martygaal

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Some Christmas Pictures

Posted on 8:17 AM by Unknown
We spent an extra day in Chesapeake, Va at my sister's house after the area got 14 inches of snow. That is a lot of snow for the 'South!'


Here's my niece heading out to play in it.

Tassie had fun in it with her Great Dane cousins.

Marty had to dig us out so we could get on the road Monday.




The snowstorm didn't come until very early in the morning the day after Christmas, so Christmas day was nice. Marty and I went to a park near Virginia Beach for a run on trails - wish we had known about this park in years past! It sure beats the Dismal Swamp paved trail we've run before.

Here are a couple of shots from Christmas morning.

OSB hoodies were a hot commodity this Christmas season - but I got mine!



Haileigh and I also got matching Eclipse DVD's.


A Total Wine gift card and Marty is one happy camper.

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

'tis the season...

Posted on 8:23 AM by Unknown
...for Christmas parties! My department at work had a Christmas lunch at Maggiano's. Did you know that Maggiano's means "oversized portions to help you gain 10lbs between Thanksgiving and New Year's"? I know, it's amazing they could fit such a thought in one word, but those Italian's are sneaky.

That same night, we hit up the FS Series Holiday Party where Marty received a special present from Jason and the gang - a Shake Weight. They were all, "This is why Marty is one of the fastest triathlon swimmers in the area" and "Powerstroke!" If you have not heard of the Shake Weight, I suggest you push that rock out from over your head. But I'll also put the commercial up for you, since it is Christmas time and I'm feeling generous.



They have one for women, too, in case all you girls out there are interested in purchasing one for yourself. Now this next video is hilarious but may not be suitable for younger viewers, or for those who may get offended easy. Saturday Night Live did a skit based on the Shake Weight:



Okay, enough talk about how I'm going to have AMAZING arms in just 6 minutes.

Friday night was spent with some good friends and Saturday was chock full of Holiday Spirit. We started the night with the TAF group at Cafe Caturra before heading over to the main event - Nas's Christmas party. This party features a very popular white elephant gift exchange. We ended up with a space rocket projection alarm clock.


Honestly, it's really cool. The person who brought it had told her husband beforehand, someone is either going to think this is totally stupid or some geek is going to love it. Huh.

I did find an Sam Adam's Oktoberfest in the fridge. Yeah, I don't care that it's December and this beer was probably made 3 months ago. It's my FAVORITE Sam Adam's beer. And everyone knows that their Oktoberfest only lasts for about a month and a half while their disgusting Winter Lager lasts until March. It was like my birthday finding this gem in the fridge. Or maybe like Christmas.

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Monday, December 13, 2010

Weekend of CEU's

Posted on 6:39 AM by Unknown
In order to recertify as a USAT Triathlon Coach, you need to obtain a certain number of continuing education units. Marty and I had originally planned on getting our Level 2 USAT certification in Colorado Springs back in October, but when we found out that the curriculum was mostly geared to coaching juniors and pro's, we decided that it wouldn't be worth our time and money (that's not our clientele). Instead, we saw that Charlotte was hosting a USATF (Track & Field) Certification that would be worth 10 CEU credits towards our recertification.

This was really good for Marty since he will most likely be coaching high school track this spring. And it was interesting to me since I have a pretty extensive track background, although it's exclusively with the distance events. Even so, you can't go to one of these and NOT learn additional information and new discoveries/training methods. Plus, it was neat to learn more about the jumps and hurdles and all the other events that I don't have much knowledge on.

The clinic was excellent. The information was interesting and the speakers were top notch and great. The amount of hours was insane, though!

Friday: 5pm -10pm
Saturday: 8am - 7pm
Sunday: 8am - 4pm

We got an hour lunch break on Saturday and Sunday and a few 5 min bathroom breaks sprinkled throughout. That was it.

It was definitely worth it, no doubt about it. It just made for a very long weekend and when you work a full time job in addition to that, it's tough to turn right back around Monday morning. Oh well, sometimes you have to suck these things up.
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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Picture Page!

Posted on 6:46 AM by Unknown
Saturday night the Victorious Secret Doughman team reunited for a farewell party for one of our members, Brooke. Her and her husband are moving to Boulder in a couple of weeks and we're really going to miss them. Don't worry, Brooke is going to fly back in May for the 2011 race.

Sunday, Kari and her husband graciously came over to take family pictures for us. Marty put some of the good one's up on his blog. I'll put up some of the not so good ones. It's actually sort of hard to get your dog to look at the camera - there was a lot of "Tassie! Look here!" shouted from Kari and Bobby. Even so, I was surprised at how many she did look at the camera. Here are some of the others:

Tassie, look right.

Now look left.

Now look right again.

Tassie, sit on my knee and look chagrinned.

Tassie, sit. No, not that way!


Argh!

Tassie, stick your nose in the air.

Ducks!

Tassie, do something funny with your tongue.

Marty, look at Bri lovingly :)


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Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving Holiday

Posted on 11:56 AM by Unknown
Things that didn’t happen over the Thanksgiving holiday

  • Ran in a turkey trot
  • Avoided catching Shana’s cold she brought with her to NYC last weekend
  • Yelled ‘Roll Tide!’
  • Ridiculously satisfied with the much too short Harry Potter movie
  • Yelled ‘It’s great, to be, a Florida Gator!’

Okay, I’m confusing myself. Here's the real breakdown.

Tassie and I watched Marty (and several hundred other runners) run the Inside Out Sports Turkey Trot 8k. I’m on a self-imposed (really, Shana-imposed) running hiatus to let my calf properly heal. This running-calf hurting-taking a few days off-running-feeling great-running-calf hurting-taking a few days off was just not cutting it. I got a massage last week and he said I definitely did something to my soleus, but it’s really not that bad, it’s just hard to get the blood flowing that deep.

I also caught a bit of a head cold which was more annoying than anything. I hate feeling ‘off’ like you do when you’re a bit sick. Super Marty was not immune and the princess is now suffering.

As my friend Kari said on my facebook status – thank god for second half’s! All I have to say is War. Damn. Eagle.

We went and saw the ‘almost the final Harry Potter movie.’ Marty’s review is much more eloquent than what I could do. I think we’re both just annoyed with it now but are too invested to not go see the final movie. No hot vampires in this one :( Speaking of hot vampires, actually totally not speaking of hot vampires, more like speaking of why does Bri like to read kid’s books – I read the Hunger Game’s trilogy. Very good! At least the first two books. I didn’t really care for the third.

And what can I say? The FSU whooping of Florida made my heart go pitter patter.

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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on 5:32 AM by Unknown
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Monday, November 22, 2010

Trip to NYC

Posted on 7:20 AM by Unknown
I left after work on Thursday to fly to NYC and meet up with my sister and mom. We all live in different cities but tried to land around the same times so we could go to the hotel together. I was really surprised at how not crowded La Guardia airport was when I flew in. I even ended up in a long hallway completely by myself which was honestly kind of creepy. Where is everyone?! Anyways, we all made it in and to our hotel in midtown without any problems.

Friday we walked around, did a little shopping, then had a nice dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday.

My sis and I at Central Park.



The leaves still had some color left!



Stopping for some cupcakes across from Rockefeller Center.



Saturday morning, Shana and I did some overpriced ice skating at Rockefeller before watching football.



Then it was back to the hotel room to get ready for the Notre Dame/Army game at the new Yankee Stadium. It was going to be a cold night, but it wasn't that bad at all, really. The subway ride over to the stadium was interesting - I don't think I've ever been that smooshed except for the subway leaving Oktoberfest in Munich! Packed to the gills with Army and Notre Dame fans (mostly Notre Dame fans) with some good natured ribbing along the way. Mostly, it was the Army fans yelling things: "Get over Rudy already!" and "Go USA! Go Army! Notre Dame hates America!" Even though we were up high, our seats were really good, and it was a great game with Notre Dame taking control right from the start. Yankee Stadium is also super nice.

Waiting for the subway. My hat is very old but I love it. Plus, retro is in style, right?



At the game.



Coming back on the subway I had to sit next to this guy, who I'm pretty sure was homeless and just riding/sleeping on the subway to stay warm. Poor fellow.



I got back home last night (direct flight from RDU to NYC is short and easy). I really like New York City, kind of feel like if I was younger I may have wanted to live there for a few years and get the whole big city life.
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Another Boring One

Posted on 6:05 AM by Unknown
This past weekend Marty and I drove to Wilmington to watch and cheer people on in the Beach 2 Battleship Full and Half Irondistance races. It’s always a chilly start for this race, but each year gives way to a beautiful sunny afternoon. Here I am impersonating a cheerleader before the start. I don’t know, was I supposed to not put my hands in fists? Tickle the clouds as they say? I’m also not very symmetrical. Obviously, I was never a cheerleader.




My sister and bro-in-law were in town for the UNC v Va Tech game so we got to hang out with them for a bit on Saturday night and Sunday morning. After they left, Marty and I went for a great bike ride – we’re close to a greenway that runs directly into Umstead so we did a big loop back to our house. The fall colors are absolutely gorgeous right now. I had to remember to watch where I was going and not stare at the trees the entire time.

Even driving into work I have to stop myself from looking at all the pretty colors. The main interstate that runs through Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill is one big corridor of trees that have changed color. There aren’t any billboards so it’s really quite a nice drive into work. This is something that I don’t think a lot of people up here appreciate (the no billboards) but after living in Florida for so long where it’s ALL billboards, I try to be thankful for it – and hope that in the future the cities don’t decide that revenue from the billboards outweighs the trees.

Thursday evening I’m flying up to NYC to meet up with my sister and mom. It’s my mom’s 60th birthday so we decided to celebrate in the Big Apple. We’re also going to the Notre Dame v Army game at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night (my family are big Notre Dame fans). I just hope we don’t freeze to death.
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Monday, November 8, 2010

Just Some Stuff

Posted on 6:41 AM by Unknown
You know what’s really hard? A 200 yard all out in the pool. That’s what Marty had us do in the middle of Master’s practice on Friday (our time was then used to figure out our interval for groups of 100’s). I don’t think I’ve ever done a 200 yard like that so…..PR! He had us do them in heats (from a push) so it was sort of like a swim meet. I think I was still breathing hard 10 minutes later.

Saturday I went with Marty to Kernersville where the NC high school state cross country championships was held. It was a chilly, sunny day (perfect for running!) and it was fun to watch the different races. But wow, I don’t think any of these kids know how to pace themselves! They all go out WAY too fast, which I guess is all right since they all die the same death and there’s not a whole lot of place changing going on, but I would love to see some kid who goes out with even splits and just mow through the field the back half of the race. I know I used to do the same thing in high school, but I only ran 2 miles for cross country so it was a little easier to handle.

On our way back home from the race, we stopped in Carrboro (right next to UNC) to watch the 2nd half of the UNC v FSU game. Oh ugh. FS – Who? Because I want to talk about MY Alma Mater – UCF!! Who, for the first time is ranked in the BCS top 25! And in the USA Today Coaches Poll they are ranked right ahead of those super annoying Gators! Go Knights!

Today is Marty’s birthday. I couldn’t help myself and gave him two of his presents yesterday (The Resident Evil Trilogy – he proceeded to watch all of them yesterday) and a Zombie Apocalypse T-Shirt. Marty likes Zombies.

My calf tightened back up again last week so no running for me for awhile. Bah.
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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

I Voted

Posted on 8:56 AM by Unknown
I went and voted today. Walking in, I shook hands with a judge who was hoping to be re-elected (eh, I don’t know anything about the judges, but sure I’ll vote for you). I was also handed a list of who to vote for from the Republicans and the Democrats. Everyone was all smiles.

Then I walked inside to the row of tables filled with several nice older ladies who were in charge of looking up people’s names. First off, I’m so surprised that all you have to do is walk up and tell them your name and address and you’re good to go. No ID, no proof of identification…I mean for USAT you have to show your USAT card and your license and that’s just for a little race. I would’ve thought for something as important as an election it would at least warrant a picture ID. (I know, I know, it probably has to do with insurance and liability and suing if you get hurt at the race). This isn’t the first time I’ve voted, but in Orlando I could’ve sworn we had to show our voter registration card or something. Here we never have to show anything.

Anyways, I walk up to the F – L line and already know what will happen, but I roll with it since these ladies are so nice. One of them already told me she loved my necklace (Tiffany heart necklace – bought by Marty a couple of years ago when he was obviously going through a bout of insanity and was not his usual fiscal conservative self). Had to throw in a little political jargon :)

Me: Last name is Gaal. G – A – A – L.
Nice old lady: Oh my, hmmmmm.
Me: G – A – A , two A’s…
Nice old lady: Oh, I thought you said Hall! G – A – L
Me: No, it’s two A’s, it’s probably the very first G.
Nice old lady: Hmmmmm
Me: (pointing to my name at the top of the list) It’s actually right here.
Nice old lady: Oh! There you are, dear.

She then proceeds to fold the paper slightly so I can’t see it. Really, I still can and I could see it before but this is security at its best apparently.

Nice old lady: What’s your first name, dear?
Me: Brianne
Nice old lady: What’s your middle name, dear?
Me: Hayley
Nice old lady: Brianne Hayley! That is such a lovely name. And you look like a Brianne! A lot of people don’t look like their names but you look like a Brianne.
Other nice old lady: (murmuring) Such a pretty name.
Me: (smiling, how can you not love these people?!)Thank you!
Nice old lady: What’s your address, Brianne?

I got to vote after that. I really did vote for that judge.
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Monday, November 1, 2010

Weekend 5K's and fun

Posted on 6:32 AM by Unknown
Several weeks ago, the Gautreau’s told me about a 5K that was about 2 hrs away that had prize money and hardly anyone was signed up. But then I strained my calf so wasn’t running hardly at all so I could give it some rest. Last weekend I ran for 40 minutes and didn’t feel any pain and thought maybe I could still do the race. The entry list was still very small. I did a workout on Tuesday to see if I had any fitness left and it went pretty good so I decided to go for it. I didn’t have anything else better to do Saturday morning!

Not surprisingly, others caught wind of this race and some fast people showed up. I snuck in for 3rd place and the last money spot ($100) so all was not lost. My first mile was 6:15, my second mile was 6:15, and my third mile was 6:15! (total was 19:20) How’s that for consistency?! The speed is always the first thing to go and I could definitely feel it – no other gears except for the one I was running in. I’m pretty happy with that time, actually, for the amount I’ve been running. On the men’s side, holy crap did the fast guys show up! Here were the top 5 times: 14:09, 14:09, 14:41, 14:49, 14:58. It was kind of funny at the start – the race only had 70 competitors but the lineup was all these crazy fast guys. The race was held in a small town in the middle of nowhere. This was the first time for the event and the town really got into it. I don’t think they have any idea how fast those times are for a road race…probably one of the fastest fields for any 5K in the country that morning! Results

Marty had a successful morning with his cross country team at the regional meet. He had the overall girls and boys winners and both teams finished second, qualifying them for the state meet next weekend.

On Sunday, Marty geared up for a local 5k, the Monster Dash, in Raleigh. It was a gorgeous day so we decided to ride our mountain bikes to the race. Kari tagged along and we had fun cheering for the competitors, who were all encouraged to dress up. A lot of dogs were also dressed up. This poor thing was mother goose.




Here we are waiting for the finishers.



Was Marty:

A) Superman
B) Bald guy in pajama’s


This gorilla chased the banana the entire race.



That night we went to a pseudo-halloween football party at the Mayhew’s. We all dressed up, then watched the official Doughman DVD that had been reedited with music and graphics. Then we kind of watched the football game while stuffing our faces with yummy food.







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Friday, October 29, 2010

FSU v NC State

Posted on 6:12 AM by Unknown
The Thursday night college football game shown on ESPN was FSU v NC State which was right here in Raleigh. One of Marty's athlete's gave us (awesome) tickets, and with the stadium only 15min from our house, we were there!

We hit up the Triangle Seminole Club tailgate first. I was warming up my tomahawk chop after downing some Carolina barbeque.


The Super Noles came by so I had to get a photo op with them. They were flexing so hard in this picture, they were literally shaking.



Most of you know, I didn't actually go to FSU - Marty did. But I cheer for them as if I did go there. Although our seats were fantastic, we were surrounded by Wolfpack fans - and they weren't necessarily the nicest fans I've ever been around.

We did some surreptious chopping and high fiving, but we didn't want to upset the rednecks local fans too much. We didn't end up staying until the end of the game (thank goodness!)

Any Wolfpack fans out there? Is it really necessary to have a permanent sign behind every toilet in the restroom that reads: Please do not throw liquor bottles down the toilet.

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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Take 2

Posted on 3:06 PM by Unknown
Today I found myself in the same predicament as last week - but this time I had a plan: youtube.

First, I have to tell you all, dear readers, that I it made me feel much better about myself when I found out that many of you out there also had trouble getting your back wheel on if it had horizontal dropouts. Thanks for commenting.

And for those of you who rolled your eyes and called me an incompetent little girl, thanks for not commenting ;)

ANYWAYS, I youtubed as suggested and found video to help me. The internet is an incredible place. Thanks, Mr. Gore!

And here is photographic proof that I succeeded. Much less soap was needed this time around.

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Friday, October 22, 2010

NC State Fair

Posted on 1:28 PM by Unknown
You might be at the North Carolina State Fair if

You have this conversation:

Me: "Whoah. Did you see that lady with the massive mullet?
Kari/Alysia: "No. Where?"
Me: "Behind us. In the NASCAR jacket."

This was year 3 for me at the fair, and once again it didn't disappoint.
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer

Posted on 8:09 AM by Unknown
I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent human being. However, last night after spending 30min trying to get my back wheel back onto my bike, I felt like I was the lowest common denominator of intellectual organisms. In other words, the neon tetras in our fish tank were mocking me. I gave them the finger.

I can handle most basic bike maintenance issues – pumping tires (training and race wheels), changing flats (not the speediest, but I can get it done) – I’ve traveled literally across the world with a bike and can take it apart and put it back together relatively easily (although I have trouble getting the pedals off occasionally. I have a fear that the wrench will fly right into my face when I’m putting unnecessary torque on it). Yesterday, I decided I wanted to ride the bike trainer easy for a short amount of time, basically for as long as it took me to watch something on our DVR. My only problem was I still had the back race wheel on my bike from the triathlon I did a couple of weeks ago.

No problem, also in my bag of tricks is the ability to change my cassette. Marty usually does this for me because I give him puppy dog eyes which are equivalent to kryptonite to him, but alas, he was out coaching his high school cross country team in their conference championship. Time to step up and take matters into my own hands.

Now remember, I got my new bike at the end June, and have yet to mess with anything on it. This means I hadn’t taken the back wheel off by myself (see ‘Marty’ and ‘puppy dog eyes’ from above). Got the cassette changed no problem. The issue came when I had to get the back wheel back onto my bike. WTF. This does not look like my Felt. Nor does it act like my Felt. Oh I miss my Felt. Why did I ever sell it and buy this hunk of crap? It doesn’t even look remotely possible that the back wheel can fit back on the bike with the chain in the correct place.

Why am I so stupid??!! !@*$!!%*!

EVERYONE owns a Cervelo. I’m sure THEY can get their back wheel on. Why can I not figure out how to get this back on there?! I graduated as the Salutatorian of my high school for god’s sake. That has to count for something, right? Right?

Apparently not as I ended up sending Marty this picture with a caption that read something like this.

How the f do I get the back wheel on this bike.


My other hand looked similar but I couldn’t figure out how to take a picture of both hands. Tassie was too embarrassed by my stupidity to help me out. Traitor.

I decided not to ride last night. Or perhaps I should rephrase, I did not ride last night because my bike refused to wear it's back wheel.
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Sunday, October 17, 2010

Keeping Myself Busy

Posted on 2:57 PM by Unknown
I got over my head cold fairly quick. Fairly quickly? Whatever. Went for an easy run last Tuesday and my calf started killing me halfway through - guess it was my body's way of telling me to give it a break. I just can't help myself when it's so nice out. I just want to run!

I did swim twice last week. I really like going to Master's, it has nothing to do with actual training at this point. Marty had us do some crazy sets that had wall pushouts, and treading water with our hands out of the water, and block starts. Nas forced me to dive off the blocks instead of the side of the pool. I'm happy to report that I didn't have any belly flops and never lost my goggles.

Marty flew to Atlantic City on Friday afternoon, and I drove down to Pinehurst to give a technique clinic after the participant meeting for the triathlon that was happening the next day. Saturday I met Alicia at Umstead for a mountain bike ride on the bridle trails. Beautiful day and good conversation.

This is how Tassie spent most of her Saturday:


Kari and I saw The Social Experiment that night. It was definitely an interesting movie, although I'm not sure how I feel about Facebook. It's kind of nice to just keep your head in the sand sometimes.

This morning Tassie was giving me her puppy dog eyes so I took her for a short 30min run. I donned a compression sleeve for my calf and it actually helped. But now I'm one of those weirdos.
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Got Me A Head Cold

Posted on 6:55 PM by Unknown
I should've quarantined Marty last week.

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Friday, October 8, 2010

Pic and Video from Last Weekend

Posted on 2:44 PM by Unknown
I thought this picture came out pretty good of me coming into the finish line. I was thinking of maybe buying it, something we rarely do, because I also like the fact that Marty is in the background.



Marty was actually videoing this, so here's his perspective. And special shout out to Benji for saying my name correctly!


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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Do you wear a watch?

Posted on 6:44 AM by Unknown
Do you wear a watch? If you do, you are old. Yup, apparently, watches aren't cool and young people don't wear them.

This watch is sad, but is he sad because I said he was uncool? Or is he sad because he just realized that only old people wear him? Notice I made the watch male since I'm the blogger. Blogger = woman = cool = not making watch a woman. Or more simply, male = uncool = watch.

For what it's worth, I wear a watch. I've worn one since I was a kid and feel completely naked without one. It's used for keeping time, as a stopwatch, as an alarm, and occasionaly as a timer. It has many uses! Unlike a toaster which is a mostly useless appliance since it is large and can only do one thing, but I digress (we do own a toaster, I just think they are stupid).

I first read about this uncool watch phenomenon back in March, while visiting our friend, Kathy. She had a tongue-in-cheek book about how not to act old and this was one of the items on the list. Apparently, most young people use their cell phones as clocks nowadays.

Marty got further confirmation of this coaching the high school cross country team. He wants his kids to wear a watch so they can track their splits during workouts but most don't wear them. He finally relented and told them they had to have some sort of time piece. About half wear watches and the other half.....hold their cell phones! While they're running - they time themselves with their cell phones.

I think that's uncool. Little whippersnappers. Hrrumph.

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Monday, October 4, 2010

A Better Race Report

Posted on 8:12 AM by Unknown
Fall has fallen here in NC. I have no idea if that is a real saying, but you always hear spring has sprung, so thought it might work. After all the rain earlier in the week we now have cool temps in the morning that give way to beautiful sunny afternoons. I love this time of year – it makes me want to run run run!

We had a full weekend – Marty’s Saturday was particularly busy. I did some shopping with Kari where we managed to get a lot of the same clothes…we apparently have very similar taste, although hers is decidedly better so it was good to have feedback. We also had one of my athletes and her husband and their cute puppy staying with us for the weekend since they were all doing one of the Jordan Lake sprints (not the puppy, duh). Tassie was very happy to have a playmate that was not myself or Marty.

In the afternoon I went to packet pickup so I could give a free clinic on race strategy. It went well and then afterwards we had dinner and then into bed. After all, I had a race the next morning! They ran the Men’s sprint on Saturday and the Women’s on Sunday.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I didn’t want to end on my National’s race. I’ve had a lot of time to think about that race and really think I put too much internal pressure on myself – that with the travel and any stress related to it possibly caused me to be more fatigued than I should’ve been. I wasn’t outwardly nervous or anything, and Marty even commented that I seemed very relaxed. I guess I just internalized everything or something. I was talking to a friend of ours who used to live in VA the night after the race and we both lamented about how it was our ‘A’ race and it just didn’t go as planned. He said that whenever he goes to these big races he often gets too nervous and then his legs end up being so tired – I said, that’s exactly how I felt! Anyways, it’s water under the bridge at this point.

Sunday morning came and it was pretty chilly – but more importantly, quite windy! This was a very small race, maybe 150 competitors? We got to park right next to transition and everything was just easy. I knew a lot of people so got to catch up and chat with everyone. There were only two of us racing Open, me and local pro Stacey Richardson, and two Master’s Open (Kerry and Cari) – so there were a wopping 4 of us in the first wave! The water was choppy! We started off and Stacey quickly swam away from me. This past week had already turned into off season, so swimming I was not…I seemed to have lost the fast gear but still had a good swim and came out about 40 seconds behind her. I think we both knew going in that we would both be by ourselves the entire race and just have to time trial everything.



The bike was windy, and it took me awhile to get warmed up. I knew Stacey would put more time into me here as she is a powerful cyclist. My only chance would be to hopefully grab back some time on the run so our distance apart wasn’t TOO embarrassing. I felt great on the run! Like myself again! And the run was extremely challenging – it was similar to the Duke Half course, but we went right after the big hill which was ANOTHER hilly road. It’s all off road back there but I like that. Anyways, it may have been a tad short because my watch read 18:59 upon finishing (19:00 if you go by their timing, which I’m not!). Stacey ended up beating me by just over a minute, so that’s a total win for me! :) And most important – it was very fun and I’m happy to end on this note. Here are results. Also, thanks to Angela and Tim for coming out there to cheer for everyone!






Dang, I look huge compared to tiny Stacey!



Master’s Showdown…One More Time
My nemesis, Erik, who has been featured on this blog before when talking about the open water swims, was doing his first triathlon the day before at the men’s event. Now, it’s extremely hard to compare times from different days – who knows if they set the buoys out the same distance, weather conditions (the race director said that the women had it choppier), and swimming attire (I wore a wetsuit, he didn’t) but seriously here our swim times. This is getting creepy!


So whatever, I totally won this round!

Sunday afternoon we had an Oktoberfest party with our Master's team at the very cool house of John-the-Late (who has a complex now and has not been late to a practice in a couple of weeks). Such a fun group of people and great way to end the weekend.

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