Marble Falls

Sorry, no pics as of yet. Just the race report. Well, recovery week leading into the race went as planned. I put in some long miles Monday and Tuesday and toned it down quite bit for the rest of the week. Had a little bit of speed work to shake out some cobb webs, and that was a little scary. Felt kind of rusty, especially in the pool. No worries though, I was extremely excited to be racing again. Saturday morning was fun, I did a long run with my track kids, and when it came time to pick it up I had to put the hurt on the high school boys. Not to shabby, they're fast so I couldn't play around if I wanted to make them work. So maybe I over did it a little bit. It was worth it. I think some sparks got lit up in a couple of brains about putting in the mileage. Hopefully a fire gets going.
I was good last week though. I ate well, got to bed on time, and made sure to be in a well rested state by Sunday. The morning started early, about 4 am and I was up and ready to go. Made it out to the race as planned and everything went pretty smoothly. No late check in to transition or anything like that. I seem to be 50/50 about cutting it too close when I'm racing near home. Did the usual swim warm up and stretch. Had a little bit of nerves, but for the most part I felt great. Even had the proper number of poo's.
Before I knew it it was go time. I started the swim right in the middle of the line, which can be a little rough. It always seems to be that way no matter what. Lots of bodies banging around in a confined space all trying to find their own way through the water gets a little chaotic. It was rough for about the first 200m, but then it strung out rather quickly. The guys always do the same thing; they go super hard trying to get out and then fade as the race goes on. I did my best to stay on line and tried to find someone to swim with, which I did after the first buoy. I was swimming side by side with this guy for a while and couldn't pass him, so I settled on his feet for a spell. It worked out, I caught a little break for a minute or two and then moved by him. At that point he drifted off course and fell behind, so I don't know what happened to him. I had already lost the front pack, but I wasn't thinking I could hang with them on this day any way, so I just continued with my game plan and began trying to pick it up through the second half of the swim. I didn't feel like I was swimming fast, but I felt like I was swimming strong if that makes sense. I felt in control, and my stoke was smooth. I started passing guys and moving up little by little and made a good kick the last 200m.
Coming out of the water was a little shaky. It caught me off gaurd and I didn't have my normal get to T1 urgency. There was a minute or two when my mind was a semi-foggy as I began to run up the hill to transition. I heard my mom's voice, and saw her, but it didn't register in my brain till I was half way up the hill. I think thats what snapped me out of the haze and I was in and out T1 very quickly. I even had nice flying mount onto the bike and was overcome by my usual happiness to be out of the water.
I set my sites on the guys ahead of me and began the arduous climb out towards the highway. This is the fourth time I've done this race and every time I forget how tough this bike coarse is. I've always been a good climber on the bike, but for some reason giant rolling hills don't suit me very well. Maybe its because I like to be in a rhythym and the hills make it hard to do that, I don't know, but this coarse kicks my butt every time. I passed a few guys early, but after that I think as many guys passed me as I passed. I did battle back and forth with one guy for about two thirds of the coarse. He was one of the guys that I passed early on but he kept surging ahead. He looked like he was about to break every time I passed him. I think he was hooking on and drafting every guy that passed by for as long as he could. It was pissing me off, as there were certainly some drafting rules being broken out there which drives me crazy. But every time the coarse flattened out (relatively speaking because at no point is it flat), or we hit a longer climb, I would pass him back up. I tried to make it stick, but as previously stated, he was managing to catch up. He passed me one more time after the turn around, and it took me a little while to overtake him, but I never saw him again after the last pass I made. It was a rolling decent back to town and I did my best to keep the hammer down all the way back. Only a few more people passed me or caught me after that, but I made up a lot of ground on the way back, and no one that passed me at that point got away from me. I ended up taking a few more positions back by the end of the ride.
T2 also went smoothly. Coming off the bike I was so excited to run. I had been feeling the niggle of a side stitch throughout the ride, but I was working pretty hard and stayed right at my threshold the whole time so I didn't think much of it. I was wondering how well I was going to be able to run, and how much my legs were going to have in them.
Running out of T2 I felt pretty sluggish all over. It only took a minute for my legs to start feeling better, but my insides felt terrible. I felt like my gut was about to split open. The stitch was there, but the pain was something else. Not really like cramps, it just hurt. I decided to keep picking up my pace as my legs kept feeling stronger and stronger, and in my mind I just tried to relax. I almost heaved a few times, but I didn't slow down. I just put it in my head that it would sort itself out and I just had to focus on breathing and letting my body loosen up. After about the first mile I was feeling slightly better. Meanwhile, I just started picking people off. I set my sites on the person in front of me and ran them down, one after another, next target. My near vomitting continued throughout the run unfortuneatly. After the two mile mark I finally felt like I had my run legs and started to push as hard as my body seemed to want to let me. I was determined to keep passing people even as the gaps between had stretched out.
The last guy I passed was quite a ways in front of me. I don't know if he heard me or what, but he happened to look back and see me gaining on him and he started to run harder. This was in the last mile and a half and the part that pleased me the most. I think last year I might have settled and let him go, but this time I made myself push forward and see how much more I could do. I caught him in about half a mile, he tried to stick with me, but I think he was already at the limit. With less then a mile left, and wanting to make the pass stick for good I kept on picking the pace up. I rounded the corner for the last half mile and nearly folded in half from a terrible cramp in my side. I came to a momentary pause and dug my thumb into my side to press it out and started to run again only to have to stop and walk. The cramp pulled tight again and I thought, "Nooo, not now!" I could hear that guys foot steps coming and an older gentlemen just starting his run yelled out to me "its the last half mile, come on!" I was kind of laughing to myself at the situation and began to run again before this guy caught me. I dug my thumb as deep as I could and squeezed hard as I began to try to go faster. Soon enough the cramp eased up and I ran the last few minutes to the line putting some distance on mu pursuer.
I was happy, damn happy with that race when I crossed that line. I had no idea what my time was or what my splits were due to the death of my watch just before the swim start. It was probably a good thing because it let me just focus on effort, and I was very pleased with the effort I was able to put forth. I felt like I stayed right at my limits the whole time not knowing if I would be able to or not, or what that was going to look like. I wish my gut had been feeling better because I know had I been feeling tip-top I could have laid down a better run. How much better I'm not sure, but it could have been a little faster. Still, with the amount of pain and cramping that was happening it was a good tough run.
The results, 21st overall, 4th or 5th in the age group. Not sure about the latter. There were some pro/elite level guys out there too. Any one with their name on their butt is probably going to be pretty fast and there were a few of them out there. Time was 1:50 and change. So earlier this week I decided not to look at any of my previous results. The last time I raced here was 2009, two weeks after my first half iron at Buffalo Springs. I would have assumed I was in way better shape at that point, but I only went 1:48 and change then. So, I was a minute and half, almost two minutes slower. Not to bad. The swim is where most of the difference is, but I think less then a full minute. The bike and run were only slightly slower.
I am very excited about how this race went. There are some things I need to work on, but nothing I didn't already know. The only question I have is why I felt so nasty during the run. Maybe I ate to much the day before, maybe it was my breakfast, I don't know. I think part of it was not replacing the salt I had lost the day before running and not consuming any the day of. I have yet to face this problem in training, so it has remained a mysterey to me. I'll just have to monitor my food intake more closely. I feel like thats where the problem is more then likely.
The rest of the day was awesome. Big thanks to my mom for coming out and supporting me, it always helps to have a cheerleader and someone to buy me a delicious breakfast afterwards. Thank you Brian and Jessica for your post race entertainment and a wonderful lunch. I had a good time, and I will get your name situation sorted out soon. And finally thanks to Khanh and Janet for a great time out at the lake and yet more food, it was a ton of fun and the meat was superb;)

cheers suckas!
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