Knowing that all three of us were more than capable in our respective disciplines we had the podium in our crosshairs. Well, this was before we discovered that in relays there are no gender prizes. Oh well, we don't mind beating a lot of male and mixed gender teams too!
And I'm not short. These girls are just tall.
Jules (on the left) is an amazing swimmer. Cranks out the HM distance like it is NBD and only occasionally pukes a little in her mouth. Pretty damn impressive! She had just done a HM the week before so this was a walk in the park for her...
Kellie (the very tallest one in the middle) came with a reputation of being "an animal on the bike". She does centuries regularly just for fun! She is actually an Ironman which is pretty ridiculous/amazing.
And then there is me, the short one, the BQ marathoner, the pink haired, ninja socked, peanut butter soaked runner.
And yes, we are amazing.
Kellie (the very tallest one in the middle) came with a reputation of being "an animal on the bike". She does centuries regularly just for fun! She is actually an Ironman which is pretty ridiculous/amazing.
And then there is me, the short one, the BQ marathoner, the pink haired, ninja socked, peanut butter soaked runner.
And yes, we are amazing.
After a night in a slightly seedy motel, mostly tossing and turning to the dulcet sounds of a malfunctioning a/c unit and the typical set of youngsters fighting drunkenly in the hallway at 3:10, we awoke (or, acknowledged the alarm) to the most spectacular day imaginable!
After a bit of texting and twittering I found my team mates as Jules prepared for the swim. Kellie had had an unfortunate lapse and forgotten her water bottle cage and all her nutrition. Whoops! Luckily Julia and Dutch had a few extra bikes and a bag of snacks in their car so she was set straight without further ado. It is always good to have friends who are prepared.
Jules hopped in the water to acclimate to the frigid temps and to fight off the sharks and a small disaster struck. The timing chip fell off her ankle and floated away, out to sea, on the low, low tide. She had such peace of mind that I hardly noticed the incident and she came back to where Dutch and I were animatedly chatting about National Waffle Day without missing a beat.
It is good to get the trouble out of the way early.
It is good to get the trouble out of the way early.
Once Jules (and Eric) were in the water Kellie and I decided there was nothing more that we could do on the beach in the freezing cold sand. After leaving 400 tri bags in Jules and Dutch's car the two of us went to transition to strategize our imminent victory.
Or something like that...
Kellie spent a moment questioning her life choice to ride 56 miles on legs that she claimed were slightly untrained (false.) We had just struck up an excellent conversation about her upcoming nuptials when BOOM! Julia ran in, the second relay-er out of the water in ALL kinds of blazing speed. There was a .25 mile run from the water, or something just ghastly like that.
We were sitting pretty, on top of the world. Jules had a solid swim (34 minutes? I think?) she did not vomit, she was about 98% coherent and 100% badass. Then.... We had a few hours to kill. We watched the pro's roll in. I chilled with my family in law. I got into my race gear hours early to appease my SIL who is basically Eric in a a female body (which is why we get along like peas and carrots.) I ate 2 PB&J's. And then I walked back to transition.
The best part of being on a relay team is the fun of sitting in transition, cheering for athletes as they run in and hanging with your friends. Who like to pick me up.
Kellie had guessed that she would complete the bike in 3 hours, Eric swore up and down that she was sandbagging and to be ready at the 2:45 mark (and as previously mentioned, I was ready at the 1:45 mark.)
At 3:00 Jules and I started getting edgy.
At 3:05 you would have thought the world was ending.
At 3:10 we decided that she surely had sustained grievous injury or a flat.
We might be impatient people?
At 3:12 she cranked in and I HIT THE ROAD!!!
And yeah. There are currently no pictures to prove that I did anything other that twiddle around all day eating and mouthing off.
I'm going to spare everyone the blow by blow of the run since this was a team day but here is a recap:
The course was pretty flat, much more flat then anything I have run this year. It was close to 80 but not too humid, a VERY nice change. I had a couple of pretty amazing runs before this one which planted the seed in my head that my (Boston 1/2 split) or 1:42 might be feasible.
It was the best race I had run since Boston. At every mile my whole body said "yes, I can do this, no problem" and so I did. I saw many of my friends out there which was awesome but my focus rarely shifted from running and how amazing it felt. We all know that races like this can be hard to come by so I simply enjoyed it, and motored on to a 1:37:10 finish. Pretty damn close to my current PR of 1:36:40 (from April of '12)
I was a touch incoherent at the finish. All in all though I felt great and was really pleased with my effort! Finishing as a team was really awesome and that is something that makes a relay unique! Our overall finishing time was 5:30:23. We are fast and dangerous. The following pictures give an excellent representation of this amazing badass/danger persona that we all bring to the table.
Kellie had guessed that she would complete the bike in 3 hours, Eric swore up and down that she was sandbagging and to be ready at the 2:45 mark (and as previously mentioned, I was ready at the 1:45 mark.)
At 3:00 Jules and I started getting edgy.
At 3:05 you would have thought the world was ending.
At 3:10 we decided that she surely had sustained grievous injury or a flat.
We might be impatient people?
At 3:12 she cranked in and I HIT THE ROAD!!!
And yeah. There are currently no pictures to prove that I did anything other that twiddle around all day eating and mouthing off.
I'm going to spare everyone the blow by blow of the run since this was a team day but here is a recap:
The course was pretty flat, much more flat then anything I have run this year. It was close to 80 but not too humid, a VERY nice change. I had a couple of pretty amazing runs before this one which planted the seed in my head that my (Boston 1/2 split) or 1:42 might be feasible.
It was the best race I had run since Boston. At every mile my whole body said "yes, I can do this, no problem" and so I did. I saw many of my friends out there which was awesome but my focus rarely shifted from running and how amazing it felt. We all know that races like this can be hard to come by so I simply enjoyed it, and motored on to a 1:37:10 finish. Pretty damn close to my current PR of 1:36:40 (from April of '12)
I was a touch incoherent at the finish. All in all though I felt great and was really pleased with my effort! Finishing as a team was really awesome and that is something that makes a relay unique! Our overall finishing time was 5:30:23. We are fast and dangerous. The following pictures give an excellent representation of this amazing badass/danger persona that we all bring to the table.
So awesome seeing you there! Such a fun weekend-you had an awesome team!! Congrats on a great day and a smoking fast run!
ReplyDeleteso much fun all around! and with great people :) and damn, you are fucking fast!!
ReplyDeleteyes, all of you are fucking fast.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! Sounds like a good time all around. It may not have been humid but 80 is 80. Very impressive.
ReplyDeleteWoohoo!!! I hate swimming. Great you found someone who can kick ass at it.
ReplyDeleteAwesome report, and kudos on picking a team name that is just plain honest!
ReplyDelete