Thanks!

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending a party...thrown in my honor!  My lovely friend Amy Johnson and her husband Tom, along with help from my friend Kelli Cothern, hosted a party dubbed "Run Rachel Run (and bike and swim!)".

When Amy first asked me a few months ago about having a party for me, it totally caught me off guard. A party for me?!  People wanted to have a party for me to support my craziness in training for/attempting/completing an Ironman?  I was kinda flabbergasted, frankly!  Though I don't exactly relish the idea of being the center of attention...spending a night with a bunch of friends all in the same place sounded like a great idea to me, so I said I was in!

The party was really, really nice. It was fun to see and talk to a lot of good friends, it was great to see Amy and Tom's beautiful new home and the food was yummy!  It was even creatively triathlon-themed.  My favorite part was the area labeled "hydration station"...cracked me up. Amy had hung signs on decorative paper around the house that had Ironman fun-facts (even in the bathroom ;-)).  There was a place for people to write encouraging notes for me as well. I loved this...I've even thought about putting these notes in my pockets or in one of the small bags on my bike on race day for some inspiration (knowing I will need it!). 

The night was a relaxing break from the mental and physical intensity of training. It was so nice to chat...and eat with friends. Speaking of eating, I had completed my final 100-mile/century ride prior to Ironman that afternoon...so I wall all-too-happy to nosh on the tasty treats that abounded (Jillian's chocolatey-coconutty chex mix in particular!!).

I'm so grateful to everyone who came to the party, and to Amy and Kelli for all of their hard work!  Of course I have many friends who weren't there (some of whom have committed to being in Madison to cheer me on in person Ironman weekend!) who I also appreciate very much. Each encouraging word, Facebook message, card, etc. has meant immeasurably much to me as I prepare for this big, crazy race. I wouldn't be where I am today without "my people."  I am one lucky...maybe even blessed...woman!  I know it hasn't been easy for some to be friends with a prospective-Ironwoman as I haven't been able to be "around" as much due to the intense training schedule...but I appreciate the patience, support and understanding shown to me very much. I hope to make it up after race day!

With that said...8 days to go!  (Breathe!!)

Keep your head up

As I've previously posted, I'm currently planning to run in this year's New York City Marathon with a team of 10 total runners raising money to support Easter Seals of Central Illinois. One of our runners, Andy, has been a leader in the group. He sends out weekly inspirational emails with details regarding his training adventures as well as advice and funny anecdotes. He typically signs off with the following lyrics:  "keep your head up, keep your heart strong."  Corny, maybe, but this has been a good mantra for me these past couple of weeks. 

To be frank while hopefully not being overly dramatic, I've been worn out these past couple of weeks. The long training sessions have been extra-tiring and my body is feeling serious fatigue, aches and pains. Some days, it's been hard to convince myself to press on and complete target workouts. If nothing else, I've been learning how to keep my mind strong when my body is weak. A few times, though, it's been the other way around:  when my mind has felt weak and vulnerable and near its breaking point...my body has stepped up and proved that the training IS working and that I am stronger than I usually think I am. 

IM Wisconsin is two weeks away from this past Sunday.  I now have just 10 training days before my A-race of this season.  Long training rides and runs are a thing of the past (until after IM).  Taper is the name of the game. These next 10 days are all about maintenance...healing...and keeping my head up and my heart strong. 

This past Sunday I had planned to go out for a 15-20 mile run...what was to be my last long run prior to IM. My right Achilles has given me some moderate grief these past few weeks, so my coach advised me to take it easy and to listen to my body. I planned to run some large loops on the trail not far from my home and to keep water fountains and home not more than a few miles away. It was a HOT day, plus I truly did plan on heading home as soon as my ankle started giving me much pain. 

I set out around 12:30 on my run. It was hot, but regardless it felt good to be out. Running is still my favorite part of IM training. My Achilles was a bit achey, but nothing too bad so I pressed onward. 

When I reached 5.8 miles on my watch, I approached a crosswalk near the busier downtown area near where I live (near Uptown Normal...the Mulberry Street crossing on the Constitution Trail).  I slowed and watched a white SUV make a left-hand turn and go in front of me on the road. The next car, a black SUV, pulled up to the stop sign and slowed but did not completely stop. I watched the driver look to her right (it is a one-way street, so all cars are coming from the drivers' right here)...during which time I made the error of crossing the street at a jog. She then began turning without ever even looking to her left...at me. She kept turning and I kept expecting her to see me and slow...she didn't. I tried to quickly run/jump out of the way but it was apparent the vehicle was going to make contact with some part of my body. I threw my arms out in front of me and leaned into the hood with my chest, jumping my legs out of the way. It made a really fun, dull noise as I smacked her hood. She continued moving!  I spun to the side after she hit me and ran after her  vehicle. I banged on her driver's side door and she rolled down the window, staring at me. 

I began SCREAMING at the woman. I yelled, "you just hit me!  You hit a pedestrian in a crosswalk!"  She replied, "I'm sorry I didn't see you."  I screamed back, "I know you didn't see me!  You never even LOOKED!"  She continued staring at me and said, "I'm sorry."  Seeing two teen-looking boys in the vehicle, I yelled, "sorry doesn't fix things!  What if you killed me?!  What if you killed someone's daughter?!"  She seemed stunned by this (and I was proud!) and replied, "I'm really sorry. I just didn't see you."  I continued yelling at her and said, "well promise me you will LOOK from now on!  Look in crosswalks!  Don't you dare hit another runner!  Because next time it could be far worse than this!"  She didn't really say anything else, but rolled her window up and drove quickly away. 

I was HOT. I can't remember the last time I was that mad....and honestly scared.  Sure, nothing bad had happened...I hadn't been hurt. However, I couldn't stop my mind from traveling to the "what if's". What if she had injured me and I couldn't do my Ironman?  What if she killed me...or someone else?  

I sat in the grass against a parking garage and, scared and shaken up, cried. I was mad about my run being cut short and furious about the woman's lack of attention to pedestrians. I felt like I needed to continue my run so that I'd get in my planned long run with only two weeks to go til IM...but definitely didn't feel like running another step. 

Thankfully, my friends Kelly and David came to my "rescue". Maybe I didn't really need rescuing...but maybe I did. Regardless, their presence cheered me up. Had they not appeared, I would've likely sat in the same place for an hour. 

We ended up walking from where I was over to a festival going on in Uptown Normal and got some yummy sweet corn. Truth be told, I had been lamenting the fact that I didn't have time to go to the Sweet Corn and Blues festival...and fresh sweet corn had been sounding realllly good to me!  It was delicious...and sitting there in hot, noisy center of town with good friends I felt myself slowly feeling much better. 

That whole experience Sunday afternoon was a valuable one for me. It was a great reminder of the need to pay close attention to vehicles on the road (both when running and cycling!) and not to assume the drivers are paying attention to you.  "Keep your head up" as far as keeping alertness high can be a good reminder to be mindful of your surroundings. 

This whole "keeping-your-head-up" and "keeping-your-heart-strong" is tiring stuff.   Really I am kind of looking forward to the day that my Ironman is behind me...so I can turn my brain/head off and my heart can rest. I love training and racing, truly I do. However, being able to lay mindlessly on the couch in front of the television sounds blissful right now. Keep your head up, Rachel...no time for that yet!

Ten days...just ten days til I tackle Ironman Wisconsin!  Here's hoping I can keep Andy's mantra in my mind that day...keep your head up, keep your heart strong. I've trained, practiced and prepared both my mind and body...soon it will be time to put them to the test!

Rev3 Dells

I had the privilege of running a relay at Rev3 Dells this past weekend with fellow triathletes and friends.  I made a quick (too hurried!) weekend of it and drove up to the Wisconsin Dells Saturday morning, approximately 4 hours from my home in Central IL, and returned home on Sunday after participating in the race that morning.  I made a pit stop for brunch in Rockford with some good friends and their sweet one-year-old daughter on my way, adding some more fun to the weekend.

I had planned to complete the 13.1 run-leg with friends Melissa and Martha who planned to complete the swim and bike, respectively, of the Half Rev event (70.3 miles).  This was my second Rev3 relay this season (and second relay ever, actually).  In May I swam in a relay with Steve and Laura at Rev3 Knoxville.  All I need now is to complete the bike portion of a Rev3 70.3 event and I will have completed an entire Half Rev event!

After checking in at the expo (which didn't take long as this was a smaller event!  I was actually pretty surprised by the relatively small size of the event), I hopped on my bike to ride the bike course of the next day's race.  It was intense!  LOTS of climbing...and many scary (to me, Queen Wimp) descents.  Actually, at one point after a long climb when the course turned to the right to continue ascending (when in my head I thought it would've made MUCH more sense to level out or descend)...I actually whimpered out loud to the grass and trees around me about the unfairness of the situation.  Yeah, I'm not a fan of tough biking :).  I've been told, though, that the total ascent of the 56-mile Rev3 Dells bike course is MORE than the total ascent of the 112-mile Ironman Wisconsin course.  So, it was some good practice for my legs for what is to come in now LESS than a month.

I made a really stupid mistake of assuming there would be gas stations/places to purchase water along the bike course.  I brought with me two bottles of water, but really should've taken more than that.  I was out on the course for about 4 hours.  I tried my best to "ration" the water I had, but was fresh out well before I finished the course.  The worst part was...at mile 22 I passed a farm that had a table with a cooler on it placed at the end of the driveway.  There was a sign on the cooler that said "WATER $0.75" and had a jar for money.  I thought about stopping and buying a few bottles...but decided not to because come on, there HAD to be a gas station later right?!  IDIOT!  Lessons learned:  1.  bring MORE than enough water on self-supported rides and 2. if you SEE water for sale in someone's yard...BUY THE FREAKING WATER!  I was VERY thirsty at the end of the ride.  I ended up immediately going through a Starbuck's drive-thru for a passion fruit iced tea after the ride!  It tasted like heaven....I had decided around mile 50 when my mouth was sticky from slight dehydration that I NEEDED a Starbuck's passion fruit iced tea.  Thoughts of it got me through the final miles of torture.

After enduring and surviving the bike course, I met up with some friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Dells.  I had actually never before experienced Wisconsin Dells and was amused by the odd shops and various establishments along the uber-touristy Broadway Street as I drove to dinner.  It took what felt like FOREVER to drive the short distance because the traffic was crazy busy and pedestrians were crowding the streets.  I was hungry and thirsty and cranky from the bike ride...but was VERY happy upon my arrival at the restaurant.  I was late due to taking forever on the bike and my friends David and Kelly ordered dinner for me...and it had been placed at my spot just prior to my arrival.  Instant food!  MMMM!

I stayed with David and Kelly that night and we went to bed relatively early.  David was participating in the event as his FIRST-EVER 70.3 and Kelly was there to support David and be super-spectator-woman (seriously...Kelly is the best spectator, ever I think!;)).  Our alarms went off simultaneously at 4:30 am...disgusting!  We got ready...and hit the road.  The start wasn't far from our hotel, which was great.  It was a chilly, drizzly, yucky morning.  We got our relay team situated in the transition area (easy for me!  Running requires very little accessorizing!) and got David ready to go.

Kelly and I cheered on David and Melissa in the swim....waited in the transition area in the pouring rain (woe is us!! ;)) and once David and Martha (the biker in my relay team!) were on the bikes...left to go to Denny's for some delicious breakfast :).


David "walking the plank" prior to his swim!  Lookin' GOOD David!!! :)

 

Martha pre-bike, waiting on Melissa to return from the swim!

 

Side-view of Martha's AWESOME Wonder Woman helmet!



Melissa and Martha swapping the timing chip as Melissa came in from the run and Martha
got ready to set out on the bike!

 

After a delicious warm, egg-y breakfast we headed back to the transition area to watch the bikers come in and athletes get started on the run.  We got to watch many of the pro athletes completing the Olympic-distance event wrap up the bike and get going on the run.  It was pretty awesome, even if it was rainy and soggy.

Check out the puddles/"creek" at the beginning of the run course!  Fun times!

After Martha returned from that hilly beast of a bike course, I set out on the run.  The run course was pretty decently hilly.  Definitely hillier than I "like"! It was a fun course, in spite of the ugly day.  It was easy to see that this area of Wisconsin is quite pretty.  Although the hills were painful to my legs that were still sore from yesterday's intense ride (I know...I shouldn't complain...most of the other athletes completed the courses back-to-back-to-back on the same DAY! :)), they also kept things interesting.  It definitely wasn't a boring course...and the time seemed to move quickly.

I saw David when he was at mile ~8ish and I was at mile ~4ish.  I shouted some likely non-sensical words of "encouragement" at him and we carried on our merry ways.  I was impressed by how great he looked!

I felt super guilty running past quite a few other athletes on the run course.  One man actually said to me, "WOW!  You're the freshest runner I've seen out here yet!"  I quickly told him I was doing the relay and he replied, "OH!  Well you SHOULD look fresh then!"  I seriously felt like a big cheater while everyone else was suffering profusely.

Shortly after the turn around, a man ran up next to me along my right side.  We ended up chatting and stuck together for the rest of the race.  He told me that he had run the Ironman 70.3 in Racine a few weeks ago...just like me!  However, he ended up bonking at mile 8 of the run and had to quit.  He told me it was his first 70.3 and he had no idea what he was doing nutrition-wise and hadn't eaten anything!  He learned his lesson and wanted to give it another try.  He told me it was embarrassing that he had told so many people that he was going to do a half-Iron distance race and was unable to complete it!  So, he signed up for Rev3 Dells just a few weeks after Racine.  I told him there was no way he'd quit that day...and we ended up running the rest of the race together.  It's fun meeting new "friends", even if they are just "temporary friends" on race days!  It was pretty great to see him cross that finish line...and made me a little choked up to see his three daughters meet him on the course at mile 13.  They ran the final .1 mile with him and he crossed the finish line with his daughters and wife.  Pretty neat that Rev3 allows people to do that!  Martha and Melissa met me and ran with me as well...fun times!

I ended up finishing the run in 1:54.77.  That's a pretty average 13.1 time for me.  I was actually kind of disappointed in myself...I had wanted to be a bit faster.  I did hit my goal of staying mostly in my zone 3 heart rate (set by my coach).  However, my pace should've been closer to 8:00 minutes/miles and it averaged 8:41 minutes/mile.  I should probably allow myself a bit of grace...my legs were spent from the day before and the course was hilly :).  I completed it...ran under 2 hours...and had fun!

PLUS...our relay team ended up placing first for female relay teams and we got a ton of sweet loot!  Some blue seventy goggles, Powerbar goodies, a Rev3 pint glass, a gift certificate for the expo store...and an awesome medal in addition to the regular finisher's medal!

Left:  1st place relay medal, Right: Finishers' medal

The medals are made to connect!

 

Melissa (Swim), Martha (Bike), Me (Run)
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All in all...it was a fun weekend, full of good training and great friends!  Counting today...26 training days remaining until Ironman Wisconsin!  Cue the acrobatic butterflies!!