as things thinned out I got down to 7.  Not too many people out along the route cheering, but the few that were out were enthusiastic.  

The first couple miles flew by, and I was right on pace. 7:02 for the first, 6:58 for the second.  About mid-way through the third mile we crested a hill and I saw we were going to run down the much steeper back side to the beach.  This was an out and back course, so I knew we'd be coming back up the hill in a little while.  I also overhead someone running behind me say "this is the big hill we come up".  So at least I had some idea what to expect.

It was nice flying down the hill, then hitting the turnaround.  The cool weather was great to run in.  The first three miles took me exactly 21:00, so I was right on pace.

Then it was up the hill!  It wasn't super steep, but did go for a while.  I just tried to run smooth and steady.  When I hit the top I could see the road slope away in a glorious half mile of downhill!  I started to pick up the pace.  The mile 4 marker went by (actually a volunteer calling out the race time), and I'd only dropped about 15 seconds up the hill.

I started really cruising down the hill, and this is the point where I zoned out a bit.  For some reason I thought I had 2 miles to go, instead of only 1!  About a half mile from the finish I realized my mistake.  Ooops!  I really started trying to pick it up then, knowing I didn't have much race left.

That last mile was great, I felt really good and was passing lots of folks.  The timing was by tear tag, so I could see the chutes lined up at the finish.  As I sprinted in, they waved me to a chute and I crossed the finish.  34:46!  I beat my 35 minute goal.   That last mile with the downhill was great, I ran about a 6:30 down it.

After catching my breath I jogged back and ran with Suellen to her finish.  Then we feasted on our mini pies on the drive home :)  In the final results I was 3rd or 4th in my age group (depending on whether you counted the #2 overall woman who was in my age group) and 20th woman overall.  The girls are fast up here in New England!

Official Race Pics

Here are some of the better pictures from the official photographer at Perth.

On the run:

 

Starting out on the bike:

Bike lap #2:

Down the finish chute:

Crossing the finish line:

Perth LD worlds race report

Today was the big day!  After several days getting used to Perth, it was time for the race.  3K swim (1.86 miles), 80K bike (49.7 miles), 20K run (12.4 miles).

I'd been anxiously watching the weather forecast, and the day looked to be interesting to say the least.  Early race day morning the wind was gusting up to 30 mph, and the forecast high was 90 degrees with no clouds.  But nothing I could do about the weather, so I'd just have to take it as it came.

The winds outside our hotel room window:

Suellen and I woke up early, both excited about the day.  Around 6am we headed over to the transition area, where I set up my shoes and nutrition, and checked my bike.  Everything was set.  The wind was really blowing, 15-20 mph I'd guess, and it was whipping up the waves on the river quite a lot.  It was going to be an interesting swim!

After getting body marked (the only thing they marked was a letter on your calf, that told what age group you were in.  Mine was "S"), I headed with Suellen off to the swim start.  There had been some worry whether the water was going to be cold enough to allow wetsuits, but the temperature had dropped several degrees in the last couple days, so wetsuits were legal.

I got my wetsuit on, and before Suellen headed down to the swim exit to cheer, she took a superhero pose picture :)

My swim wave started at 8:17, so it didn't take long to get into the water to start (the elites started at 8am).  When I hit the water, I found out why it was wetsuit legal.  It was COOOLD.  Much colder than when I swam in it on Thursday.  It actually hurt my face when I put it in the water.

I swam about 100 meters to the start line, with the rest of the women in my wave.  The whitecaps were coming in.  As I finally got to the start, suddenly they started our wave.  No chance to catch my breath, time to go!

We started, and I immediately knew this was going to be a crazy swim.  The first 1800m went directly into the wind.  And it was really blowing.  Salt water would crash into your face when you tried to breathe, and when you tired to spot the buoys, half the time all you could see was a 2-3 foot wave coming right at you.  It was completely disorienting.

All my swim technique flew out the window.  I was just trying to stay calm and survive.  I knew if I could make it to the turnaround, I'd have the wind behind me for the last 1000m.  But the turnaround seemed to never come.  Every time I passed a buoy, I'd look ahead to see if people were turning, and every time they kept going on.  

About halfway to the turnaround, the 30-34 year old men who had started behind us caught up.  It was like getting run over by a speedboat.  A dozen of the leaders just plowed over anyone in their way, kicking and smacking.  I did my best to move the side, but still got kicked in the face.  Definitely a full contact swim!

I think there must have been 8 buoys before we finally hit the turnaround.  It was much smoother going back, but still seemed to go forever.  It was at this point that the next swimming challenge appeared.  Jellyfish.  They had told us there were harmless non-stinging jellyfish in the river, but I didn't run into any until we hit the last 1000m.  Then they were pretty thick.  You'd just stick your hand out and feel something gooey, eewww.   At least the water was muddy enough you couldn't really see them.

With about 400m to go, a jellyfish smacked me in the face, and it stung!  It hurt for about 5 minutes.  I found out later that the jellyfish in the river do sting, but only in certain seasons.  And this wasn't supposed to be the season, but a few people had been stung.

Finally we got to the last buoy.  At this point I was telling myself "I'm doing duathlons next year, no more swimming!".  It was that bad.  I made the last turn, came to the stairs out of the river, and thankfully climbed out of the water.

I'd hoped in decent conditions to do the swim in about an hour, so I was very happy to get out of the water in about 1:03.  I saw Suellen as I ran to transition, she was a great cheering section.

Relieved to be through the swim, I grabbed my bike and headed out on the course.  The wind was still blowing pretty hard, and the bike course was shaped like a +, meaning we had sections of headwind, tailwind and crosswinds.  It was much more challenging than I expected.  Even though it was fairly flat, the wind kept you on your toes. 

The bike course was 4 loops of about 12 miles each.  I wanted to go steady the first two loops, but not too hard.  It was really neat seeing all the other athletes in their country's uniforms.  One Aussie (with the last name "Courtney", written on his shorts) I saw several times, as we would leapfrog each other, one leading for a couple miles, then the other catching up and passing.  By the end of the bike leg we were chatting each time we passed one another :)

The bike course was very pretty- the first part rode along the river by Kings Park, then it did a loop onto a freeway that took a bridge over the river.  The crosswinds on the bridge were intense.  With my rear disc wheel, I got blown around on the bridge.  I was glad someone warned us before the race, so I knew to hold on tight and not be in my aero bars for that section.  At the end of each loop, we rode by the transition area, and there were tons of cheering spectators lining the road.  Very cool to do a race in the middle of a city!

The first couple loops went by quickly, I was averaging about 21 mph and eating regularly.  By the third loop, the wind shifted and we seemed to have more headwind.  I decided not to push harder, but stay at the same effort.  On the final loop, I started to lose a little steam.  I figured I still had a long run to go, so I should just ease off and recover.

My bike time was about 2:23, an average of 20.8 mph.  A bit better than I'd hoped, especially with the wind!  

As I jogged out of transition, Suellen was there again, cheering for all she was worth.  It was a great boost.  

The run course was four loops of a 5K course that wound around the park and nearby streets. Pretty much flat, but no shade to speak of.

I'd noticed on the last loop of the bike that it was getting hot, and as I started the run I found out that was only getting worse.  I originally hoped to average around 8 minute miles for the run, but went out too fast for the first 5K (7:46 average).  I slowed down the second lap, but too much (8:11), and during that loop realized I had to hydrate better, it was really scorching.  Unfortunately, the water stops were pretty poorly set up.  The volunteers seemed easily distracted, and weren't always handing out cups of water.  At the start of the second lap, I took a gu while running up to the aid station, and someone sprinted up next to me and took the last two cups of water.  So I was running long with a mouthful of syrup, and no water to wash it down.  I ended up running another mile before finding water.

After the water fiasco, and realizing I was really sweating out the fluids, I decided to just stop at each aid station and grab 2-3 water cups from the table myself.  Between that and my electrolyte pills, it seemed to stabilize things.  But my lap pace was still falling.  The 3rd lap was 8:28 average.  I'd gone out too fast, and the rising heat was taking its toll.

The one thing that got me through the run was the great cheering from Suellen, the other Team USA family members, and just random spectators.  The run course had wonderful crowd support, and even some Aussie's would cheer "go USA"  when I ran by.

On the run course:

I started my final loop, and decided it was time to give it all I had.  I was running about a 8:10 mile, still stopping at aid stations to drink and pour water over my head. Coming into the last mile, I passed another woman in my age group (from South Africa!), but I had a feeling she was hanging behind me.  We came down the final straightway, and entered the 100m finishing chute.  Suellen and our Team USA captain was there cheering.  The captain handed me a little US flag, telling me "go get her!".  I kicked all I could, but couldn't quite close the gap.  But I didn't care, because I crossed in just under 5:15, in 5:14:32!   Before the race, I thought if I had a near perfect race I'd be around 5:15.

After the finish I nearly collapsed, from pushing too hard the last 100m and being dehydrated.  I sat in a chair near the finish line while the medics got me some water.  After a couple minutes I was better, and was able to limp around a bit.  I was sore!  But very happy.  I got a finishers medal with a kangaroo on it :)

Checking the official results later, I found I'd placed 13th in my age group!  I just hoped to maybe finish in the top 20. 

It was quite an experience to get to compete in the event, and I have to thank Suellen for being there to sherpa and cheer for the whole race.   I couldn't have done it without her support.

Australia Trip, Day 4

The day before the big race!

We had to start the day with my normal pre-race meal, pancakes!  A very yummy breakfast of pancakes with fresh berries and a nice latte.  Perth is big on espresso, and I've had some great lattes here.

Breakfast!

Then it was time for a short pre-race bike & run, just to keep things warmed up.  The wind was REALLY blowing today, gusts up to 36 mph.  Hopefully things will calm down tomorrow.  Suellen walked down to the race site with me and watched my bike while I did my run.  She took a few pictures of me, showing off my Riff Raff team singlet :)

After my warmup, I went and checked my bike into transition.  Everyone had their own numbered spot (even labeled with your name!).  

Checking my bike in:

After taking care of all the race stuff, we wanted to do a little sightseeing.  We hopped on the tourist tram that runs around Perth, and took it past several landmarks eventually up to Kings Park.  Kings Park is on a hill overlooking the Swan River and downtown, and is the largest urban park in the world (1/3 larger than Central Park).  The views were incredible.

Shots from Kings Park:

After a short walk around, we took the tram back through town.  Had a quiet afternoon, then it was time for the Team USA dinner.  More pasta!  Mmmm.  We met several new teammates and it had an enjoyable dinner.  Now it's off to bed, to get up bright and early for the race!

Australia Trip, Day 3

It's Friday, only two days away from the race!  After a light breakfast, I went for an hour bike ride.  I rode along the bike path on the Swan River, a very scenic route.  The wind was blowing pretty hard, so going into the headwind was interesting.  It was also nerve racking watching for cars, since they are driving on the left side of the road.  

I had one little incident on the bike- crossing at a crosswalk I went up on the sidewalk and hit a patch of sand, which took the bike out from under me.  Luckily no road rash this time, just a sore hip and shoulder.  

For lunch, we met a friend who lives here in Perth.  We had seafood at a great restaurant on the other side of the Swan River, with a gorgeous view back across to the city.

The view of downtown from the south side of the Swan River:

Lunch with our friend Scott, I'm wearing my official USA parade uniform!

After lunch, we had our Team USA team meeting, to go over some of the race logistics.  If I wasn't nervous before, I definitely was after hearing all the details to think about!  And the warning that the European competitors are brutal on the swim (elbows, swimming over you, etc).  

There are 107 athletes here from the US, and we took a team picture after the meeting.  I'll post it when I get a copy.  Lots of nice folks, all ages (two 18 year olds, and at least one 70+).  One woman in her 60's has a jacket with patches from all the world championships she's been to, it must be 30 or 40 (she's gone to nearly every short & long tri and short & long du championship for 10 years). That's pretty awe inspiring.

After the team photo, it was time to pick up my race packet.  I'm number 405, which seems like a good number (404 would have been geekier, but then maybe nobody could find me on the course :) ). 

Friday evening ended with the opening ceremony and pasta party.  700+ athletes from 25 countries!  They didn't have a parade of nations this year (evidently they usually do), instead had us sit at tables by country and stand up as they called our country name.  Tons of Aussie's and Kiwi's here!  I guess it is their local race after all.  But also a good groups from Great Britain, South Africa, Brazil, and smaller groups from Japan, Italy, Germany, Ireland, and more.  Each team was wearing their official parade uniform, making it quite a rainbow of colors.

After a few local dignitaries spoke, they did a short interview with Craig Alexander, the local Australian who just won the Kona Ironman (2nd year in a row).  He was very nice, seemed pretty down to earth.  Evidently his wife & kids travel with him to all his races.  We had some decent pasta (but they ran out of dessert- triathletes need cake!!!). 

We were fading pretty fast by 8:30, so back to the hotel to try to get a good nights sleep. I'll leave you with a picture from the top of our hotel, looking down on the race site:

Australia Trip, Day 2

I guess it's really day 3, since it took us two days to get here, but I'm calling it day 2!

We got a good 8-9 hours of sleep and then after checking our mail (internet is 50 cents a minute!  It maxes out at $28 a day, and I think we hit that pretty quickly) we walked down the street to a little cafe/restaurant for breakfast.  Had some of the best pancakes ever!  With marscapone cheese on top, which I'd never tried.  It was quite tasty, almost like whipped cream but a slight cheese flavor.  Lots of fresh berries and real maple syrup.

Perth is very pretty, and we're only a block from the Swan River and Langley Park.  That's where the race will be on Sunday.  It's fairly windy, which is making the water pretty choppy.  Hopefully it won't be quite as windy on race day.

Langley Park:

The Sawn River:

I was able to re-assemble most of my bike, then got the Team USA mechanic to fix up the few things I couldn't do. Everything seemed to make it fine, so that's a relief.

We've been running into lots of Team USA people, met several also from Texas (Houston, Galveston, and even another couple people from Austin).

After a light lunch, we headed down to Langley Park to pick up our numbers for a warmup Aquathon (swim/run) that was today.  Suellen was going to do the 200m swim, 2K run, and I was doing the 1K swim, 5K run.  I figured it would be a good way to get in the water and see how it felt.

Downtown Perth and the finish chute for the race on Sunday:

Suellen's race started first, and unfortunately the toll of the long flights and the 10K she'd run on Sunday caused her to get leg cramps while swimming warmup.  She decided to pull out of the race and just cheer, which I think was a very good choice.  The water was really being blown around, and it just wasn't going to be fun for her.  She said the lifeguards that were patrolling in the boat were very nice, and reassured her it was probably the smart thing to do.

I got my wetsuit on and got ready to swim.  While the swim is in a river, we're only a mile up from the ocean, and I didn't realize it would be salt water!  And boy was it salty!  You couldn't help getting a mouthful of water now and then, with all the waves, and that was pretty nasty.

The first half of the swim went well, because the wind was behind and to our side a bit.  But once we turned around a buoy to head back to the finish, the wind was right in our face.  It was pretty mean, getting tossed around and splashed in the face when you tried to breathe.

Finally I finished the swim and climbed the steps up to the shore.  My swim was about 19 minutes, which I was very happy with.  I'd been trying to just swim a steady pace, about what I'd do on Sunday for the 3K swim.

I ran across to our transition area, waved at Suellen, who was cheering, and put my shoes on to run out.  I'd planned to run around my Sunday race pace (7:40-8:00/mile), but it just felt too good to run faster.  It was really neat seeing all the other athletes in their country's uniforms.  Since each uniform has the country's three letter abbreviation, you knew right away where someone was from.  Lots of AUS (austrlia) and NZL (New Zealand), but also Great Britain, plenty of USA, and several other countries.   The race guide said 25 countries and about 600 athletes were here for the big race.

I ran steady and just enjoyed myself for the 3 mile run, and saw Suellen again at the finish.  All in all a good way to get a little familiar with the course and knock a little rust off.

Suellen and I after the aquathon:

After we cleaned up we walked up to the shopping district and pedestrian mall, and did a little window shopping.  

The long day caught up with us around 5, and we both had to take a nap!  After a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant (I had Tasmanian Salmon!), it was time for a little Australian TV and off to bed.

Australia Trip, Day 1-ish

Monday night we headed to the airport to begin our big trip "Down Under" for the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in Perth, Australia.   We had a flight from Austin to LA around 6 pm, a few hour layover in LA, then a 15 hour flight from LA to Melbourne, another couple hour layover, and finally a 4 hour flight to Perth.  Planned time was about 30 hours total!

Our flight to LA was pretty uneventful, I got my giant bike box checked in and the security screening didn't take the entire bike out to look at it, thank goodness.  They did open the case, but just looked around a little before closing it back up.  As a huge bonus, since our flight was booked as a Qantas flight (even though the first leg was on American), we got to check our bags & bike free!  I was expecting to pay the $120 American normally charges for a bike.

While we were waiting at the gate in Austin, we met another Team USA member who was flying to Perth as well!  I didn't expect to run into anyone on our same flight, so that was fun. 

LA's international terminal was kind of a zoo.  Tons of people and not very well organized.  And we had to check in with Qantas, since they wouldn't let us check in for the whole trip in Austin.  Qantas is kind of crazy too, even though we bought our tickets 6 months ago, the wouldn't assign seats until you actually checked in for the flight.  So while we hoped to get an aisle seat, they initially tried to put us in two middle seats!  The plane was a 3/4/3 config, and they had us in the 4 seat section with aisles on both sides given to someone else!  I at least got them to change us to a window & middle on the side. 

After waiting a few hours we finally got ready to board.  The plane was an Airbus 380 which is huge, it must seat 400 people.  So it took a while to load.  Finally we got our seats and settled in for 15 hours of fun to Melbourne.

We slept for about 6-7 hours, and it was going pretty well.  I figured maybe it wouldn't be such a bad flight, even with 8 hours to go.  Then things went downhill.  Someone on the plane had a medical emergency, and a couple hours later they announced we were going to make an emergency landing in Fiji.  After we landed and the medics came to take the person who was having trouble off the plane, they had the worst time getting the plane ready to fly on.  Evidently they don't get giant planes in Fiji much, and they first couldn't get us close enough to the fuel truck to refuel.  Then the plane broke a tractor that was trying to pull us back to the runway.  Finally, after sitting on the tarmac for 3 hours, we took off again.  We did get to take a picture of the sunrise over Fiji out the window at least!

Sunrise on Fiji:

Another 5 hours to go, and I was getting pretty antsy.  The time just seemed to drag on forever.  Finally we made it to mainland Australia, and about an hour or two later landed in Melbourne.  Total flight time, 19 hours.  One of the flight attendants told Suellen that was the longest flight she'd ever worked!

We'd missed our connection to Perth, but luckily there was another flight a few hours later the booked us on.  So we got all our bags, went through customs and immigration, and got rechecked on the flight to Perth.

We had to get something to eat, and I really wanted something familiar.  I can't eat airplane food at all, after getting ill from it many years ago on a flight to Tokyo.  Now even the smell of an airline meal nearly makes me reach for the air-sick bag.  So all I'd had on the 19 hour flight was some peanut butter crackers, a cliff bar, and some cereal (I could eat breakfast, just not the hot food). 

It wasn't the healthiest option, but we grabbed a burger in the food court at the Melbourne airport.  The Burger Kings in Australia are called "Hungry Jack"!  But they still have the same food (even call their burger the Whopper), so a little Whopper Jr and some fries tasted pretty good.

Australian Burger King:

The 4 hour flight to Perth from Melbourne actually went OK.  After the nightmare of LAX to Melbourne, this seemed like a piece of cake.  And speaking of dessert (rimshot!), they gave us the best fruit juice popsicles on the plane (they called them Ice Blocks I think).  Pineapple and mango, mmm.

Finally, 33 hours after we left Austin, we landed in Perth.  My bike and our luggage all made it safely, and we got to our hotel around 5pm.  We put on our running clothes and did a very short run in the park by the hotel, just to get our legs flushed out from the flight. Then a dinner at the little pub attached to the hotel and upstairs to watch a bit of TV before bed.  We actually were able to stay up till 9pm, so I think we'll be able to sleep well tonight!

The Austin Tri

This morning was one of my favorite races, the Austin Tri.  It's on Labor Day every year, and runs in loops right downtown.  Swim in Town Lake, bike up and down Congress Ave & 1st/Cesar Chavez, and run around auditorium shores.  Because it's a 3 bike loop/2 run loop course, there are plenty of spectators, which I love.

I was looking at this race as my last warmup before the half iron in Australia (7 weeks away!).  Last year I did the race in 2 hours and 32 minutes, and was really hoping to break 2:30 this time. 

We got a little break in the weather, it was still hot but not 100+.  Unfortunately, all the 100+ days this summer made Town Lake as warm as a bath, which meant wetsuits weren't allowed.  The extra float in the wetsuit really helps your swim times.  So I kind of figured going in I was going to lose 2-3 minutes on the swim from last year, putting me in a hole to try to break 2:30.   But I had been swim training extra this summer, so I hoped that would help.

After getting to the race site and getting set up, it was time to wait.  And wait.  With 2000 people doing the olympic and sprint races, it took a while to get every wave started.  And just like previous years, the 40+ women were the next to last wave.  So while the first wave started at 7am, we didn't get to go until after 8.

Finally it was time for the swim.  1500m (just under a mile), in a big loop up and down Town Lake.  The water definitely felt warm, but it was kind of nice not to be all bundled up in a wetsuit.  After treading water for a minute or so, we were off.  I settled into a strong and comfortable stroke, and must have lined up in a good spot because I didn't have too much trouble with people swimming into me.  After the first few hundred meters, I ended up right behind another girl in my wave who was going the same speed, and it was nice to be able to draft off her a bit.  I lost her at the first turn, so I was on my own from there.

Shortly after the first turn my goggles started to completely fog over.  I swam a few minutes until I realized I couldn't see a thing, and had no idea where I was going.  I couldn't even see any other swimmers.  I finally decided I had to stop quick and rinse the goggles out.  After I rinsed them out I could see I wasn't too far off course.   I had passed several people in the wave ahead, and as I got towards the last buoy I actually passed a few from the wave before that!  Usually I'm the one getting overtaken by waves behind me.

Rounding the last buoy it was a short sprint to the swim finish.  It got kind of crowded, but I found an opening and go to the ramp to get out.  It was really steep!  But they had carpeted it, so it wasn't slippery at least.  As I jogged up to transition, I glanced at my watch - 30 minutes!  That was only 45 seconds slower than last year, when I had the wetsuit on!  Much better than I hoped, so I was pumped.

Running into transition I found my bike and sat down to get my shoes on.  With no rain in Austin this summer and hardly any grass in transition, it was a mess of dirt.  My feet were just covered in mud.  I had a towel to try to clean them off, but it didn't help a lot.  By the time I got my bike shoes on and got up, my hands and backside where all muddy too :(  Nothing to do but press on.

The run with your bike to the bike mount line must have been 200 yards.  They put the later waves farther away, which doesn't seem fair!  Running through the dirt and sand in bike shoes was a challenge.  Finally I got to the pavement, hopped on the bike and started riding.

The bike course is 25 miles, three loops of 8+ miles.  There was one climb (not too steep, but long) up Congress Ave going south of the river, but you got to ride back down so that was fun.  I tried not to push too hard, knowing I had a ways to go.  Once I hit the turnaround though I geared up and really was flying.  The first loop went by quickly, I paid attention to drinking lots of water and took a Gu about 15 minutes in.  As I started the second loop, the course was getting pretty crowded.  The Sprint distance race started at 8:30, so lots of those people were now out on their bikes. 

I pushed a little harder the second loop, it was so fun screaming down Congress with the Capitol in the distance.  At one point, I even saw an old co-worker, Ken, taking pictures of the race. I yelled "hey" to him, but have no idea if he knew who I was :)

There were a couple harrowing moments riding through the crowds on the second loop, but I made it OK.  I was really trying to ride strong but hold back just a little, so I had something left for the run.  Starting the 3rd loop, I picked it up just a little more, feeling pretty good.  As I finished up the third loop, and the course narrowed to return us to transition, I had one big scare.  I was coming up on a girl that was riding in the middle of the lane, and she started drifting to her left where I was passing. I yelled "on your left", but that seemed to startle her, because she just jerked the bike farther left, right in front of me.  I swerved around a road cone into the other lane and just barely missed her.  Eeek!

That excitement over I spun down to transition.  Another long jog with the bike back to my spot, and I swapped out my running shoes.  I'd averaged 22.7 mph on the bike, and shaved 3 minutes off my bike time from last year!

As the run started I had decided to try something new.  I normally don't race tri's with my Garmin watch, which tells me my pace, because it's not waterproof enough for the swim.  This time I decided to see if I could put it on coming out of transition, so I'd be able to pace myself a little better.  With some juggling (I had a hat, race belt, some electrolyte pills, and the Garmin all in my hands as I ran out) was I able to get everything in the right places.  I even had enough wits to take my first two electrolyte pills and grab water as the run started.

The Garmin didn't turn on as fast as I hoped (it has to find satellites, which doesn't work as well when you are moving).  But I was just warming up on the run anyway, and after a couple minutes it came on.  The first bit of the run was cross country style on grass, but eventually we hit the road.  I was doing pretty well at around a 7:30 pace, which was my goal.  Even though it was getting hot (no clouds unfortunately) as it was 10am, I didn't feel too bad.  The run course was two 3.1 mile loops, and I got to see lots of people I knew.  

The first couple miles on the run I tried to get an idea of what other women masters runners were ahead of me, but I really could only see one that I recognized from the swim wave (she was the only one who oddly had the wrong color swim cap, so she stood out).  At first she was a minute or so ahead, but as the miles went by I slowly gained on her.  I kept holding my pace, drank as much as I could at the water stops, and took my other couple electrolyte pills.  

As we came down to the last two miles, I was right behind the other masters woman.  I couldn't decide whether to pass her then, or hang back.  But I know how annoying it can be to have someone shadowing you, so I thought I'd pass her and lead for a while (we were going fairly similar paces).  That didn't last long, she evidently really wanted to be ahead, since she kicked it up a notch and passed me back.

At that point I figured I'd just hang near her til closer to the end.  We ran up across the 1st street bridge, then started back for the last half mile.  Coming down the final stretch we both picked it up, and were almost stride for stride.  I'd hoped I could kick it past her and get clear, but just didn't have another gear.  So we turned off the road into the last 50 yards to the finish.

This is where things got weird.  We're both sprinting nearly all out, in a chute maybe 6-8 feet wide.  I'm right beside her in the last 10-20 feet, when suddenly she starts moving over to block me, and hits me with an elbow.  Whoa.  I've never had that happen.  I don't know if it was intentional, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.  As we jostled to the finish line, she kept crowding me off towards the edge of the timing mat, all I could do was drop back or keep going ahead.  I pressed on, and crossed the finish line a fraction of a second ahead, and then suddenly she went down.   I felt so bad for her, even if she was the one who had started bumping me.  

What happened next shocked me even more, as I rushed back to check on her and offer her a hand up, she just went off on a complete angry rant.  Accusing me of pushing her, saying something about that I should have passed her some other way (I don't know what else I could have done, since I was blocked in to that one side).  I stayed with her for a few minutes and did my best to be sportsmanlike, even though I knew I hadn't instigated anything.  But she would have none of it.  I finally left her with some of her friends, since it was obvious there was nothing else I could do or say.

So a very bizarre ending to an otherwise good race.  When the results were finally posted, my time was 2:25:30, almost 7 minutes faster than the year before!  And it turns out we were battling for the first overall woman masters spot (maybe that's why the other girl got so intense at the end!), so I was very surprised to take that award.  

I think in the future if I get into a close race where the other runner gets physical, I'll just drop back and let them go.  I like to be competitive but it's not that important to me to get into a situation like that.  This is supposed to be fun.

Sponsorship!

When I finished my last race, the Darndst Du, I was approached by a rep for Etonic, the running shoe company.  He said they had seen how competitive I was in recent races, and wanted to sponsor me!  My first ever sponsorship!

It's not a big cash Elite sponsorship, but they'll provide me with shoes throughout the season, along with some swag clothing to wear (singlet, running shirt/shorts, a really nice warmup jacket & pants).  I'm so excited!  

The shoes and other stuff just showed up, and I did a test jog up and down the driveway in the different model shoes (Tayu, Kendari, and Jepara).  The Tayu's felt especially good.  I can't wait to get some training runs in with them.  

Here's a picture of the goodies: