Pittsburgh Triathlon Photos

I'm loving the pictures that were available today on the website! :)

Loooong run and fall goals!

This was definitely the group I ran with today! We went out planning to run 10 miles, which we succeeded in doing, but it was so hot and humid!

Melissa, Anne, and I planned to run 10 miles. Anne is doing the Rock and Roll Philly half in September. I met a girl, Sharon, on Run Like a Mother: The book's Facebook page. She saw my post and saw I was friends with her sister on Facebook. Sharon's nephew was on the same hockey team as my son last year. Sharon lives in San Diego and was visiting her sister for 2 weeks and wanted someone to run with. So she joined us for about 6 of our 10 miles.

It was a rough run. It was almost 80 degrees and very humid. Our average pace was super-slow for Anne and I 10:38/mile. We were happy just to get the 10 miles in.

My friend, Melissa, is running her first half Sept 8th and I am running it with her. I am treating it as a training run because I am doing a half October 20th and that will be more for a race to improve my time. Melissa has come so far. She has lost about 80 lbs in the past 2 years and has been running and doing power pump. Her progress is amazing! I want to run this with her because sometimes those last few miles are so hard and it is nice to have someone to finish it with!


My Fall Goals:

Sept 8-Half marathon with Melissa
Sept 30-Great Race 10K
October 20-Half marathon with my husband (although he is faster!)

Mixed Emotions!

If I would have written this on Saturday after the Pittsburgh Triathlon, it would have been pretty depressing and disgruntled. Now, two days later, I am feeling more positive. Reading this quote also helped:

At 3:09am, thunder woke me up. My alarm was supposed to go off at 3:11am. So I decided to get up and shower to wake me up. By 3:55am we were on the road and ready to head to Pittsburgh. We picked up my friend Jen on the way so her husband and son didn't have to get up so early and could make it down to Pittsburgh to see her finish.

We got our transition areas ready.

Tim's first transition area is ready!

My area is ready!

We were all ready to go. Tim got in the Allegheny River at 6:45 am. My wave didn't start till 7am. Our coach, Sue, reminded us several times to start out slow.

Jen and I before the race

Tim and I are ready!

I watched Tim get in the river and he was off with all the others with orange caps.

At 7am, my group was off. I felt good and swam at a slow and steady pace. I ended up way to the right of the buoys, which ended up on my left, and had to cut back. I finished my swim around 17 minutes, which I thought I would be. I am not a very fast swimmer but I swam the entire time and didn't have to turn onto my back.

I got to transition and quickly got on my bike, which always gives me anxiety.

The first 6 miles were pretty much a steady incline upward. I was very slow, as I expected but I didn't realize how tough it would get by mile 5.  The last 6 miles were downhill which scared me as well. Once I was going 14 mph, I would get so nervous, I would brake. I saw a woman crash because a guy passed her on her right and I stopped to be sure she was okay. She was just shaken up. So I went on my way. I need to learn to go fast and not be so scared. Once I passed 1 hour on the bike, I knew my goal of coming in under 2 hours was crushed. I ended up 1 hour 10 min on the bike!

I saw Tim as I made it in to the transition area. He already had his medal. I pretty much wanted to start crying then because I knew I was really behind, even though he started 15 min before me. I got my baseball cap and was off. My run went well. I only stopped once for Gatorade since I really never stopped to drink anything. My 5K was about 29 min.

I crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 20 seconds. 

I was pretty disappointed with my time. Especially when I looked online at the scores and I was last in the age group I was placed in. Even though I am 34, I was in the 35-39 group because I will be 35 this year. If I was in the 30-34 age group, there were a few women that would have finished after me.

I was happy to have my triathlon group, The Mighty Tri Girls and Total Chaos, cheering for me as I finished my 5K. They are such a supportive group and our coach, Sue, is just so amazing.

My husband was 1 hour 25 minutes. He did amazing. I was so proud of him!

So back to the original quote that "....slow progress is progress." I have to remember 15 months ago, I could not ride a bike. I was still meeting Sue behind the Sheraton for her to hold on to my seat and run beside me, holding me up. I barely knew how to do a swim stroke or breathe correctly while swimming. I have come so far in the past 15 months, plus I have 3 children and work part-time. 

So I will not quit, although Saturday afternoon, I said I wanted to quit doing triathlons. 

I will keep working hard to get better on the bike and get faster swimming.

I hope to do another all-women triathlon next summer. I really enjoyed the atmosphere much better than the triathlon with men involved. It was much more supportive and friendly.

Progress.......I have come so far.

Post-vacation struggle....

We went on vacation last week. I gained 2 pounds (I thought it would be more with all the pina coladas at the pool. They are loaded with calories but so good). My husband gained more but he won't tell me how much. I ran twice while we were at the beach. One day I ran/walked with my oldest for about 15 min then ran about 1.5 miles myself on the beach after I took him back to the room. The other time I ran 3 miles on the treadmill because my husband saw a bobcat going into the vegetation on the beach near our room. He didn't want me running on the beach with the risk of getting attacked by a bobcat!

So after our amazing vacation, we are home and trying to get back on track with my training schedule.

Upcoming-I have the Pittsburgh Triathlon at the end of July and a half marathon in Pittsburgh in early September. I am running the one in September with my friend Melissa. It will be her first half marathon!

I am trying to do one open water swim per week, one bike ride, and whatever running that our triathlon coach, Sue, tells us to do. Usually 3 runs including one brick (bike and run).

I got the 2 pounds back down by cramming in exercise Wed-Sat this week!

Wed-3 mile run, abs in the morning and swim/run brick with my triathlon group in the evening
Thurs-Body Pump!
Fri-3 mile run and abs
Sat-7.5 mile bike ride

So now I can be happy my weight is back down and enjoy the weekend........

Vacation 2012

An Unexpected PR!

The Memorial Race my husband was the race director for ended up a great success! At least 300 runners and walkers took place to raise money for the veterans.

Besides it being a success for the charity they were donating to, it was a personal success.

I did not go into the race with any major goals once I saw that the temperature was supposed to reach 90 degrees that day. I was hoping to finish under 28 since I never had for a 5K, but had hit around 27:50 in previous longer races. My mind was playing a mental game with me!

I got there early, met up with some friends from college with some photos, and was ready to start!

Sorority sisters :)

It was about 78 degrees at the start, but I was convinced I wanted to stay about 8:50 for the first 1.5 miles because a hill came about mile 2. So I did and didn't pay much attention the last mile and crossed at 26:27 on my Garmin and 26:38 officially. I started my Garmin at the starting mat, not at the horn but I think the timing service started our times at the horn. 

Anyway I was pleasantly surprised and as my husband announced the awards.....

he even sounded a bit surprised when he said "In 3rd place for 30-34, my wife!"

So a great race put on by my husband and his Rotary club and a PR and a 3rd place award for me!! :)

What's up next for summer?!

Now that the runner's high has left and I ended up getting some strange virus the past entire weekend with a fever between 101-102, swollen glands, sore throat, and now an odd rash on my face and my back and abdomen, I hope to be healed soon and move on!! I am on Prednisone and Ammox now. I missed my Saturday and Monday workout which I hate doing because I feel like I can hear myself gaining weight!

I am back on track and went to hot vinyasa yoga yesterday which was AMAZING as usual and got a great swim in this morning.

Next up........Memorial Day 5K, 5 mile race in June, and the Pittsburgh Tri in July. I am also going to do a half marathon in September with a friend who is doing her first half. I am also hoping to do the Great Race 10K in September as well in Pittsburgh.

It is odd to switch up my schedule after training for the half marathon for 12 weeks. Now to add in more swimming (which I have been trying to do once a week pretty much all through the winter) and to get back on my bike! I hope to go to Body Pump one morning a week and do yoga one morning a week and scale back one of my running days to concentrate on my weaknesses-swimming and biking.

Two weeks of school left for the kids and I won't have to rush home from the gym to help my husband get the lunches in the book bags and get them on the bus. No more packing lunches every night, no more homework every night.

Bring it on summer!!

Runner of Steel!

We are now 3rd time finishers of the Pittsburgh Marathon! In 2010, we did the relay, and the past two years we did the half marathon.

It all started after I had our 3rd baby and I needed to lose my baby weight and I got my husband and his brothers on board to do the relay. We needed a 5th member and I asked one of my closest friends, Anne, if she would be our 5th. Since then, we have spent a majority of our Saturday mornings running together. After the chaos of the relay, we all decided to the half marathon from now on.

My husband and I decided to stay overnight this year and went down Saturday afternoon to Pittsburgh.

When we checked it, it was a pleasant surprise to find that we were upgraded to a king suite for no charge! 

We went to the Expo and each bought a shirt......mostly because we didn't get our race shirts. They were all out of Small and Medium Women and Large Men. They gave out the wrong shirts to the volunteers the prior day. We should be getting them in the mail in 4-6 weeks! We were disappointed that we didn't get our shirts.

After the expo, we decided to eat at The Original Fish Market for dinner. They had an all-you-can eat pasta bar. We were up to our room by 7PM to rent a movie ($17.99 for a movie?!) which was actually very good-Safe House with Ryan Reynolds and Denzel. I was asleep by 9:30PM.

Our alarm went off at 5:30am. We walked down to the starting line at 6:45am. It was so nice to sleep in. The past years we had to leave our house around 4am to head to town before they starting shutting the streets down.

I was getting texts left and right from family and friends. Anne was running in Corral B which I was assigned to as well. But Anne was hoping to break 2 hours and I knew I wasn't ready to do 9 minute miles for 13 miles, so I told my other friend Chrissy that I would run with her. Chrissy's PR was 2:11 and she was hoping to finish about 2:05. My goal for this race was also 2:05, although my PR was 2:07, anything less than that would be fine with me.

I wasn't able to meet up with Anne. I found Chrissy and wished Tim good luck. 

Chrissy and I were all ready to go after hearing the great Ryan Clark cheer us on and tell us to start!

Chrissy and I-ready for 13.1

Mile 1-6

We headed through town and through the Strip District, which smelled sooooo good! I just wanted to eat at all my favorite places down there. We were doing really well. We felt great and were staying around a 9:16 mile the whole time. We got water at mile 4, and I was really feeling like we could do a 2:05 or even less!

At mile 6, Chrissy said she needed a breather and told me to go ahead. I felt so bad, but I kept going and was ready to head to the West End Village.

When I crossed the 6 mile mark, I was at 57 minutes! I was feeling good about my pace.

Mile 7-8

I headed through the West End Village. The crowd support there is AMAZING!

I still was feeling great at this point.

Mile 8-10

Heading down Carson Street, it got very hot! It had to be about 8:45 am at this point. It was probably about 75 degrees by now and the sun was beating down. There was no shade here. I ate 2 Chomps and stopped to drink some Gatorade and walked through that water stop.

As we got into the root of the South Side, it was super hot and I wasn't feeling great. My hip and right knee were in some pain. I stopped to stretch my quad, which did help.

We split off from the full marathoners and headed over the Birmingham Bridge. I was feeling very bad at this point and kept telling myself, just 2 more miles!!

Mile 11-12

Then I saw the hill......there was a long hill with a slow grade that never seemed to end. I had to walk a little up this hill, as did most of the people around me. There was absolutely no shade here. It was probably 80 degrees by now-no clouds in sight!!

The downhill was nice. I was now hitting around a 9 min mile to make up for what I lost. I was praying I could come in under 2:07 at this point.

Mile 13-13.1

I was trying to run as fast as I could. People were SPRINTING past me. I was about an 8:50-9:16 pace at this point but felt as if I was slowly jogging. The crowd support here was great.

As I crossed the finish line, so did the winner of the full marathon! I could hear Ryan Clark announcing the winner. My official time was 2:06:59. I squeaked in one second under 2:07!!

Tim and I

I saw my husband ahead. He waited for me so we could get our finisher photo together. He finished 1:52. He was a little disappointed. He wanted to finish 1:45 but I can't even imagine getting either of those times!!

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tom

We got to see Tim's wonderful aunt and uncle who were passing out chips. It was so great to see family volunteering! There would not be a race without the volunteers!  The food at the finish line was organized much better this year. There was plenty of water, bananas, Eat and Park Smiley cookies, fruit, chips, bagels, etc. They told me Anne finished a few minutes ahead of me. I was hoping she broke 2 hours.

Much to her sadness, Anne finished at 2:03! She said we should have run together since it was only a 3 minute difference!

Anne and I

Tim's oldest brother, Ben, improved his time from 2:30 to 2:12. He has lost almost 50 lbs since January with Weight Watchers. Tim's youngest brother came in about 3 hours. Tim's cousin, Sam, did his first half-marathon and finished about 2:45. (his parents were the ones passing out the chips)

Despite the heat, we had a great weekend and really enjoyed ourselves and were happy with our times.