Race Report-Turtle Crawl Olympic Triathlon

Joel and I woke up bright and early at 2:30 a.m. We were on the road at 3:45 a.m. for the 1 hour 40 minute drive to Jekyll Island. Made it to the race site, picked up the race packets, set up transition, and headed down to the beach. Frantic Atlantic! The waves were huge, the water looked rough. I put on my wetsuit, Joel doesn't have a wetsuit, but said the water wasn't bad. We waded in the water for a few minutes, getting knocked over by the waves. This swim was going to be a challenge.

1500 meter ocean swim. Joel was in the first wave, which was men under 40, so I kissed him good-bye and told him good luck, and they were off. Standing in my wave I caught up with some friends I have made from previous races. 6 minutes after Joel's wave it was our turn to fight this ocean. Going out to sea was a challenge, I was swimming under the waves but was still being pushed back. When I started swimming parallel to the shore I was able to float and get some kind of swim rhythm. Floating over the waves, I felt like I was on a boat. For the first time since buying it, I felt like the wetsuit was helping me float, being in salt water helped with that as well. Finally, the last 2 buoys were in sight, I made it to the last one and turned to swim back to shore. I was happy to see the other girls in my swim wave still reaching shore, that meant I wasn't too far behind, I am usually among the last in my wave out of the water. Swim time included the 400 or so meter run up the beach into transition. Swim time was 27:12

T1 did the wetsuit dance to get that thing off. Put on cycle shoes, helmet, grabbed bike, and went to the mount line. T1 time was 1:23

28.5 mile bike.Onto the bike, I actually don't warm up in races, I just come out hammering. I passed Joel at mile 2 and I was relieved he made it out of the swim. I knew he had never swam in water like that before and I was worried about him. I felt good on the bike and passed many people. My saddle is starting to structurally break down, so I got a cramp in my left hamstring around mile 24. I plan on finally getting a new saddle on payday so this won't be an issue much longer. The course around the island was gorgeous, there were some sections of headwinds, but the sections of tailwinds made up for it. Bike time was 1:23:46

T2 racked bike, took off the helmet and flicked off the cycling shoes. I put my running hat on, and actually took the time to put socks on for the 10k run. After New Orleans I think twice about going sockless for races longer than a sprint tri, having blisters and raw spots on your feet can wreck the next week's training. I am not sure about my T2 time, on the official result they combined the bike and T2, the bike time above it what my garmin says, which I started and stopped at the mount/dismount line, but I think it was around 2 minutes because I had to take off one of my socks and put it back on before heading out.

6.2 mile run. It was an out and back run. It was getting hot out and not much shade on the run. I do well in the heat and it doesn't affect me much. They only had 2 aid stations for the whole run, one at mile 2 and another at mile 4, water only. I was parched from the heat, and from swallowing so much sea water in the swim. Coming back from the turn-a-round, I saw Joel heading out to the turn-a-round and gave him a high five, gave high fives to friends I saw going to the turn-a-round, and was relieved it was almost over. I was getting really thirsty. Finally made it to the finish chute and crossed the finish line. Run time was 52:13

Total race time was 2:47:06

Waited for Joel at the finish line after chugging several fluids. He came through a few minutes later. He was exhausted. Said that was much harder than he anticipated. He also said he contemplated quitting the race in the swim because of the frantic Atlantic, but held on and got through it. I am so proud of him for finishing. My time was decent so we waited around for the awards to see if I placed. They had wacky age groups at the race, and I placed 1st in the 26-30 age group. They had a actual podium so it felt cool to stand at the top of one of those things.

Loraine had brought the girls after the actual race was over so the girls could play on the beach. I had already finished the race, but a minute after they found me around the finish line the girls got to see daddy cross the finish line. Loraine had dressed them up in Red, White, and Blue to match us, it was adorable.

I had a great time at this race, I want to do it again next year, but I plan on bringing my handheld fluid bottle on the run this time. I found out after the race a 44 year-old man died during the swim portion of the sprint triathlon going on at the same time as the olympic. The cause was cardiac arrest. Shows us just how precious life is. My condolences to his family in this tragic time.

Some pics from the event:

Not what I thought it was

Ok, so my "news" piece aired, and it wasn't what I expected at all. When I was contacted, I was told they wanted to do a story on me. They told me my story was inspiring and thought their viewers could benefit from hearing it. After 2-3 hours of an interview about how much my life has changed, along with sending a cameraman to New Orleans to get footage of me doing the race, I really though the story was going to be about me, and I was hoping my story would inspire those struggling to change their life. Here's what actually aired. I am in the second video. It is basically a piece about the military spending millions on weight loss surgery, and the people trying to stop it, and how tax payers shouldn't have to front the bill for this. They also neglected to mention the fact that I am a war veteran with 2 Iraq tours.

Needless to say, I am hurt by this. I should have been told from the get-go what this piece was going to be about. I was completely misled. Not to mention, why are they picking on weight loss surgery as wasteful military spending? The military sponsors race car drivers, dumps money into a ridiculous performance called the Soldier Show, and many other wasteful spending expenditures, but they are not "investigating" these things. And the guy saying to "build more fitness centers" for morbidly obese patients as a solution seems to not understand that many people have medical issue that keep them morbidly obese. It goes back to the general idea that the morbidly obese all got that way only from eating poorly and not exercising, and we all know that there is so much more to morbid obesity.

So maybe one day I will get to really tell my story. For now I will just keep training hard and racing hard, its my passion and what I love to do. Joel and I are doing the Turtle Crawl Olympic Triathlon on Jekyll Island tomorrow, for both of us this will be our first olympic. Seems funny saying that considering I have done an ironman. Olympics are hard to come by down here, but DRC sports just added a bunch of olympic races to their North Florida schedule, so we can check some of those out next year. The olympic tomorrow has a slightly longer bike segment than a standard olympic, the bike is 28.5 miles. The run is still 6.2, the swim is still 1500 meters (in the ocean) so same standard distances in both other disciplines.

Monday night I stayed up until midnight to secure my spot in this year's Army ten miler. I made it in, and the race sold out in less than 9 hours, 31000 people. Joel was already registered from priority registration. This will be my first "big" running race so its pretty exciting.

Moving On

So I'm pretty much over my disappointment that New Orleans 70.3 wasn't a real 70.3. It has actually made me more excited, and more pump up for Muncie 70.3, which is now only 8.5 weeks away! Muncie was my first 70.3 (and not counting New Orleans) and only 70.3 thus far, so it will give me a chance to see how I have truly progressed over the course of 365 days. I was so close to signing up for another 70.3 to make up for the New Orleans mishap, but no races worked for my family. The race I was close to signing up for was the Beach to Battleship half, but since Augusta 70.3 is 3 weeks before that race, I just don't think I would be ready for another half iron that soon after after Augusta.

Instead, Joel and I decided we are going to do the Army 10-miler this year in Washington D.C. It is on October 21st this year. My parents live about an hour outside D.C. so free lodging! Joel has already registered, he was able to get in on pre-registration since he is active duty military. I have to wait until the 15th when it opens to the public. Even though it is running, I am really excited about this race. When I was in the Army I wanted to do this race so bad, but registration was a different process for active duty back then, and I just didn't know the right people. Not to mention I don't think I could run 10 miles back them. The Army trains soldiers to go short distances fast, not long distance.

With that being said, the Army 10-miler will be my only longer-than-10k race this year. The past 2 years of running a marathon in the winter has caused bad IT band flair-ups. This winter I am going to let it heal completely before jumping into training for ironman Louisville. I think this is best, and most importantly, I am ok with this. Will be a winter full of swimming and cycling, and only racing 5k and 10k races.

School is really stressing me out, really hard to do algebra when you are not a math whiz.

I am swimming twice as much as I did last year, but I am not getting any faster. I have noticed that I am much less gassed after swimming, so I see progress there. I know my slow-ness has to do with technique, or lack there of. There is no way I can afford a swim coach so I will just keep swimming.

My first olympic tri is next Saturday. I'm excited to race but nervous in the sense that I don't know what to expect. I know how to race a sprint, and I know how to race a half iron, but not quite sure how to race an olympic, guess I will figure it out while I'm out on the course. This Saturday I am doing a small 5k to benefit the area's Girls On The Run program. Hoping for a sub 23 minute, but I have only been able to do that in sprint triathlons.