RUN Week 1, Sunday 11/6 - Run (Race)

"I've been keeping up with crosstraining, but my recent "Social Tri" of

Eating, Drinking, and Dancing didn't prove to be helpful for this

particular event!" Plus, racing stats for the 2005 Almond Bowl Run ...

Context

City, State: Chico, CA

Location: Bidwell Lower Park

Course: One Mile --> Cedar Grove Bridge --> Freeway Bridge --> One Mile

Terrain: Flat. Paved

Distance and/or Time: 3 miles, 27:44.58 minutes

Speed or RPE: 6.49 mph, 8 (harder), 9:15 min./mile

3 Mile Race Results

Bib Number: 279

Age: 28

Overall Rank: 189/392

Division Rank (F 25-29): 4/15

Sunday, November 6, 2005

The Chico, CA 2005 Almond Bowl Run

• 27:44.58 Minutes - 0-2% grade; avg. 6.49 mph.


• 5 Minutes - Cooldown: 0% grade; 5 minutes at <5.0 mph;


• BPM: 160-177

Synopsis

• Upshot: It's the first race of the season!


• Downside: I drank too much only two nights ago (on Friday night). :(


• What I'm most proud of: I actually raced! Met and exceeded my goal of finishing 3 miles under 30 minutes! I got 4th in my age group! WOW!


• What I would do differently: Actually prepare and train for the race. ;)

Overall

I've been keeping up with crosstraining, but my recent "Social Tri" of Eating, Drinking, and Dancing didn't prove to be helpful for this particular event! Ha, ha! Ignoring that fact, I'm really pleased with myself. I made it under 30 minutes and had the chance to see many people that I know compete and finish. Brooke (the step instructor at CSC) was there and finished shortly after me. Steve Metzger (my favorite English professor at CSU, Chico) also came in just after me. He did particularly well as he shaved something like 3 or 4 minutes off his overall run time. It was so exciting!

That's not to say that it was easy. Sam and I were only going to run for the fun of it, and not race. We were going to take pictures and chat and just have an easy recoup day. And somehow, we decided right before the start (while we're in the very back of the pack) that we were actually going to put forth some effort and actually do some sort of racing. Hmmmmm ... Perhaps, we should've thought that one through a little better?

We started, and it was slow going nowhere. People were everywhere and always in the way! We must have weaved and wandered on and off road for the first 10 minutes vying for better positioning. Eventually, we got it and settled into a quick pace. There were times when I thought I might give up or pass out. Sam is such a dynamo. She's in ridiculously great running shape even if she's more hungover than I! She barely broke a sweat on the course. I was dying for parts of it. When my BPM jumped up to 177, I had to say, "Let's take it down a notch, and please start asking me questions so I don't hyperventilate." That did the trick, thank god! Still, seeing how I hardly ever run any faster than 5.5 mph, an average speed of 6.49 is remarkable. I have to admit, we were passing people all along the way. And we blew by a lot of folks in the last quarter mile. It was a bit of a rush! I've already signed up for more!

Finishing is not the same as racing

I raced this weekend. Actually, I finished. That would be more accurate.

I wouldn't really call what I was doing racing. I was more concerned about being sure "DNF/DQ" would not show up next to my name. Especially after I got kicked in the face while swimming. (Ouch!) But since I signed up for the event, I got ranked as though I was racing.

My stats aren't ... um ... good. I came in 33rd out of 37 women in the 25-29 age division. I'm 139th out of 202 women. Overall, I'm 340th out of 439 people. Although not impressive, I'm not discouraged. I'm intrigued. This is the comparision, the competition I'm up against. It is not only reflective of myself, but of the condition of othwers. And even if I did poor or well this time, it doesn't necessarily guarantee the same kind of placing at the next event.

What seems to matter more is the overall time.

My overall time was 1:28:07. I am actually very proud of that. Eleven weeks ago I had guestimated it would take me at least 1:45:00 to finish. I came in 17 minutes sooner than I expected. Yea!

The breakdown of times are really interesting ... I wasted ~10 minutes in transitions, and way too many minutes on "swimming," so I come away with some serious numbers to help me improve weak areas. And with numbers and times like these, improvement is the only way I can go! In some ways, I really wish I'd done a Tri "cold-turkey" just so I would have an excellent assessment measure to gauge all future progress against. But then, I may never have stuck with it.

It's strange ... I've been tracking weights, distances, times, etc. during training, and those are pretty good measures by which to see progress. But there's something sexy about the race results. Something titillating. Something so factual that you can't ignore it. And now I want more race numbers to record, to crunch, to seek elusive winning answers. I almost think I could make a full time job of it! But then, I'd have to be racing full time ...

My First Time Doing a Threesome!

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Something wicked this way comes ...

I can't believe it's already 12:27 pm and I haven't yet posted about yesterday's experience! Did I or did I not do a triathlon? :P Well, we could always check the overall Pacific Grove Triathlon results to find out ...

But I certainly didn't do my very first triathlon alone! Congrats go to every single one of us ladies from the Tri-Athlon-Fecta group!

Some of us raced incredibly well, some of us were just happy to make it across the finish line! As you may or may not know, I'm not religious in any sense, but I wanted to share this sentiment (regardless of how we raced) from the PG Triathlon program, written by Terry Davis, the Race Director for the event:

"After crossing the line may be the hardest time to be content. If you had your personal best, you will jump up and down and be very content with your results. The real triathlete is the one who lost his goggles on the swim, had a flat tire, cramps on the run and [still] crosses the finish line and says, 'Thank you, God, for the physical, mental, and spiritual ability to just be out here and race.' There are millions of people that would give plenty to be a triathlete."

Excellent job Sam! Way to place 3rd in the 20-24 age division! Great job Diana, placing 22nd in the 25-29 age group and in kicking some serious booty for swim times! Great job Jenn, finishing less than 7 minutes behind me and to us both, finishing w-a-y, w-a-y before closures! And to think, we all were worried when we started training 11 weeks ago! We've all done so well and should be so proud!

(So, when's the next one?)