Lone Star Half Iron Race Report

Brought the family down with me to Galveston for the Lone Star Half Iron-distance race so that we could enjoy Moody Gardens and also for Brady to run the Kids 1K on Sat. He was excited for his first big race. We spent Sat. at the aquarium, which the boys loved. Then Brady ran his race in the afternoon. He did a 6:20 for the 1K (10:11 min/mi pace). I was pretty impressed and he didn't walk not even once. First thing he said after the race was "Can we race again?" He carried around his medal all day and was quite proud. So were Melanie and I. Post race we went to the aviation museum, but the boys were so tired I'm not sure they got as much out of it as they normally would if not so tired. Okay, onto more race specific stuff...

This race was a comedy of errors in the truest sense! I won't elaborate all the things that happened in the 2 weeks leading up to the race, but I wasn't feeling too well and wasn't feeling it on race day. But that's way too long a story to get into, so I'll save it. Onto the race. I wasn't able to get in a warm-up on the swim, but I at least wanted to get used to the salt water and the coldness...I have a really hard time catching my breath when the water is so cold. They said water was 62 degrees. Yikes! Wave starts were delayed so they could reset the turn buoys after the last wave of the quarter iron went off. Took much longer than anticipated, but finally the first wave went after around a 20 min delay or so. I was in the second wave and as we entered the water, I was getting everything set and trying to get to the start line when the announcer started counting down from 10. Oh crap!! That snuck up on me. I franticallly try and get toward the start line but only made it to the very back of the wave when the gun went off. Starting back there was a little annoying, but I [unfortunately] can't blame my crappy swim time on it. It probably only cost me 20-30 seconds max. No big deal in the grand scheme of things. Finally got out of the water...I felt really fresh and my time showed why. My swim split was 39+ minutes, which was just awful. I don't have it broken down by gender, so including both males and females, I was the #235 swim split out of 638. Yuck! Oh well, couldn't do anything about it at that point.

Not even a mile into the bike I hear the horrible sound of one's own water bottle skidding across the pavement behind him. I look back and sure enough, one of my bottles of Infinit had already ejected. I checked my 2nd bottle and to my shock, it was gone too but nowhere to be seen. Great, lost all my bike calories not even a mile into the ride. There is a long line of halfers behind me, so I pull over and stop to wait for a gap to cross back across the road. The quarter iron racers are coming into T2 from the opposite side, so I had to wait for a gap in them too before I could turn around. I headed back up for a block and got off my bike to get my bottle that had skidded into the grass. Sure, going back and getting it cost me a lot of time, but it would have cost me a lot more if I didn't have at least some partial resemblence of my nutrition plan in place. It was well worth the time penalty. And speaking of time penalty, I am fully aware that I deserve a 2:00 for not being able to find the first bottle that became dislodged. But time was ticking so I gave up looking for it. Anyway, back onto the bike. I developed an alternative nutrition strategy on the fly. I was going to space out my 1 bottle twice as long as planned and fill in those gaps using Gatorade Endurance handed out on the course. The problem is that Gat. E has fewer calories and less salt than my Infinit and it doesn't sit well in my stomach at all. It wasn't optimal, but would have to do. Then I realized another problem. If my bigger bottle ejected, the skinnier Gat. bottle surely wouldn't last. So what I did was hold the gatorade bottle in my hand with it resting on the aero bars. Over bumpy parts I had to reach my left hand back to secure my behind the saddle Infinit bottle and hold the gatorate with my right hand and steer my aero bar with my right forearm. It was dicey to the say the least, but I only had to do this in 5-7 spots max. It was doable and totally worth getting the calories. Bike pace is going okay at this point, but not stellar, then at the halfway point of the bike I go to downshift and my rear derailleur cable snaps. I drop into my 53/11 gear for the rest of the race. At this point, I actually chuckled out loud because my wife and I had been joking in the week leading up to the race about how things kept going wrong and we kept asking what's next. I just thought "she's going to love this story!!" Oh well, couldn't change the fact that the cable snapped and couldn't magically repair it, so no point in whining about it; just had to figure out a way to work around it. I considered different options but what I ultimately came up with was to increase my wattage so that I didn't have to mash at too low of cadence. The advantages were that 1) I'd get done faster and 2) well...can't think of another. I considered downshifing to my small chainring, but was worried I'd be spinning out or worse yet, have that cable snap. So I opted to stay in the 53/11 the rest of the way. I went really hard on the way in, with a slight tailwind. My cadence was still really low because I was in my 53/11 the whole time (around 60-70 rpm), but it was at least higher than if I went slower. I knew I would likely blow up for the run, but seemed like the only option at the time. Oh, and it was really fun doing my bottle balancing act on the rough parts while mashing out at 60 rpm. Get close to T2 and thinking "thank goodness." My legs are complete toast, feel like I'm going to vomit from the gatorade, but hey, I made it in and was happy with my bike split time all things considered. A new personal best bike time for the 56 miles of 2:22 (23.6 mph). That was the #31 bike split out of 638.

Run course was 4 loops which was really nice. I got to see my wife and 2 boys frequently and even at multiple spots on the same loop. And with such a small loop (~3.25 miles), it was packed with spectators. I really liked it. But my legs were cramping from my 28 mile mashfest and my stomach felt just awful from the Gatorade on the first lap, so I took it very easy. I was okay with this. I decided to do the entire first lap like this and re-evaluate strategy starting the second lap. I very quickly sucked down some of my Infinit run formula from my fuel belt and even took some extra salt tabs to get rid of the cramps. The calories and salt helped as I started to feel slightly better after the first lap. I decided that pushing it and bonking wasn't a good option, so I stayed disciplined and went easy for the 2nd lap too. At the halfway point, I was at 55 min into the run and starting to feel better. I felt like at this point, my risk of blowing up and DNFing was low, so just freakin' go for it. I focused really hard and went for it. My Polar shoe sensor fell off during the run (I told you it was a comedy of errors) but pace didn't matter. Just had to go as hard as possible regardless of what that number on my watch said. I ran the 2nd half in 48 min for a negative split, which I was quite pleased with once I got into the groove for the last half. I ended up with a 1:43, which was #63 out of 638.

My finish time was a 4:49, a new personal best (previous best was 5:05). I'm very happy with this since it's so early in the year and I haven't trained a whole lot...really only started up in January after a 5 month layoff. Overall, I placed #46 out of 638, #42 out of 412 among the men, and #11 out of 84 in my Age Group (which is now 35-39 this year).

I was very proud of this race not just because of my time(s), but because I had a good day of being mentally tough overcoming obstacles (pre- and during race) and being able to mentally push myself to suffer on the run (one of my weaknesses). I can't ask for much more than that.

Brady's first soccer game

Brady wanted to play soccer this year so we signed him up for a league at the YMCA. They had a few practices and clearly his favorite part is running, but we weren't sure how the actual game would go. Last weekend, March 21st, was their first one!

Getting on the shin guards, getting game face on

They had a scrimmage at practice the week of the game and Brady did well. The only thing he didn't do very well was kick the ball in the correct direction. But given his newness to the game, we were pretty impressed with how well he did. At this age, the kids who can outrun the "pack" are the ones who get to touch the ball the most, so it was going to be interesting to see how he did (he is one of the faster kids). His friend, John Michael (the son of one of our friends, Elizabeth, who also happens to be a marathoner) is really fast and scored a lot at scrimmage, so it was going to be fun watching he and Brady run around and try and score goals. Now comes game time...

Brady before the game. Goofball.

The morning of the game, I asked him if he remembered which direction he was supposed to kick it toward before he kicked it and he said yes. So I asked him why he would kick the wrong way sometimes and he said, "I don't care where it goes, I just want to run faster than everyone else to get to the ball." So I asked him to try and kick it to the right direction and put it into the goal during the game and he said, "Okay, dad." That was easy!

We would be proud of Brady no matter how well (or bad) he did, but he did such an amazing job! We were so proud of him. He scored the first 3 goals of the game before getting subbed out in the first half. He came back in at the end of the 2nd half and got one more. He scored 4 of his team's 6 goals (or maybe it was 5 of 7). John Michael and a boy named Nicholas got the other 2. What I was really proud of was how well he grasped what he was supposed to do. When the other team would breakaway to score a goal, I would yell for him to go get the ball and not let them score. On 3 breakaways, he ran down the kid dribbling the ball and kicked it away! How awesome is that? (Of course, I'm leaving out the part when he leaned down and stopped it with his hand! But he only did it once.) The best one was when Brady was the absolute furthest away from the ball (standing by the goal he's supposed to score in) and the other team got a breakaway. All his teammates didn't know what to do, and really, neither did Brady because they broke away so fast. I yelled for him to stop them from scoring and I've never seen that kid run so fast!! He went from the back of the group to all the way in the front and kicked the ball away from crossing the line at the very last second. Wow! :)

Trying to breakaway for a score

Goal #3 (I think?)

Goal #4

Riding the pine in the 2nd half

"Good game"

It was a really proud moment, especially hearing all the comments, even if just jokingly. Some of the ones I remember the most (but there were others):

• "Wow, Brady is a ringer!"
• "I haven't seen a kid that fast. Is he running track already?"
• One parent came up to me after the game and shook my hand and simply said, "Congratulations. He's phenomenal."
• On the other sideline Melanie heard the parents from the other team saying "Oh my gosh, there's no way we could stop that #5."

Anyway, all we want for Brady is for him to have fun and learn some basic skills...all this was just a nice bonus.

One of Brady's biggest fans enjoying the game

The day after his game, we decided we were going to do some run 'training.' I signed him up for a 1K run the day before my race in Galveston, so I asked him if he wanted to train with dad to get ready for it. Asking him if he wants to run, are you kidding me? Of course! So we ran a half mile on Sunday together and I tried to teach him about pacing himself so that he doesn't get so tired that he can't finish. He did awesome again and picked up the concept really fast. He ran the half mile about 14 min/mile pace, so not too bad. But there were 3 funny moments that stood out to me.

The first was when we were running on the sidewalk and were about to cross the entrance to the elementary school parking lot (across from our house), a place where he knows there are moving cars (on weekdays, anyway). As we're running, he slammed on the brakes right at the sidewalk edge and looked up at me as if asking "Can I cross this daddy?" I came back and told him that if he's with me and I say it's okay, he can go across it. The second funny thing was when we got to the halfway point and turned around into a very strong wind. As soon as we turned around, he said "Oh man. It's slowing me down dad." I chuckled and told him to just keep trying. He did, all the way to the end. The third thing was when we got back into the house. He fell on the floor on his back, sprawled out as if doing a snow angel and said "Man, I'm tired."

What a great weekend! I hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Great moments in Dad history

I've been meaning to get this up for quite some time now and am finally getting around to it. At his school/daycare, Brady got to make a "My Wish" project (with teacher's help) for his birthday. Here is what he wanted for his birthday...how cool is that?

The Cowtown Half Marathon

I signed up for this just to make it an enjoyable, fun, up-tempo training run. I knew the weather was going to not be good, but when I woke up and saw wind chill in the 20's and north winds at 23 mph, I really was not looking forward to getting out there. I bundled up to the hilt (by runner's standards), but still got cold just even walking from the front door to the car.

Parking was a nightmare, and the place I wanted to park wasn't accessible (street closure), so had to find a new place on the fly. I waited in the car as long as possible, then went to the starting line. I wore running tights, 2 base layer shirts, jacket, 2 pairs of gloves, and a facemask. I was freezing still! My objective for this was to go easy for 2 miles as a warm-up, run hard for 10, then take the last mile easy. My primary goal was to not get hurt as I've been having some hamstring and iliotibial band issues lately.

Gun went off and first 2 miles were straight into the wind. Holy crap was it cold. But after the initial shock of those, the course turned and we had crosswind or tailwind for the rest of the day. At that point, I had to start shedding layers. It's a pain in the butt to carry all that crap for the entire race, but I was sure glad I had dressed that warm for the first couple of miles. [Note: marathoners and half marathoners usually wear old, disposable garments to just toss at the stations when they get too hot. I wore my nicer, non-throwaway stuff which was warmer, which is why I had to hang onto it for the race.]

Everything went well and I ran pretty good during the 10-mile stretch I wanted to work hard. Given where I am in my training, I figured a 1:40-1:50 range was feasible. I ran 1:41 and change (pretty much a 1:42) so I was happy. My knee and hamstring were starting to hurt on that last cool down mile, so good thing I didn't push at the end. It was a fun race, fast course, and if weather cooperates, I'd like to keep doing this race year-to-year. They have a very cool medal that can combine with the medals for years 2010-2013 to form a huge star; I'd like to get all 5 if possible.

Training is going well, just need to stay consistent and focus on Lone Star.

Brady's 4th Birthday Party

Oh man, this was one of the most fun things I've been able to do as a dad so far. We held the party at a large building that has all kinds of air slides and bounce pits. Normally, Brady is pretty cautious when it comes to things like this so I didn't know how well he'd take to it. As soon as we opened the door, he bolted with his friends like a madman set loose from prison...it was a joy to watch them play with so much enthusiasm.

There was a separate play area for the "littler ones" but Alex wanted nothing to do with that...he went onto the big kids stuff with passion! One of the most fun parts of the day was playing in the bounce pit with Alex. He would stand up and all I had to do was bounce to knock him off balance...he'd fall over and laugh so hard that he could hardly breathe. Then he'd get up, stand still, and wait for me to do it again...over and over! My face hurt from laughing so much. I also took him up the biggest slide in the place and he liked that too. His favorite was probably the dinsosaur slide, which he did repeatedly. He could climb and slide down that one all on his own.

Brady was bouncing all over the place. He would do the big slide, then go to the bounce pit, then hop over the long obstacle course with climbing wall. All in all, it was an awesome day and lots of Brady's friends from school showed up.

Being a parent shouldn't be this much fun!

Lake Benbrook Half Marathon

Oh man, talk about worried. Here's how all this came about...

My friend Elizabeth talked me into signing up for the Benbrook Half on Jan 31st a long time ago. I figured why not, it would help get me motivated to start back with run training again. Well, on Jan 30th, I realized I still hadn't done squat for training! I had only ran a total of 17 miles for the entire month of January, and to top it off, here was the course description I was given for Benbrook: "the hills start before mile 1 and end after mile 12." Needless to say, I was a bit worried about just jumping in and running this.

My goals (in progressive order so that I must complete the first to move onto the next):
1. Don't get injured
2. Finish...seriously
3. Finish without walking
4. Negative split (2nd half faster than first half)

The race is great; where else can you do a half marathon for only $15? The views and scenery were really nice and they weren't kidding about the hills. One of the hilliest runs I've ever done. But I'm happy to say that despite my lack of training, I accomplished all 4 of my goals. The best part is that I actually am back running again since then and am really having fun doing it. My time was a good 20+ minutes slower than my PR and placing was not good, but c'est la vie. I had a lot of fun at this race.

Damn fire ants!

Well, it was inevitable living in TX. Brady and Alex got their first experience with fire ants the other day. Brady got stung 6-7 times before we got them off. The frustrating part was that it was dark outside so we had to run in the house to see to get them off. Then had fire ants on the floor, so while Melanie was comforting Brady, I was trying to kill as many as I could between my fingers. One got on Alex's shoe and crawled up his leg. He only got stung once, luckily. It was pretty traumatic for Brady, but once he got over the shock of it all, he sucked it up pretty good even though it stung for most of the rest of the night. It's looking good now after a few days so both boys are back to normal. Well, sort of...colds and allergies kicking in!