Oceanside 70.3

I was a mess going into this race - the Di2 shifting was working perfectly- on my training wheels. The shifting with my Zipp Wheels was all messed up so ATA Cycles adjusted it but needed to add a new crank so it would work- needless to say the bike was not ready until 9:00 PM the night before I needed to leave. I wrestled with packing the bike and finished packing at midnight - amazing how much tri gear you need and how much space it takes up! I flew out with my teammate Keith Manning and we stayed with my brother before going to the QT2 condo. The team condo was out of control with high end tri gear everywhere. Race morning came and 12 of us rotated using the bathroom- nice! I rode down to transition with Molly Zahr - having won Ironman Lake Placid, Molly was a pro at keeping cool, calm and collected- just what I needed. I glanced at the women on my bike rack and realized all of them were USAT All-Americans – Reality sunk in that this was the big leagues and I was going to need to bring it in a major way - nothing like a little pressure. We lined up by age group in the swim corral, I made my way to the front - I needed to let these ladies know that I was not going down without a fight - and that I would maul them if they got in my way in the swim!!! Swim went well, sprinted out to the front and stayed there - as soon as we hit the turnaround the sun immediately blinded me and I could not see a thing - I was blindly following what I was hoping was arms and legs from the wave ahead of us. I had to slow down to almost a stop 3 times to frantically search for the big bouys – what a nightmare ! Came out in 28:10- was psyched because Pat told me the swim was 1.3 and that I should expect to swim around 30:00. I ended up beating Pat by 1 second in the swim – it was the first thing he pointed out to me when I saw him after the race :-) In the final results I was 119th overall men & women out of 2500 and had the 6th fastest amateur women’s swim – not bad for an old lady! Once on the bike, I immediately felt strong - I so badly wanted to hammer it but I was under strict orders from Pat Wheeler (coach) to keep my HR right around 135 - this was difficult and I really had to keep backing off and letting people go that I wanted to chase. QT2 talks about "checking it"- if you check it now, you won't wreck yourself later ( meaning blow up on the run). My bike split was 2:58 - slow for me but within 5 minutes of what I was told to ride and within HR. They call that "hitting your numbers". The bike was very challenging and hilly- it was a great course and I really enjoyed the ride. I was taught how to pee on the bike and was able to practice my new talent 3 times. My nutrition plan that Cait wrote for me was solid and I had great energy and no problem following the plan: bar, gel, bloks, bloks, gel, gel- same as what we practice every workout. Nothing new. Flew into T2 and headed out to crowds of thousands of spectators - really cool. I felt awesome- took out the first mile in 7:45- whoa, had to check it- backed off to 8:00 minute miles for the first 10k. Was amazed that I felt as good as I did- kept waiting for the piano to drop on my back. Started my 7th mile and slowed to a 8:05 pace until mile 9- still felt good- hit the last turnaround- 3.5 miles left- at that point Pat said to give it everything you have left - I put the hammer down with 2 miles left and passed a ton of people- that was truly magical for me. QT2 had assured me that this is how my run would go but I had a hard time believing that with my run history. As I neared the finish I got a second wind with the big crowds and brought it in strong. My run split was 1:49 !!! I had NEVER been faster than 2:01 in a half ! Total time was 5:21- a PR on a tough windy course. I was thrilled- especially when I heard from others that on many of the other 70.3 courses I would have been 10:00 faster. So all in all the team did great - because it was both a Kona and Clearwater qualifier - all of the talent was at this race. I would have loved to podium but surprisingly I was so pleased with "hitting my numbers” that I decided that was my personal victory. This was a great race, very well organized and run. I would highly recommend it - but only if you like cool water, lots of hills and wind on the bike :-)

Timberman 2009

The journey to Timberfest started on Friday. I was racing the sprint and JP was racing the 70.3. We loaded up the Mother-Mobile (my Nissan Pathfinder with an obscene amount of triathlon stickers on it) with all of our race gear. When we decided to take the Mother-Mobile instead of the 4Runner I expressed concern to JP because I thought that a bolt had fallen out of Thule bike rack and I did not know what size bolt to buy to replace it. I thought he should take care of it because that would be a manly kind of thing to do. JP (which clearly stands for Jumbo Pig after this episode) thought it would be extremely funny to have me go to the hardware store and ask them to "take a look at my rack" - to determine the bolt size. I however, did not find that funny or helpful so I loaded "Blue Magic", my awesome and beloved Blue T-14 in the back of the SUV - and let JPig rack his bike on the risky Thule rack. If someones multi-thousand dollar bike was going to splattered all over the highway - it sure as hell was not going to be mine :-) Turns out the rack only needed the one bolt so I wasted some precious energy being a selfish bitch.

We made it safely up to NH with JP only asking 7 or 8 times if his bike was still on the rack. We checked into the motel and it was a super dive ( our fault for waiting too long to make reservations) The door to the motel room had been painted shut so we practically had to break the door down to get in - the molding around the door came with the door as it opened and I was sure they were probably going to charge us for that. We unpacked our mountains of tri-stuff and headed over to packet pick-up. The sky had opened up and now it was pouring - not a good sign for the race the next day. After a quick check-in and packet retrieval we went in search of a decent place to eat. The Weirs beach area is not really one that is "triathlete friendly" - lots of fried foods, tattoos, body piercings and SMOKING - gross !!! White trash heaven We settled on an Italian/American place thinking that should be safe. JP pretty much summed up the dinner experience when he remarked that we should have gotten a clue when we were seated in plastic chairs, at a plastic table with our very own plastic ashtray. Now that is living !!! Dinner managed to stay down for the both of us so that was at least encouraging because we did have our doubts as we were eating.

Race morning came early - I sat in bed stuffing down applesauce and a banana while I watched JP make a mess all over the floor cutting open his box of earth-crunchy Aspen Cereal. The coffee that I has gotten the day before to have race morning had frozen in the mini-frig. Our luxury accommodations did not have a microwave so I was left to try to suck on it as it melted. Fortunately I brought plenty of Expresso GU - I would not be under-caffeinated for this glorious event !!! We loaded the car and were off - JP was going to do his pre-race bike and run while I was racing so we still had lots of stuff (as usual). We went about our own business when we got there. It makes him mental when I stop to talk to everyone ( my fav part) so its best that we go our separate ways. We are not the type of supportive people that wait at the finish line for each other. With any luck one of us will win an award so there is always the opportunity to locate each other at the award ceremony.

I got body marked and took my bike into the transition area. I found my rack and number and racked my bike. The women next to me ( Large Marge) told me that I had it going in the wrong direction. It was at that point and time that I noticed with HORROR her race set-up. She was the one who had racked incorrectly (BTW). She had a poncho spread out underneath her bike with a full buffet spread out on it - she had bananas, Gu's, a sandwich and a clif bar - on her bike she had 2 water bottles. Was she doing the freakin Ironman??? - NO, it was a SPRINT triathlon. Then the creme de la creme ( my personal pet-peeve) a Footbath. GOD I hate it when people have those things. She also had a HUGE duffle bag filled with more crap. I literally had no

room. When it comes to transition - I am an extreme minimalist - my aero helmet goes on my bars, my bike cleats are on my bike held in the right position with rubber bands and my Newtons and sun glasses go by my wheel. That is it folks....... and I did not even have room for that. I asked her to at least move the dufflebag and some of her stuff so I could have a little room. She pretty much ignored me so I did what I thought was best - I moved her extra crap after she left. I was fired up for a fast race with a top 10 finish and I was not going to let Large Marge impede my progress. I ate an Expresso Gu - my fav, chased it with some Gatorade and headed down to the race start. I was in the second to last wave - waiting around sucked and I must have peed in my wetsuit at least 4 times ( how ladylike). Finally it was time for my wave - I made my way right up to the front - Nobody puts Baby in the corner !!! I love the swim start, I study it and choose the best angle, then I step out about a foot forward from everyone else - I do this to let everyone know I mean business and if you get in my way - I will rip your body parts off as I go over you and it will not be pretty. I know this is shocking for those of you reading this because I am such a delicate flower ( NOT). As I am standing alone making my statement I hear someone say " Hey Nancy, we all know you are going to beat us out of the water but could you at least come back here and start with the rest of us" I turn around to see Kitty Tetrault - oh crap. Not only is she a national record holder in swimming, she is a Team Psycho chick and is really fast. My day just got a lot harder. I went back and joined Kitty, I knew we would be seeing a lot of each other today. The countdown started and Kitty and I took off side by side, 100 yds, 150 yds, 200 yds, 300 yards, etc - I resign myself to the fact that Kitty and I will battle this entire swim. We swim through 2 waves of caps, at the last buoy there is a HUGE bottleneck of newbie women - breastroking, floating on their backs, etc - they are like a solid wall - Kitty heads right in the middle of them, I decide to try to go around. Bad move - Kitty beat me out of the water. Had a good transition and got out on the bike quickly - because our wave was so far back there were all kinds of people out on the course. I was looking for Kitty and when I did not see her I figured I beat her out of transition. I rode hard but tried to keep a high cadence - those hills are pretty demanding and if you push too big of a gear you will pay for it later. I felt good and passed a ton of people ( always fun). As I was hammering one of the few flat parts of the course I passed Kitty - oh, that was a surprise - I thought she was behind me. As I was trying to figure out how she beat me out of transition - she re-passed me RRGGHH (I pride myself with thinking I have great transitions so this really bummed me out) oh that made me angry so I re-passed her again, we continued this suffer-fest for the entire ride and came in together to T2. Once again I was confident that I could beat her out of transition - this time I did but she was right behind me. I was running scared and trying to focus when I feel something weird with my shoe - I glance down and my shoe had come untied, NO, NO not now :-( I knew I had to come to a complete stop to tie it - I ran a bit further hoping it might be ok - no, it was not going to be ok. I stopped and knotted it as quickly as I could. I look up and....yup, there is Kitty. Crapity Crap Crap This now calls for desperate measures. I put my head down and focus on my cadence and breathing - I am slowly, very slowly pulling ahead of her. We get to the turn around and I see I have about 10 seconds on her. I realize with terror that if I am unable to hold my exact pace I will lose. Losing was not an option today, I did not come here to lose. I gave that last 1.5 miles everything I had - I did not look back until I got to the grass on the finishing shoot - I turned twice and she was not in a position to outsprint me at that point. I was going deep and trying not to hurl. Finally, there was the finish. Over the blue timing mat I go - YES, victory is so sweet when you work that hard. In comes Kitty - I managed to put about 15 seconds on her in the end. We give each other a big hug ( we are friendly, just super competitive) We both agree that was a lot of fun and hard work. Oxygen debt never felt so good. Then came my favorite part when I win something - the awards ceremony . I just love standing on the top spot on the podium . This was my 8th Maple Syrup bottle trophy and Timex watch. Between Mooseman and Timberman I have plenty of maple syrup and no shortage of watches either.

The next day was the Timberman 70.3 - all I had to do was my recovery workout and spectate. JP ended up having a good race despite the heat. He went a 4:48 and placed 4th in the men's 45-49. That was about the time be predicted so he was ok with the time. We survived another Timberman - until next year :-)

Ironman Lake Placid 2009 Race Report

My journey to Lake Placid this year was not a smooth one. I raced IMLP in 2007 and had a great experience -I met my goal time and thought I could easily take a big chunk of time out of the race next time I did it. Well, I might have had a decent shot if :

1. my youngest son Cameron was not hospitalized for 3 months



2. I did not have to fly to Maryland every other week Friday-Sunday



3. I did not come down with bronchitas, an ear infection, the flu, conjunctivitas and a nasty yeast infection from all of the antibotics ( gross - TMI)

By the time I got to Lake Placid this year I was emotionally drained and physically undertrained. It had really only been about three weeks where I had avoided contracting any kind of flesh eating bacteria type illnesses and Cam had just gotten out of the hospital. I made the decision to give it everything I had on that day - that was all I could ask of my body. I had two goals:

1. Have a good swim (56:00 to 58:00) - preferably beat JP out of the water :-)



2. Finish

Here is how the race progressed:

JP and I got a great spot for the swim start right in the front row slightly to the right. I got battered in 2007 for the entire 2.4 miles because I started right on the cable so I decided that was not a good idea this year. Some guy kept drifting over to me and kicking me - JP knows I don't like strangers touching me so he kept pushing the guy away, and then he would float into me again and JP would push him away. This little game continued for about 10 minutes until the cannon went off unexpectedly ( as always). JP took off sprinting and the plan was for me to go along with him but unfortunately floater man did not get that memo and managed to wedge himself between the two of us. In the mass mayhem of 2,300 people in the IMLP blender I was now on my own. Surprisingly I found some open water about 500 yards after the start, I settled in and found my rhythm. After a while of fighting the surf on my own I decided to find someone to draft because I was doing an aweful lot of work on my own. I headed over to the cable and found some feet to tuck in behind. I would draft for a while, then surge and try to gap to another group - this seems to work well. Before I knew it, I was heading for shore for my first loop - out in 28:00 minutes - perfect, right on target. Back in the water - a few dolfin dives where it was shallow and back out for more fun. I used the same drafting/surging strategy for the second half and as I was about 500 yds out from shore - who appears but JP !!! When we swim together in open water, he is constantly telling me I am going off-course but I think HE is the one going off course. As we are heading in - he starts to go to the right, I think JEEZ - here we go again he is swimming off-course. I decide to hug the cable and go to the left. Turns out the cable goes back towards the dock and the swim exit was to the right ( I HATE it when he is right !!!) Needless to say he beat me out of the water but we both finished in 57 minutes. Goal 1 - DONE

Had a good transition and was waiting for the volunteer to hand off my bike to me when I saw JP running out of the changing tent - his tri top was bunched up like a sports bra and his HR monitor was hanging out - NICE look !!! He was bringing SEXY back in a major way :-) I made a mental note to ask him how long he rode along like that for ( answer: a least a mile). I felt good streaming by the crowds. First loop felt great - came through in 3:00 hours. Nice, perfect - lets do it again just like the swim. Half way through the bike I start feeling nasty - too much Carbo Pro and gatorade. Decide to hold off on the carbo pro for a while to try to get my stomach under control. The hills now had become mountians and my average speed was dropping - I am grinding the gears and I see girls that I regularly beat in triathlons all the time passing me. Ok - time to dig deep and get back in the game. My stomach started to feel better but it was too little - too late. Second bike loop had added 30 minutes to my first split so I was now at 6:30 total for the bike split. I decided it was not that bad and head out on the run in good spirits. Stomach feels great now and I am cruising through town thinking maybe this is not going to be so bad after all. I actually kept right on pace up until 13.2 miles - then the wheels fell off. The legs refused to run for any length of time - the weird thing is that I still felt great - good energy, was eating and drinking - no stomach issues. JUST could not run. True system failure - my effort had far exceeded my training and this was the end result. I came upon my teammate Chaz - he was awesome, what an inspiration - he encouraged me to run with him to landmarks and then walk. It was nice to have a friend out there keeping me going. Chaz has some health issues and for him to even be there competing was a big deal - Chaz was also on his first loop as I was finishing so he had a LONG day ahead of him. He was determined to finish - he did not care if he missed the deadline - he was going to do it. ( He ended up finishing in over 18 hrs) At about 24.5 miles Chaz turns to me and tells me to go - you have to run it in he tells me. Somehow I find the strength ( probably cause I walked most of the back half) I start running and glance back at Chaz - he is smiling at my effort :-) I am psyched now that he is proud of me and I give it every last bit of effort I have. The crowds are getting thicker now, I see the oval - THANK GOODNESS Running around the oval is always the most incredible experience - people yelling your name and giving you high-fives all around. Then the best part - Mike Reilly announcing that I am an IRONMAN !!!! Finished in 13:54 - nowhere near what I would have liked to have done but I did not end up in the medical tent, I did not throw up and I finished with a smile on my face. Pre-race goals attained - 1) Decent Swim 2)Finished

I still would have liked to beat JP out of the water (I am such a brat)- he ended up 5th in age group and qualified for Kona with a 10:22 - at least one of us had an incredibly awesome and spectacular day !!! Our neighbor at the Olympic Motel summed it up perfectly, he said " You get out of Ironman exactly what you put into it" Amen brother to that one :-)