West Point Lake Triathlon

West Point Lake Tri is going down in history as the very first time in my triathlon life that I have ever not wanted to race. I ALWAYS want to race. I would race every weekend if I could afford it. That is how much I love to race. This time? Not so much. It turns out that racing is only fun when you train correctly. My training? All over the place. Seriously. 10,000 meters in the pool on week.....then 10 days off from swimming. Climb Hogpen.....take a five day break from the bike. Me without a plan or a purpose is obviously pretty ugly. But....like my dad says excuses are like buttholes, everyone's got one. And for me? No excuse other than just being a bit lazy coming off Gulf Coast. So here is the skinny:

Swim: Yikes. Windy. Lake was choppy and I still can't sight worth a flip. Went off course. Matt caught me, tried to draft off him for the last 400 yards or so but he is fast little bugger. Couldn't find a good rhythm, stopped and took off my goggles to look for the buoys once and realized I was WAY off course. Gotta work on those siting skills! Swim time: 30:12 a perfect 2 min/100 meter pace....WAY too slow!

Bike: Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Usually love the bike. Not today. More negative thoughts went through my head than ever before. Thought about DNF'ing because my back, hamstrings and feet were numb. Thought about quitting triathlon. Dropped my chain and was pissed but able to get it on without stopping. Mad at myself for not changing the 11-21 cassette. Just in a BAD mood on the bike. I hate being negative! Couldn't come up with anything positive....then I started thinking about how lucky I was to be able to race in the first place! I am alive! I am healthy! Quit being a whinner! Bike time: 1:13:52 (20.2 MPH)

Run: Actually didn't feel that bad on the run. Only took one gel in on the bike so I bonked around mile 3 but other than that it wasn't that awful. Wanted to it a minute faster than I acutally did. but considering the amount of speed training I have done, I am happy with the results. Didn't get passed too much. Saw my Luna Chix Leslie and Sharon on the course which pepped me up! The Atlanta Triathlon Club volunteers were all out in full force which was fun too! Run time: 51:47 (8:22 pace)

Total Time: 2:37:44 5th place AG, 16th female OA, 118th overall male and female
Goal Time: 2:36:29

Why 2:36:29 as a goal? That was Keith's time from last year and some ice cream was riding on it! Missed it by 1 minute 15 seconds! But we had the EXACT same bike split! How odd is that?

The quest for Brusters continues......

I went to Panama City Beach and came back with a hickey!

Okay so the title of this post may be slightly misleading....it really should say Gulf Coast Race Report 2009. But I really did go to PCB and come back with a hickey so I guess it's not totally false! Here is the low-down of the race!

I felt good going into Gulf Coast. I knew that pending nothing horrible happening I would have a good race, and I would PR. This was my second time racing the half-Ironman distance. So far it's my favorite distance to race. Friday the swim wasn't as bad as everyone else seemed to think. Master's swimming all year has paid off and I felt good. I swam without a wetsuit because the water was really warm and I was pretty confident that it would be not be wetsuit legal.

So here is how my race went!

The Swim: This was the part of the race that had me the most excited. I had an AWFUL swim last year and was sure that this year I would be in the 36-37 minute range. Right away my goggles filled up with water. I tried to adjust them but it wasn't really working. Out of no where, my goggles came off and floated away into the ocean!! What the heck? I looked for them but they were obviously gone forever. Suck. Suck. Suck. At that exact moment I saw Tat and yelled for her. I don't know what I was going to say, but she was stopped and so was I, so it seemed resonable to call her name. She didn't hear me and swam off. I figured that I would swim with my eyes closed. Unfortunately my eyes were burning from the several brief
seconds when my goggles came off and my eyes were under water. I was totally unprepared for this and had no idea what to do. I swam with my eyes closed and got totally off course several times. I swam breast stroke and hardly got anywhere. So I decided to swim tarzan style! I made it out of the water with a nice hickey on my neck from my wetsuit, and eyes that were more red and puffy than Cheech and Chong! Despite my goggle malfunction I still swam faster than last year! My goal time was 37minutes, and I was 4 minutes and some change off that! Oh well! Next year!

The Bike: I had a game plan for the bike this year: HOLD BACK! Ride it at Ironman heartrate zone. Feel awesome the whole time. Do not push it. Repeat: DO NOT push it! I am SO happy that everything went according to plan! I was using a disc race wheel which was my only regret on the bike. It was windy and I felt uncomfortable, like I was being blown all over the place. There was no way to know that it was going to be that windy, because the Friday before the race it was not really windy at all. That is just a risk that you take when you use a disc! The bike course seemed a lot more deserted than it did last year. I remember huge packs of guys coming whizzing by me. This year I only got passed by about 5 or 6 guys. Only one chick passed me, Shelley Ruiz, and we played the ultimate game of cat and mouse passing each other almost 20 times! She is a bike coach with the Atlanta Tri Club (so am I) so that was fun! I was trying really hard to stick to my game plan and not push myself when she would pass me. I ended up with a 2:37 bike split, 21.4 avg mph, faster than last year!

The Run: Remember my awesome game plan of not pushing it on the bike? Well apparently I didn't push it enough because my legs felt really good when I got off. Too good because my first mile came in at a 7:20 something pace. Ouch. I tried hard to real myself in but it took another mile at a ridiculously fast pace before my body adjusted to what my mind was thinking. I slowed down. Then I slowed down some more. I honestly felt great until the most God-awful blisters I have ever had in my entire life started cropping up around mile 7-8. I am a total weirdo about not having my feet wet. I cannot stand it. So I wore a glove and filled it with ice instead of dumping water on my head. It worked really well. I peed in the port-o-potty in transition so that wasn't an issue. I guess that at some point you just start sweating a lot when it's hot as a motha! The best part about the run was that nothing really hurt that much. My hips felt great, my knees didn't hurt, no back issues, not one single cramp (although I thought I felt a calf cramp coming on). The only thing that was not good was my nutrition. My plan was to eat two gels on the run. Maybe three. I usually only take 2 gels for a 10-13 mile run with just water. Well this year there were no gels on the course, only Clif Bloks. Those things TEAR me up! I ate three and was like NO WAY! So I went without, I felt a little bonky around mile 10 so I stopped and had two orange slices and some flat cola. This was my first attempt at a long run with no gels and I didn't like it. Lesson learned: don't trust the pre-race booklet about nutrition. ALWAYS pack your own! My run time was 2:06:55 an 11-minute improvement over last year!

My overall finishing time was 5:33:24 which was much better (14 minutes!) than last years 5:47. I placed sixth in my age group and got an award! I was the 32nd overall female out of 296 finishers and I was the 209th overall finisher out of 999 finishers. I am happy with my results for the first time in a long time! It felt great to have a good race, podium, have the amazing support of my friends and family, and be able to race with such an awesome group of local tri geeks! I was off my goal time, but considering what I was dealing with, I was totally whole with my race and my results. I didn't let the swim mess me up, and I stuck to my race strategy. I learned a lot during this race and I am looking for another half distance race to do because this was so much fun!

Congrats to EVERYONE who showed up, completed, placed, and supported down in Florida. You guys are awesome and it was really appreciated. Pics are up on Facebook!

Guys say the darndest things....

So I am at work (Concourse Athletic Club) and I am watching some guys play Squash (my new fav sport...SO hard!) There is a guy sitting by the wall and I look at him and notice that he looks really familiar. Here is our exact conversation:

Me: "I know you from somewhere"
Him: "Is it because I look like Ashton Kutcher?"
Me: "Actually no....you just look familiar...like one of my brothers friends"
Him: "All the ladies say that"
Me: "Right. Do you know Scott Grabol?"
Him: "OMG!!! Are you Danielle Grabol? I used to be your neighboor! You drove me to school for like two years! You totally corrupted me! You gave me my first alcohol! Are you REALLY Danielle Grabol?"
Me: "SHHHH! Be quiet, I WORK here! Yes, I am Danielle!"
Him: (Standing up and staring at me kind of funny) "I just can't believe it's you....I remember you being a lot bigger and uglier."
Me: "Excuse me?!?"
Him: " I mean I just don't remember you being so pretty in high school."
Then I SWEAR I am not making this next part up. He took my water bottle, opened it and drank out of it! When I looked at him like I was going to smack him clear across the room he said "What? I am thirsty!" SERIOUSLY??

In other, better news, I PR'd last Saturday at Silver Comet 10k. 48:33, 7:49 avg pace. Didn't feel as bad as I thought it would. 9/89 in my age group and 39th female overall out of 400 something. I was surprised, I usually place much lower in running races. Guess the speedsters all ran the CRR 10k the week before.

Tundra Time Trial

Suckitysucksucksucksucksuckkk!

That just about sums up my first time trial experience. It just wasn't a great day for me. First, I underestimated how much time it would take to get there, then I got lost. I arrived and there was no parking. I rushed to get my number only to be told I needed to fill out some more paperwork. Bob told me to warm up for 40 minutes, but at this point I only had 20 minutes until I started! I rushed back to my car. Everyone else was on there trainers with their skinsuits on. I was wearing all black, including my fleece-lined pants. I couldn't figure out how peeps were riding with shorts on!

I only had 15 minutes to spare, so no trainer for me. I rode around on the trail, which actually cooled me off rather than warming me up because it was starting to drizzle. I lined up and prepared to start. Marc was there (in PLENTY of time I might add!) and he got to see what must have been the worst start of the day: I begged them to not drop me (you clip in and they "hold" you up) when the guy let go of me and they told me to start, I unclipped instead and said "I'm sorry!" I just totally thought that I was going to fall over! So it took me a few seconds to clip back in and get going.

About a mile into the race my left leg flew off the side of the bike. Guess I wasn't as clipped in as I thought I was! My bike started swerving and they guy behind me started screaming and freaking out a little. Totally unnerving! I regained control, clipped in, and continued. I got passed by a guy around mile 3 and tried to keep up but I just didn't feel like I was able to push like I normally can.

When the turnaround came up I was such a wussy. I unclipped and walked it. It was wet and I was already freaked from almost crashing, so I said "screw it!" and got off the bike. I quickly got back on my bike and took off again. I got passed by the guy behind me, but I repassed him about 30 seconds later. I tried to push and push, but I felt like I was moving in slow motion. I passed three other riders, two males, one female and finally made it to the finish line.

25:11. Suckitysucksucksucksuck. Bike computer shows 24:45, so that may have been my actual riding time. Either way I was expecting to average a lot faster than 22.62 mph.

My mistakes were costly as I was 5th female overall with less than 33 seconds separating 2nd and 5th place. But each race is an opportunity to learn, and I learned a lot!

The winners got the most incredible hand blown glass awards. So beautiful. Next year the top three females will also get the same awards. So next year? I'm gonna practice more!

Congrats to Amy for her 3rd place finish, she's super strong! Marc and his Aaron's teammates did great too!

Emerald Pointe Triathlon

Suck. Suck. Suck. Suck. Suck. Goal NOT accomplished!

Swim: 8:03. It was a cluster bomb of chicks with 100+ in my wave. So difficult to navigate my way through the people, most of whom decided to stop and sight directly in front of me. That's the nature of 400 meter swims! Official swim time of 10:16 includes the hill and getting into transition. Not wearing my wetsuit was a bad idea. I was SO cold. The water was freezing. I felt frozen getting out of the water.

T1: Need to practice cooler looking transitions. Like shoes already on my bike. That's super cool. Fumbled with my helmet. Saw Steph and family cheering. 1:49 transition time.

So far so good. Goal at this point was 11:40 and I was at 12:05.

Bike: Freezing. Really cold. Snop dripping everywhere. I was quite uncomfortable on the bike. I passed lot's of girls within the first 3 miles, than it was nothing but guys. I tried but just couldn't get myself warmed up. My quads felt cold. Bike time of 36:03 and 21.6 MPH avg was slightly faster than I anticipated. It felt really slow out there to me.

T2: There is no way I made it out of T2 in 55 seconds like they claim. Something was sketchy about that.

Run: I looked at my watch when I left and knew I could make my time goal. Well, thought I could at least. My legs were still frozen and I couldn't feel my feet. I went out too fast and my first mile came in around 6:50. I felt like I was going to throw up. I slowed down a bit but stopped keeping track of my pace. I passed tons of guys and saw the lead girls. I only got passed once on the run. Apparently Sue writing "Go Faster" on the back of my leg was inspiring to someone! I felt sick to my stomach but seeing Keith, Dave, and Jim made me push harder. I tried to catch you Dave! I saw Olga and Tat while I was coming back in. When we rounded the corner to the finish line a guy said "let's sprint" I ran as hard as I could and we crossed the line at the same time. When the lady said "I need your chip", I said "I am going to throw up" I grabbed a trash can a did. Official run time says 24:48 but I have it at 23:50. Not sure who's right on this one.

Finish time: 1:13:40. 4th place age group. 12th female overall. Three minutes faster than last year.

Congrats to Tat, Olga, Dave, Keith, Jim, and everyone else who had solid races. Thanks to Hunter, Steven, and the Suob's for volunteering and cheering. Thanks to Steph and family and Kellye for cheering, it was good seeing you guys!

I am now in stealth-mode run training with Scoots. Gotta get faster for next season!

Tri 2 Remember Triathlon

Is is a good idea to race a sprint triathlon 20 days after an Ironman distance triathlon? YES! It was so much fun and so short compared to what I did a few weeks ago! Here is my recap of the event:

Race morning I was sluggish thanks to some tylenol pm and going to bed at 9:30 p.m. and getting up at 3am. I shouldn't have taken it but I am having some really bad sleep issues lately and it was my only hope.

We arrived at the race when the park was opening and it was COLD! Brrrrr! I wasn't expecting it to be this much colder than it was in Atlanta (the race was in Gainsville, about an hour north) and of course I didn't pack any extra clothing to wear on the bike. I was wearing my Luna jacket but it's like a tent so I didn't want to use it. The race was wetsuit legal but for 400 meters and 72 degrees I didn't feel like going through the trouble.

The Swim: What a total clusterbomb of people this was! They gave us three minutes between waves but it didn't help stop all the major clumping of people. I guess there really is no good way to do a 400 yard swim without people backing up-unless it's time trial start. I tried to push myself as hard as I could but there was no point-I simply don't have any swim speed right now. I have made it into once since my Ironman! I made it out in 6:57 and we had to go up a hill (why are there always hills going into transition?) so that added a little time.

T1: Slow. Need to work on getting my bike shoes attached to the bike ahead of time. I was cold and fumbled around.

The bike: Wow....hilly! Of course, it was so close to the North Georgia Mountains I expected this, but what I didn't expect was for people to be walking their bikes up the hills! I think they caught some people off guard and they were in the wrong gears. There was quite a bit of traffic out there and I was calling "on your left" and one guy ran off the road and into the grass. Oops. There really was room for both of us, but I think I spooked him. I passed several girls and lot's of guys. At mile 10 they announced that I was the 6th female so that made me push a little harder. I saw Henry and his new bike-it was really nice! Other than being really, really cold the bike wasn't too bad. I could use some intervals in the next few weeks! Avg speed was 20.1 MPH.

T2: Gotta learn the running dismount. It looks too cool to not try at least once (maybe more if I don't bust my butt!)

The run: My goal for the run: DO NOT let a woman pass me! I am always out in front on the bike and then some chick in my age group will pass me with .2 miles to go-so frusterating! The run was a tough course-hilly also. My feet were frozen but I knew I was pushing it because I was passing tons of guys. I felt like I was going to throw up after running every hill and when I went through the turnaround I looked at my watch and timed when I saw the next woman (who happened to be Fox 5 anchor and speedster Denise Dillon) it was 1 minute 27 seconds. I pushed harder and crossed the finish line. Average pace: 7:42 per mile. Denise never caught me but because she started after I did her finish time was faster. Oh well-mission accomplished, don't get caught on the run! For the record only two guys passed me! Trail running really has helped!

I was the 9th overall female and finished 2nd in my age group. Can't complain about getting some hardware! Scootsie was 2nd in his age group as well (I tried desperately to catch him but beat me by 2 minutes and 8 seconds!)

Congrats to Anna and Henry for getting out there and racing strong! Thanks to Vanessa for cheering ( I love crowd support!)

Only one race left of the season! (insert sad face here!)

Ironman Louisville

You asked and here it is: the race report!

Let me start off by saying that doing an Ironman rocked 10 times more than I ever expected it to. This was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I will cherish the memories that I made forever and ever.

The night before the race I started to not feel well. I got flu-like symptoms and got up a million times just generally not feeling well. The morning of the race I couldn't keep anything in (read 6 dukeouts, isn't that like a record?) but I was really ready for the race! Walking down to transition there was actually people getting out of cabs drunk! So funny! They must have thought that we were totally insane.

Before the race I was anxious, but I didn't cry! (I did cry in the shower, but that was more about not feeling well and being so upset it) I got to see my mom, Tat, Steven, Hunter, and Dave which made me feel calmer. There was a lot of craziness standing in the dark getting ready to swim and I kept thinking "I hope the sun comes up soon!" I was lined up with Keith, Bob, and Sue which meant that we were all racing together-awesome! Joe started a little later in the pack. The people that owned the boats at the dock were sitting out there drinking their morning coffee like it was no big deal that 2200 athletes were lined up getting ready to swim 2.4 miles. That's Kentucky for you!

The Swim: Let's just say that I made it through the swim! I am a TOTAL slacker when it comes to doing my long swims and my longest this season was 3800 meters (2.3 miles) and I only did that once about 6 weeks ago. I took a little break from swimming but when I got in the water I was pretty comfortable. Although it was a time trial start, there was still tons of people everywhere and I wasn't expecting to swim into so many people. Made it out of the water in 1:26, I'll take it. Lesson learned: it's okay to just swim 3000 yards.

T1: Didn't feel too hot. Actually, felt really hot, like fever hot. There were some very nice volunteers who wanted to help me out of my bathing suit and into my cycling clothes but I declined. Lesson learned: accept the help, you are wet and it won't take as long with two people!

The Bike: Things heated up pretty quickly on the bike. I felt pretty good and was on track with my nutrition until around mile 20 when I tried to drink some ensure. Bad idea. My stomach totally turned on me. I was so nauseated that the thought of the ensure or my amino vital made me want to puke. I threw out the ensure at an aide station and grabbed Gatorade but couldn't drink that either. So I was relegated to just plain water. Good when it's hot, not good when need to bike 112 miles. I couldn't stomach my clif bar either. Keith caught me on the bike and we played cat and mouse about 8 times until I finally pulled away. Knowing that he was behind me was a big motivator for me to not snivel about my tummy hurting. The bike course was hilly, pretty, and had the best cheering squad you could ask for. There was an odd amount of wind out there....crosswinds...not something that I expected to see in Kentucky. I stopped at mile 66 to get my transition bag and try to use the bathroom. No go. I had two honey buns and ate one which revived me some. I saved the other one to nibble on the rest of the ride. I got passed on the bike by Bree who was winning the race on the woman's side and cheered for her. She was cutting hills in half. 12/27 was a rocking gear choice for me on this race! I was able to get a couple gel packs in between miles 85-100 but then I didn't feel too great so at mile 100 I switched to just water. My back and girly bits were ready for this ride to be over with, but I never really got bored. There was no talking or anything on the bike, just riding, and it wasn't all that bad!

T2: I let a nice lady help me with my running clothes. She set everything up into neat little piles and applied my body glide onto my back for me. The volunteers are the greatest! I spent a couple minutes talking to a nice lady who lost the feeling in her toes. She made it out onto the run and finished!

The Run: Wow it was hot on the run. Really hot. I saw a sign that said 95 degrees when I started. I got to see Brian and Kile as I was starting and they were super pumped up. When I left transition I asked Hunter "Where are Bob and Sue?" For some reason I was really concerned with where everyone else was! I saw Keith as I was running out onto the bridge and he promised that he was going to catch me. I felt okay, just a little depleted and I was surprised that my legs were as fresh as they felt. At mile 4 I ate a gel with some gatorade and then started throwing up! NOOOO!!!! So that started my cycle of jog, puke, walk, jog, puke, walk. Two times the EMT peeps came up to me and tried to get me to come to the med tent. I wasn't falling for it, I was going to finish this race if it meant crawling! It was great seeing everyone on the run, but hard to tell whether they were one their first loop or not. I cheered for peeps when I could but lost my voice around mile 12. I learned that there are some people who can walk REALLY fast and I am not one of them. I tried to use the bathroom a couple of times hoping that if something came out that end I would feel even better but it didn't work. The run should have been called the "speed walk" because every time I saw someone they were walking. Except for Joe. He ran the whole way! Right before the special needs area Keith caught me. He told me that I HAD to get calories in or they would end up carting me off the course. We stopped at the bags and I sat down for a minute and changed my shoes and socks. When I got up I felt a little better so at mile 14 I drank a little coke and didn't throw up! I took one sip of coke at every aide station until mile 19 when I started to get lightheaded. I realized that I was on the verge of passing out and told Keith I needed to stop and get some calories in. I managed to get two gel packs, some gatorade, coke, and a pretzel in before we started back up. Wow, what a difference some calories can make! At that point I wanted to run faster but my legs only knew one speed. I got in one salt tablet and gave Keith my last one. We kept seeing Bob and Sue, looking really strong and in great spirits. It started to get dark around mile 23 and at that point I wanted to keep going, no more stops at aide stations, let's finish this! Hunter and Tat were close to the finish, maybe mile 24 or 25. When I saw them I knew I was almost an Ironman! Hearing the roaring crowd at Fourth Street Live was incredible. I don't even remember them calling my name, but I do remember crossing the finish line and being surprised that I didn't cry. I sprinted as hard as I could and didn't feel a thing. I AM AN IRONMAN! It was an unbelievable feeling!

The craziest thing is that the entire race was so much fun. Even while I was throwing up I loved it because I knew the end result was me crossing that finish line. I was thinking the entire race, I can't wait to do another one! Florida? Wisconsin? Which one? I know I said that it was just going to be this one but I fibbed!

When I crossed the line the lady wanted to know when the last time I went to the bathroom was. I was bone dry and had stopped sweating. I went to the med tent and got a couple bags of IV's and some medicine for my stomach. They took blood and said my sodium level was low and I needed to eat salt. I visited with Bob, Sue, and Keith (also getting some IV's) before heading back to the hotel to shower and get some WHITE CASTLE! Good at the time but now the thought makes me sick. If I even think about anything that made me sick during the race it will make me throw up right now!

I must say how impressed I am with all my fellow Ironman Louisville competitors. There were lot's of DNF's and people on the side of the road with oxygen on, convulsing, and one guy had a major seizure at the finish. So finishing this race was a huge accomplishment! Sue overcame major issues in the water to complete her FIRST triathlon! Sue rocks! Bob, Keith, Joe, Misty, Sandy, Bree, Lee Ann, Rivi, and Jim all finished strong and enjoyed it.

Keith and I hardly said two words to each other while running. I told him to go ahead and leave me but he said "we have a pack". Apparently while I was in the hospital we made a pack to finish our first IM together. I didn't remember it, but Keith did and it meant a lot to me. Thanks.

Iron-spectators: YOU ROCK! Knowing that my mom, Tat, Steven, Hunter, Dave, Kile, and Brian were out there made such a difference! Every time I saw them I got some strength from it. It was a long day for them too and they were so supportive, I will always cherish and remember them for it! Thank you so much for everything!

How do I feel now? Pretty good actually. Walked two miles on Tuesday. Stomach still a little on the upset side but body is okay. Going to spin my legs out on the trainer today for a bit.

Thanks to everyone for their calls, e-mails, texts, facebook messages, etc, etc. Your support was truly incredible and this wouldn't have been the same without you!

Why I don't work on my own bike.....

The lovely image above shows my bike after racing Chattanooga yesterday. Notice the seat pointing totally upwards? That was the result of me trying to adjust my own saddle Thursday to point downwards per my doctors suggestion. I am officially never, ever, ever, ever, ever, going to touch my bike again unless it's to clean it, change the tire, or put the chain on. Everything else will require professional help! Here's what I thought of the race:

Swim: It started raining right before my swim start. Getting into the river and being told when to start is WAY better than a mass swim start. I took off and was feeling pretty decent. Since it was a point to point swim I wasn't sighting like normal until I see a kayak. This meant that I was swimming towards my right instead of straight forward. Doh! So I started sighting and stuck to the left (closer to the bank of the river). They told us that the bright green buoy was our indicator that the stairs were coming up and I got really excited when I looked up and saw a huge bright green thing. Then a couple of minutes later I swam up to a huge group of guys, at least 40 in green swim caps. How did I catch up with them? I kept swimming and swimming, taking 9 strokes and I sighted, still the same spot I was in before. I knew I wasn't moving and started neither was anyone else. I powered myself through by swimming as hard as I could, then the little whirlpool was gone. Apparently there are little spots in the river where this happens. Didn't know that! Swim was 28:04, about a minute slower than I would have liked.

Bike: This bike course was WAY harder than the one from two years ago! But it was really scenic. There were TONS of potholes and I saw plenty of peeps with flats and water bottles all over the place. Around mile 12 or 13 it started pouring rain. It felt like little pellets hitting my skin. I couldn't see anything and was in my aero bars going down a hill. I looked down and was going 39 mph! The rain finally stopped. Around mile 18 my back was just totally gone. I stood up for some relief and when I sat back down my saddle went the opposite way. Oops. At mile 20 I went over a bump and my saddle dropped back even further. At that point I was just trying to not fall off my bike. It was raining again and since we only had six more miles, I thought it would be okay to not try to adjust it. Right. My hamstrings and calves were lighting up like a Christmas tree during those last six miles. It was totally inefficient and wasting a lot of energy. I was still pleased that I managed to avg. 20 MPH. I got a 2-minute penalty for "positioning" because I passed someone and didn't return to the left. It was because the road was crappy there.

Run: The run was a huge disappointment to me. My legs just weren't feeling like they should have, mostly because of the bike I think. I was so proud of myself for putting my shoes in a plastic bag because they were totally dry. Then not even a mile into the run there was a huge puddle of standing water and I got my feet wet. Ugh. I don't like wet feet. The run was better two years ago in my opinion, I thought that this one was harder. Very steep stairs to climb (I couldn't run up or down them). My run pace was 9:04, AWFUL for six miles. I like the out and back on the run because it gave me a chance to see everyone else running, Tat, Keith, Steve, Steph, Matt, Henry, etc ,etc....seeing peeps always keeps you going!

Total time was 2:45:50, not including my penalty. With the rain and my bike issues, I will take it.

Congrats to Tat and Henry on their first Olympic distance race! This was my first Olympic too in 2006! Thanks to Steven and Dave for their support out there! Congrats to everyone else for racing strong in not so great conditions!

Second lesson of the day: Don't make fun of peeps with flats. Someone we know was laughing at Keith because he flatted on the bike. Not even one mile later she flatted and had to DNF because she didn't have a tube. Bad race Karma!

Westpoint Lake Triathlon

Yummy, yummy, Bruster's ice cream in my tummy!

Team Slaughter Scootsie was victorious! I was concerned that my legs weren't going to hold up too well on the bike. They were TRASHED going into the race! Have you ever just willed your legs to not feel sore? That's what I did race morning. I forced them to just work for me! My two biggest mistakes were not warming up at all and not taking any allergy meds. It took me until mile 14 before I actually felt like I was getting going! My Garmin time was 1:08:44 for 24.99 miles, so a 21.8 avg MPH, official time lists me at 1:09:20 because it included the time into transition. I was really hoping to go faster, especially after Sarah told me that the course was mostly flat. But there were actually a couple of good climbs and some rollers in there and I wasn't nearly as fresh as I would have liked. BUT, I did have the second fastest female bike split (after the overall winner's) and I am very interested in knowing what it would be like to taper and prepare for a real time trial!

Getting back to the race.....Olga had a blazing fast 27:02 swim and Tat burned up the run in 46:38. Our overall time was 2:23:59, 13 minutes faster than Keith's and if we could ever pull that time off individually, it would have been good enough for 3rd place overall!!!

The "us against you" format was really good for Keith. He stayed up all night driving from FL, arrived Atlanta and slept for 1 hour before racing. Then he placed third in his age group and took off 4 seconds from last years time!

Congrats to Sarah, Hunter, Jenny, and Steph who were all out there looking strong! My hero of the day was Dr. John Taylor, 87 year old who raced the sprint triathlon! He rocks! Check out Flickr for the rest of the pics!

Sweetwater Triathlon

I finally got a recovery/taper week prior to this race!!! It was my first recovery week since the week of Gulf Coast and my body was begging for it! Going into the race I felt pretty decent, my back is getting much better. I have had a very nagging knee pain all week in my left knee that was brought on by a 11.5 mile run on Monday. But other than that, I felt pretty good! Everyone said "You have to do this race at least once!" and I know understand why. It's a minimalist race, but the atmosphere is very relaxed and there was no pre-race tension at all.

Swim: Seriously, this was the world's shortest triathlon swim. The ladies started one-minute behind the men and I caught up to about five guys that were just treading water. The turn-around was kind-of hairy and this woman grabbed me and her hand went into my back pocket of my top and she pulled me down. I was less than thrilled because she should have just let go, but instead she kept swimming, pulling me in the process. I exited the water right next to Henry, my mailman. He wasn't happy to see me. I was the second woman out of the water and I could see Keith putting his shoes on and mounting his bike. I wanted to catch him SO badly!

Bike: I tried and tried to catch Keith but all the little twist and turns were not in my favor. I caught the first woman out of the water within the first mile and was leading the race. I caught almost all the guys and at this point, there were only about 5 people in front of me, including Keith. The bike course was changed to make it a little longer, but it wasn't long enough for me! Keith stayed about 30 seconds ahead of me the entire time. Bummer. I only averaged 21 MPH on the bike, which wasn't as fast as I would have liked, but it's hard to build up too much speed on a course this short. Although there were not any substantial climbs, the course was not flat at all either.

Run: Prior to the race I asked about the run (which was also a new course) I was told it was "a trail run" Trails?!? I have never run on a trail before!!! I am deathly afraid of anything that involves off-road running because my left ankle is so weak I am paranoid that I will roll it. The minute we went off road on the run I was totally out of my comfort zone. The gravel, rocks, and sand sucked and I almost fell going up a hill. I slowed myself down a bit but was still totally sucking for air. I thought that I was having a heart attack or asthma attack, because that's how hard I was working! I knew that there were women behind me that could probably run faster than me. It was getting so hot and very humid and I was pouring sweat. My shoes were sloshing even though I hadn't poured any water on myself! I got caught by a couple of guys by the first mile. Once we started running on grass I saw a chick that was smoking the course. She was grinning ear to ear. Not a good sign! I tucked my head down and tried to run harder, but I was giving it everything that I had. The run seemed to last forever and the chick caught me with about 3/4 of a mile to go. There was nothing I could do, I was running as fast as I could at that point and just wanted to hold onto second place. When we got back onto the pavement I rounded a corner and saw another lady digging really deep to try and catch me. I started sprinting and made it to the finish line, literally 10 seconds ahead of her. I felt sick to my stomach and curled over, almost throwing up.

I was the second place overall female and I can honestly say that I raced this race pretty hard! The run was a little bit long (3.6 miles) and my average pace was 7:46 min/mile. That's actually my fastest run pace ever and the fact that it was on a mostly trail run is great! I will post more pics soon! Congrats to Keith for winning his AG!

Macon Aquabike

With 1/4 mile to go Sue was working hard to catch Keith!!


How smart was I to pick the day that was 93 degrees to do an Aquabike? It consisted of a 1.2 mile swim and 56 mile bike. This was the first race that I did last year coming off my broken leg so it was sentimental for me. It was also my first repeat race!

The Swim: Am I EVER going to learn how to swim? I mean seriously?!? I have SO much endurance and for that I am thankful, but still have zero speed! When I got into the water I just swam, pretty much the same way that I would swim a warm-up in the pool. Way too aerobic for a race. I got off course a bit, oops, and had my first ever big kick in the face. The kick really made me very unhappy. I made it out of the water and almost croaked when I saw that my time was 3 minutes slower than it was last year! Okay so I didn't taper at all for the "training race". Plus I wasn't wearing a wetsuit(left it at home, 77.5 who knew?). But 3 minutes?!? Obviously 9000 yards a week isn't cutting it! Time to kick it into high gear!


The Bike: No HR monitor, no computer checking, no goals other than to do better than what I did last year. The first 20 miles were totally brutal. There was lots of wind. Way more wind than there should have been in Macon. I felt like I wasn't going anywhere. My legs were moving but the bike seemed to go really slow. I passed Tat and Karen and realized that the duathletes were already on course. This motivated me to ride a little bit harder. My bad attitude continued on the bike too. A guy rode up next to me and started talking. I said bad words because he scared me so badly. Then I felt really bad about it, but he had dropped back. Sorry guy. Around mile 30ish Sue caught me. Right before she caught me a dog started charging after me. It scared the daylights out of me. She told me after the fact that it was one of the closest calls that she had ever seen. I wasn't prepared for it, I actually think that I was sitting up and rubbing my very numb back. Sue scared me too when she caught me and started talking to me. She's like really,really, really strong. I can only imagine the terror that she imposed on all the guys in the race. The bike was hillier than I remembered from last year. Or maybe it was the wind that made it harder than I remembered. Or maybe I was just riding harder? I did get a 4-minute penaltly because I almost ran over a snake and was screaming (again, I was scared and didn't realize it was alive, see a pattern forming?) because it was huge and slithering all over the road.A guy that works with Tat rode up next to me and started talking. I didn't realize that meant I was supposed to drop back. It's called overtaken. He got penalized too for not passing me completely. He ended up dropping back because he said he was pushing too hard and needed to save some for the run.


At mile 48 I was in tears over the numbness and pain in my back. I was so very uncomfortable and unhappy. I told myself not to quit because Tucker Bob was still behind me and we had been in a texting war all week about how he was going to "see me" out there. At mile 50 I told myself that I was doing good because Bob didn't catch me. Not even 5 minutes later he caught me. The next six miles we spent playing cat and mouse and we found Keith along the way in. At one point Bob passed me and noticed that a guy was on my wheel. He started yelling "drafter, Dani you have a drafter!!" Really loud. I dropped it a couple of rings and the guy dissapeared.

After entering T2 I was thankful that my race was over. It was about 90 degrees and scorching out there. I spent a few minutes cheering for peeps and helping random people apply sunscreen to their back, neck, and head area. One chick asked me if I was "just not doing the run" and I said "Nope! I did the Aquabike! You suckers can run!" She was jealous. It was not a pretty day for a 1/2 marathon. My official bike time was 2:48 something but my actual ride time was 2:47 something......basically about 20.2 MPH Avg.

Since I trained straight through this "training race" I am okay with my results. I placed 4th overall behind two superstar triathletes (Deanna Frank and Heidi Phillips) Results list me as 1st, but it's a mistake. I took 20 minutes off my bike split from last year, so I can't complain about that! My swim is another story.....one that I am still a little sore about and don't want to talk about until I can figure out what's gone wrong.

The real props need to go to the peeps who did the half IM (Bob) and long course duathlon: Keith, Sue, Tat, and Karen. Tat had the fastest 1/2 marathon split of all the women and Sue was the bike queen! They all took home hardware. My training partners rock!

Big thanks also needs to go to Hunter, Steven, and Dave for all their hard work out there on the race course! Thanks guys!

The rest of the pics are on my Flickr!

Gulf Coast Triathlon

Me and Sister Madonna Buder, 78 years old, oldest Ironman finisher, a legend!!

How do I even begin to do a race report on this event? I found myself calm on race morning but very emotional. It was unlike most race mornings, I just wanted to burst into tears and I couldn't explain why. My mom called me and just answering the phone made me cry. I couldn't tell her why, I was just so overwhelmed that I was about to do this race! So here's the lowdown:

Can you tell that the swim a bit rough?

The Swim: The swim was not at all what I was expecting. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about how calm the water is at Gulf Coast. Well, not this year. Women were getting in, then just coming back out immediately. The picture shows my wave, about 50 yards in. Everyone promised the water would get better once the whitecaps stopped, but it didn't get better, it got worse. It was hard to see buoys because the swells were so big. I didn't really swim that much freestyle, it was a whole lot of tarzan-like swimming and gulping so much water that I was sure I wouldn't need salt tabs. At the half-way point I was 19 minutes in and feeling okay. Coming back in there was a current that made it feel like we were moving at all. I kept seeing the sand at the bottom of the ocean, and it looked like people were getting close to being able to stand, but when I tried, the water was too deep. I finally made it out, about 6 minutes slower than I projected for myself, feeling like I had spent time in a washing machine not swimming!

The Bike: My goal was to not ride so hard that I blew up on the run. I knew that I could average over 20, but was also aware that I could go so hard that I would blow up too. I wanted to keep my HR below 155. I was surprised to see it stay in the 140's the entire ride. In order to keep it in the 150's I was riding over 23 MPH and I knew that was too fast. So I just dropped it back down and thanked God that something was going my way. The bike felt really effortless and I passed a lot of chicks going out. I was very chipper and made sure that I told everyone that they were looking strong. Not one guy said a word back. Most women said thanks and I was looking strong too. About 20 miles in my back was totally fried. Aero position was very uncomfortable and I had to get out of the saddle a lot. After the turnaround I saw that people were really slowing down a lot. I passed even more people. The wind picked up quite a bit but it didn't do anything to my speed which I was thankful for. Reger passed me at mile 45. I passed him a few minutes later, then he passed me, then I passed him, and finally around mile 51 or 52, he passed me and I didn't put up a fight to catch him. But it was nice to have someone to play cat and mouse with! I got off the bike feeling really wonderful, legs were a lot fresher than I expected them to be. I averaged 21 MPH and although I could have gone faster, I don't think it would have been smart!

The Run: The run started off great. I was clipping off mostly 8:45-9:00 minute miles until mile 5 when I noticed my arms were very hot and beat red. They were also bone dry. I knew immediately what the culprit was: my $#%&*#@@ sunscreen. I was so worried when I bought suncreen that it wasn't going to be breathable. I (thought) that I read all the labels to make sure that I would still be able to sweat. But I clearly didn't (later I read the label and it's "sweat proof") My body was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. My lower back and legs were the only thing that was producing sweat. As it turns out, sweat is a very vital part of cooling your body, both internally and externally, and without sweating, you will overheat. By mile 6 I was totally miserable and was dumping everything I could think of on myself, ice, water, sponges, etc. This turned my socks and shoes into a sloshy mess. By mile 8 I had blisters all over the place and was dizzy. Mile 10 I noticed that my arms were now cold to the touch and covered with goosebumps. I was concerned that I was on the verge of a heatstroke (those are the signs) thank goodness for Tat being in the park (and being a nurse) she ran with me when I was sure that I was going to pass out. She refused to let me walk and promised that I would not die of a heatstroke. The only good news about the run is that I felt like my form didn't break down. Aside from being hot, my body didn't really feel all that bad. Around mile 11 my hips started to bother me, but that was really it.

The finish line wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. Instead of elation that I had finished my first half-Ironman, I felt like my body was 108 degrees. I made my way over to the medical tent where they covered me in ice and cold blankets. They insisted that I was dehydrated although I told them that there was no way because I hadn't been sweating. They poked me 5 times and couldn't get any veins. Finally they hooked me up to and IV bag. The IV made me feel worse, dizzy and a throbbing headache, so I asked them to take it out.

My time was 5:47:29. Not the 5:35-5:40 time I had hoped for. Under different conditions I think the race would have been a better experience for me. But you live and learn, and I figured out a lot of things that I wouldn't have known had I not done this race.

Major appreciation to the "super-fans" Tat, Steven, and Eduardo who came down to cheer us on. Tat even jumped into the medical tent and started giving IV's! You guys rock!

Sudie, Dylan, Steve Brown, and Matt all brought home hardware. You guys rocked it too! Congrats to everyone else who finished strong: Joe, Keith (who was upset he never caught me), Bob, Ashley, Hunter (it was his 1st half too!), Gary, Randy, Sue, and all the others who were out there racing hard in tough conditions.

It's also very sad to learn that an Atlanta resident, Pat Kane, died following the swim portion of the race. The comments that were left on the news story were shocking and very inappropriate given the fact that someone lost their life. Some people are just disgustingly rude.

Click on my Flickr link for the rest of the pics!

Reflections from a not so great day....

Don't let the smiles fool ya it was a tough day!

Race day started at 4:15 am like usual. I ate my oatmeal and my dad was rushing me out the door even though we were early. On the way to the race he decided to start arguing politics with me. I was like, um, hello, race morning good energy please?!? WE got there 10 minutes before the race started and there was no one else out there. It was FREEZING cold. Like 40 degrees and I was wearing shorts. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike cold weather? Well, I really do. Here is the breakdown of the race:

Swim: The water was 60 degrees. It was insanely cold and one chick with no wetsuit go in and got back out. My swim was very slow, about 1 minute, 40 seconds slower than I anticipated. I was having a hard time getting a good rhythm going because the cold water on my face was killing me. Transition area was up a big hill and down almost a block. The smart racers had their friends and family carry their shoes which they threw on after the swim so they could run. Peeps like me just crawled up the hill and walked. Swim took 15:40 seconds for 750 meters. SLOW! My goal was 14:10!

Bike: Normally this is my thing but today it was brutal. It was a really hilly course and the wind was harsh. I was regretting riding a disc because I didn't feel like I was in great control of my ride. At mile two I felt like I needed to burp (nasty lake water) and instead I threw up all down my arm. It was a gross acidic throw up that wasn't chunky but left an awful taste in my mouth. I didn't have anything but water to try and rinse the taste out. The course was set-up really weird and I only saw three riders the entire time. I threw up again at mile 8 and was getting very frustrated with the entire race, the hills, the wind, the cold weather, the potholes, and the glass that I ran over. None of the volunteers were shouting anything encouraging and I was just wanting this thing to be over. Finally we came back into NC State's campus! Thank goodness! I ended up averaging 20 mph on the bike, but seriously don't know how. My bike split was the third fastest females which made me feel better.

Run: The run was just as hilly as the bike and I am in serious need of some hill repeats! I passed a girl on Duke's tri team around 1/2 mile into the run and she said "I can't even feel my feet!" I said " I know, mine are numb from the ankle down!" It felt really difficult running like that. MY first mile split came in at 7:18 and I actually felt pretty decent until half a mile later when I burped again and threw up again! Awesome! I slowed my pace down and just tried to finish the race at that point. I got passed by the girl that ended up winning my age group at mile 2. I hate it when that happens! My average pace was 8:41, again SO SLOW!

This is what we call not having fun!!!

I ended up placed 3rd in my age group and 11th overall female. I was very disappointed because I felt like this race was not a reflection of my training or my true fitness level. But I think that dealing with things that we aren't accustomed too (puke, cold weather) are what makes us stronger athletes. Thanks to Hunter for pointing out that if I had the race I wanted to and won my age group then I might have slacked off these last few weeks leading into Gulf Coast. According to him because I am so disappointed in my results I will train even harder so that I can feel better going into that race.

He's totally right. I felt great today (I should have, my HR avg was barely higher than my half-marathon HR avg!) and hit up the gym for a tempo run and leg workout. I have buried this race and am totally fired up about the next four weeks of training

New strategies pay off

Keith and Henry crossing the finish line!!

It was 2 a.m. this morning and I was wide awake. I took a pain killer for my back (I need a new mattress) and forgot that codeine wires me up big time. So when the alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. I turned it off. Oops. I got up at 5:30 which was the time I was supposed to be at Tat and Steven's for a ride. I called them and told them to leave me but they said they would wait (thanks so much!) I threw on some clothes, grabbed some food, brushed my teeth, poured some coffee in a mug and ran out the door. There was no time for a nice hot bath, stretching, duke out, dog walking, or anything. I even forgot to put on deodorant!!! So needless to say, I wasn't really expecting much for this run. Then we showed up at Turner Field to learn the race started at Centennial Olympic Park.

We got there in time for a duke out and some stretching. Thank goodness. The stretching wasn't necessary, but the duking out is important.

I lined up in my corral and started running. Keith and Henry caught up with me a couple of minutes later. Keith said how easy it looked like I was taking it-and it felt it too! My heartrate was abnormally low for the pace I was holding and I felt good so I just kept running with them until they split off at mile seven. I kept looking at my HR monitor thinking maybe it wasn't working properly, but I felt fine, and I was keeping my HR in my training zones. My pace was still pretty decent at around mile 9 and I was glad that I made it out for the run. It was starting to get really cold and I was hoping it wouldn't start raining. I kept waiting and waiting for the hills because everyone said it was a hilly course, but I didn't see them. I would call these "rollers" at best. There was maybe one hill, but that was it. At mile 11 I decided to push it and get my HR up a little bit more to see what kind of time I could end up with. The last mile was the toughest for me, and it seemed like it was NEVER going to end! The finish area was weird, it was very narrow and hard to get around people and sprint to the finish. Garmin time: 1:58:49, 13.33 miles, 8:54 average pace. Chip time: 1:58:50.

This half-marathon felt NOTHING like Thanksgiving! My legs felt fine afterwards and my average heartrate was 10 BPM lower than Thanksgiving. I came home, watching Keith and Henry finish thanks to the live feed and tracking system, took a bath, then hopped on the trainer until I felt like I was going to fall asleep. (I did only sleep for 3.5 hours!) I tried to nap but just couldn't. So I accidently PR'd. Tat and Victor did too! Congrats to Keith on his first marathon "training run". Kate Brun was 5th place overall female! Nat smoked the marathon like always!

Many thanks also to my mom for picking up Poncey and Bella and taking them to doggie daycare. Apparently Bella bit mom and she had to go to the minute clinic at CVS. She was all doped up when I talked to her (and driving!) and when I told her my finishing time she complained about how slow I was saying "the wheelchair guys got done in 50 minutes!" Bella doesn't like strangers too much yet and says that she is sorry!

Chattahoochee Road Runners 10k

Well, my first 10k of this year is done and over with! First of all, let me say that I love technical t-shirts. I wish all races would please get rid of the outdated cotton and make the switch.

Race morning started with me having an upset stomach. I think it was my body just knowing how much I was going to hurt! I ended up at the race site super-early (as always!!!) but felt pretty good once my stomach got settled. Chatted with Nat for a bit and met Steph.

I made the mistake of starting in the back and had to navigate my way around literally hundreds of people. This was the first time that I actually felt fast in a road race because I am not used to passing people! But there were tons of people that were running SO slow! I couldn't figure out what was wrong with them! I got into a groove and just ran. This was only my third "stand-alone" 10k that I have ever run so I didn't really expect much. I was hoping to go sub-52 minutes which seemed like it would be really fast for me. I wasn't too optimistic because of how much my leg was hurting this week and the little amount of speedwork that I have been doing. This was a great course though, and I made my time goal! Garmin said time was 50:51 or a 8:08 pace for 6.26 miles, official time was 50:31 I think. I was 25th out of 90 in my age group, not great, but not the bottom of the pack either.

Congrats to Nat and Steph who tore up the 35-39 age group with 1st and 2nd place! They are SOOOO freakin' fast! Maybe one day.....