The Truth

I must apologise but it is true.

I judge and mock you in my head if you are carrying a purse while walking/ hiking trails.

Family Fun

To my utter delight, Ever likes cars, and trucks, motorcycles, and basically anything that moves- except bicycles. Yes that is a sarcastic sentence. Anyways he likes them and to be a good parent, a loving supportive parent I thought that he would love to go see race cars race.
Thus for the low family cost of $24 we went to Varney Speedway to enjoy Hillbilly Racing.

Failure

Ever thought the cars were too loud, protested loudly, and fell asleep. Umm this was for him?
Perhaps I could convince him now to like a bicycle race.

Mount Forest Triathlon

This was a little gravy race, community fundraiser. The organizers were really happy with the response with over 70 racers- a good percentage of those were relays so quite a few people on site.
This was a pool swim which I had never done before... and quite frankly I think I buck the trend and swim faster in open water. They said that the race was 500 metres and I'm sure it wasn't There was no way that pool was a 25 metres. In any event my time was 11:30. Slow any way you look at it. Also the wall wasn't so obvious I kept on running into it.
After you were done the swim you had to run through the change rooms out to the yard to your bikes, and as this was an entry level triathlon, you saw all manner of nakedness in the change room. Seriously it takes time to change, and there is nothing wrong with being wet for a little bit, and you do dry.
The bike was a windy, unexpectedly hilly out and back 20k. Some misery. Could have been faster at around 43 minutes. Wishing for race wheels.
Run was 2.5 not flat route completed twice. Portion of it along hwy 89 which was slightly scary. IF I was race director I would ran the loop in one direction on the way there and the other to come back. Little slower than I would have hoped- 25:30ish.

I had to leave as soon as I got food to get to work so I missed out on the posting of results which would have showed a second place finish. Although I don't know if there were awards or not.
The first place women does well- she has won the K-town triathlon several times- so bet her lead on me must have been at least 15- 20minutes.

Lusting

Challenge

At the beginning of the summer I issued Maya the challenge of riding her bike either to walkerton or home from walkerton and her reward would be lunch at a restaurant.
Initially Maya was completely against the idea, then after going for a bike/run with Maya and realising that she had cycled half the distance of the trip she was ready to tackle the challenge.
Thus yesterday we cycled 15.5km home from walkerton. Pictured is one of the few stretches she walked- she'd rather cycle up the hills???
We went slow and took a couple of candy breaks but she made reasonable good time for a six year old- around two hours.
Around 12k she started complaining about her legs hurting, but perked up after some water. She chose the outfit and foot wear. Something are just not worth the fight.

Her next challenge???? She wants to walk 5km on the treadmill.

Observation

As mentioned I have time to surf the Internet. I still nurse Ever at the computer, less and less, but also kill many hours during the night at work.
So thanks to facebook and other social networking excitement I have looked at some pictures of people I grew with, went to camp with, people I was very close to at one point, people I thought I would never forget about.... and now when I look at there pictures I don't even recognize them.

So if you are lurker and we once met, and you see me, and we make direct eye contact and I act as a snob... really I have no idea who you are.

Pacing at the Dirty Girls

Ron over at WestGreyRunner said he was going to run 24 hours at the Dirty Girls Trail race, so of course I thought this would give me a great opportunity to volunteer to pace him through the night. Just like a tough night shift I thought. A free race experience. Just so there wasn't the appearance of anything not of the best intentions I also volunteered Luke, thus there we were running through the forest at 3am. Awesome good times.

Basically the race is a 10km loop though the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. The 10km loop was surprisingly tough. Although not incredibly technical, mostly good single track, the never ending hills really worn one down. My job was to keep Ron on task, oriented to reality, at a reasonable pace, to keep him company, make him sit and make aid stations go easy, and to point out obstacles. Basically help him not to have to think. Cause your mind can tend to go a little crazy after 12 hours of constant running.

Overall I thought it went ok after I grasped what his expectations were. How fast to go, when to run and when to walk. He kept on repeat some of the same stuff over and over, otherwise he was surprisingly with it. We had fun comparing the ultra race to the birth experience, and the signage got a chuckle at every turn. He was amazingly positive, I kept on waiting for him to get even a little not nice, and that would be ok, but that didn't happen.

Overall he did 120k is roughly 23hours. I did 40k is eight hours and man I was hurting... so I know he had to be in way past rough shape. It was mentally exhausting as well. Intense positive talk- no negatives, putting a spin on everything and being alert to all the dangers and keeping him on the trail... although he had it past memorized by the point I joined him.

Overall it all looked like such fun! I am sure I will be doing one, although Ron you will definitely have to pace me cause Luke said no way he would do it for me. Somehow I do not think my grump's would stay away.

I wonder if I could be ready for Horror Hill 6 Hour race?

Run For Youth 2010

This race into its third year has provided me with two previous third place finishes in the 10k distance. To allow somebody else the joy of third, and frankly because I am sick to death of third place, I decided to shake things up a bit this year and do the 5k stroller roll with Ever. I really meant to practice pushing the stroller and running but somehow that didn't happen...so out I went not having ran with the stroller in a couple of years. Race went by really fast.. it was only 5k after all. Should have seeded myself closer to the start line cause I was kinda jerky saying beep beep wising past people. Part of the race was on railway bed soooo it wasn't the smoothest ride for Ever but he didn't seem to mind.
At the end of the day Luke beat me doing 25:35 to my 26:35. Slightly ashamed.

Sweetness

Last night Maya and I started reading Charlie and the chocolate factory together. She cried when it was time to stop and go to sleep.. she simply had to know how Charlie got his golden ticket. I explained to her that if she could read better she could stay up and read it all night... she seemed to get this and promised me that she would work on her reading and after just one more chapter she went to bed with out complaint.

I woke to her this morning...early.. book in hand begging me to continue.

Next lesson taught, how the amount of sleep Mommy gets directly correlates to how grumpy Mommy is.

July Totals

Swim: 10, 050 metres- The summer pool hours don't really work for me.
Bike: 267km
Run: 109.5km- In my defence most of it has been trail.

Personally I find it a challenge to exercise consistently in the summer due to the out and aboutness of it all.

Maya is going to Camp tomorrow.

She is not packed......however there are three packages/letters ready to go for mail call daily.
Priorities.

On another note... very grateful for a 24hour grocery store.

Meese

So when we went to Mishewa, I saw a total of NINE moose. We stopped a looked at 2, but I saw the other 7 as we drove past.
That is all.

Ever's Day

Cooking lunch and washing the laundry. Hmmm very ummm helpful.

News Flash

Perhaps pizza, hamburgers and fries are not the best pre run nutrition.

Little Boys + White t-shirts = NOT COMPATIBLE ****DESTRUCTION*****

Belwood Race Report

I had signed up for this one in May, to beat the HST, thinking it was a sprint- meaning 750metre swim, when in actualality it is a whopping ONE kilometre swim. So the debate was on. Do the swim and conquer it but know that I am in no way good enough to be competitive in this mulit sport series- and thus the best I could hope for would be a door prise for my efforts. OR I could be shamed into doing the duathlon, putting all the time I spend in torture in the water swimming in vain, but have a dim nope of hearing my named called so I could take a wooden plaque home... another one. So basically it was a toss up... and cause I am lazy and switching would require effort I ended up putting on the wet suit.

The day started lucky even before I got to the race site via being blessed by a OPP officers good nature and not coming home with a speeding ticket for doing a mere 111km/hr- which is 31km/hr over the speed limit by the way.

Rack didn't look good... lots of really nice bikes. Sinning all over the place with envy. But I had a goal. RELAX on the swim, let the crowd go ahead, and there will be no need to panic. Everything else would be gravy... as long as I was in the top 50% of my age group.

The RACE

I will get to that but first lets do some math:
Triathletes- 399
Dualthon-113
Estimation of Volunteers and spectators- 200
Porta potties- 7 That number is oh sooo wrong. I would call this abuse, and frankly I am a amazed I pay for this.

Ok Swim, made jokes at the start line about being slightly upset about everybody wanting to drown me out there. Didn't do any sort of warm up cause I figured I would just take it nice and easy and steady. Which i did! Super happy about my swim, focused, swam long stretches with out stopping. May have seen 4 colours of caps.. but I'm still happy. Need to working on sighting-cause a couple of times I looked up and I needed to re-orient myself cause there was nobody there. My goal was 25minutes and I did it in 24flat. Victory!! 300/399 OA and 14/23AG

Bike
Nice course- fast. Was a little concerned about maintain race pace for 30km as my longest races have been only 20km The first half was definitely faster than the second but overall felt strong. Not to windy. Didn't get passed by the older ladies who started in later waves until 20k. Felt the limits of my bike bike again. Have thought about getting tribars to get into a aero position, but then I would also have to get a bike fit and a new seat cause mine just wouldn't cut it with all the pressure on anterior region of my pelvic floor. Have wondered about one shaped like this. Except with a cut out for the tailbone.
I didn't really have a goal time until I started ridding the course and really tried to keep it around 30km/hr , but that second half pushed it down to 29.6. 232/399 and OA 10/23AG

Run
Two very flat out and back stretches. Rough large stones at the beginning and the end slowed me down some. Otherwise didn't feel like I lost too much to the bike. Enjoyed counting people I was passing. Hey I had to do something to keep my mine occupied. I am used to music. Really sucked that I didn't catch that last female as she was in my age category... four seconds ahead of me.
On the run 107/399 OA and 4/23AG.

So because of that four seconds I was sixth in my age category and for this race the awards went five deep. umm mildy annoyed that I didn't a plaque to get dusty sitting in a pile on top of bookshelf. Consoled myself with a pair of swim goggles as a door price.

So back to those bathrooms. As a result of not *umm cough* clearing my system before the race I had severe abdominal cramps for three hours after the race. I couldn't eat, I couldn't carry my own bag back to my car, driving home was worse than after the marathon and well all that could have been avoided if the line for the bathrooms wasn't as long as the drive to the race site.

Creemore Vertical Hotness

Was really excited to do this race, I knew the preparation would be painful put once there I thought all would fall away and life would be good...the jury is still out on that one.

As we were leaving on vacation from the race, all preparations had to be completed the night before, and I worked nights the week prior, slight sinus congestion, and I had to get up at 5am...were all marks against me. Oh and to make matters worse because of those fricken night I couldn't sleep. I couldn't get to sleep and I couldn't stay asleep. THUS I got three fricken hours of sleep coming into the race. Now some would say don't worry about that it is the night prior to the night before the race that you should worry about. WELL I worked that night. Got four hours that day. Basically I was a zombie. If I had not arranged a ride there is no doult that I would not have been safely able to drive there that morning.

The course isn't a easy one. 60% uphill, little shade cover for a large portion of the course, did i mention endless hills? It was hot. For the first time I used a visor, for the first time I took a fuel belt for water on a race course. Very thankful I did. Even then I ended up not peeing normal amounts for 8 hours after the race. Used ice on course to chew and to tuck into my shorts, bra, in my visor. I think that was the hottest race I have ever done! The distance felt fine amazingly as I had not run 25k since my marathon in May.
Started out fast on the flats, little frustrated with having to walk within the first kilometre because of congestion on some fun single track. Was chaty with a few people- ran most of the distance together with a fellow Running Manic- who was rather complimentary with his assessment of my singing on his race report. Did I mention the hills??? Wish it would have been a bit more off road single track but frankly I was stoned for half the race and a little numb. I took in a double caffeine gel to try to get me going and some Tylenol cold for my MASSIVE lack of sleep headache. But really I just had to get through it.

Managed to shuffle through at 2:29:54, which was good enough for third female under 40. My goal time was anything under 2:30 so we are all good. A good nights sleep, less extreme heat, more porta potties ( I had to stop and pee once- which was a process of climbing into the brush for some cover so the race didn't have to see my bum) and I am sure I could knock some time off there.
The post race recovery included some icing in a river. There was beer as well- and honestly I had planed on getting a tad tipsy for the long drive up to vacation but I was too nauseated to take advantage, and frankly I just don't like beer.
I did end up hurting for a couple of days post but not as bad as I thought it would have been. Wish I would have brought my compression socks to Camp because I'm sure that would have helped the ache.
LOVED the awards that I managed to get. Coffee, pottery mug, maple syrup!

Will I be back next year.......we will see.

Kincardine Womans Triathlon

Results 2008 Duethlon- 5th Overall. First Age Group.
Results 2010 TRIATHLON- 5th Overall . First Age Group.

I did it. I successfully bridged the gap between the du and the tri. Well for this race anyways!

I started the race with no butterflies and few expectations. I wanted to beat my swim time over last year- which I did. I still see way more room for improvement. I did have a few panic moments out there, but overall I was blissed about my time.

The rest of the race went so smooth. Once I was into the shallows of the Lake Huron I did not have anybody pass me the entire race. Sure the race is made up of alot of beginner triathletes on mountain bikes but surly I thought somebody would pass me on the bike from the du. For the first time in a race I have felt the limits of my Devinci, potentially I could feel the engine wanting to go but the body couldn't follow through.
I had a little mix up at the dismount line as I completely forgot what to do. I though that you had to dismount after the line but in reality you have to before. HMmm I was just so focused on trying to to a proper dismount I missed out on the basics.
Run felt fine- for a girl who is used to running long 3k is like a joke, especially if it is blissfully flat. As the race is a out and back I was able to see my competition on their return. Looking at the girls ahead of me I took a glace at the them and determined their age..thus I thought their were four girls ahead of me in my age group. I also thought the age groups went in ten rather than five year increments. BUT I was OK being fourth in my AG, I knew I had beat my swim goal time so I was all good. At the finish line people were saying I had won my age group but of course I do not listen until the results are posted and I can see for my own eyes. In fact I will not even let people tell me I must look. Overall really pleased- improved my swim time by a minute and a half!, My bike time combined with a transition was up to 29k/hr.

I was also really impressed with the Saugeen Triathlon Clubs performance- in fact the winner is a 45 year old from our club!! We dominated... in fact I did so well I wonder if I should even do the race next year? Can I do better than 5th? Can I beat my time? Should I let other people get on the podium. I did what I intended... ok I did have one little expectation... to podium.

12th Anniversary

Still doesn't seem that long in some ways.

Anyway, we ate at Noah's Inn, which we had never done before. It was fabulous. There was even a harpist playing there. Very very nice meal and we even splurged on dessert and alcohol.
Probably the nicest anniversary dinner we have had that I can remember (which is saying very little frankly).

Highly recommended for a nice dinner (i.e. No kids)

Mishewa: in sixty thousand words

I sugest you click on it so the pictures are bigger...