Mohawk Hudson River Marathon 2010 Race Report

This past weekend was the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon. We headed out Friday night and stopped by Joey's for the night in Jersey. We spent Saturday morning there and left around noon to finish the trip up to Albany. We went straight to check-in, which was quick and painless, then took a detour as an excuse to see the area out to an apple orchard and got hot apple cider and apple cider donuts - both of which were fantastic. We made it to the hotel early, ordered take out from Olive Garden, set-up shop in front of the TV and laptop and watched Florida State football and Kona World Championships for the rest of the night. Jenny and Roger got to the hotel around 9:30 and we stayed up chatting until about 11:30.

Race morning we woke up at 7 - Jus was awesome and had gone out and gotten coffee before we even woke up. We headed out around 7:40 and made it to the race start at 8 which gave us a half hour to use the restroom and relax. This marathon is a point to point course that starts in Schenetady and ends in Albany. The course was beautiful as it runs along the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers the entire time. Majority of the course was on a bike path so you were off roads and surrounded by trees that are bright orange and red this time of year, so it made it a very pleasant scene. Really nice course.

I was nervous before the race because the day before and the morning of, I felt like I was suffering from a heart attack. My chest hurt and I was getting crazy pains and pinches. Jenny and Roger assured me it wasn't a heart attack and offered some alternative causes for the pain :) That helped calm my worries (but I'm still going to make an appointment with the doc to get it checked out).

Jenny and I lined up behind the start and soon enough the horn went off. This race is known to be flat and fast with several nice downhills where you can pick your pace up a good bit. It was cool at the start - in the 50s but within the first mile, I was taking my long sleeve shirt off. In the process I managed to break my water bottle top but saved it enough for it to carry me through till I got my replacement from Justin at mile 14. I went out way too hard but in a way, it was hard not to. The first half of the marathon was FAST. When I crossed the 13.1 mile marker and saw the clock at 1:43 I thought "YIKES! I gotta slow down or I'm going to crash" That is the fastest half I've ever run (by 3 minutes)! I had a lot of conversations in my head from that point on. "Slow down, but not too much" "Well, go fast when it's a slight downhill but take the flats easy" "I want to stop" "My legs HURT" "Why do I do this?!" "If I had music, this would be a lot easier" "So many people are passing me now, I'm slowing down too much" "Where is a port-o-potty?!" "If I keep this pace, I'll have 12 minutes to run my last mile" "I hate racing" "Gosh, I wish I had music"

I got to see Justin and Roger at several points along the course which was awesome. At mile 14 I stopped to use a port-o-potty but totally rushed the pit stop so that I didn't lose too much time. At mile 17.5 there are train tracks and in the runners guide they said if you get stopped at the train, they'll adjust your time, but there were no mats so I'm not sure how they handle that but all I was thinking after I hit mile 17 was that I didn't get stopped by a train! I listened carefully and ran faster than I should have for that half mile till I passed the tracks. Phew - made it!

Most of the course was quiet. There were spots where there were good sized crowds but for the majority of the race, it was just the runners. When I hit mile 24, I had something like 23 minutes to finish the race - this is when I knew I was guaranteed a Boston qualifying time (even though I ran the second half of the marathon 10 minutes longer than the first half). I got really happy and just kept telling myself to get through these last 2 miles. At this point, runners had spread out. Mile 26 was the L-O-N-G-E-S-T mile EVER!!! I thought I was going to lose my BQ time on this mile because the end felt like it was never coming. However, it did... finally, the crowds appeared, people screaming "JUST AROUND THE TURN AND YOU'RE DONE!" I got a crazy cramp in my side in the last .2 miles and had to walk a minute and stretch it out but I ran the rest of the finish and read the clock at 3:36! WooHoo! I'm going to Boston!

After the finish I immediately took off my sneakers to reveal a huge blister that had formed around the top of one of my toe. I could not put any pressure on it - it felt as though I broke it. I was in pain. It's looking better now that it's been a few days but still hurts. I also got to make friends with an adorable 4 month old puppy at the finish - so cute!

                                           

Soon after, Jenny came running through the finish and looked amazingly happy to have completed the marathon (without training!) ;) Congrats to Jenny - I am very happy she decided to do the marathon!!!
                                    

And so, it's time to let my legs relax. I get to sit back and watch Justin train for the NYC Marathon and not feel the slightest bit guilty for not working out as hard as he is :) It's going to be a great feeling.

Running long

In 12 days, I'll be running the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon. To do my final prepping, I ran long today (20 miles). This was my one and only long run between Syracuse and the marathon. Last week I did a couple hour runs at an easy pace to remind my legs that they are not in their off season yet. 12 days legs, 12 days.

Today was hugely successful and has lifted my spirits quiet high! Given that I've let myself eat a good amount of junk food last week and that I haven't worked out hard, I thought my run was going to be a struggle. Even with the strong headwind and raising temps, I managed to pull out a 19.84 mile run in 2:45:22 for a pace of 8:20min/mile ON THE DOT! (I don't use my running pacer, this is all off feel). I had to stop a couple times to breath quickly because once I hit the Mt. Vernon trail, there were no water fountains to fill up on for 1hr 25min, so I had to go easy on the hydration so that I had enough to last me through to the next water fountain. Anyways, I'm really happy about today and I hope I can keep it up for the marathon so that I can get me one of them Boston Marathon spots :)

I am crossing my fingers a million times for good weather on race day. This year has been kind of a wreck when it comes to my races and weather. Goofy Challenge: rain/sleet/snow/40 degrees both days, TriRidgefield: rainy, EagleMan: hot/more hot/100 degrees, Timberman: rainy/cool/60 degrees, Syracuse: rainy/super foggy/60 degrees. What I would love for my marathon is partly cloudy, high 60's to low 70's. That would be ideal for me. Cross your fingers, too!

Syracuse 70.3 Race Report 2010

The race is done and in the books and now there’s just a marathon standing in my way of the complete off season! Here’s the race report…

Justin and I drove up to Syracuse Saturday morning. We headed straight to registration to get all the hassle out of the way. This was the races inaugural year so I was a bit concerned about how smoothly things would go. To my surprise, I was in and out, back in the car within 15 minutes. From there we were off to rack the bike which was about an 18 minute drive away. I did a quick ride; made sure everything was ready and racked my bike. I headed down to the water where Justin went for a swim to feel the water and oh good lord, the water was frigid. I didn’t even get knee deep before I decided I’d skip my short swim for the day. After that, we checked-in to our hotel and met up with Hirsch and CREW for dinner at pastabilities (yum). I was in bed at 8pm.

Race Morning
I was up at 4:30am, plans to leave at 5am. Walking out to the car, I was (twice now) pleasantly surprised that our hotel had breakfast out for the taking (I was not expecting this as it was the races inaugural year). We grabbed a (small) cup of coffee and left. Expecting temps in the 40’s, I was again (third time now) pleasantly surprised that it was in the low 60’s at 5am – SWEET! Though, there was on and off mist/light rain. 18 minutes later we pulled into the enormous grass parking lot (holds 4,000 cars) without any traffic backups. The morning was going smoothly. With plenty of time before race start, Justin and I found a spot under a tree (to stay dry) near the water, sipped on more coffee that we got at the race site and just waited. I guess everyone wanted to show up later rather than early because they ended up delaying the start by 15 minutes due to heavy traffic of athletes trying to make their way to the race.

                       

Swim [39:02]
Since there was a delay in the start, they condensed the time lapse between each wave group. The start seemed rush but I didn’t mind, I always find it annoying when I start an hour+ after the first wave. I was nervous about how cold the water was so I didn’t even feel it that morning until my swim start. Again, (fourth time now) pleasantly surprised that the water didn’t feel as cold as the day before. Maybe because I had a wetsuit on but the temp was def. doable, actually comfortable with a wetsuit on, at 62 degrees. I kept a groove in the water the entire time. The water was a bit cloudy but I could see the space around me which is all I need to feel alright. Buoys were easy to spot, too.

T1 [3:24]
                           

Bike [2:57:18, 19mph]
The day before, Jus and I drove the first 10ish miles of the bike course. It was nothing but one hill after another. Sweet Road ain’t so sweet (pictured above). I figured from the elevation chart, the course should be semi-flat after 15 miles or so. I decided not to kill it until I was through with the early hills. After which I got going with some consistent, fast speeds. There were a good number of rolling hills throughout so by no means was the bike “easy”. It was not at all what I was expecting it to be going in. I decided not to wear arm warmers or glasses which was a smart move. There was a mist the entire bike so you were never dry and my helmet dripped water throughout. The fog was crazy at certain points (pictured below – not me in the pic). Roads were in good condition, farms all around, not much to complain about here. 1 loop course – gotta love that!

                        

T2 [2:01]

Run [1:48:03, 8:15 min/mile]
My feet were super numb coming off the bike. I think this is due to shoe fit (need to buy some new, wider shoes for next season). It takes about 4 miles until my feet feel normal. The run course was a point to point run which I'm not a fan of. Because of this, you had

to drive to transition once done to collect all your things – annoying. By the time I started running, the mist/rain had stopped and it was just overcast. For the most part, the run was flat but it did have a couple small hills and false flats. But overall, I’d say the run course was easy. A bit boring as you run on one long, straight, 4 lane, divided road for most of the time. By mile 6 I was ready to stop. I didn’t want to race anymore. I was tired, my legs hurt, and I still had 7 miles to go. Ugh. Working through my negative thoughts, I stopped looking at my watch and just kept putting one foot in front of the other, counting down the miles at every mile marker. Coming down to the final stretch everyone was screaming “just around the corner and you’re done!” Well, where was this corner?!?! It felt like FOREVER to get to THE corner but they were all right, you turn it and there’s the finish – LOVELY! I checked the watch and it said 5:29 and change… holy cow, another PR (by 10 minutes) and sub 5:30 ;) !! I was close to running my fastest half marathon in this race – which right now is a 1:46. I was ecstatic.

                      

Total Time: 5:29:45
AG Standing: 16th/68 (Only one girl came in sub 5 in my AG so that is promising, ha)

I personally really enjoyed this race. There were a lot of things that made it nice. Well organized, small town feeling, great volunteer support (including the police and army/navy guys), normal, calm, friendly participating athletes (not like the tool bags that flocked to Timberman), the surrounding towns totally embraced the race and athletes, even the cows and horses that stood at the farm fences to watch us (it was really cute!). The only thing I would change is to have the run end at transition (I know this defeats the SYRACUSE part but whatever, it’s close enough). HUGE thanks to Justin for all his help and crazy ability to show up in about 50 different spots of the race to cheer for me :) And, love and thanks goes to my family of course for tracking me and sending their positive vibes!

And with that, my tri season is now complete. Until next year…

Soon to be on our way!

I'm packed up and ready to go! Tomorrow AM, we hit the road for Syracuse for my last tri of the season!

Crazy how fast the spring/summer went - seriously, it flew by! I'll have one last big race this year and that's the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, which I'll be running with my sis, Jen - YAY! I have to say though, I am kind of (REALLY) looking forward to the off season. I love this time of year... the fall, cool air, picking apples, Halloween, leaves changing colors, carving pumpkins, apple pie, Thanksgiving, delicious & yummy food, time with the family, Christmas, yearly vacation with Justin's family, New Years, snow, my bday, freezing cold weather... lots to look forward to in the coming months. This is all that I was thinking about while packing for the weekend :)

I think I'm going to do some shorter distance running races throughout the fall and winter. I've never done a 5K or 10K (outside of work associated races) but I'm definitely thinking about doing some soon. AND, I think I know someone nearby that might want to do them with me, maybe (ahem, Courtney) :)

Well, see you on the other side of the weekend... Syracuse 70.3, here I come!

So many GU flavors to choose from for the race... shall I have Jet Blackberry, Vanilla Bean or... um, Jet Blackberry or Vanilla Bean. Oh wait! I spy 1 Orange and a few Espressos... ok, good, I thought I was really limited there for a second ;)

Our Sunday of fun

The Nation’s Tri was yesterday, here in DC. We had plans to head out for the start of the race and be spectators for a good part of the day with Cork but the rain was coming down and staying in bed sounded a whole lot better. 8:15 rolled around and Jus and I finally woke up. We logged onto the computer to check out how everyone was doing in Rev3 and decided to take a stroll down to the race since the rain had lightened up. After a quick stop at Dunkies, we headed down to the race to find that, at 9:15, wave starts were still going off!! It took over two hours to get all the wave groups out into the water… so crazy, so long (the race started at 7am)! We got to see the last two wave groups start, some stragglers almost swim straight into the rocks on the river line, and then walked the bike/run course around the tidal basin (the long route) to the finish. Rain was on and off the entire time. It was no fun. Once we made it to the finish, we took a seat and cheered on the finishers, one man after another… after another…. after ANOTHER! Where were all the women?! Well, given the first female wave group went off over an hour after the first wave group, I guess it made sense that we weren’t seeing them. By the time they started coming through the finish, we were tired of watching and headed back up to the apartment for a lazy day which included grilled cheese and soup for lunch and a long, much needed nap on the couch. Man, I love weekends.

Congrats to everyone who competed in Rev3 yesterday! You all did an awesome job. AND, way to go Joey for going sub 13, just 2 weeks after IMLOU! So happy we got to see you finish this time on the live camera!!

Some pictures from the Nation’s Tri…

Swim...

Run...

This kid in the mask frightened me.

What's with the 3 minutes?

Today was my last long run before Syracuse 70.3 next weekend. I left the apartment at 9am for a 2 1/2 hour run. The second I started running I knew it would be a good run. I felt refreshed (even though I'm not), light and fast. It was quiet on the streets and cool - it was about 72 degrees throughout my run (loved it)! The results, I'm really happy about: 18.4 miles, 2h 33m for an 8:18 min/mile pace with three quick stops for water refills. Last week I did the same run at the same time of day, except it was 90 degrees when I started and mid 90's when I finished. Results from last week: 17.06 miles, 2h 33m for an 8:58 min/mile pace with about 10 stops to cool down/stretch (would have been A LOT slower had I not stopped). It was a TOUGH run for me and I def. struggled through it. Having trained day in and day out in the heat, the run in the cool, crisp air this morning was a nice change and I guess it showed :) I hope it pays off in the marathon and I can do a Boston qualifying time (fingers crossed).

Now here is something I can't figure out. Whenever I go for these long runs, it ALWAYS, ALWAYS takes me exactly 3 minutes longer to run back then it does to run out. It is always 3 minutes to the dot. I find it really interesting, and I guess it shows that I am at least consistent, ha, however slower on the way back! On every long run, I contemplate turning around 3 minutes early at the half way point to factor in this inevitable delay on the second half of the run, but I never do because I convince myself that this time, I'll do an even split, but I never do. Never. At least it stays at 3 minutes and doesn't increase with each week :)

Just a couple more days until I fall into my 1 week taper. Looking forward to Syracuse!

(Pic: Dead tired on the floor post run. Why the peace sign? Cause it's what I always do, unconsciously, at the finish line of races... I never MEAN to do it, I just do it, haha. In fact, when I finish races now, I tell myself over and over as I cross; "don't do the peace sign, don't do the peace sign" haha). Thought it was fitting for my final long run!

IMC... it's on!

Well... IT'S ON! Justin, my brother and I are all signed up for 2011 Ironman Canada!!

What did I just get myself into?!??!???!?