Some new GGB pics

Kristen post-race clean up at HVAC. Can the smile be any bigger?

OK, so I might be modeling the padded bike shorts and the new helmet in this pic... poss poss?

Pre- Race Smiles!

GGB in our Jerseys and Green! With a little bit of pre-race jitters!

Racing Partner Love

Hello GGB blog readers!

I think it's time to talk about my racing partner, fellow GGB'er, Governor of Green Gables, KLO or K-alicious.

It's hard to find a good racing partner, let alone a great racing partner. You and your partner should have similar athletic abilities. Running distances, biking skills and stamina and water travel desires/fears should be fairly the same as your partners. It’s best to have the same goals; whether you want to complete or compete and it’s best to talk about those goals before the race starts. You and your partner should have an idea of how the other reacts under certain stressful situations (i.e. hunger, fatigue, being lost, equipment failures, traveling in the dark dark, cold night wearing nothing but a small, midriff jersey, etc.) If you know how your partner is going to deal with the stress, then you should also know how to respond (or not respond) and prepare accordingly.

Should you suggest packing extra food “just in case” you get lost, when you really know that the food will be needed regardless if you get lost or not? Should you remember that no one likes to be wet and cold and maybe pack some towels and extra clothes? Should you agree on a non-racing related word that can be shouted into the empty wilderness that lets your partner know you are in real trouble and need their assistance? Should you maybe just not respond (or develop selective hearing) when a partner is venting, visibly frustrated or they might have whispered that they aren’t having fun anymore? Obviously, the above ideas are geared towards the GGB’s and things that make for added stress, but every team is different and so much is learned during every race.

Kristen puts up with a lot. I’ve been known to get very crabby when hungry, tired and hot…which is what we deal with every race. Kristen knows that I get nervous when I’m running late and that I have a small fear of being alone in the middle of a body of water with my legs dangling down for any snapping turtle to sample. Actually the list could go on for quite some time, but you get the point. I have a great racing partner that loves the thrill of the race and, of course, every pre-race email that comes the week before. We have modified our goals from wanting a first place finish, to not quitting and improving with every race. There have been some super mini-arguments and maybe some side-eyes, but we can usually laugh about it 5 minutes later or definitely in the car on the way home.

We should all take some time to thank our racing partners because it’s not every day you find a great one! Thanks GGB of GG!!

P.S. Check out Kristen doing Crow on the beach in the Bahamas. So much talent!

Bike Shorts Review

The Tuesday before our last race, Kristen and I went mountain biking in Medina. The trail there is a lot of fun and really challenging - just what we needed before our big race! Along the trail there are various obstacles, such as logs, rocks, tree roots, bridges, steep hills, etc. The one thing that I learned while on the 3rd loop was that it's best to lift your butt off the seat when going over rough terrain. It was a great tip, but it came a little too late for me and I was definitely feeling the soreness that night and into the next day. It even prompted me to look for padded bike shorts. I did a search online and saw that I could purchase a nice pair for around $30 and I decided that it would be totally worth it. I went to the sporting goods store and found a great pair made by Quest. They were tight around the leg so they wouldn't ride up, padded where the padding need to be and fairly flattering.

Approaching race day I started to have second thoughts.. do I really need these shorts? why are they so tight, I feel like I'm losing circulation to my knees and calves? Should I just return them and put the money towards a new helmet?

On race day, I still had the shorts and I felt confident wearing them. As you know, the race was great with few mishaps and I loved the shorts! With even longer biking legs coming up, I'm even more pleased with my decision to purchase the shorts and I would recommend them to any mt biker going long distances. The only thing I don't know is how fast they will dry off if I end up swimming in them... that may be put on the list of things to do before the next race because I'm pretty sure we're going to be in the river!

Freaking Out!!!

Yesterday around 3pm I get a call from Lisa at work (and work phone calls are reserved for very very important information). "K" she says, and I begin to worry, she sounds like she in the back of a bear den being cornered by a hungry bear. I knew this wasn't a good call. "WHAT" I said, "Is everything , OK", I thought something bad had happened like an accident of some sorts. She had enough courage to slowly speak…"d...did…did…you check your email" she said. "No I didn’t WHY WHAT" I thought the race had been cancelled…but NO it was way way worse...
We received an email yesterday explaining the length of our next race on July 18th. On the website it lists the race as a 4-6 mile trail run, 10-14 mile mountain bike, and 2-4 mile water travel. Sounds good, totally do-able for us! We are ready to rock it!

INSTEAD! He said we would be on a trail run for 9 miles! A bike for 20 miles and in a canoe for 6 miles! Seriously Frank…it took us 4.5 hours to do 4.5 miles last time…ok granted we got really lost but using that math it would take us 9 hours to do the run (ok ok…I know it won't…but still) errrrrrrr! If it took us 6 hours to run 4.5 miles/bike 12 miles, how long is it going to take for us to do twice that? 12 hours…(Ok Lisa, add the head light to the packing list! I think we are going to be out there past dark…that was my only negative thought…ok back to positive thoughts).

There will be no TA at this race, and Bethann gave us a little hint that there would be an obstacle in the canoe…we thought: what could be in the canoe, are we going to be blind-folded…hmmm…no…is there going to be something in the canoe, hmmm they would never have us put our bikes in a canoe right?

We asked Frank via email, his response: "I plead the fifth on the bike/canoe subject. Never say never! : )"

And this is why we are "FREAKING"!

and now the bad news...but we still FINISHED!

So we finished 21st out of 45 teams in the bike, and we were the 1st of 5 female teams to finish the bike leg. The run did not go as smoothly as the bike. It wasn’t that we were'nt fast enough, it was that our navigation was not the best. There were 11 check points in the run. We made it to the first 3 check point with ease, and we were keeping up with 3 all males team, one team was def an Army team of sorts and we were keeping up! (YEHAW) We arrived to a point where 2 guys teams went one way and one team went the other. We stopped and looked at our map and our compass and decided we needed to be on the Forbes State border trail, and take that until we see a few houses. We followed this trail…and still we saw no houses, we started to panic a little but reassured ourselves when we saw footprints, or the grass we claimed was freshly stomped down in the direction we were going...we followed it FOREVER. We even saw two competitors who told us that it might not be the right way, we brushed them off and said thanks, but we are going to go this way anyways. We must have gone 30 minutes in that direction until we decided to turn around...Errrrrrrghhhhh we were wrong! After turning around and half walking half running back to where we were, we found checkpoint 4 totally by chance, we continued easily to find 5, 6, and 7, check point 8 took some time, almost an hour. We were 5 hours and 30 minutes into the race, we knew that the awards cermony was probably over, and we were starting to wonder if there would be any food left. Morale was down and we were sick of the luna moons, and gummies, and cliff bars, we wanted real food and we wanted to be out of there!! We knew we had to finish, so we conutined on to 9, and 10, and evententually back to TA. As we rounded the corner back to TA we started a great run because we wanted everyone to see us finish strong…when we turned the corner, where 6 hours before there had been over 100 bikes, we saw only 2 lonely lonely bikes…they were our bikes, there was not a soul left. No one was still recovering or socializing or even packing up…it was like no one was ever there. We waved down Bethann and she said "oh I'm so glad to see you girls, Frank is out there looking for you". It ended up taking us 6 hours and 17 minutes. We finished 50 minutes behind the second last team. But we finished! And that is exactly what we wanted to do. We were proud, and we pulled up our cooler and ate our picnic lunch of pasta salad and watermelon, with my ankle dripping some blood and with enough energy to take off our helmets - we FEASTED. We drove home and laughed about our adventure that day, while munching on a fresh pack of OREOS (thanks Lisa)!
P.S. Frank mentioned our finish in the race re-cap

And our "lantern rouge" goes to Team Green Governor BEASTS—Kristen LoGrasso and Lisa Miano—who stayed on the course for six hours and seventeen minutes so as to not repeat last year’s DNF. These girls are coming on…

Yes Frank we are certainly coming on…Look out for us on JULY 18th!! We are definitely ready to place in the Women's Division! Fingers Crossed

HVAC - Bike Leg re-cap!

During the pre-race meeting we find out that the bike leg will be first. Usually the run is first, so this is a nice twist. Frank and Bethann go over the map in detail and Kristen takes copious notes (notes which really pay off). Frank tells us what to look for at certain check points (CP’s) and Bethann tells us that we are not to ride our bikes on any main roads unless the clues indicate that we are allowed. There will be a bag with poker chips at every CP and we are to take one poker chip a team. Lastly, Frank tells us that the first CP is at the top of a killer, monster, very long hill and the first team up will get their poker chip handed to them, while the other teams must bike a short distance to another spot where they will be scattered on the ground.

After the meeting, we have 10 minutes to get ready for the bike and lay out the running gear. We have a mini-pep talk and decide we are going to take our time getting to the first CP because there is NO WAY we would ever in a million years be the first team to the top. Hills aren’t our strongest suit.

With 3 minutes to go, all the teams are supposed to line up by bib number. We are team #19 and should have been near the front, but for some reason the teams can’t (or strategically don’t) line up by number and it’s just a mass of bikers crowded together waiting for the “go”!

I’m not going to go through every CP because there were 11 total, but I just want to start out and say WE ROCKED THE BIKE LEG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were near the middle-end of the pack, but we stayed steady. We didn’t follow the crowd and it payed off in a lot of instances. It was muddy, rocky and rooty but we kept a quick pace. There were definitely some crazy long hills and we were forced to walk our bikes, along with a bunch of other teams, but we stayed on our bikes for 90% longer this year than we did last year. When I think about last year’s race, I think about walking the bikes for a majority of it.

There were a couple minor falls. During one particular harsh “fall” going over a log, Kristen may have yelled out in pain, then said she didn’t like being rushed and then asked if I would be a surrogate mother for her if she couldn’t have children because of the said “fall”. I said, of course I would be a surrogate for you, and then didn’t respond to any other comments. We had just gotten a little off track and tension was mounting, so sometimes it’s best to not say anything! :) That really was the worst of it on the bike leg and it wasn’t even bad – as our loyal followers know, it has gotten wayyyy worse!

In case you were wondering, the other teams were helpful this year and in return we offered help too. There were many times when another team would give us a heads up on where a clue would be located and we would pass the info on. We usually didn’t give the info out to teams that were directly in front of us or behind us; it was more to teams that were super lost and didn’t pose a threat.

After we got our poker chip at CP 11, 13 miles later, we cruised into TA and found out we were the first all girl team to arrive (our time was 2:24:46)!!! Later we found out that the next all girl team rode in 20 minutes after us. After a bike leg like that, we felt on top of the world and ready to finish the run like true champions!!!

Pre-Race Routine - HVAC

5:32 am - Lisa picked me up and we packed up the bikes, we had all our gear ready to go, and we were very giddy and excited! We chatted the whole way there, no radio was needed, we talked about strategy: a) we will not follow other teams, because usually they are wrong, b) if someone is complaining, ignore them and cross your fingers they will stop complaining because they think you can not hear them, c) we will not be friendly or help other teams, because last race no one was friendly to us, until after the race and d) we will do anything and take as long as necessary, but we will FINISH!

8:33 am - We arrive at the parking lot to see that many team have also just arrived and everyone is unloading their gear and starring down each others legs and bikes. We must wipe away our smiles and put on our evil eyes. We are in race mode now. A friendly competitor comes over and tells us it might be easier to back our car down to the TA, instead of walking everything there. We snarl our lips and say, no we are fine, we walked our bikes down "LAST YEAR!". We wanted him to know we had been here before!...(poor guy, he was just trying to help and he went back to his car with a sad Eyeore type waddle) this was no time for socializing mister!

8:48 am - It takes us two trips to walk everything down, yes, it might have been easier to back the car in, but we couldn't take a competitors advice (that was rule a.) We set up our gear a little bit away from the TA bars on some rocks by a bench. We laid everything out and this year it seemed like we actually had gear to set up. Last year we were just looking around thinking "what is everyone setting up??". This year we had to lay out our bikes, helmets, biking gloves, etc., and then our running gear. We weren't sure which was going to be first: the bike leg or the run leg, so we had to be set up for both.

9:03 am - Lisa debates over whether or not to get the tarp in the car to cover our gear incase it rains. After much debate, and no help from me on the decision (I really didn’t think it would rain), she went to get the tarp. While she was gone the other female teams pounced on me! They saw me alone and they came up and tried to be overly friendly, "can you take our picture", "isn't it a lovely day"…Lisa was coming back and I saw her give me the lip snarl and the left evil eye squint... she is probably thinking "K, why are you being friendly to the other teams" but once Lisa came back they quickly scurried away!

9:15 am - Pre-race meeting. At the pre-race meeting it was announced that the bike leg would be first! A 13 mile bike ride, and we went over the map and the rules in detail. Then he told us following the bike leg would be a 5 mile trail run. YES we thought! The bike first would be good for us because running 5 miles would be as easy as cake…

Of course we thought wrong...

Success!!

Hello GGB Followers!

We are back from the race and feeling a great sense of accomplishment! WE FINISHED!!!!!! We may not have been the first people to finish, but we ended the race with big smiles!

The details of the race are forthcoming and we can’t wait to share all the details!!!! Thank you for the good luck wishes and support. We really didn’t want to type the “Q” word in the re-cap, so it was definitely one of the things that kept us going! :)

Secret Weapon = FOOD!

We are kind of new to endurance races, and figuring out when to eat and how much to eat. Last HVAC adventure race we went into the race without an eating plan. We thought we didn’t need one, but we were wrong! After 5 hours out on the trail we were draining mentally and physically! Now we know there has to be some energy source to keep us going! (And Lisa smiling…ha-ha jk/jk)

This is our plan: On Saturday morning we are going to have a plain bagel with PB and a banana at 8am (2 hours before the race!). We have Luna Moons, Cliff Gels, and Cliff Bars packed in our bags, as well as WATER and GATORADE! We will be refueling every 45 mins-60 mins! But the biggest motivator is after the race we will be the two standing outside of Lisa's car standing up wolfing down her famous pasta salad with our helmets still on, and blood gushing down our knees.

We are bingers…and well frankly we are ok with it :)!

Also we will also have fresh cut up watermelon! And even a special treat for the ride home!

And poss a famous cookie if we finish before all the race amenities are gone or packed up!

We will FINISH!

Double Redemption...poss?

We have a big race coming up this Saturday June 13th. The bikes are broken in this year, we've done far more training, we are stronger physcially and mentally, and the weather is supposed to be sunny with clear skies! It looks like we are ready to go.

One year ago we raced in this race (HVAC) we swam, ran 6 miles, and biked over 12 miles, and with 3 miles left to go we...QUIT! We just couldnt go anymore. (dont judge...please...we really couldn't...plus we were on a road instead of a trail...tensions were tight...we were hungry...tired...and drained...oh the list goes on and on...why after 5 hours we couldnt go three more miles...) but this year we are ready to REDEEM ourselves and the name of the GREEN GOVERNOR BEASTS and that we will!!!

Pre Race Emails - We know from our pre-race email updates that:
A.) trail run will be about 5.2 miles
B. ) bike 12.5 miles
C.) there will be massive hills
D.) there will be swimming

Let's hope for the BEST! and that Monday's Update will be full of GOOD NEWS!

p.s. Lisa has even purchased the great "Padded Shorts" (we'll report back on their success or failure on MONDAY)

HALF MARATHON FINISHERS!

Sorry its been awhile! We are back! and the Cleveland Half Marathon went very smoothly! And was actually very very very fun! We ran hard and our fastest! Finishing in 2:07!!