Hub City Hustle ~ Swim - Bike - Run ~

Hub City Hustle TRI -- last TRI for me in 2017 

LOVE THE SHIRT

  I was actually registered in the past for this race and decided not to do it at the last minute.  I believe because the MCM (Marine Corps Marathon) was the same month and I didn't want to risk a bike wreck.  I had heard the bike course was tough and hilly.  So this year I was looking forward to doing the race with no marathons directly after it.  It's local which meant no travel expenses. Yippie.  And the swim is in a lake where I skied almost every weekend as a teenager.  Race week however, I began to get nervous.  Everyone was talking about how hard the bike course was going to be.  So that plus me not really running (still doing my jog/walk intervals)... made me nervous about finishing within a decent time.  

Kathy texted me the night before to see what time I would be at the race site the next morning.  She likes to be early.  She always says she has nervous energy she needs to work out.  Heck... so do I when it comes to a TRI! I wish I could remember her exact words to another girl during the run segment.  The subject came up about how hard the run is and Kathy reminded the lady that the run for a TRI is not like a typical 5K race where you line up and just run.  We had to swim, then bike, and run last.... so it's basically a Swim, Bike, RUN. ...   Your legs feel differently after you've done two other sports before the run.  And they feel really different after a hard bike ride!

I arrived at race site .. Paul B. Johnson state park and Kathy was already basically set up and ready. :>)  She wanted to go jump in the water and get a little warm up swim so I quickly got my stuff in transition and we headed to the water.  Here's a picture of her by our bikes.

 She was pumped and ready to go.

My Bib

The water felt great.  Several people were out testing the water which made it nice.  I tend to get scared in dark water all alone.  I mean there are fish and stuff in there that can bite you!  I figure the more people in the water scares them away.  LOL  I remember when I was a teenager skiing in the lake, I would pray not to fall because the whole time I had to wait for the boat to turn around and come back and get me, I was kicking my feet / skis like crazy to keep stuff away from me. :>) 

Soon it was time for the race start.  We had to line up in number order.  Somehow I was in the 30s and they (Kathy, Serina, & JoAnn) were like in the late 70s.   I told them not to drown me as they swam past me. :>)   The swim started ok and then I was pushed under by another swimmer that was almost swimming on top of me.  I took in a ton of water and got chocked! It was all I could to to catch my breath.  I knew I didn't need to be up front with those fast swimmers!  Anyway, I turned over on my back and reminded myself of what Frosty said in the movie Chasing Mavericks.... Fear is ok, put Panic will kill ya.   So I begin taking deep breaths while still coughing from choking and trying to relax.  I spotted a canoe coming over and told myself I had to get a grip or he was going to pull me out.  So I turned back over and began swimming again.  I told myself to count 15-20 strokes and then raise my head to sight and just keep it steady.  Once I begin counting and focusing on that, I relaxed.  I didn't push it and just swam steady.  You may be physically strong, but you've also got to have your mind right to survive.  That's one reason I always talk about having a positive outlook.  Think positive .. no negatives.  When I exited the water my watch said 14 minutes.  I'd love to be around 10-12 minutes, but was happy to be at 14 at the moment.  We had to run up a hill to transition and the clock was still going on swim time because they didn't have the timing mat until the top of the hill before going into the transition area.  Oh it hurt my feet going up that hill! There were acorns and stuff on the ground.  Thankfully they had a few pieces of carpet at the very top to help.  When I finally crossed the mat, my watch said 14:50 on time.  I also noticed that none of my friends were in yet because their bikes were still on the rack.  I quickly got on my helmet and shoes and took off on the bike.  
Everyone said the first hill going out was a monster.... and YES it was!!! I was almost to the top when I passed a young guy .. His calf said 32 (yes, they put your age on your calf in TRI races) and he was huffing and puffing.  Which so was I, but I was still climbing.  I turned and told him they were not joking about the hill and he grinned and said GEEZ this is hard.  It made this 51 year old feel good to know that a younger person also had the same thoughts I was having at that moment.  :>)  
The bike course continued with continuous hills for 20 miles! I kept expecting Kathy to pass me at any moment.  She's very strong on the bike and I figured Serina may be hanging with JoAnn since this was her first TRI.  I finally pulled into transition and as soon has I got off my bike running in.....guess who came in behind me.. Kathy! We congratulated each other on a great bike ride and begin getting our running shoes on.  I left out of transition slightly ahead of her but knew she'd catch me on the run before too long.  It was probably about 3/4 mile into the run and she came up behind me.  I was stopping to walk some and she stopped too.  I told her to go on and not wait on me.  She just smiled and we walked together and then ran together.  We did this the entire run.  I ran way more than I had expected too.  I ignored my beeps on my watch which tell me when to walk and when to jog.  I so enjoyed having company and even when I wanted to walk, I continued on with her.  It's been so long since we ran together.  We chatted off and on and even meet up with Amanda who ran with us for a little while too.  Finally we had one more hill to run up with the finish line at the top of the hill.  Kathy asked me if I was ready to just run it on in and I told her I'd try my best.... she was  slightly ahead of me crossing ...... because boy I was tired by this point.  :<>)   I was so glad to cross that finish line!  This sprint TRI is slightly longer than most and I was thrilled to finish in 2 hours 3 minutes.

Kathy and I hung out at the finish line to cheer in Serina and JoAnn.  Serina wasn't too far behind us!  The three of us cheered JoAnn in and it was so nice to see her complete her first.  I had no doubt she would finish.  Heck she was in the military so I know she's tough!  We grabbed a couple of pictures afterwards.  

Waiting at the finish line for Jo Jo

All 4 of us .. Kathy, Serina, Me, & Jo Jo

Me and Serina

Kathy took this and said.. "you'll love the background". :>) 

JoJo Finishing! So Proud of her!

Serina coming in to the finish!

Me, Kathy, Amanda, & Serina ..... We took Amanda in... she was missing her swamp donkeys. :>)

Kathy placed 3rd in her age group.  Serina got 1st place in the Athena Division and Amanda and I got placed 4th in our age groups.  Below are my times.. I'm in age group 50-54:

Didn't even notice until I looked at this pic, but my cousin that is in age group 55-59 got 1st place.  I talked to her briefly at the race and wish I had grabbed a picture of us.  I was so focused on waiting for Jo Jo to finish I totally forgot about Pam being at the race after it started.  I have a one track mind sometimes. :<(

So that's a wrap for TRIs this year for me.  Not sure which ones I'll be doing next year .... however I sure hope to do Augusta next year.  It will be the 10th anniversary for the ironman race in Augusta, Ga and I'd love to be there.

MUAH! D

Southern Magnolia Bike Ride

The day was finally here...... BIKE RIDE! A couple of us had decided a few months back to do the Southern Magnolia bike ride.  Not sure why I kept calling it the Mississippi Magnolia.. ha  Anyway, ride day was bright at early.  We elected to drive on ride morning to the coast which meant getting up at 3:30 am for me and leaving the house my 4:15 am to meet my group in town to leave at 4:30 am.   You got to love biking riding or running to get up early on the weekend.  

Originally Frank & Krista had signed up for the 40 miler and Me, Melodye, & Sonya signed up for the Metric century (62 miles).  However, Frank started having some back issues recently which forced him to back down to the 25 miler.  When this happened I kind of took Krista under my wing.  She wanted me to do one last long ride with her to prepare her for the ride.  Well, I convinced her to do 50 miles instead of 40 that day.  I needed 50 and I knew she could do it.  We had a little issue on like mile 40 where she had a flat.  I was so sad.  We (Mel was with us on the ride) didn't have enough stuff to fix her flat so we ended up leaving her to go get car to pick her up.  However an angel showed up and fixed her tire so she was able to complete the 50 mile training ride.  I knew then I had to talk her into the metric century.  There was no need in her backing down to the 25 with Frank and no need in her doing the 40 alone.  She was ready and I knew she could do the 62 with us.   

I tried to give gentle hints to her... well... maybe not so gentle.. ha  However, she was questioning herself and her abilities.  I kept telling her positive thoughts only!  I even reminded her of the 4 pillars of strength (Physical, Emotional, Mental & Spiritual) from the moving Chasing Mavericks.  Oh how I love that movie!!

Frosty from Chasing Mavericks

I wasn't absolutely for sure she was going to do the metric until ride morning.  All week she had kind of been going back and forth between the 40 and the metric.  I was thrilled when she even told the registration table she was moving to the metric group.  

We asked a guy in the parking lot to take our picture before we started.  Boy it was MUGGY! It was already like 78 degrees and 100% humidity!  People standing around were all talking that had done the ride several years that this year was the hottest by far.  One day even said that 2 years ago they all had on leg and arm warmers it was so cold.  

Sonya, Krista, Frank, me, & Mel

I don't know how many bikers exactly did the ride, but I heard one person say that 500 had signed up.  It was very crowded when we started!  I couldn't even clip in my pedals because it was stop/start for a good little piece before you could actually ride.  I could tell Krista was nervous.  Heck even I get nervous when it's crowded especially with clip in shoes!  

We were finally off and able to ride without total congestion.  The first 20 miles were TOUGH.  However, due to some great downhills after the long climb, we averaged 15.9 mph.  I kept watching Krista with awe.  She was really doing great!  However, we had not seen a rest stop!  Usually on long bike rides they have them like every 15 miles.  Krista has not learned to drink and ride yet so I knew we needed to pull over and let her drink.  I sure didn't want her to get dehydrated on us.  So I told her at the top of the next hill we would stop.  No need in stopping at the bottom.  Trust me you needed that momentum you gained going down to help you go back up. :>)  So we stopped and we were at mile 18.  Another biker came by and told us that the rest stop was 2 miles ahead.  So yep... the first rest stop was 20 miles into our 62!  So we drank quickly and decided we would stop and stretch in 2 miles.  

I was glad to see the porta john at the rest stop. :>)  We all got off our bikes and grabbed some goodies and Krista filled her water bottle.  There was a big group riding together that had stopped.  We overhead them talking about which way they were going next.  There were 2 roads ... you had to go down each of them and turn around and come back to the same rest stop.  The ride map had you going down the road on the right first, but they said they were doing the road on the left first because it was the harder road and they wanted to get it over with first.  Most of them were from that area and I had started noticing that the place look familiar.  We decided to take their advice and do the road on the left first.  It was 5 miles out and 5 miles back.  and YES it was hard! Not as must downhill as we had in the first 20 miles.  It seemed to be just a steady incline.  I recognized the rode about half way.  It was one of the roads that I had trained on with the Wiggins group to get ready for the ironman race last year.  I went there several times because the elevation was very similar to Augusta.  Melodye and I talked several times during this stretch of the ride.  We both felt like Krista was going to kill us when it was over. hee hee   But we were both also so impressed with Krista.  She was leading our pack most of the time.  We drafted off of her many times. :>)  She hasn't learned to draft yet and Mel loves to draft so we took advantage of Krista being in the front.   Thanks Krista for the strong pull! :> )   I'll say again.. the ride was TOUGH. Check out our elevation map:

Notice that good downhill... this is probably where we averaged that 30 mph! That might not seem fast to you, but on a road bike with skinny wheels coming down a hill that is fast and boy it's FUN.  There were many rolling hills.  Constant up and down.  In the beginning I told Krista to not focus on the up but remind herself that after climbing we would get a downhill where we could rest. :>)

The next road was 10 miles out and 10 miles back.  We took a nice little break at the next stop.  Mel even did her usual laying on the ground to stretch her back. 

 All 4 of us at the rest stop... we were about mile 40 here I believe.. 22 more to go

Krista and Mel taking a break 

Not sure if Mel was offering me her Oreo cookie or just enjoying being off her bike. :>)  

Krista stretching.... at this point she said she had about as much FUN as she wanted.. hee hee..... I had sent this pic to our group before the ride for a good laugh:

We soon took off to try to get in those last miles.  I was glad that for most of the day it was overcast.  If the sun had been beaming the entire time, it would have been unbearable hot.  

We had said we were not going to stop again and just ride to the finish.  However, when we came to the last rest stop we were 12 miles out from the finish, Krista asked to stop to drink.  I keep forgetting that not everyone drinks while they are riding.  So we stopped one last time.  My neck and shoulders were killing me.  I was so ready to get the last 12 miles over.  I need to go get properly fitted for my bike.  I got fitted over 2 years ago when I first started riding by a friend who knows a lot about bikes, but I've never been fitted at a bike store.  I know over time with riding your position of your seat and handle bars can change.  They can drop from the simple pressure of your riding and not to mention the road conditions.. bumpy roads....  It's good to always make sure you are properly fitted.  That is on my to-do-list very soon!

I never saw the camera person on the road coming in to the finish.  I'm glad Robbie saw these pictures on fb and tagged us.

Krista leading us in.... She had been our lead person for probably 70% of the ride so I told her she had to take us in to the finish.  Notice Mel is giving the turn signal.  She's very good at giving all the biking signals which I tend to forget.

I think Mel is glad we are finishing..... HUH? :>)

Frank captured several pictures of us at the finish line:

I'm trying to get a selfie of me and Mel...

Love these girls!

 So proud of them!

Me and my spin teacher... MEL...she often kicks my butt in spin class, but I can honestly say I owe her so much!  She's really been a positive impact in my biking and running thanks to her class!  If you ever get a chance, join us for a spin class.  You'll LOVE it!

Robbie, who did the 25 miler was also still there.  I was glad to see her at the finish.  I'm so proud of  her too.  She just started riding recently and she's improving more and more each day.  Maybe one day she'll do a long distance ride with us.

All 4 of us that completed the Metric Century (62 Miles).  As soon as the ride ended and I got off my bike my shoulders and neck quit hurting.  I felt great.  You can tell by how silly I'm being in the picture.. hee hee

We received an email the night before the ride that the medals they ordered did not come in.  They said they would mail them to us later.  I did however get my finisher jacket and cycle jersey.  I just love this jersey!

 Zip up jacket

Front of Jersey

Back of Jersey... pockets for food, etc.

Mel and I both asked each other if we wanted to do another 38 miles to get to the 100 miles and we both said NO.  LOL  Neither of us were feeling 100 miles ...... especially not on those hills.  ha  However, I think if we had signed up for 100 and been focused on 100 miles, we could have done it.  Our "mental" state plays a huge role in what we accomplish.  For months I had been telling myself it was just 62 miles and not 100.  I was only focused on finishing 62 miles.  I'm a firm believe that our minds have to be focused on what we plan to accomplish. :>)  Positive thoughts as I had told Krista all week before the ride.

Here's our speed chart:

 I'm just so proud of Krista... we were right in between 15-16 mph average most of the ride... that's awesome for a first timer!!!! I knew she could do it!

Our overall ride time.  I'm very happy with the time.  I haven't trained much on speed in a long time.  And doing this time with Krista, a first timer, was amazing! I love riding in groups.  Makes the time go by faster. :>)  Not to mention these 3 ladies are amazing women.  My only thing I regret about the bike ride was the fact that Frank was not with us.  I hate he's having some issues lately which has limited his biking and running.  However, because of the kind of friend that he is to us, he offered to drive us to the ride.  He waited until we finished and drove us home. :>)  I don't know what we'd do without him always taking care of us! Thank you Frank!

Well... until next time.  I've got a sprint TRI coming up in 2 weeks, Duathlon end of October and then a half marathon in Vegas in November.  What's on your schedule?

D

Jones Co Heart Walk & South Central 5K

Seeing as how I haven't been really "running" lately, I had decided to do the Heart Walk for my dad.  He has multiple heart problems.  The company I work for typically tries to get together a team for our local heart walk.  I kept waiting for an email with info and never received one so I went ahead online and signed up and made a donation.  Then about 2 days before the event someone told me that the South Central (our local hospital) 5K was combined with the Heart Walk and that the ball was kind of dropped at my office with getting the a team together.  I guess South Central & Jones Co Heart Walk people were combining the two events to try to have a larger group of people.  I didn't know if any of my friends were doing the 5K until I got there the morning of the walk/run.  They were all asking me if I was going to do the 5K.  Well, you know me and my brain......  I got to thinking I should try and run at least 1 mile straight and see how I felt.  I've only been doing intervals.   I knew being around my running friends would encourage me.  So I quickly signed up for the 5K.  

It was a muggy morning! Everyone was sweating before we started and the event didn't start till 8:30 am which made it worse.  We were finally off and I was running.  I was pumped to be actually running.  I looked down at my watch and I was averaging a 8:30 pace.  I knew I was not going to maintain that for long so I enjoyed the moment.  Soon my watch beeped 1 mile and I was so excited to have ran the 1st mile.  So I decided to try to keep running and see what happen.  One of my friends managed to get beside me on mile two and he wanted to talk.  He loves to talk!  I finally told him I was going to walk a minute and he could go on.  I can't talk and try to run a decent pace especially when I've been mostly jog/walking... ha   He begged me to go on with him.  I told him I was not where I use to be in my running so he better get on.  Thankfully he went on because I needed to conserve my air to run and not talk. Hee Hee 

  

I did end up walking off and on before I finished.  It was a tough course.  Several rolling hills and boy it was HOT.  I was so happy to cross that finish line.  I had Kathy Byrd in my eye sight the first mile.  Seeing her encouraged me to push to run that 1st mile.  Then I didn't see her until I finished.  She was standing at the finish line cheering in the finishers.  Nestor captured our picture at the finish line.  It's so good seeing her back out running strong.  She had broke her foot last year and then took a break to remodel her house.  

Nestor also captured me running in towards the finish line... Thanks Nestor!

I never even thought about me maybe placing in awards.  I knew my time was better than I expected it to be, but not close to what I've ran a 5K in before so I was thrilled when they called me out as "Female Masters" winner. :>)  It turned out that most of us placed!  Byron captured a picture of the 3 Sanderson employees that placed: Serina, Kathy & Me

Notice the photo bomber in the back..... Mr. D (Serina's Dad) :>)  and we never noticed our numbers until this picture.  I should have got in the middle and we would have been lined up. 

Here's a group shot of several of us...... Many from Team Run4TheKids...

# 293 in the front is Elizabeth....  Sunshine has been helping her train for the St. Jude half coming up in December.  It will be her first.  I'm excited she's on our team.  I went to school with her dad.  

And of course we had to end the day with a funny picture .. even got a couple swamp donkeys in the picture:

You can barely see me in the back behind Nestor.... I love my running friends.  They are all Cray Cray.

My morning turned out much better than I had expected.  I had no idea I could run a full mile.  It's been awhile since the old bursitis!  This 5K gives me that ray of light at the end of a long tunnel that I am getting better.  It takes time to come back.... so just never quit ...... that's what I tell myself over and over. :>)  

Happy Running! D