Marty wrote a great little race report about his and Tassie's Umstead 4 miler race. I love this picture! This is right at the end and she definitely gave me a look that said, "uhhh, can I stop running yet?"
I was going to also run this race, but then a glitch in the registration site was fixed after the price went up and I decided not to. Of course, at the race I was thinking, wait - why didn't I race?! But it was all good. I got to watch Marty and Tassie and then I wasn't stressed about going right from the finish line (literally) to the house to drop her off, right to the pool for our swim clinic.
We were about halfway done with our clinic, reviewing the pool footage onscreen in the downstairs classroom that is made out of cement blocks, when a lifeguard poked his head in and said, "We may need to start moving people in here because it's one of our designated 'safe rooms'" We were all like, uh what? Then we heard the commotion -- hail, wind, rain, thunder and realized there was quite a storm outside! Luckily, we didn't have any damage to our house (well, maybe lost a shingle or two) but not too far away there was A LOT of damage. We were lucky.
This weekend I get to race! I'm doing the Triangle Orthopedic Sprint at NC State. I'm feeling pretty good but definitely haven't been doing much intensity so not sure exactly how fast I can go - but it will be fun regardless :)
Big weekend for Tassie - she has her annual run at the Umstead Coalition Run tomorrow morning. Last year she was first doggie and 2nd female overall in a time of 28:45 (it's a 4 mile hilly bridle trail run). Hopefully the weather holds out because right now they're calling for showers and storms.
Right after that we're putting on one our quarterly swim clinics. Busy Saturday, for sure.
This week was monumental in that we bought a new car! We traded in my Xterra, which I've had since 1999. Great car, but it was time to put it to bed. Marty got a quote from Carmax for the Xterra earlier in the week and we were shocked at what they were going to give us. Lucky for us the quote is good for 7 days because not 2 days later the ABS light came on!
Here I am saying my final good-byes to my car.
It's sort of hard to hug an SUV:
We got a Kia Sportage, which feels like a Lexus compared to the bare bones that first year model of the Xterra was.
Many of you may remember the epic race me and 3 of my girlfriends participated in last year - The Doughman. This is a running-biking-sort-of-swimming relay where each participant also eats a plate of food from one of the local restaurants that sponsors the race. We finished in 3rd place last year - only 2 all boys teams beat us. Team Victorious Secret is back again this year to claim the 'W'!
All team members will be participating this year - even Brooke who will be flying in from Boulder, CO the night before. Yes, we are serious folks.
The Doughman race is put on by volunteers and proceeds go to two local charities:
Seeds: a non-profit community garden whose goal is to teach people to care for the earth, themselves and each other through a variety of garden-based programs. Doughman helps support their Durham Inner-city Garden program.
See Saw Studio: A free after school studio teaching design and entrepreneurship skills to creative teens. Yeah, these aren't the Red Cross, but these are small, local organizations that help the youth of Durham, and they need support just like big charities!
What I'm getting at is all the teams signed up for Doughman are encouraged to raise money for these two charities, so if you feel so inclined to support them and Team Victorious Secret, please click the 'Donate Here' button below. You'll even get a receipt for tax purposes. There may be some time bonuses involved for teams who raise certain amounts. Go Team VS!!
Like I mentioned a few weeks ago, I signed up for the NC short course championship swim meet along with several other of our master’s team members. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! I had no idea how much a fun a swim meet could be! Although, I believe a lot of it was due to my teammates (some at the meet may have thought we were obnoxious, but I say we were just really excited).
It was held at the Hillsborough Sportsplex, which was about a 40min drive from our house. Heather met us to car pool over and we couldn’t stop talking about everything swimming related, from starts and turns, to relay configurations and seed times. Yep, we were big swimming dorks.
I did a triathlon at this pool a few years ago and remember the water being freezing, but luckily they turned the heater on because it was really quite pleasant. They had a ‘warm down’ pool which really was warm and perfect to slide into after a race. Plus, it was situated so that you could stand in the water and watch some of the races if you wanted.
Okay, so we get there and Marty had written down a warmup for us to do, then we all watched Alysia who was in the first event of the day, the 100 butterfly. I was so nervous for her! She did great and I’ll never forget the look on her face on her final turn – which was a cross between ‘how much air can I get and how much time can I rest on this wall' with 'oh shit what have I gotten myself into?’ She did a smokin’ 1:07.
My first event was the 200 girls medley relay. I was the anchor doing freestyle since all my strokes suck. We had a minor goggle debacle as Heather’s broke right when she was getting on the blocks. It all worked out as she got Marty’s on her head with about 2 seconds to spare. I did well on the anchor leg and even passed a girl to get us 3rd place! My dives were all smooth and I didn’t have any goggle problems. Although I did use two caps and had those goggles on so tight that I couldn’t move them…so I may have been walking around with my goggles over my eyes for quite awhile before my events ;) I am such a pretender!
My first real event of the day was the 50 freestyle. Here is a video of it – I’m in lane 1, closest to the camera. I won my heat with a time of 28.56! They seed all the heats based on the times you submit, slowest to fastest with the fastest swimmers in each heat in lane 4 & 5. Lane’s 1 & 8 are usually the slowest in the heat, so it was neat to win from Lane 1. At the end of the day, they tabulate the results based on your age group, so even though I was usually in one of the later (faster) heats, I was almost always last in my age group for the results (there were usually only 2-3 people in my age group in each event, and apparently they were mostly ‘real’ swimmers). But we won’t dwell on that…
Then I did the 200 free which was quite painful. I unfortunately didn’t hit the pad hard enough at the end and the backup timer didn’t push her button either, so the time they got for me wasn’t correct. Marty thinks I did a 2:17, they had me listed as a 2:19. That was it for me on Saturday, so I got to cheer everyone else on for the last few events. We have some really fast people on our team (Marty included) and it was neat to see them all killing it out there.
Afterwards, a bunch of us celebrated at Tyler’s Taproom in Durham.
Sunday morning we were back at the pool, and this time I had the first event of the day, the 50 butterfly. And I was in the 2nd heat since my seed time was slow. I hardly ever do butterfly and was honestly worried I wouldn’t be able to finish it! But I did fine, finishing in :35.01 and winning my heat again. Here is video of this race if you’re interested (my sister really wanted video of this, I think to tease me, but my form really isn’t that bad. I’m just slow). I’m in Lane 5 in this one, in the white and black suit.
After this we did a mixed (men/women) 200 free relay. Then I did the 100 free and was happy with my 1:02.7. That one really hurt, too. Alysia did 1:00, even though she stopped halfway through her first lap to fix her goggles! Stud.
I ended with a girls 200 free relay – thank you to Jennifer for coming out on Sunday so we could field a girls team! The relays were a blast.
Marty had some crazy fast times, but I think the best/funniest was his 100 free. He was all the way in lane 8, and unfortunately the next 3 lanes all scratched so he really was by himself over there. He did a 53.5 which we were all super impressed by and then we were all laughing because he could barely move when he got out of the pool – he was all hunched over and barely shuffling. I thought he might need a med tent or something! He rallied and did a great leadoff leg in the guys 200 free relay (24.9) then survived the 500 free where he averaged under 1:05 per 100 yards. Freak.
But you know, we had a bunch of triathletes on our team so what do we do after a 2 day swim meet? Go for a 46 mile bike ride! I found a great course that had some rolling hills and very little traffic and several us finished the day outside in the sun.
Usually my commute is a breeze, but today it was a rainy and the interstate was all backed up and slow. I didn't see an accident but did see a couple of cop cars on the side with flashing lights, so assumed it was leftover from something else and everyone has to slow down and gawk (really, people, it's just a car with lights). I found out it wasn't your typical accident -
"Morrisville, N.C. — Five pigs fell out of a truck and got loose on Interstate 40, causing traffic congestion during the Wednesday morning commute, Durham police said.
Multiple WRAL viewers reported seeing the pigs running around I-540, near the juncture with Interstate 540.
Police said the pigs, which are about 60 pounds each, likely fell off the back of a truck, but the driver likely didn't realize it and kept going.
Police rounded up the pigs and kept them in their squad cars until animal control officers arrived. Two of the pigs' legs were hurt."
Oh, the joke's that are coming out of this story. Pigs in squad cars? Eastern NC style or Western NC style? Poor little piggies! (I work in an area called Research Triangle Park if the title didn't make sense)
Tassie from a couple of days ago. She had gotten out of control fluffy and was bringing in the backyard all over the house. She constantly had stuff stuck to her (you can see a few bits in the picture) because she loves laying out there. I think she does look pretty cute all fluffy, although I'm sure it must be hella annoying to have all that fur on your nose.
Yesterday we got her shaved. Wimpiest mohawk ever, but I will dye it pink this weekend and maybe it will look better. I always feel like she is slightly embarrassed with her shorn self. She does look ridiculously skinny and poodle-like. She also doesn't look very thrilled that I'm taking her picture. What a stink eye.
Sunday morning I cheered Marty and many others on at the Tobacco Road Half and Full Marathon. They really lucked out with the weather. All week the forecasters kept on saying that Sunday would be cool with the highs for the day only reaching the 60’s. I never believed them, particularly when Saturday was 80 degrees and sunny (beautiful day for a brick, I might add!) But sure enough, Sunday was gray and cool; perfect for the racers.
I don’t think I’ve ever just watched a marathon before, but I have lots of long distance spectating under my belt (8 IM’s – 5 of Marty’s and 3 others that we just went to watch and cheer) so I know the things I need to bring to keep myself occupied and fed.
I drove Marty, Sam and her husband to the ballpark where the races started and finished. No troubles parking, although we hear that was an issue for others. I decided to bring my mountain bike so I could ride over to one of the trail crossings that was also fairly close to another part of the course so I could see everyone multiple times. It was only about a 2 mile ride to the spot and well worth it instead of just watching the start and finish. But oh man was it COLD getting over there. I was wearing jeans and a fleece with a hoodie, but definitely was not dressed for cold weather riding. I warmed up while standing on the trail waiting for the half marathoners and got to cheer for tons of friends while out there. Then I zipped over to my other spot to watch the leaders of the half make the turn for the final 1.5 miles before racing back to the trail to see the marathoners. After seeing Marty (looking very relaxed) I went back AGAIN to the late turn where I was now super chilled but luckily had Jennifer with me to complain and hop around with. Watched a bunch of marathoners come through, some looking strong and others dying that slow death before seeing Marty who was just trucking on by people. He negative split the marathon – who does that?! I got back on my bike and made it to the finish a few minutes before he got there.
I know I didn’t run a half marathon or marathon but man was I exhausted that afternoon! I was pretty much a slug on the couch watching basketball for the rest of the day.
Speaking of basketball – my bracket is completely hosed. I swear I was on the losing end of almost every close game, and I think I lost every game Sunday night. Like I said in my last post, I had Notre Dame going to the finals but then they went and lost to FSU. I usually cheer for FSU but not against Notre Dame. This is what my facebook profile picture looked like Sunday –
That's me and my sister waiting for the subway in NYC to go to the Notre Dame v Army game last fall.
And then quickly on Monday I changed it to this –
Tomahock Chopping at the FSU tailgate when they played at NC State.
So now that my bracket is so bad, I’ve moved onto just cheering for the teams I want to win rather than those I’ve picked. So go BYU and FSU!
I was going to also run this race, but then a glitch in the registration site was fixed after the price went up and I decided not to. Of course, at the race I was thinking, wait - why didn't I race?! But it was all good. I got to watch Marty and Tassie and then I wasn't stressed about going right from the finish line (literally) to the house to drop her off, right to the pool for our swim clinic.
