An Inspirational Quote

From my Runner's World daily quotes....

If you set a goal for yourself and are able to achieve it, you have won your race. Your goal can be to come in first, to improve your performance, or just finish the race. It's up to you.

Dave Scott, triathlete

Runnin' In the Dark: Rockville Twilight 8K

I ran my 14th race Saturday night. It's one of the races that dates back to my early days of running in DC: the Rockville Twilight 8K.

Mark decided not to run it and to take it easy on his back which he did something to at the gym the day before. But of course, he and Soba were there to be my cheerleaders!

As it turns out, it worked out well that he drove because finding parking was terrible and he ended up dropping me off at the start line.

He and Soba arrived a few minutes before the gun went off--just in time to take some pre-race photos.


And of course, a photo of my cheerleader extraordinaire! :)


I had a great time on the run--the weather was how I like it: no sun (love those twilight runs!), 88 degrees, and very humid.

Mark took a lot of very cool picture, but wasn't able to get a picture of me.

I'm posting these though because I think the shots were cool...and well, they do give you a flavor of the run...

It could have been a perfect race IF I didn't have to go to the bathroom at mile 2...and mile 3...and mile 4...
And my time would have been better if I hadn't had a conversation with various race officials about the location of any upcoming porta potties---of which there were none.

Or if I hadn't stopped to walk for a quarter mile, out of desperation, looking for some kind of bathroom...
My time was decent with the aforementioned said....45:30...but I was irritated because without my potty emergency I think it would have been a much better timeand a PR for the 8K this year.


Oh well....there will be another race soon! :) Number 14 checked off!

The post run festival was fun...and we celebrated with a YogiBerry in Cleveland Park! Wooohoo!

Celebrating the French: Bastille Day 4 Miler

Wooohoooo!

#13 finished! French style!

In celebration of Bastille Day, the DCRRC sponsored a 4 mile race on the Custis Trail, leaving from Fletcher's Boathouse. It was a nice, laid back race, limited to 150 runners. Prizes (a bottle of wine) went to the top male and top female finisher.

It rained a lot yesterday, but around 4:30 it cleared and the sun came out, which meant one thing: HUMIDITY!


Post race, the temperature was only 80 degrees, however, Mark and I think there was matching humidity for it. I personally, LOVED it---it was ideal conditions for me---I love feeling the humidity if the sun isn't on me. The run was along the C&O Canal, but on the paved Custis Trail, a loop where we started near mile 8.0, ran to 7.5, turned around, ran to mile 9.0 and back to the start/finish.


The timing pads were set up right on the trail and had the added bonus of sharing the experience with local commuters on bikes and local runners who were on the trail at the same time.


We were happy with our time: we finished in 32 minutes (almost even). When final results are posted I will post them in this entry.


It was the perfect way to remember the storming of the Bastille! Vive le France!

Making Waves: The DC Triathlon

So after a first attempt at a triathlon last September in Massachusetts I completed an Olympic distance triathlon on June 20. The inaugural DC Triathlon was all all through out the city. You can see the map of the course at my earlier post (One Small Step for [this] Man).


On the Saturday I went and picked up my race packet. Lots of fun, but surprisingly small in comparison to some of the running race packet pickup events we have been to this year. It was in a hotel meeting room. I also had to go rack my bike in the transition area. I rode my bike from home, racked it up (and checked out all the competition). I also discovered that the transition area was organized by Sprint and Olympic distances, and then age inside each race distance. I was in the second to last row......what does this say about the average age of triathletes?
Sunday morning came around waaaaaay to early. The race didn't start until 6:30, but they closed the transition area at 6:15 - which meant that if I wanted to get my gear inside I wanted to get there sometime between 5:50 and 6:00. I think I woke up at 4:00. That was the first, and possibly the hardest part of the whole event. Here I am all geared up about to go out the door. I give Amy a huge "thank you" for getting up so early to drop me off.

So I had planed ahead and ordered a triathlon wetsuit to wear in the Potomac. I was excited about wearing the suit because I had read how much faster you can swim in one, but I was much more excited to wear the suit because I wanted as many layers between me and whatever was floating in the Potomac. The problem was that the water temperature the morning of the race was 82 degrees - well above the cut off for wearing a wetsuit. I was forced to swim without it. I could have worn my tri jersey, but the college swimmer in me just couldn't think about swimming with all that drag.

As I was lining up in the starting corral I noticed some people setting up this handy tent......if your saying to yourself, "thats nice, it is a cooling tent so people don't overheat." you would be very wrong. It is actually a hazmat tent so when you exit the Potomac you get sprayed down in a poor attempt to wash off any diseases that may have latched onto you as you swam. I almost put on the wetsuit at this point even if it meant getting disqualified......

The swim start was fun. When they called your heat you ran down a dock and jumped in. Everyone had to tread water for a bit until the race stated - then it was everyone for themselves. Kicking, biting, it all seemed fine in the name of swimming fast. before the start I tried to get towards the front of the group, so I think I did a pretty good job of moving ahead of most of the craziness, but I still got kicked (and kicked a few people myself.)

So here is a pretty go view from near the start line to the Memorial bridge I had to swim under. The turn around point was just on the other side. As I was treading water and looking down the course I have to say that I had a bit of trepidation. It looks kinda far. This also might be a good time to mention that I didn't really train for this race. I did some swimming (maybe 5 times in 4 months) and I ran some with Amy, but I can't really call what I did training. This wasn't helping my confidence much I I looked out over the swimming course. My plan for the race hinged on not going too fast during the swim. I get a bit competitive when I swim and if I tried to have the fastest swim time of the day there wasn't going to be any gas in the tank when it got time to run.

I made it out of the water in good form and not having swallowed too much water from the river. I got a bit lost at the turn around point because I couldn't see the buoy with the rising sun in my eyes. I got chased back on course by some friendly firefighters on a fire boat.

My first transition went well. It wasn't the fastest transition time (mostly due to my fear of getting sun burned and taking time to put on sun block) but I was soon off and riding.

One of the best things about the bike portion of the race was that it twisted and turn back over itself so it was really easy for Amy to be out on the course and cheer for me. She did such a wonderful job - it always made me feel like I rockstar when she would cheer for me. Maybe I'm a bit bias, but she was clearly the best cheerer on the course. She had made all these different signs for me. She would pop up on the course, raise some funny sign in the air and start cheering for me as I rode by. It was a great motivator!

I finished the bike and was feeling pretty good. I had been trying to not push myself on this first triathlon and I went into the run feeling good. As Amy shot this photo of me exiting the transition area she was yelling at me to slow down. Apparently I was sprinting.........
So I made it about 0.5 miles at that pace, and when Amy took this picture I was starting to feel my legs getting tired. This was also the point when the heat started to get to me. I love cold weather - I wilt when it gets too hot. Running in hot weather is really not my thing. So by the time I started running it was well into the 80's and quickly approaching 90.

Amy snapped this picture at about mile 5. It should have been a great shot with the Capitol in the background. Something that could have been on the cover of a magazine - the problem was that I was sooooo hot and tired by this point that I was walking. I don't know who designed this race course, but there was a serious flaw. After this photo was taken I ran across the front of the Capitol, turned around, ran back and could see the finish line - then bam! the course took a crazy turn and you had to run up Capitol Hill. I was so tired and hot at this point. I really need to send an email to the race directors about this fun little part of the race.

So after the long plod up Capitol Hill and turned around and made the final push towards the finish line. The whole experience was a great one, and I will defiantly be doing another one again, although I think I need to find one in a cooler part of the country or sometime in the Fall. The biggest lesson is that I think the next one I do, I will actually put some training time in and set my goals more on going fast than just finishing it.

So in the final tally here are my times. Not a bad first triathlon I think.....

Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
28:26	5:05	1:18:04	5:18	1:03:20

Baltimore 10 Miler

I signed up for this race on February 1, 2010---I believe this was the start of the snow era earlier this year. In fact, as I look at my iCal I see that I had the opening registration date set on my calendar...I probably signed up for it early in the a.m. Little did I know that when June 19th came I would be exhausted beyond belief.

It was a busy week for me...On Monday was graduation practice, Tuesday graduation, Wednesday the Awards Breakfast and Ceremony, Thursday the 8th grade Dinner Dance (and my last AU class for the semester) and Friday was the picnic---and packet pick up--in Baltimore.


Sunday was Mark's first full triathlon. It was a busy, busy week.

We left right after school to drive to Baltimore for packet pick up. It was at the zoo. It took us two hours to get there with the Friday rush hour traffic.

Packet pick up was beautiful and serene. We were excited because it was yet, another new part of town. Druid Hill Park that we went past looked wonderful...as did the zoo where the packet pick up was.

I walked up and got my bib number and D-tag for timing and was told that the shirts would be given out at the finish line.


It is here that I should mention that Mark and I had had a serious discussion on the way up about the next morning's timeline. The race started at 7:30 am....I had to be there by 7 am, which meant leaving the house around 5:30 am or 5:45. The more we talked about it, the more we both were exhausted. So we decided to take the play-it-by-ear approach.


Flash forward to the woman telling me that the awesome shirt would not be available until race morning. I ended up explaining my situation to her and sharing my entire 8th grade schedule....she very nicely told me to talk to Julie in the corner. Julie was kind enough to break open one of the boxes with the shirts in it and give me mine early just in case I didn't make it to the start line. THANK YOU!


Since we were in Baltimore we decided to pay a dinner visit to the City Cafe--a favorite of ours!

We were not disappointed! We ordered these nachos that were to die for! A white welsh rarebit sauce of sorts, green chili sauce, and pico de gallo on a bed of corn chips....delish! I'm still raving about them!

Dinner was polenta with fried fresh mozzarella with white beans in a pesto sauce. It was good but I wish I had ordered another round of the nachos!

Mark ordered steak and frites.


We got back to DC around 10 pm.

That pretty much sealed my race thoughts right there. I decided to sleep in until 7:30 or so under the strict condition that I would get up and run my 10 miles first thing in the a.m. So I charted a 10.15 mile course and set out at 8:15 on Saturday a.m. It was hot and I was happy with my decision....It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes---that includes stopping for traffic lights, walking breaks due to the heat, etc....

I know it's not quite the same as a race, but I'm counting it...I ran the same mileage at the same time (essentially) as the other race and plugged along.....

#12 done.

Survivor Harbor 7 Miler

So, on a bit of whim, I signed up for this race in May. I liked the idea that it was a point to point race in Baltimore, starting new Fort McHenry and ending in Canton.

Little did I know that it would be WICKED hot that morning. The race was really well run and definitely a fun course. However, when I finished around 9:30 am the temperature was already 86 degrees with 40%+ humidity. I should also mention that a lot of the course was in the sun....ARG!

I finished a lot slower than I would have liked, however my splits for the first two miles were near 8:17 minute miles. Maybe that was part of the problem too--I probably took it out too fast for the heat.

Packet pick up was in a new part of town in Baltimore. Mark and I had a good time exploring a new part of Baltimore. We even found a Whole Foods next to a Starbucks and a dog store! Exciting! A lot of the time, exploring and finding the packet pick up, start, etc. is just as fun as the running itself! :) Mark, Soba and I ate at Donna's in this new part of Baltimore for dinner.

The next morning we were up and out the door early--the race start was 8 am. So we were in the car by 6:30 so that we could get there without rushing. For some reason, chip pick up was the morning of the event so I was a little leery of not getting there in enough time, so we left a bit earlier than need be. Everything was very smooth thought when we did get there.

The course was very neat and I would love to run it again---this time without the heat.

The water on the course was sparse--especially for the heat that day. There were also only three water stops on the course, the last, at mile 5+ was a little paper dixie cup size....which was hardly enough when we were all roasting. As you can tell from the picture when Mark found me at Mile 5 I was fried.

After looking for my results I found a lot of comments about the race...it seems that my concerns were similar to others. I hope they do make improvements because there is great potential here!

The finish line was fun and very festive! A great way to finish, especially as the last leg of the race was downhill! :)







As always, thanks to my outstanding cheerleaders! :) I couldn't do it without you!



Eleven down, nine to go!

703  67/96   Amy Trenkle         F 34 Washington DC      77:01 76:45 10:58