just to say that I do have half my race report from Turtleman written. I just need to finish it up. The 30 second recap? Not my best performance. In fact, for a chick who wanted to crack top ten in her age group, I was 20th. That’s worse than last year. But I have another wicked story to go along with of – and you just might understand.

I did go on my first group ride in WEEKS on Sat – it was lovely. I don’t want winter to ever return.Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs full movie

• A Very Special Love movie download

Mr. & Mrs. Smith ipod

• Someone Like You… hd

Dan in Real Life ipod

• The Longest Yard psp

The Cave dvd

… is to mention things like this:

Point of No Return ipod

All I can say is, wow.
Nike? You’re iPod/running thing doesn’t seem to hold a [ahem] torch to this.

The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea dvdrip Dakota Skye divx The Moon and the Stars video

Creepshow divx

That statement could go two ways: terrible luck meaning horrible conditions pre-race or amazing luck considering things have could have gone way worse. It was James’ emergency room visit the night before my first half-iron. Then, on early Saturday morning, it was this storm that got us out of bed and into the basement with the girls at 3:30am. It sounded like a tornado. It was actually a squall with up to 80 mph winds. Our power went out just as we crawled down the steps. Finally, around 4:15ish, it sounded safe enough to head back to bed. I still planned on racing.

My alarm went off at 5am. I stayed in bed until 5:15. I finally crawled out to get some breakfast. Our power was still out but I managed to find my cereal and soy milk. Halfway through the bowl, the reality of the situation hit. Our power was out which means: my car was stuck in the garage. You see, we have an old home with a single-car detached garage that doesn’t have a door. It has a small window that is barred-up from the inside. So, without the electricity to open the door, we are SOL. This has only happened one other time when we lost our power. But that day, I didn’t need to be anywhere. And I certainly didn’t need to be at a race at 6am (with my gear that I had conveniently packed in the trunk ahead of time).

So, there I was. With my car AND Creepshow III movie all my race gear stuck in my garage. No power, no race numbers, no running shoes, no cycling shoes, no helmet, no wetsuit, no googles, no swim cap, no enduralytes, no visor, no sunglasses, no sunscreen, etc., etc., etc. I couldn’t race. WTF?? And all because I wanted to have a hassle-free morning and packed my stuff the night before…

At this point, I went back into the bedroom to announce to James my misfortune. (He had to be up for the Birchwood Road Race anyway — so that was okay). I also called my racing buddy to tell her I couldn’t be there. (Ironically, her husband called me back to “solve my problem” and tell me just to use the emergency pull on the garage door — obviously he didn’t understand we didn’t have a *door* to get into there in the first place.) I had resigned myself to a day at home spent sulking unless the power happen to come back on prior to race time.

That’s when James said, “Don’t you have old shoes?”

“Um. Yes…”

“And an old helmet?”

“Sure…”

“Well, you’re bikes here. If we can scrounge up the rest, you can still race.”

“Uh, okay…”

By some divine stroke of luck, James had asked me to leave my bike out so he could tune it up for the race. If I had the bike, we should be about to find the rest of the stuff. So, old running shoes. Old cycling shoes. An old helmet. A different hat. I called Sascha and to borrow some goggles. The only things I was truly missing were my race belt and wet suit.

I got to the race site late after all the running around. I had to talk my way into transition because I didn’t have my number. I ran around trying to find a replacement number because it would be illegal to compete without (ironically, the solution was they gave me an unused number right when the race started and I had to pin it on with safety pins in transition after the swim). By another stroke of luck, wet suits weren’t allow because of the water temperature — so not having mine wasn’t a set-back. It would seem that things were working out — aside from the fact that it was a crazy stressful morning, I didn’t get a chance to warm up, my nutrition was scrounged up gels and sports drink and I was going to have to be able to pin a number on after a mile-long swim… But at least I was racing!

The swim start was a time-trial start meaning that everyone entered the water 8 seconds apart. I have to say, I wasn’t a fan of this. Even though it meant cleaner water, I felt like it was kind of anti-climatic starting that way and you really didn’t know where other people in the race were later on the course because there were no “waves” — meaning, if someone your division was in front of you, you didn’t really know when they started.

The swim was dirty. It was fine, but it was dirty and shallow and I had a hard time sighting on the way back because of the sun. I was swimming all over the place and probably put in a good 1/4 mile more swimming than I’d needed. I finished the swim in 36:32 (a 2:15/100 yd pace) which was slower than last year (I averaged 2:01 in 2006), but considering I wore a wet suit last year, I’ll take it. And, by the way, trying to deal with safety pins in transition SUCKS. Luckily, the time I gained there in transition was negated by the fact that I didn’t have to remove a wet suit.

The bike was windy. I had a goal that I’d wanted to beat my time from last year (a pace of 21.1 mph), but I knew I would have to throw that out the window as soon as I got on the course. Conditions were much tougher this year considering the gusts and the residual weather from the storms the night before. I still went out all and ended up averaging 20 mph for a total time of 1:04 for the 21 mile ride.

The run was decent. I felt strong and I tried to push it as hard as possible. My heart rate monitor had died the week before and I didn’t have numbers to watch (something, in hindsight, that I think would have helped). I did have one woman who paced me well, she passed me a couple times in the first few miles and I’d try to keep up with her. Eventually, I passed her and that felt good. I squeaked in just under a 9-minute mile at 8:58/mile pace for a total time of 55:38. The year before, I’d averaged 8:51/mile. This was just okay to me, I thought I could have done better and I wondered if I’d pushed it hard enough.

My total performance for the race was:

405 out of 715 participants
20th out of 46 in the Women’s Division, 35 – 39
Swim: 36:39 (2:15 100/yd pace)
T1: 1:31
Bike: 1:04:09 (20 mph avg)
T2: 1:28
Run: 55:38 (8:58/mile)
Total time: 2:39:23

I’d hoped to place much better this year. And, I actually placed further behind than in 2006. I was 17th out of 50 last year. Of course, that was a different division (30 – 34 last year and I swear each category up gets more competitive). Also, I was prepared for that race. There was no using old gear, there was a proper warm-up, there wasn’t any “pinning on number” business in transition. I wasn’t wearing ghetto sunglasses. So, that said, I probably didn’t do too poorly. And, like I said before, at least I raced. The only sad thing was that I’d really wanted to make top 10 (I even said that last year). So badly that I even had a pre-race massage to stretch everything out.

Oh well.

The massage helped anyway because I wasn’t sore a twitch and my IT band didn’t bug me at all during the run. Certainly good stuff.
I suppose, in summary, there’s always next year. It’s just been a really weird year for me — I’m hoping for less drama in the future.

[Final note: I find it very ironic that this is the same race that, when I did it in 2005, I actually had to rent a bike because mine was stuck in Seattle]

Mulberry Street trailer

Oh, and no pictures. Which is a little sad considering how funny I probably looked in my convenience store sunglasses, pinned on, handwritten race number and old helmet and shoes…

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses film

Before I start my day, I would just like to state for the record, I did 4 sets of 4x50s in the pool — supposedly “fast”. And, this time as opposed to other days when I’ve had to perform this routine, I actually timed each 50 and, you know what? It didn’t matter how hard or not-hard I went, they all were 45 seconds. Sometimes, actually 48 seconds when I thought I was swimming faster.

I do have an easy swim pace and it’s truly slower than my T-swim pace. But fast? No, I can’t differentiate that. I only make things worse by loosing form and becoming inefficient.

Fast 50s my ass…

(Ironically, Sascha Black Hawk Down rip

I Come with the Rain full movie was very sweet in her post earlier this week crediting me with some swim improvement. You’d almost think I could swim by reading that…)

I’m having a very hard time staying focused — I have work to do, but it all seems so superfulous when something like a major bridge in your city collapse. So far, my close ones are all okay..

That said, after hours of television coverage and some half-attempts to get work done, I was mildly entertained by this:

• Edge of Madness movie download

• Astérix et Cléopâtre download

Be safe, ya’ll. And hug your friends and family.