Two Races in 24 hours

I hope you all got a chance to read the article, and if not, it can be found here (page 1) and here (page 2). Thank you for all the kind words and support, it's much appreciated.

This weekend I did something I've never done before, attempted to do two races in one day. Saturday I competed in the USAT CT Club Championship triathlon in Shelton and Sunday I did the Fairfield Half Marathon. The weekend's now over, both races completed, and no injuries to speak of, so I'd say it was a great weekend.

Saturday morning, I got up around 4:30 AM and got all my gear packed and headed to the race. As soon as I got there, I could tell it was going to be a battle and on the drive, I was noticing all the hills. I got to Indian Well State Park and set up in the transition area, got my race packet, got my number, and then headed to the Heat tent. There was a good bunch of us, about 12 or so. At around 6:45, I headed down to the lake, and it was a little chilly, probably around the high 60's. The horn blew and the frenzy began. Again, I felt awful during the first half of the swim, was mentally not right, and was overall just struggling to stay in the middle of the pack. Luckily, this weekend, i didn't get punched in the face and didn't have to scramble for my goggles in the water. And once again, about halfway through the swim, i finally got comfortable and started thinking about my form. I don't know why it takes me a half mile to start thinking about my form, but even so, I finally got into a decent groove. I exited on the beach at 31 minutes, 6 minutes faster than last weekend, probably due to the swim stroke tweaks I worked on in the pool this past week. I got to T1 and was fumbling around trying to get my cycling shoes on. My transition time was over a minute which is not good, but I knew I could make up that time. The bike course surprisingly had only two hills that were painful, but otherwise was pretty flat, with only some inclination. The woman that was leading the woman's race was side by side with me the whole time, and she was pushing pretty hard, but nothing I couldn't handle, so i decided to stick with her to keep a good pace. I did so and had a great bike time, averaging 20.5 mph the entire bike. I got into T2 with my legs feeling fairly fresh, put on my running shoes and I was off on the 6.2 mile run course. I decided early to try and push it, and I did that. My breathing was spot on and had no problems, other than the steep inclines and declines. Not that they were problematic, but they were painful. Luckily, most of the run course was shaded so staying cool was pretty easy, grabbing two cups of cold water at every aid station, one for pouring over my head and one to drink. To make matters a bit harder, it was a two loop course, and so I'd see the hills twice. But all and all, it was a good run, averaged a 6:47 pace. When the day was done, Team Heat won the championship, and the third place finisher overall was Bill Schuman who is a longtime Heat member, so it was a great day. Not to mention Outback Steakhouse and Massage Envy at the finish line waiting for us! It was a lot of fun, and a bit bittersweet, knowing that would be the last Olympic distance (aka "short course") triathlon I would be doing this season.

Saturday night, I got some good rest, knowing the next morning a half marathon would lie ahead. I was a bit on the fence on whether or not I wanted to try and set a personal record at that distance or not, doing an triathlon the day before, and I really wasn't decided until this morning. I got up at 4:30 AM again, and my legs felt good, so I knew right then that I'd try and go for it. The time I had to beat was 1:34, or 7:07 mile pace for 13.1 miles. I was meeting up with Kristin Paradis and Mike Stasiuk for this race, and we met up and drove down together. It's just great to be able to do a race with some good friends, and it makes it that much more fun. We got to the beach at 6:45 AM, with plenty of time to spare. We used the bathroom, stretched, talked, ate. And then all of a sudden, it was race time, 8:30. There were over 3000 runners there, so it was tough to get comfortable for the first mile or so, elbow to elbow. I finally broke free at about the half mile mark, and running being my go-to event, started passing people. I did the first mile in just over 6 minutes and my legs felt great, although my breathing wasn't perfect. I had made the decision to push the pace hard, and did so throughout. There were plenty of aid stations, and the fire department was on the course, opening fire hydrants for the runners to stay cool. That was great, i had no heat issues at all, even though it was extremely humid out. It seemed like at no point during the race was my jersey not soaked with water. Nutritionally, I only took one gel at mile 8, and drank mostly water, taking GU2o (comparable to Gatorade Endurance Formula) twice, just to get some salt in me. For the second day in a row, I was pacing myself with another female runner, and we battled the entire time - I'd surge a bit, she'd surge head right with me, I'd drop back a bit, she'd drop back and get her breathing right also. From mile 8 until the finish line, we were shoulder to shoulder. We didn't talk much other than when I said to her "You rock girl" and she said back "No, you rock." That was great knowing that we were in this together. The last two miles were tough, and it seemed never ending, but I finally crossed the finish line at 1:13:31, and gave my pacing partner a big hug. It worked out to 6:57 per mile for 13.2 miles, which was a personal best. I was satisfied with that, especially knowing I wasn't full strength due to the race the day before. I think that after today, I could run an 8 - 8:30 pace at Ironman Providence 70.3, having to run that half marathon after a 1.2 mile swim and 56 mile bike. I believe that I'm ready for that race, and that's next up on the list. That's on July 13th, so I have some time to put in some training time. Although i will be doing the full Ironman just to finish, I'm going to try and compete and be a factor in Providence. I think that's a great distance to me, because it seems like at the Olympic distance, I always run out of race, and I get faster as the race goes on. So I'm really excited to take the next step to "long course" triathlon.

Again, thank you all so much for all the support, there's nothing like coming home from a race and having someone say "Good job today." Thank you.