Princeton 70.3 Race Report

This is a little overdue but nevertheless, it needs to be written.  I failed to give any update through July, August and September- so here's a short recap...

I trained with friends...

Running at the canal

My other "training" half

I raced...

TT girls at NJ State Olympic

Big kiss to Sofie for coming out to watch mommy

Feeling strong

Our little family

Sofie turned one...

and I enjoyed being a mom...check my updated Minifancypants for an update on the Sofinator - I swear I will update it next (that one requires a little more :) )

So fast forward to September 15th, my 39th birthday....

yup - I am moving on next year to the next age group....
 Sofie got sick a couple days before my bday with a double ear infection, I got sick and we were both feeling crappy the entire week leading up to the race.  I was not even well enough to get in ANY training sooo I rested as much as a mom with a "running" toddler can.  I was getting worried as Friday approached and wasn't feeling much better...I not only was sick but went from weaning Sofie off of nursing to full on nursing again because she would just throw up regular milk because it was too thick for her with all the mucous.  Mike was away in Europe for work so I was fortunate to have my mom, sister and dad taking good care of me and Sofie.

Given all these factors, I probably should have been eating more, taking in electrolytes more than what I was doing, thinking more about the race and the fact that the weather that was going to be very warm, and all those things, but I didn't I just more or less tried to stay a float with baby, life stuff, and race in that order.

Saturday was race pick up - which was great!  It got me more in the mood, sickness be gone...

I took another Advil cold/sinus Sat night, went to bed when Sofie went to sleep at 8pm.  And for the first time in FOREVER, I fell asleep, no race day jitters, nothing just blissful sleep.

Just as a heads up, I did minimalist training and I felt good, I had a couple good long runs, swims were swims and the bikes were really good, I rode the course several times and felt pretty confident.

Race day morning - my sister and I headed out the door - she was volunteering for handing out medals, very exciting. 

Ready to Party

My swim wave was 3rd from last, so I knew I would have some work to do on the back end but lots of time for paparazzi shots.

Our new training friend, Katie!!

Swim 1.2 miles 49:02

Warm up swimming out to the start

For me this was better than any of my races, but I feel like I also know that I can work alot harder in the water.  I wore a sleeveless wetsuit - but little did I know I would be sweating a little and probably a little calorie deprived by the time I got to the bike.  The swim is similar to NJ State just a little longer.  The 200 m swim to the start was a good warm up and I really had no real anxiety like I usually do.  The swim was pretty uneventful, a little brutal at times with some pushing and kicking but all in all ok.  I thought I saw Lisa once while breathing (she was the wave after me) - it was confirmed when I saw her on the bike.

Bike 56 miles 58-59 miles....3:28:00

Heading out from transition

The bike was measured wrong by about 3 miles.  So we were all a little faster than what it shows.  Anyway, I felt really good.  I knew Lisa was up ahead by a couple minutes on the swim, so I motored to see if I could catch her.  Right before that I hit a very nice pothole and lost 2 bars, 2 gels which meant I was left with a couple gels and some chomps, not very much for the mileage.    After I caught up to Lisa and catching up for a quick convo I was feeling pretty good and then caught up with Nicole on the side of the road.  Poor girl had a chain issue and couldn't get it resolved.  At that point I felt great for the rest of the ride, I got to see my friend Katie who volunteered.  At the end of the ride  I could tell that I was missing some electrolytes, I started feeling cramping as I pulled in to transition across my shoulders, my calves, etc.

Run 13.1 miles ....2:49:19 (WORST DEATH MARCH EVER)
I took a quick potty break before I set out on the run, but was pretty worried.  I was cramping up in places I never had before lower and upper body.  As I started running my quads cramped up to the point of stopping, someone stopped by and gave me some salt tabs, I took them at the first water stop and started moving a little better, but by that point it was too late, I was really low on electrolytes.  It started getting hot, so that didn't help.  All I thought was that I went through labor for much longer at home and without drugs so figured this wasn't really much...I was determined - if I walked I walked, I had a good swim and a great ride, so part 3 would suck.  The volunteers, the Team Triumph people on the run course truly helped me get through it.  By the time I got to mile 7, it was bad again, at the point were I was running about a min and walking and I saw so many doing the same!!

Somewhere on the loop when I actually ran

 Anyway, as I neared up that last mile, all I could think was I can't wait to see Sofie, I hope she's there, I hope she's there.  I hope my sister gives me a medal and where is my mom and dad and friends.  I was a complete cramp but I ran up to Sofie, gave her a big kiss in the shoot and booked it in like I actually ran this race....hahaha...

Giving my kiss to Sofie before the finish line - Dad taking a photo

Theresa following me into the finish...

The cool part was seeing everyone that came out.

So miss big shot thought I could go out after the race, turns out hanging at home with leftovers and family and some friends was just about perfect and all I could handle.

The funny part on all this is that Lisa and I were pretty well trained and had our race pretty well mapped out, when I fell apart on the run, I was sure she would catch me since she is a better runner, but she didn't so I knew something was up.  Sure enough a couple minutes later she came in after me, and we finished with race times very close to each other...

Bottom line is you can train and do your best, but sometimes factors happen that you can't control.  My thought, I need a do-over, and I really liked the whole race...so possible in 2015...you can't beat a race that you can role out of bed and get there in 15 min.