tri bound?

let me start out by saying that i am a runner. i am not a swimmer. or a bicyclist. sure i went to pool parties back in my middle school years, even attended a swim meet in high school, but i dont swim. my friend sarah and i went and swam laps the other day and it was more or less attempting to stay afloat, lots of complaining about how cold the water was, attempting to swim (aka not drown) to the other end, stopping at the wall and to try and breathe without inhaling a gallon of water, and repeating x21. biking is the rather similar... i get on the bike with big dreams and end up with sore legs and completely hating life after about 3 miles.

i had the day off today and i had to run 3 miles for sugarloaf training, so i thought i would be a bit more hardcore than usual and see what i was really made of. there is a pool/fitness center in my hometown, so i packed up my bag and headed over there.
the air in the pool was very warm/humid. the water was not warm. at all. it would be lovely if pool water was like bath water, it would make me want to swim more i think (and ps- NEVER will i do a triathlon in the ocean. NEVER EVER. no way.)
so i started my watch and took off.... i wanted to try to do that fun flip move at the wall but that was a huge fail. and i dont have goggles yet so my form is less than desireable (i will need to work on that). i only stopped the watch once and that was after i realized i was in the "fast" swim lap lane and moved myself into the "slow as death, might die trying" lane. when i got to lap 15 my top came undone, im sure that was fun for some people but it delayed me a few seconds to get that all put back together, and my watch was at the other end of the pool. oh well, i guess if this really happens in a race the time wont stop for something like that (direct quote from my friend andrea: "you need a one piece". yeah.)
so i didnt die swimming, and 21 laps happened in 12 minutes and 54 seconds. not great but not terrible for my first time really trying without stopping.

next up, the bike. ugh. i cant tell you how much i hate biking. i even bought a bike like 4 years ago thinking i would get into it. no. that thing has been taken out of my parents garage maybe 3 times. oh and the transition from pool to bike, not good. forgot my towel in the car so i dried off with my tank top. we'll just say that i will need to work on transitions before i even attempt to do something like this in public.

the biking actually wasnt so bad, although i did take a mini break at 6 miles to go to the bathroom. i know it would be different if i was out on the road and had others around me pushing me to do better, but i was pretty lazy... level 8. had some good tunes though. total biking time- 41:10.

the transition to the treadmill was much better than pool to bike, especially since i just had to walk two feet. i stretched a little and took off (on what is bound to be the slowest starting treadmill in the world... glad i had my nike+ for time/distance tracking).

after about a half mile i started getting really light headed and my legs felt like jello. probably not the best idea to have done this after eating only 10 or so almonds for breakfast, but live and learn i guess. i stopped a few times to drink water but ultimately finished. 3.1 run- 25:16. actually not as slow as i thought i would have been after what i had already been through. win!

im not entirely sure i have convinced myself to do a real sprint tri quite yet, but at least i know i didnt die so there is hope. and i can tell you one thing, you will never see my name on a list of iron man results. you people are certifiably insane.

frozen 5k & new PR

so yesterday kicked off my 12 races in 12 months quest with the scarborough frozen 5k. i loved that this race started at 1:30pm (pretty much despise races that start when im still sleeping, aka all of them), but that meant i would miss much of the patriots game (ill later find out i was glad i missed it. go cardinals?). i was pretty pumped to put on my shirt i made and head out to the race, and tyler took this lovely pic before i left.

i had pre registered for this race, so when i went inside to the registration i just picked up my number and walked off to a table to put it on my shirt. little did i know that my registration number, along with everyone else that pre registered, was going to cause quite a problem about an hour later...

anyway, as i was putting my number on my shirt (#6 if you care to know), a woman standing next to me asked me what my shirt was all about. as i began telling her, her face started to light up. "THATS MY RESOLUTION TOO!!" she said. NO. Freaking. Way. how weird is that? (fun fact: it will get weirder). her name is terri anne and she is from montreal... and she is awesome!! this chick has run many races, including ICELAND! unreal. so we talked for quite a while and found out we were a lot alike. i am excited to have a new running friend who i hope ill see at many more races throughout the year.

the race was very small (maybe 60 people max), and the starting line was "between two plowing poles" with a guy on a megaphone with a whistle. awesome. i wanted to try to place in my age group if i could (although 19-30 is a very large group), so i stood right on the imaginary starting line and took off really fast. there were only two girls in front of me, and i passed one right before mile one. i got to mile one at 7:05, and began to slow down after that (sprinting in 20 degrees was definitely taking a toll on my lungs). by mile two (15:11) four more girls had passed me, one of which i knew for sure was in my age group so i kept her in sight. i passed her on one of the icy back roads around mile 2.5, but she passed me by once more and i just had no energy at the end to speed up like i usually do. terri anne also passed me and tried to motivate me to keep pushing, but my nose was running so i couldnt breathe through it and i just couldnt keep up.

the race was really fast, and i actually remembered to shut off my nike + when i crossed the finish line this time! 23:54!! NEW PR! i really thought i had slowed down so much during the last mile so i was very happy to see this time. right by the finish line terri anne and i met up with two girls that had just finished, one of which saw my shirt and told us she too was running 12 races in 12 months for her new years resolution. WHAT!? now lets be realistic here, i figured i was not the only person in the world that was going to come up with this resolution. but, to meet TWO other people with the very same resolution at the very first race of the year (and at probably the worlds most smallest race ever)!?! ridiculous! here we are inside waiting for the awards :)

i told them both about nike.com where i made my shirt; terri anne said that she is going to take all the race shirts we get and make them into a quilt! very cool idea.

so about the pre registered race numbers.... during the awards ceremony some talk was stirred up about who was winning age groups and personal times, so people started going up to the print offs and seeing what was going on. when i found my number, the name was wrong (they had me as number 31 with a time of 29 minutes and something). that was not right. the person that gave out all the pre registered numbers was just handing out numbers from the pile instead of the number that we were assigned. fail. people that stuck around were able to get their times and numbers adjusted, and the race director called everyone last night to get accurate results. so we will know tomorrow exactly where we placed. terri anne figured out that she got 2nd in her age group but will probably never receive her medal since they gave it to the wrong person! bogus.

speaking of medals, she told me about an organization where you can donate your race medals to kids that are battling illnesses in hospitals. how cool is that? i looked it up and found one (not sure if this is the exact one she was speaking of) http://medals4mettle.org/. im so selfish i always thought it was cool to hang them on the wall, but now that i heard about this, i believe i should get rid of them all. my accomplishment to get the medal seems insignificant when i know it could mean everything to a child.

overall the first race of the year was a success. im excited for the next race, superbowl sunday mid winter classic 10 miler in cape elizabeth. im also planning on doing the half at the hamptons next month if i dont have to work. today also marks the first day of sugarloaf marathon training, and its a cross training day! i have a meeting at 1pm and then will probably head to the gym after that. p90x killed my back on friday so im giving that a rest for a few more days.

on a side note, wedding planning is coming along quite nicely. my wedding planner (my friends sarah :) is on board, engagement pics (although a huge fail with 9 degree weather) yielded a few good pics, the date is set, the guest list is developing, and i have a dress!! never thought it would happen so fast but im loving it.
happy racing in 2010 everyone!

a slight change in plans

it is with great sadness that i report a change in the "12 in 2010" plans. melissa and i will no longer be going to chicago on 10/10/10 to run the marathon... i will either be running the maine marathon again or perhaps the mount desert island marathon (*fun fact- MDI marathon was recently voted 2nd in best overall marathons in runners world). why the change? IM PLANNING MY WEDDING!!!! yes, its true. the boy who i never thought would commit popped the question after snowshoeing at hunting camp on christmas eve morning. although the wedding will not fall in 2010 (right now its planned for 1/1/11), the money will be spent this year, thus chicago will need to happen at another time.

i wanted to start 2010 out in a hardcore way with a 'resolution run' yesterday morning, but i woke up with a sore throat, no voice, and a runny nose so i thought running 6.2 miles in a snowstorm wasnt the best idea. so my first official race of the year is still planned for next sunday, then sugarloaf marathon training starts the next day!! so pumped for that. tyler and i also are taking 90 days off from drinking any alcohol as well as doing p90x and just overall trying to get back into shape. we definitely need it!

so i will now say goodbye to 2009. what a year..... if only i could explain. for now, ill let the pictures do the talking.