Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2014

Detroit Free Press Marathon: Race Report

I ran the Detroit Free Press Marathon as a way to raise money and awareness for Type 1 Diabetes through JDRF.  My brother was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes several years ago.  It had been a few years since I have done the Breast Cancer 3-Day and I wanted to something big for a cause that I felt passionate about.  A few years ago, I couldn't run a 5k...  A marathon is something BIG that I could do. With this goal in mind, my triathlon training was concentrated a little more on running than swim and bike.  This served to help me prepare for the marathon, but also worked to help me improve my weakest discipline.  I trained hard and felt ready for the marathon. I got downtown WAY TOO EARLY - 5:00am.  I was the 5th car in the lot I chose.   While I waited I set my goals.  I hate setting goals for my first race at a new distance.  No matter how I do, it is a PR... but I know without goals, I easily lose interest.  So Rock Star = 4:15, Super Happy = 4:25, Better Do = 4:45.  

Women Run The D - Half Marathon: Race Report

With triathlon season behind me, it was time to take on the half marathon that was meant to be "training" for the full marathon scheduled in October.  I had a few friends running this one too, and a few of us met up at the expo the day before.  After the expo, we had a pasta dinner at the Ren Cen.  Melissa enjoyed hanging with the girls, maybe next year she will run the 5k. I bought this shirt at the expo, thought it was perfect for my goal setting :-) Up until this day, I had run 2 half marathons.  One in April of 2013 at 2:22:06 and one at the end of the half ironman I had just raced 3 weeks earlier - which I finished in 2:14.  So, I set my Rock Star goal at 2:00 hours knowing that is what I really wanted.  Super happy was set at 2:10 and Better Do at 2:20 (because of the rain.) Pre-Race Pics: Awesome to find Leigh before the race! Ready to rock!  It was crazy raining and windy on race morning.  The rain stopped, literally minutes bef

Michigan Championships - Race Report

Michigan Championships is a  3 Disciplines Racing  event located on Belle Isle, my favorite place to race - mostly because of the sunrise :-)  I had a friend ride with me to the this race - it was nice to have the company. I set my goals at Rock Star = 1:15:00, Super Happy = 1:22:00, and Better Do = 1:30.  This may have been a little aggressive only one week after the 70.3 finish, but I love belle isle and still wanted to give it my all.  This race has a lot of meaning to me, since it was my first race after the accident last year.  After being on injured reserve all summer 2013, I still managed to place 1st in the Athena Division last year.  I have lost too much weight to race in that division this year, but I still wanted to have a good showing. Swim - 500 m  -  9:35 - 1/12 Age Group - 38/142 overall  - I had a very strong swim - I am very proud of this leg of the race.  My T1 time was horrible...  My teammate Laura and I actually joked about how we were both like rookie

70.3 at Festival of Races: Race Report

3 Disciplines Festival of Races is a  3 Disciplines Racing  event located in East Tawas, MI.  I stayed at my Mom's place in Gaylord to keep from making too long of a drive on race morning. After I picked up my race packet, I was able to catch the all important sunrise over the parking lot. I wasn't sure what to set my goals at, but I thought 6 hours for a rockstar goal sounded good.  So, with that as I base, I thought super happy would be 6:15 and 6:30 would be my "better do" goal.  As we lined up on the beach, I was NERVOUS!  A different nervous than any race so far.  I was doing 70.3 miles in the next 6-7 hours... craziness! Swim - 1.2 mi -   42:57 -  3/7 Age Group - 43/101 overall  - My pace on this was 1.7 mph - which is not far off of my olympic pace.  We swam back into the sun, which was tough to site, so I was probably all over the course, but I did it, and still had juice to pick it up at the end.  I left the water thinking...  I could do more :-

Girls Best Friend Olympic Distance: Race Report

Girls Best Friend is an all female  3 Disciplines Racing  event located in Vicksburg, MI.  Since this is 2:30 hours from home,  I got a room in Kalamazoo.  Mark booked me a room with his points at a Marriott - much nicer than the rooms I have stayed in at other races this season!  I worked packet pick-up on Friday afternoon.  I always love talking to the other athletes.  It was a little slow, but was able to help a few athletes that would be doing their first tri :-)  I love this sport! After a great night of sleep, I got out the door at 6:30. I barely caught the sunrise.  If you know me (or have been reading my blog), you know that the sunrise on race morning is important to me. Before the race I set my goals.  I wanted to make sure I was racing myself and nobody else.  After reflecting on Nationals , I knew that I wanted to race my race.  I knew I wanted to PR, so I set my 3 goals accordingly.  My previous PR was 2:55:57, so rockstar goal = 2:50, super happy = PR, better do

USAT Age Group Nationals: Race Report

At Tri Goddess Tri in July, I qualified to compete in the Age Group Nationals Olympic Distance. I hadn't thought much about going to nationals until that race.  I looked online and learned that top 25 in each age group would make Team USA and go to World's representing Team USA, which is in Chicago next year.  I looked at times from last year and determined that there was no way I would make the team racing the olympic distance.  When I looked at the sprint distance times from last year, I thought I would have a much better shot if I stuck to the sprint distance.  So I signed up, changed my training focus, and allowed myself to believe that I had a shot at the Team and the awesome Tri Suit with my name on it. I drove all afternoon on Thursday, and got to Milwaukee in time to pick up my packet on Thursday evening.  Pretty awesome swag!!  Got a jacket, a cinch sack, and a SweatVac hat.  After packet pick-up I headed to my friend and sorority sister's house where I w