My foot is still the same. I have good days and bad days. I am still going in for this and that hoping the medical professionals can figure it out. I can run or run/walk, but it's nothing worth writing home about (but obviously blog worthy as I am typing about it). If I push myself I can probably run close to 8min/mile for about 5k and that's all I got right now. Needless to say road racing and even multisport are nearly impossible -- or are they?
I love the RD for Northcoast Multisport and try to volunteer at as many events of his as possible, including the Twinsburg Duathlon. Last year, I was in "ok" shape on a downward spiral to near couch potato and still managed to put up a 1:06:xx time and win my AG. This year I would probably have to kill myself just to break 1:10 and was certain my foot would hurt like a mother for days after. I had just completed "staycation ironman" and was feeling great about getting into some overtraining for at least 1 week and begged my mom to run for me. She thought it was ridiculous I would want her to "race" with me, but it would give me a chance to crush the bike and compete. She begrudgingly gave me her blessing and I signed us up.
I got off work Saturday morning and was asleep by 10am, but 1pm rolled around so fast and we headed down to packet pick-up. We drove the run course in hopes of settling her nerves a little and she kept reiterating we were going to be last. I proceeded to Ricky Bobby and Charlie Sheen her for the rest of the night saying "If we're not first, we're last" and we had "tiger blood" and team silver fox and flash the turtle were gonna be "winning! winning! winning!" All my confidence did nothing to change her mind that we would be last.
Sunday I rolled out of bed packed my gear and jumped on my bike at 5:30 am and pedal out to the race. My legs still felt tight from the 100+ miles I had cycled that week, and my heart rate jumped into the 140-150 range almost immediately. I wasn't sure if it was because I was fatigued or because of the added weight of the backpack I had on. I had to call AH from my bike because I had forgotten my race numbers and he thankfully offered to bring them -- doh!!
I arrived a little before 6:00 am and immediately helped start setting up for the race. Time just flew and before I knew it we were already to start. My mom nervously lined up and at the horn started her first race in 3+ years. I was so pumped to race with my mom and tear the bike course up. I knew I was going to be riding from behind and I wanted to catch as many people as possible to help us out. AH had changed out my tires the night before -- finally (they were bald as heck and just waiting to blow). There were a few bangs at the beginning and my dad had to tease AH that those were my tires blowing, which of course had AH in a panic. I had headed into the gym to warm-up on the track with some really slow jogging for 10 minutes.
I had told my mom when you cross the mat and enter transition "Come straight to me. Don't get anything to drink, take off the chip, just run to me." Transition times were to be built into the bike time and I wanted to be in and out as fast as possible. However, when she hit the first mats she took water, stopped to try and pull off her chip (sign a few autographs and wave to the crowds I think). Transition ADD hit her. I motioned for her to run to me and yelled "I'll get the chip off, just run here!!" When she got to me I all but ripped her leg off at the ankle grabbed my bike and ran out of T1.
I was the last bike out. I had one thought on my mind "get as many as you can." And I did. From the first mile I started passing people. I got up to 13 a little over half way and lost count. I was in no danger of getting a drafting penalty as I was moving significantly faster than everyone. I tried to yell a few words of encouragement to everyone I passed. It started to rain on the back half where you can fly. I was leaned over on my aero bars for most of the race and I felt my tires shimmy-ing a little -- damn I was gonna have to ride hunched over on the outside. I switched and kept pushing. I could tell from the get-go I had spiked my heart rate between the initial climbs and chasing. I ignored my garmin, opting to just push, push, push. I wasn't gonna get my HR back down no matter what I did. I hit the big hill on Glenwood and mistakenly decided to climb it seated nice and easy. Hindsight there was less than 3 miles (pretty much all down hill) left and I should have blown up the hill like last year. I crested the hill, turned right and bombed my way back to the fitness center. When I hit Miktarian (street/blvd) I started sucking some air hard and just grunted and yelled "come on, move motherf*cker!!" There was a lady walking her dog up ahead and I think she heard me because she turned around. I got one more guy before heading into the fitness center and I hammered my way up to transition, like I was Mark Cavendish sprinting for the win in the TdF.
I ripped off the chip right before the dismount line hopped off my bike and ran for my rack. I almost slippe on the wet pavement, but managed to hold myself upright until I got to my mom. I gave her the chip wheezing and spent. I had ridden the course like a crazy person, being very aggressive on the turns, the downhills and the slick roads. I had glimpsed my Garmin and seen 33:xx. I was hoping to be sub-33. Damn!!
My mom headed out on her second run and I quickly changed shoes and grabbed some water. AH was worried I had flatted when I hadn't come back by the 1 hour mark, but extremely happy to see me flying in. He had been the spotter for my mom since she had her glassess off. She kept asking him "is that her?" And he would say "no, she will be much faster than that." Funny thing when I did come in I guess they were both kind of like "That's her!" Haha -- I really didn't even ride as great a time as I had wanted.
I eventually jogged out to nearly a half mile and waited for my mom to reappear. I saw people coming in that I had passed on the bike and knew we wouldn't be last, barring my mom's back hurting. She crested the hill and I picked her up at the corner. We ran together nearly to the finish. There was a lady in red coming behind her and I was getting worried she might catch us so I ordered my mom to pick it up when we hit the light post and she did. They had a finisher's tape set-up for her to break and with 1:31:26 on the clock we finished!!
Splits
Run 1: 27:42
Bike with T1 and T2: 35:28 - pretty sure my mom tried to make me kill myself on the bike by goofing around in transition ;) Even with her sabotaging me I had the 5th fastest bike split out of all the women racing -- haha. Averaged HR 170: Max HR 180 for 10.44 miles.
Run 2: 28:15
And we didn't finish last! We beat 14 individuals and 3 teams :) Pics to come...
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