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Ok...<br>
In Word, it was 6 pages long....soooooo I broke it into bits for posting.<br>
This is the "PRE" race information. If you want to skip to the "EVENT" information, see the next thread.<br>
Stitch<br>
---------------<br><br><b><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">Background</span></span></b><br><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">The first time (and only other time) that I did this race, it was held in March. The year following, in March…last year, in January….and this year, in January. The first time I prepped for it, I think I did a better job of getting those long mid-week runs in. Having it so close to the beginning of the semester means that the big time longer runs must be done over the holidays between Thanksgiving and New Years. Great if you’re not constantly travelling, not so great if you are. On the other hand, having to do those runs worked out to be a great holiday food/weight management technique as well. This was the first race of any distance over 10K that I’ve done since I did my first and so far only marathon, as well….back in November of 2005. The in between times were spent recovering from the marathon and taking some time to focus more on swimming. Now that I’ve decided to truly do multisporting, I’m going to have to focus on 3 sports, not just 2, and I have NO CLUE how to go about doing that. Good thing I’ve hired a coach!</span></span><br><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">My swim coach agreed to come out and support and take pics (good thing, too…cause the guy who normally takes a bunch of pre/post pics just spent his entire vacation in Wyoming taking pictures and he’s sick of it right now). Several of my friends also did the event, including Kick member HRMAY. She’s fast. ‘nuff said.</span></span><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">I found a prep program, don’t remember where or who did it, but it might have been one of the ones from the online version of Runners World. I was probably 85% faithful to it. I should have been more faithful to it. Lesson number 1: Have a program? Do the program (barring serious injury or illness, that is).</span></span><br><b><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">Week Before</span></span></b><br><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">EZ runs on Monday and Wed, with normal swim (for this time of year) on Tuesday, and super super light swim on Thursday. I managed to sleep pretty well all week, thankfully. I decided to go to the pasta dinner, cause that would likely be the only time I’d see people from my running group…they’re all much faster than I. I will say this, though, even though they’re faster…they’re no less supportive. There were folks from that group that stayed outside and were there when I finished, and all of them are funnier than “all get out.” At one point, 3 of them were forming a relay team to do the race at the last minute. I heard plans for carrying a “baton” as well as where the beer would be. Unfortunately, one of the team members has been nursing a hip injury of some sort, and ended up not doing it…so the relay team was out. The food was GREAT! During the dinner, everyone was talking about the impending “snow storm” that we were forecasted to receive. Supposedly, we were going to see between 2 and 4 inches of accumulation some time between 3 and 6 in the morning. I’m running around “willing” the snow not to come. See…I moved to Alabama to get AWAY from the snow. I don’t like the snow. It’s pretty to look at, but the slush and muck and ick that you get after the first few minutes of melting…NOT FUN. They all thought I was nuts, and that I was in some “serious denial.” You know the Lethal Weapon movies, when Danny Glover and Mel Gibson “will” things to happen? That was me…. “willing” the snow to stay away. Besides, it just didn’t feel cold enough to snow. Oh…and you that did races in the 80 degree temps… yeah, it’s not very nice to gloat!</span></span><br><b><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">Morning of</span></span></b><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">Up at 5:00 due to the screaming bladder. I’d hydrated pretty well.</span> <span style="font-family:Wingdings;"><span style="font-family:Wingdings;">J</span></span> <span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">Back to bed to snooze for a bit, then up again at quarter-till to get 2 PBJ sandwiches in my gut. During my last bout of marathon training, I found that those would stick in me long enough to be useful, and wouldn’t make me want to hurl. I just had (and will likely continue to have to) make sure that I am finished eating at least 60 min prior to the start of a long run or effort, preferably 90 min. This avoids what Tithers calls “public butt explosions.” This time, the race had portapotties, and last time, they didn’t. So, that was new. But, I really didn’t want to have to stop, and managed to handle things quite nicely. I’d laid out all my clothes the night before, so getting ready was pretty straightforward. The hardest decision was figuring out which shirt to pin the number to (went with the lowest layer that wasn’t tucked into the tights). Off to the race site (car temperature gauge read 36 degrees, pretty steady rain [NO SNOW] , but nothing torrential), arrived about 30 min before the start. This was a good period of time. I mingled a bit… got some pics taken of friends that would be racing,</span></span><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><img alt="" src="http://www.auburn.edu/~wolfsa1/images/halfmary/fr3.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"></span></span><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">(He swims in the mornings, sometimes. His kids are great!)</span></span><br><br><img alt="" src="http://www.auburn.edu/~wolfsa1/images/halfmary/yayus.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br><span style="font-size:large;">(My race walking friend and I)</span><br><br><img alt="" src="http://www.auburn.edu/~wolfsa1/images/halfmary/wacko.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br>
(I don't know him...but he's a wackadoo!)<br><br><img alt="" src="http://www.auburn.edu/~wolfsa1/images/halfmary/swc.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br>
(My swim coach and me)<br><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">and perfectly timed my last visit to the potty. The start was near a local gym whose managers were nice enough to let the runners use the locker rooms/showers/etc. for pre/post race needs. More on this later.</span></span>
In Word, it was 6 pages long....soooooo I broke it into bits for posting.<br>
This is the "PRE" race information. If you want to skip to the "EVENT" information, see the next thread.<br>
Stitch<br>
---------------<br><br><b><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">Background</span></span></b><br><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">The first time (and only other time) that I did this race, it was held in March. The year following, in March…last year, in January….and this year, in January. The first time I prepped for it, I think I did a better job of getting those long mid-week runs in. Having it so close to the beginning of the semester means that the big time longer runs must be done over the holidays between Thanksgiving and New Years. Great if you’re not constantly travelling, not so great if you are. On the other hand, having to do those runs worked out to be a great holiday food/weight management technique as well. This was the first race of any distance over 10K that I’ve done since I did my first and so far only marathon, as well….back in November of 2005. The in between times were spent recovering from the marathon and taking some time to focus more on swimming. Now that I’ve decided to truly do multisporting, I’m going to have to focus on 3 sports, not just 2, and I have NO CLUE how to go about doing that. Good thing I’ve hired a coach!</span></span><br><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">My swim coach agreed to come out and support and take pics (good thing, too…cause the guy who normally takes a bunch of pre/post pics just spent his entire vacation in Wyoming taking pictures and he’s sick of it right now). Several of my friends also did the event, including Kick member HRMAY. She’s fast. ‘nuff said.</span></span><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">I found a prep program, don’t remember where or who did it, but it might have been one of the ones from the online version of Runners World. I was probably 85% faithful to it. I should have been more faithful to it. Lesson number 1: Have a program? Do the program (barring serious injury or illness, that is).</span></span><br><b><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">Week Before</span></span></b><br><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">EZ runs on Monday and Wed, with normal swim (for this time of year) on Tuesday, and super super light swim on Thursday. I managed to sleep pretty well all week, thankfully. I decided to go to the pasta dinner, cause that would likely be the only time I’d see people from my running group…they’re all much faster than I. I will say this, though, even though they’re faster…they’re no less supportive. There were folks from that group that stayed outside and were there when I finished, and all of them are funnier than “all get out.” At one point, 3 of them were forming a relay team to do the race at the last minute. I heard plans for carrying a “baton” as well as where the beer would be. Unfortunately, one of the team members has been nursing a hip injury of some sort, and ended up not doing it…so the relay team was out. The food was GREAT! During the dinner, everyone was talking about the impending “snow storm” that we were forecasted to receive. Supposedly, we were going to see between 2 and 4 inches of accumulation some time between 3 and 6 in the morning. I’m running around “willing” the snow not to come. See…I moved to Alabama to get AWAY from the snow. I don’t like the snow. It’s pretty to look at, but the slush and muck and ick that you get after the first few minutes of melting…NOT FUN. They all thought I was nuts, and that I was in some “serious denial.” You know the Lethal Weapon movies, when Danny Glover and Mel Gibson “will” things to happen? That was me…. “willing” the snow to stay away. Besides, it just didn’t feel cold enough to snow. Oh…and you that did races in the 80 degree temps… yeah, it’s not very nice to gloat!</span></span><br><b><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="font-size:medium;">Morning of</span></span></b><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">Up at 5:00 due to the screaming bladder. I’d hydrated pretty well.</span> <span style="font-family:Wingdings;"><span style="font-family:Wingdings;">J</span></span> <span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">Back to bed to snooze for a bit, then up again at quarter-till to get 2 PBJ sandwiches in my gut. During my last bout of marathon training, I found that those would stick in me long enough to be useful, and wouldn’t make me want to hurl. I just had (and will likely continue to have to) make sure that I am finished eating at least 60 min prior to the start of a long run or effort, preferably 90 min. This avoids what Tithers calls “public butt explosions.” This time, the race had portapotties, and last time, they didn’t. So, that was new. But, I really didn’t want to have to stop, and managed to handle things quite nicely. I’d laid out all my clothes the night before, so getting ready was pretty straightforward. The hardest decision was figuring out which shirt to pin the number to (went with the lowest layer that wasn’t tucked into the tights). Off to the race site (car temperature gauge read 36 degrees, pretty steady rain [NO SNOW] , but nothing torrential), arrived about 30 min before the start. This was a good period of time. I mingled a bit… got some pics taken of friends that would be racing,</span></span><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';"><img alt="" src="http://www.auburn.edu/~wolfsa1/images/halfmary/fr3.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"></span></span><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">(He swims in the mornings, sometimes. His kids are great!)</span></span><br><br><img alt="" src="http://www.auburn.edu/~wolfsa1/images/halfmary/yayus.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br><span style="font-size:large;">(My race walking friend and I)</span><br><br><img alt="" src="http://www.auburn.edu/~wolfsa1/images/halfmary/wacko.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br>
(I don't know him...but he's a wackadoo!)<br><br><img alt="" src="http://www.auburn.edu/~wolfsa1/images/halfmary/swc.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br>
(My swim coach and me)<br><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Bookman Old Style';">and perfectly timed my last visit to the potty. The start was near a local gym whose managers were nice enough to let the runners use the locker rooms/showers/etc. for pre/post race needs. More on this later.</span></span>
