Monday, April 27, 2009
Hermes 10 Miler - No Drama
The race this weekend went really well. Our goal was to run the race in 1 hour 40 minutes, and we beat our goal and ran it fast in 1 hour 38 minutes. The weather was: beautiful clear skies, a slight breeze, and the sun shining down. But as soon as we started running it seemed so hot (it was about 80 degrees). The race was mostly flat, and I really enjoyed the course. There were water stops at every two miles which very nice, we grabbed some water at every spot because of the extreme heat. (There were also some yards with sprinklers going and I made sure to run through every sprinkler on the course.) It was nice to have the boys cheering us on, the green shirted boys, Zack and Corey handed us off our Luna moons at mile 7. Woo Hoo - Only 3 miles to go. The last 2 miles of the race were very hard for us, our lungs and legs were becoming very sluggish very fast! We stayed strong and consistent with our pace and we were able to pass other racers throughout the whole race. I'm proud of us that we were able to start slow, instead of going out to fast! I think that’s what made this race so steady. We finished pretty strong (even thought we may have exchanged some words at mile 9.5, Lisa said "I am not having fun" followed by myself who said " this is not fun at all") and ran the whole race at a steady 9:51 minutes per mile. This race definitely brought our confidence up for the half marathon in 20 days! One more long training run this weekend, and then we taper. I think all this hard training is going to pay off on May 17th! (fingers crossed)
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Why the middrift jerseys?
OK…so now I'm sure you are getting the feeling that the race didn’t go as planned…but now since some time has passed and we are no longer frusterated and embarrassed we can laugh about it…right!
The race was set up starting with a 5 mile off-trail run, followed by a 12.5 mile bike, followed by another short 1 mile run, lastly followed by a brainteaser. During the run there were about 12 check points. At each check point we were to collect a poker chip, and at the final "brainteaser" portion of the race we would use the poker chips with letters on them to unscramble a word. Our run started out great, we were in the middle of the pack and things couldn’t be better. We were with around a lot of teams, and we were in this race!! We were! After about 4 miles of running and collecting poker chips we came to the next clue "on the island of lake JB". There was only one kayak and probably about 8 teams at the lake when we arrived. If we wanted to gain some ground, one of us had to volunteer. I volunteered, I like swimming I really do, and I was so ready to just jump in and get it done. (Now this race is south of Pittsburgh, In April…this lake was probably frozen solid only one month ago). It was freezing at first and so so cold, and I had a life vest on but managed to swim some sort of version of freestyle. As I started swimming I was feeling good, I was warming up! I climbed up the rocks and grabbed the poker chip…I did a little woo hoo dance for Lisa, but she just looked at me and said "Come on K, Let’s GO". I saw other teams were putting the chip in their mouth so they wouldn’t lose it on the swim back. I knew I couldn’t do that because A) I would swallow it or B) I would drop it...so I held on to it in my fist with all my might. I started doing my free style swimming again but felt strangled by the life vest so quickly flipped myself over and started doing my famous backstroke, I think its called elementary back stroke (I know I know…but we are still AR newbies). I quickly got out of the water, and lisa helped me put my shoes on while I put my shirt on! We were off…leaving those other teams behind who were waiting for the kayak. We eventually returned to T/A and hopped on our bikes for the bike portion of the race. I saw my long sleeve shirt, and laughed at myself thinking "why did I even bring that…haha…I don’t need it…
errr…I did need it. We were off on the bikes, and I was soaking wet, but it felt good at the time because it was cooling me down. But as the sunset and the tempature dropped! I got cold really fast. It didn’t help I suppose that we were out on our bikes for over 2 hours and only on the second checkpoint! It occurred to me that we werent going to be back for awhile. I could make it being that cold for a little longer, but knowing I would be out there for a while longer freaked me out. I was saying to Lisa "im freezing, my teeth are chattering" and she would ignore me, which was good, I shouldn’t have been complaining, but I was starting to get worried about my body and started complaining more and more, then Lisa came over "oh my gosh, I totally forgot that you were wet" she gave me her shirt, and put the little mid-drift of a jersey on. What a great teammate I have, to take her shirt off her back for me. It felt so good to have a warm shirt. We were back on our mission of finding "The Big Tree at Tee #4". Lisa looked good in the mid-drift but was so embarassed. We were approaching another team, and she looked back at me and said "Now K, when we go up to this team do not shine your headlight on me, I don’t want them to see me in this bathing suit like jersey." We approached the team and I completely forgot not to look at her, I noticed that she was hunching her back so much so that the bottom of her shirt would hit the top of her pants, then I got it again "the SIDE EYE" and the "LIP SNARL" oh SHOOT! I quickly remembered and turned my head away so no one could see her in the jersey alone, but the damage had already been done. The team we had asked for help had quickly pedaled away, judging my partner for just wearing her jersey, and they ignored us for the rest of the race.
The race was set up starting with a 5 mile off-trail run, followed by a 12.5 mile bike, followed by another short 1 mile run, lastly followed by a brainteaser. During the run there were about 12 check points. At each check point we were to collect a poker chip, and at the final "brainteaser" portion of the race we would use the poker chips with letters on them to unscramble a word. Our run started out great, we were in the middle of the pack and things couldn’t be better. We were with around a lot of teams, and we were in this race!! We were! After about 4 miles of running and collecting poker chips we came to the next clue "on the island of lake JB". There was only one kayak and probably about 8 teams at the lake when we arrived. If we wanted to gain some ground, one of us had to volunteer. I volunteered, I like swimming I really do, and I was so ready to just jump in and get it done. (Now this race is south of Pittsburgh, In April…this lake was probably frozen solid only one month ago). It was freezing at first and so so cold, and I had a life vest on but managed to swim some sort of version of freestyle. As I started swimming I was feeling good, I was warming up! I climbed up the rocks and grabbed the poker chip…I did a little woo hoo dance for Lisa, but she just looked at me and said "Come on K, Let’s GO". I saw other teams were putting the chip in their mouth so they wouldn’t lose it on the swim back. I knew I couldn’t do that because A) I would swallow it or B) I would drop it...so I held on to it in my fist with all my might. I started doing my free style swimming again but felt strangled by the life vest so quickly flipped myself over and started doing my famous backstroke, I think its called elementary back stroke (I know I know…but we are still AR newbies). I quickly got out of the water, and lisa helped me put my shoes on while I put my shirt on! We were off…leaving those other teams behind who were waiting for the kayak. We eventually returned to T/A and hopped on our bikes for the bike portion of the race. I saw my long sleeve shirt, and laughed at myself thinking "why did I even bring that…haha…I don’t need it…
errr…I did need it. We were off on the bikes, and I was soaking wet, but it felt good at the time because it was cooling me down. But as the sunset and the tempature dropped! I got cold really fast. It didn’t help I suppose that we were out on our bikes for over 2 hours and only on the second checkpoint! It occurred to me that we werent going to be back for awhile. I could make it being that cold for a little longer, but knowing I would be out there for a while longer freaked me out. I was saying to Lisa "im freezing, my teeth are chattering" and she would ignore me, which was good, I shouldn’t have been complaining, but I was starting to get worried about my body and started complaining more and more, then Lisa came over "oh my gosh, I totally forgot that you were wet" she gave me her shirt, and put the little mid-drift of a jersey on. What a great teammate I have, to take her shirt off her back for me. It felt so good to have a warm shirt. We were back on our mission of finding "The Big Tree at Tee #4". Lisa looked good in the mid-drift but was so embarassed. We were approaching another team, and she looked back at me and said "Now K, when we go up to this team do not shine your headlight on me, I don’t want them to see me in this bathing suit like jersey." We approached the team and I completely forgot not to look at her, I noticed that she was hunching her back so much so that the bottom of her shirt would hit the top of her pants, then I got it again "the SIDE EYE" and the "LIP SNARL" oh SHOOT! I quickly remembered and turned my head away so no one could see her in the jersey alone, but the damage had already been done. The team we had asked for help had quickly pedaled away, judging my partner for just wearing her jersey, and they ignored us for the rest of the race.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
SONAR Race Pics
Ready to start the bike portion... we thought it was in the bag!
Jake!...and Zack's parents' feet We had the most fans ever supporting us!
A little nervous but loving the headlight and bike lights! Here we go! SONAR Race Pics
Our fearless supporters! Thanks Corey and Zack for not running scared when we got mean! OK fine, when I (Lisa) got a little bit mean.
Before the race...so much hope in our eyes! Check out the sweet jerseys though...
Monday, April 20, 2009
April 18th - SONAR race at Nemocolin, PA
I hope none of you had your expectations too high for us. Our blog does have “newbie” in the title… OK, I’ll start out with this: we are not injured, not major injuries anyway, we are still friends and we are still looking forward to the other races in the series. We may be a little embarrassed and we might have gotten frustrated, but at least we know where tee #4 is now.
Saturday’s weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The sun was shining brighter than ever and we were both on time for the race set up. We found a great spot on the grass for our bikes so we could lay everything out and not have to deal with the other bikers during the transition. Our jerseys are pretty sweet. The logo looks great and our team name is correct. They are a little on the short side, but will definitely be perfect when the weather gets hot and you don’t want to wear much! The bearing clinic was helpful and when Frank had the pre-race meeting, Kristen and I thought the race sounded fun and totally do-able!
7pm sharp and we are off!!
Saturday’s weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The sun was shining brighter than ever and we were both on time for the race set up. We found a great spot on the grass for our bikes so we could lay everything out and not have to deal with the other bikers during the transition. Our jerseys are pretty sweet. The logo looks great and our team name is correct. They are a little on the short side, but will definitely be perfect when the weather gets hot and you don’t want to wear much! The bearing clinic was helpful and when Frank had the pre-race meeting, Kristen and I thought the race sounded fun and totally do-able!
7pm sharp and we are off!!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Pre-Race
Tomorrow is the big Race! The Race is at Nemocolin Lodge and is the first race in the G.R.A.S.S. roots adventure racing series! We've been given little information which makes us that much more nervous we have no idea what to expect! We know these 4 things: 1. The run will up to 6 miles.2. The bike will be 12 miles.3. There will be climbing. (yikes)4. There will be mental challenges (oh…geez!)The race starts at 7pm and first finishers are expected at 9:30pm and the last finishers around 11pm. We are hoping to finish in the middle of the pack around 10:30pm. The race will be run mostly in the dark so the required gear included: hands free head lights, headlight for bike, and blinking tail light! We've never run a race at night before, so this should be very interesting!!!! (My biggest fear is tripping on a root in the dark and knocking my front teeth out completely…)We are planning to arrive at T/A around 5:30pm. There will be a bearing and navigation overview at 6:15pm which Lisa and I will definitely be attending :) Then the pre-race meeting at 6:30pm. 7pm…Race starts! Hopefully we'll be on time, get our bikes set up in a strategic location and be ready to go! We've been mostly training on paved surfaces this month, because the race director kind of gives us the feeling that the bike will be mostly on paved surfaces making it very very fast! Mental Note: pump up those tires to full capacity!! And hopefully it will be on all paved surfaces! (Frank our Race dircetor has been known to be tricky with what he says in his email about the course, and the actual course) We've been also working on shifting gears on the hills!! Hopefully all our extra training on the bike this spring will really help us stay strong in this race!Keep those fingers crossed! And wear some green!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The First Race (from another point of view)
Prior to the start, we were informed there was a short swimming element involved. One teammate would have to swim across a short lake to retrieve their checkpoint card while the other teammate plotted the checkpoints on a trail map. Kristen volunteered to swim and I was relieved; I was happy that I had avoided getting in the murky water where anything could have been lurking beneath the surface!
The whistle blows and we are off! Kristen jumps into the water with her PFD and I’m plotting the points. While Kristen is cruising across the lake, I plot and then try to have her gear ready when she gets out of the water. We transition quickly and with our maps in hands, we head out on the trail running portion of the race. I won’t go into great lengths about the run, but I will mention the ski hill. To get to the first checkpoint, we had to run up a huge ski hill. It was steep and it almost made you want to call the whole race off. We huffed and puffed and eventually made it to the top. The rest of the run was hilly, kind of muddy and we miraculously stayed near the middle of the pack and got all the checkpoints in order. We were loving life after the running portion.
Back at the transition area we learned that the other teammate will have to swim across the lake to retrieve the biking checkpoint card. Nooooooo!! There was nothing I could do but jump in and stay close to a fellow racer. I even attempted to make small talk while swimming in order to alleviate my nerves, which I learned after the race that the whole conversation could be heard by all the spectators. How embarrassing! Regardless, Kristen had all my gear layed out for me by the time I was done and we were off on the bikes.
The biking portion, ohhh the biking portion. It was a love hate experience, mostly hate. We started off the whole thing on the wrong foot by getting lost on the way to the first checkpoint. We must have carried our bikes more than we rode them and can we say “hills, hills and more hills”!!! Also, some of us, which really means me, don’t like to go downhill at fast speeds. Fast speeds referring to anything over 5 mph, so biking was painful in so many ways. There might have been some tears shed, choice words shouted into the wilderness and even a confession of defeat that was strategically ignored. Our bodies hurt, our loving life attitude was slowly getting snuffed out and we were still friends, but we were reaching the brink of taking our frustration out on each other, something we really wanted to avoid.
Quoting the race summary by Frank: “Seemingly the GRR racers have stepped up their training because only one team—A/R newcomers “Green Governor Beasts”—DNF’d. And they were only two CP’s, a few miles, and a bunch of hills from TA when they succumbed to their better judgment and tossed in the towel so they could “live to fight another day!”
We quit. OK, we hate the word quit, but we were listening to our bodies and we really did want to stay friends and we really wanted to like adventure racing after the race was over. It was a mutual decision and there really wasn’t any regret after. In the van, on the way back to the finish, we made a pact that we wouldn’t decide about any other races until a week had gone by. We didn’t want to make any rash decisions.
The whistle blows and we are off! Kristen jumps into the water with her PFD and I’m plotting the points. While Kristen is cruising across the lake, I plot and then try to have her gear ready when she gets out of the water. We transition quickly and with our maps in hands, we head out on the trail running portion of the race. I won’t go into great lengths about the run, but I will mention the ski hill. To get to the first checkpoint, we had to run up a huge ski hill. It was steep and it almost made you want to call the whole race off. We huffed and puffed and eventually made it to the top. The rest of the run was hilly, kind of muddy and we miraculously stayed near the middle of the pack and got all the checkpoints in order. We were loving life after the running portion.
Back at the transition area we learned that the other teammate will have to swim across the lake to retrieve the biking checkpoint card. Nooooooo!! There was nothing I could do but jump in and stay close to a fellow racer. I even attempted to make small talk while swimming in order to alleviate my nerves, which I learned after the race that the whole conversation could be heard by all the spectators. How embarrassing! Regardless, Kristen had all my gear layed out for me by the time I was done and we were off on the bikes.
The biking portion, ohhh the biking portion. It was a love hate experience, mostly hate. We started off the whole thing on the wrong foot by getting lost on the way to the first checkpoint. We must have carried our bikes more than we rode them and can we say “hills, hills and more hills”!!! Also, some of us, which really means me, don’t like to go downhill at fast speeds. Fast speeds referring to anything over 5 mph, so biking was painful in so many ways. There might have been some tears shed, choice words shouted into the wilderness and even a confession of defeat that was strategically ignored. Our bodies hurt, our loving life attitude was slowly getting snuffed out and we were still friends, but we were reaching the brink of taking our frustration out on each other, something we really wanted to avoid.
Quoting the race summary by Frank: “Seemingly the GRR racers have stepped up their training because only one team—A/R newcomers “Green Governor Beasts”—DNF’d. And they were only two CP’s, a few miles, and a bunch of hills from TA when they succumbed to their better judgment and tossed in the towel so they could “live to fight another day!”
We quit. OK, we hate the word quit, but we were listening to our bodies and we really did want to stay friends and we really wanted to like adventure racing after the race was over. It was a mutual decision and there really wasn’t any regret after. In the van, on the way back to the finish, we made a pact that we wouldn’t decide about any other races until a week had gone by. We didn’t want to make any rash decisions.
The first Adventure racing tizzy
There is something about an adventure race that makes it very different from a road race. In a road race the only job of the brain is to zone out, to relax and let the body do its work. Not so in an adventure race, in an adventure race your brain is working the whole time, asking questions: what will be next?, will we have to swim?, what direction should we be going in?, is it worth it getting that extra point? Ahhh!! your mind and your body are at full force, which sometimes can create a bit of stress and maybe even a bit of crankiness…
We were just finishing the run leg of our first adventure race at Hidden Valley, we ran up to the T/A table and handed in our run punch card, we were then told by one of the race directors that we were in the middle of the pack, “wait what?...no way” We were already on a high from finishing the leg race and now we are told we were in the middle of the pack!, things couldn’t be better and smiles couldn’t have been bigger.
Those smiles were short lived, “Now one of you need to swim across the lake to get the bike punch card while the other team mate plots the bike points on this map” the race director told us. Lisa looked over at me “I can do it” I thought (“Yeah, you’ll do it since I already had to swim”) but I said “You are going to do great, do it to it gov!!.” (smile…nod…smile).
She was off on the swim and I was starting to feel bad so I thought I would lay out everything for her so that when she got out of the swim we could just jump on the bikes. So I went to T/A gathered everything she needed and laid it in a perfect line. Yes! we were all set. I went over to the dock and started plotting the points. I saw Lisa doing a combination of a backstroke with a little bit of side stroke every now and then. I heard her saying to the lady swimming near her “I hear that there are snapping turtles in this lake.” They were giggling, meaning Lisa was in a great mood and I made sure all the points were plotted, everything was going perfect! We both had this little time for our brains to zone out and relax, we knew what was coming next: the bike, we just had to do good on the bike and we would stay in the middle of the pack
Then it happened…She ran over to the area I had everything set up and she said “I need a towel”. Shoot! I thought, I didn’t bring a towel over. So she ran back to T/A and dried off, there was nothing I could do at that point so I quietly stood by my bike, and then I saw it, I could see it from a mile away. It was the “SIDE EYE” My mind went crazy I was thinking what did I do to deserve the side eye, before I could open my mouth to ask “what’s wrong?” I saw the “LIP SNARL” I never get the snarl, she was showing her teeth, what could I have possibly done. Then she said it in slow motion. “Did you wrinkle the map!!!” “No No, I did not wrinkle the map.” (the map was on a 8 x 11 piece of paper, and the zip-loc bag was 9 x 9, so yes, maybe it was a little jammed in there, ok I lied…a little. Then she said “let me see it, it is wrinkled, let me have it” At this point she was no where near ready to jump on the bike, she was just so concerned about the wrinkled map.
We eventually jumped on our bikes, and rode in silence for a little bit, by the time we were to the top of the hill we were back in race/friend mode looking together for the first check point, on our quite wrinkled map.
We were just finishing the run leg of our first adventure race at Hidden Valley, we ran up to the T/A table and handed in our run punch card, we were then told by one of the race directors that we were in the middle of the pack, “wait what?...no way” We were already on a high from finishing the leg race and now we are told we were in the middle of the pack!, things couldn’t be better and smiles couldn’t have been bigger.
Those smiles were short lived, “Now one of you need to swim across the lake to get the bike punch card while the other team mate plots the bike points on this map” the race director told us. Lisa looked over at me “I can do it” I thought (“Yeah, you’ll do it since I already had to swim”) but I said “You are going to do great, do it to it gov!!.” (smile…nod…smile).
She was off on the swim and I was starting to feel bad so I thought I would lay out everything for her so that when she got out of the swim we could just jump on the bikes. So I went to T/A gathered everything she needed and laid it in a perfect line. Yes! we were all set. I went over to the dock and started plotting the points. I saw Lisa doing a combination of a backstroke with a little bit of side stroke every now and then. I heard her saying to the lady swimming near her “I hear that there are snapping turtles in this lake.” They were giggling, meaning Lisa was in a great mood and I made sure all the points were plotted, everything was going perfect! We both had this little time for our brains to zone out and relax, we knew what was coming next: the bike, we just had to do good on the bike and we would stay in the middle of the pack
Then it happened…She ran over to the area I had everything set up and she said “I need a towel”. Shoot! I thought, I didn’t bring a towel over. So she ran back to T/A and dried off, there was nothing I could do at that point so I quietly stood by my bike, and then I saw it, I could see it from a mile away. It was the “SIDE EYE” My mind went crazy I was thinking what did I do to deserve the side eye, before I could open my mouth to ask “what’s wrong?” I saw the “LIP SNARL” I never get the snarl, she was showing her teeth, what could I have possibly done. Then she said it in slow motion. “Did you wrinkle the map!!!” “No No, I did not wrinkle the map.” (the map was on a 8 x 11 piece of paper, and the zip-loc bag was 9 x 9, so yes, maybe it was a little jammed in there, ok I lied…a little. Then she said “let me see it, it is wrinkled, let me have it” At this point she was no where near ready to jump on the bike, she was just so concerned about the wrinkled map.
We eventually jumped on our bikes, and rode in silence for a little bit, by the time we were to the top of the hill we were back in race/friend mode looking together for the first check point, on our quite wrinkled map.
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