DON'T EVER GIVE UP...Lake Logan 70.3

I have always been and try daily to be POSITIVE.  As all of you know I was determined to make it to the start line of this race.  I pushed myself to the limit to make it there and I am positive that all of your cheers and comments helped keep me motivated and got me there.  As most of you will remember I did this race last year as a relay because I was just not ready to tackle the swim..I did the bike/run last year so I knew how hard this course was & knew this probably wasn't the best race to do with an ac joint separation but I was determined and wanted to come back this year and do the whole thing by myself and that is exactly what I did!!!

My workouts leading up to the race were blah..I just felt sluggish and tired and just not right.  Of course, this was causing my mind to creep in and I was just excited to get away and get this party started.  I love a race/camping weekend.  Trey and I came up late Thursday afternoon & had a great dinner at a farm-to-table restaurant in Waynesville.  I had three short workouts on Friday and I felt great, I knew I was ready...some more teammates arrived on Friday afternoon.  We all went to packet pickup and then called it an early night.

RACE DAY...where I was determined to make it to & the day that makes me so nervous!!  The race started at 7:00 but with the mountain roads driving in and transition set up, it is a very early morning wake up alarm.  I slept pretty solid that night til 2:50 and then just started racing the race in my head. Got up at 3:50...cause I am not the get up and get out the door kinda girl...and we were off around 5:00.  Lake Logan always looks so eerie coming up/down the mountain and I immediately spotted the orange triangular buoy and we just kept going down the mountain and I thought my gosh we have to be there soon because that buoy looked REALLY FAR out!!  We got there is plenty of time to do all the pre-race stuff and as I was walking towards the swim start I took a moment to stand on the bridge and look out and take it all in...the sighting buoys seemed to help the triangular buoy not look so far (well, that's what I was telling myself).

Met everyone else at the swim start and it was time to wetsuit up and jump in for a short practice swim.  Joanna and I were not starting the swim together this time and that did not make me happy at all.  I was going off with the Males 50-59!  I realize there are males that can't swim very good either but for some reason this was intimidating me and I was afraid of getting kicked in the shoulder.  Just one more thing in my head to make me nervous about jumping in the lake!  I had no issues at all on the short practice swim, in fact they were announcing "clear the water" and I was still out there...ha!ha!

Sherpa Trey is a nervous wreck!

Complete concentration staring to see how far I have to swim...OMG!!

SWIM...

This is what has kept me from this distance for 2 years and I was determined to tackle this 1.2 miles today!  My plan was to stay in the back and let everyone go and try to find an open area and avoid as much contact as possible...oh and not be last!  Surprisingly enough, I was able to do that for the long trip out to the triangular buoy.   And off I go...

I was so comfortable on this swim, I have no idea what came over me.  I never once doubted that I wasn't going to make it.  I was able to swim pretty much out of the crowd until I got close to the turn around buoy and then it got a little crowded.  I looked around and noticed that I had caught up with some waves that went off before me...what is going on???  I just tried to stay focused and positive and just kept on swimming.  The trip back in was much more crowded and I was getting a little concerned about getting kicked...but I never did.  They weren't kidding when they said the temperature drops about 10 degrees when you go under the bridge....BRRR!!  It gets real shallow there as well and I remember everyone telling me to just keep swimming to the dock, don't try to walk in.  A lot of people were trying to just walk in and falling everywhere.  When I made it to the dock I heard Trey yell...don't grab her right shoulder...his voice was music to my ears.  I had MADE IT!!   Then for another added bonus a girl in a blue cap turned around and it was JOANNA!!!

If you are going to swim, this is a beautiful place to do it!

Brr...about to head under the bridge

Hey Everybody...I just swam 1.2 miles in a lake!!

Have you ever seen anyone this giddy about coming out of the water...ha!ha!  As I was running to transition I knew it was going to be a great day...I could see Joanna up ahead  and I had just conquered my fear of that swim.

BIKE...

This is a hard bike course, around 3300ft. of climbing and a not so fun climb around mile 42 that causes some people to get off their bikes and walk!

HAPPY Girl!

Hey Joanna...wait for me!

I couldn't believe it when I saw Joanna, I knew if we started this bike ride together we would be ending it together.  It was like we were on a training ride together...I think it worked out great for both of us.  I find myself a little timid on the bike now and if you know Joanna, she doesn't really like the bike at all.  So we were basically there for each other.  We had a good ride, I feel like it was paced pretty good to set us up for the dreaded hilly run.

Felt good off the bike, I knew I still had something left for this hilly run.  I loved hearing everyone cheering as I was running back into transition.  Trey was relieved to see me come in, he was starting to get a little worried because my time was slower than last year.

RUN...

I knew EXACTLY how this was gonna feel...3 miles up, back down and around the hot open field, then 3 miles up and back down but this time to the FINISH LINE!!

And OFF I go...ready to tackle the 3 miles up.  My legs felt good but my heart rate was off the charts!!!  I kept telling myself to slow down and settle in.  The first aid station is about 1.25 up the hill and I welcomed it, COLD water and COLD rags, I took one of each at all aid stations even if I didn't feel like I needed it.  I do like a double loop run course and seeing everyone's faces when they are on the downhill portion knowing how much better I will feel when I hit the 3 mile turnaround.  I hit the first turnaround and see Joanna as she was almost to the second aid station and let her know she was almost to the turnaround.  She cracked me up as she said...this is NOT fun!  I totally agreed but I knew it would be over soon.  Trey and some more friends were at the bottom of the hill waiting to cheer me on...its amazing how cheers just make you feel like a rockstar!

Heading down on the first loop!

I told my fans I would see them again in few minutes...after the dreaded trip around the hot open field.  It was so awesome to have people in different areas cheering so it wasn't too bad.

Round 2...saw Trey and told him I may have to walk a bit on this uphill and he yelled NO WALKING, you got this!  Oh shoot..I was really starting to get tired now but I knew once I made it to the top it was all downhill from there and the adrenaline would get me through that field.   I saw Joanna as she was about to make the turn into the field and her feet were hurting.  I told her to try to walk some if she needed to, I think when I said the word "walk" I thought how great that would feel right about now.  I just kept on pushing it up the hill, that turn around marker was the greatest thing I had seen all day, I knew I had it now.  I am loving life now, smiling heading back down and see our Coach coming up the hill, I'm thinking what a nice coach coming up here to cheer me in.  I almost pull my arm out of socket waving HEY COACH and she says "Oh hey, where's Joanna?"...ha!ha! Are you kidding me?  She was worried about Joanna's feet which was a nice "coachy" thing to do.  Believe me, I have given her a hard time about that one!

I am happy to say I was able to finish strong and with a great big smile on my face...I spy one HAPPY GIRL!!

I made it!!

BOOM!!

If you want it bad enough...YOU CAN ACHIEVE IT - don't ever give up!!

I love this picture, gosh this dude was/is so proud of me!

My partner in crime...AWESOME race Joanna!

Coach Rose!!

And we all know post-race makes the race day worth it!!  FUN times back at the camper...laughter is good for everybody.  Trey even got to show off his Boogey Lights!

I knew this race was going to be HARD, but I also know that hard is NOT IMPOSSIBLE.

Swim - 44:17
T1 - 3:17
Bike - 3:39:17
T2 - 1:41
Run - 1:57:13

6:25:43...I'm more than pleased.  I had no idea what to expect and wasn't sure if my shoulder was going to cooperate.  I'm not sure if I was just running on a high all day but I didn't even feel my shoulder not once.  I can feel it today a little though, I am apparently starting to come down from Cloud 9 now.

As always, thanks for your cheers!!!

Next Up:  Greenville Tri Relay - Bella & the Seventy Point Threes

White Lake International Triathlon

I had White Lake on my race calendar last year, but after a very slow start to my swimming career, I decided that I needed to have a few more triathlons under my belt before jumping to an olympic/international distance so soon...so fast forward one year and here I am!!!  I knew I was ready for this race and although 1500m open water scared me, I knew I could do it...I mean I just swam 750m with the gators in Charleston.  I couldn't wait to dip my toes in the crystal clear waters of White Lake:)

We got to White Lake late Thursday afternoon and set up camp at Camp Clearwater...Trey couldn't wait to take the kayak out and I couldn't wait to see the sandy bottom and swim in the clear lake!  My practice swim went great - I was so comfortable and had no issues at all.  My only issue was where in the heck is the sandy bottom and clear water.  I can feel a sandy bottom, but I see greenish brown murky water and smell oil...ugh!  Well, it was late in the afternoon & boats had been out all day, race morning will be different, right???

We had a relaxing evening and took a long walk around the campground and pretty much wondered where in the world are we?  We were basically in a RV subdivision where some people had been there so long the wheels of their camper were embedded in the dirt...and after talking to a few residents, I realize I sound like I am from New York...ha!ha!

Friday morning came and we waited for our HUB teammates to arrive.  Trey was racing the half ironman distance, so we would be racing together.  Once everyone got there we went over to packet picket and for a short practice swim.  Again, everything went good!  YAY...I knew I was ready to rock out 1500m tomorrow morning.  My LONGEST open water swim!!

Race morning came early as always...

Dave, Trey, Me, Joanna, Jimmy (Not sure where Ivor is)

Beautiful morning

The half ironman distance started at 7:00, but the international distance didn't start until 8:30 and my wave didn't go off until 8:40.  Although I was excited to get to watch Trey finish his swim...that is a long time to wait and I knew the temps were just going to start rising, along with race nerves!  It was actually very comfortable temp wise that morning, a little chill in the air.  BUT according to the weather I knew that would change soon.  I saw Trey finish his swim...he had a solid swim but all he told me was that the sun was going to be in my eyes on the way coming in and sighting was going to be hard...kudos to him for not letting me know that I was about to swim out to lake chop that was going to crash over my head.  He was a worried man as he headed out on the bike.

Well, it was getting closer to my wave start time...just time enough to get in the wetsuit and jump in the water one last time.  I was just assuming that crystal clear water must be when we swim out a bit.
I had my partner in crime with me, Joanna, my "sure I will do an international distance triathlon with you, that sounds like a fun idea" friend.  We were in the same wave...we made the decision to try our best to swim this together, thankfully this race had sighting buoys leading up to the triangular ones for the turn.  Our plan was to break the swim down in buoys, assess the situation and keep swimming.

Ironically enough this is pretty much what we looked like out at the 2nd buoy...ha!ha!

We had no idea what we were about to encounter!  We stayed back and let most of the wave go before heading out...probably within 100m we already ran into someone backstroking and then got caught up with everyone.  At first I was thinking-look at us catching up with everyone.  We made it to the first buoy, we were both good but in a huge crowd but continued on.  I remember thinking first of all there is NO clear water, this stuff is green & it smells...what in the world have I gotten myself into.  By the time we reached the the triangle buoy and made the turn we noticed there was a pretty good current & looked a bit wavy!  Here's where the fun really began..it seemed like it took forever to make it to the next sighting buoy...we seriously had a conversation in the water..."what are we going to do?? (ha!ha!)  Joanna had a man leech on to her and I thought she was about to fist punch him if he didn't get off of her.  We made it to the next triangular buoy and knew we were on the homestretch but had no idea how we were going to get there.  The lake was so choppy it felt like ocean waves.  Our next sighting was suppose to be one of those orange squiggly things - where the heck is that thing??  We FINALLY got away from that man and made our way to the pier...I was thinking we may have missed lunch, it felt like we had been out there for hours!!  We made it up the ladder, made sure both of us were okay and made the 300yd run to transition.  I thought to myself that I could have gone the rest of my life without doing that...ha!ha!

Holy Moly - I DID IT!!! & did not enjoy one second of it!

Joanna beat me out of transition and when she came by my rack I remember telling her I really don't want to ride this bike now.  That dang water beat me up!!  But I got myself together and headed out on the bike.

I ROCKED the first 10 miles of this bike, feeling fabulous averaging 21mph and then boom - I hit the wind and it literally stopped me in my tracks...I just pedaled along and watched my efforts get me nowhere.  This bike course had no scenery whatsoever and one road that we were on had divets in the road pretty much every few pedal strokes...Needless to say I was ready for this bike ride to be over.  All in all it ended up going pretty good.  The bike was 28 miles.

Now on to the run..

The run course was awful...out in the blazing sun, running on the shoulder of a highway.  It was an out/back course, so people were running back as you were running forward and you only had the shoulder of the road to get around anyone.  I actually felt good on the run...just hot and ready to see that finish line!!

I'm not sure why this race is advertised as being so great...I can honestly say that there was not one part of it that I really enjoyed.  I'm giddy over that fact that I survived my 2nd open water swim race under difficult conditions, that just gives me more confidence for races to come!  I had a few choice words when this one was over as did everyone else that we talked to after the race.  Trey ended up having a solid half ironman race, but agrees with me about the course!

It is really strange for us both to be racing.  Sunday was our 23rd wedding anniversary - what a way to celebrate!!!!

Team HUB Whitley - 23 years!!

What doesn't kill makes you stronger...I know making it out of that choppy lake sure made my confidence stronger.

YAY - those waves didn't know who they were messing with!

At the end of the day I actually had a good race...finished 5th in my age group out of 9 women.
7th in the swim
3rd on bike
3rd on run

I don't have another race on my calendar until Lake Logan in August.

As always - thanks for your cheers!!

TryCharleston Sprint - Will I be gator bait???

TryCharleston Sprint was my first open water swim triathlon and to make things even more interesting the swim took place in a lake where a few alligators call home!!  BUT I was not suppose to worry about this because they were not going to bother me and on race morning SetUp Events goes out and does a "gator sweep" and shoos them away...OKAY - then no problem...what????  And also, a week before the race I find out that they have increased the sprint swim to 750m (not 500m).  I realize this is only 250m more but it sent me into a minor panicky moment.

We headed to Charleston on Thursday looking forward to a fun filled weekend of camping and racing.  There were a lot of HUB teammates racing so I knew I would have tons of support and it was going to be so much fun!  Trey sat this one out since it was going to be my first open water swim, in fact, he was going to try to jump in and just swim it right beside me.  There were only around 70 people signed up for the sprint so I was hoping we would all start together.

On Friday morning...Jen, Dave & I went for a short run & ride.

This race is a point-to-point which I have never done before and not sure I am a huge fan to it.  Setting up one transition area can get a little confusing to me, much less two.  We went to packet pickup and found out that the sprint does in fact go off in waves and I was in the last wave...well Trey is not a girl so the plan of him swimming was not going to happen.  BUT Jorgia, who was doing the swim leg on the HUB Super Sherpas relay team, said that she would swim right beside me.  She is a much better swimmer than me...they were the only relay team signed up so we knew she was going to be a winner and if she comforted me and got me out of that water I knew I would be a "winner" as well.  Looking back she took on a huge responsibility..ha!ha!  Trey set up his bike shop at the camper and worked on everyone's bikes making sure they were race ready.  We had to turn our bikes in that afternoon. I was getting a bit nervous about this swim and kept walking to the lake to see if the buoys were out yet so I could visualize exactly how far I had to swim out.  It was probably a blessing they didn't put them out that night - I probably would have lost sleep over it!

Race morning alarm was early - 4:00a.m.  I woke up before the alarm around 3:50 so went ahead and got up.  Had to get to both transition areas, one being across the highway outside the park, body marked and pick up timing chip...whew - I'm already tired!  Once everything was set up I went back to the camper to eat breakfast & relax a bit before the race started.  The international distance started at 7:00 and the sprint started at 7:30, my wave went off at 7:40.  We made our way down to the start line and the race director announced that we could get in the water for a warm up practice swim.  I knew I HAD to do this.  I looked out to the first buoy and convinced myself that it wasn't far.  With Jorgia by my side we got in the lake for a practice swim...I just kept waiting for a panic attack and oh my goodness I was as calm as I could be!  YAY - I knew I was going to be okay.  At 7:40 the horn for our start finally blew and we waited in the back for about 15 seconds before starting the swim.  I breathe to the right, Jorgia to the left (or actually both sides) - with every breath I could see her white goggles - what a comfort, I glanced back a few times just to see and YAY - we were not last!!  I had thought about stopping at the first buoy but I felt good so I just kept going.  It seemed to me like it took forever to get back to land once we made it around the second buoy and headed in.

ALL SMILES:)

Practice swim and trying to take it all in!

See those yellow buoys WAY OUT THERE!

I'm almost to land!

When my feet hit that land - I knew I was a WINNER for the day, and I was still in one piece - NO gator bites!

There were no wetsuit strippers at the race so getting the wetsuit off was most entertaining and tiring. Poor Trey wanted to jump over the transition net and do it for me.  I told him I was going to take my time - I'm alive...LOL!

2:38 minutes later and I'm out of the wetsuit and heading out on the bike.

I felt great on the bike...my goal was to go all out or close to it - I tend to always hold back a little because I always have the run on my mind.  The bike was 13 miles, totally flat and pretty much and out and back - and the turnaround was literally a U-turn in the middle of the road.  I got some more practice riding aero and was able to average 20 mph - that is my fastest bike and I am more than happy with it.

Finishing up the bike to the second transition area and I had to think and try to remember where my rack was...that was 5:30 this morning when I set it up!

Found it!

The transition to the run was much faster...

3.1 miles to go!!

I felt great on the run...I didn't push myself too hard since I knew I had a race coming up this weekend.  This Charleston race for me was to conquer the open water swim!  I had looked at the participants list before the race and there were only 2 people in my age group so unless some more people signed up the morning of I was still going to place in my age group.  I just took a moment and got a little giddy with my self knowing that I had accomplished what I set out to do!  I saw Dave out on the run course as he was headed in, we hit a high (well actually low) five and I knew he was having a great race.  Then I saw another Hubber out on the course, Gregory from the relay team, I knew he would catch me on the run so we decided to run in together and put an end to my AWESOME day!!

Blurry pic but it shows how happy I am that I DID it:)

Gosh, that was FUN!!

1st place Age Group - you race who is there;)

Coach Rose Wilson - the coach that constantly tells me she believes in me - I finally listened:)

After the race Trey realized that he may have been more nervous than me (I'm not really sure that is possible)  He was one relieved husband supporter when he saw me cross that finish line.  We will be racing together next weekend so it will be much easier for him.

Race/camping is awesome.  We ended the afternoon/night with chilling, grilling, and toasting all the HUB racers...It was the PERFECT ending to my day!

Thank you Jorgia Parker!!!!

Swim - 18:08 (which included the short run to transition)
T1 - 2:38
Bike - 39:12 (20.2 mph)
T2 - 1:10
Run - 24:58 (8:05/mi)

Finished overall 5th/23 women

Next up:  White Lake Olympic (basically just do this race twice)

As always - thanks so much for your cheers!!