wondergirl 5k

This race was on my schedule more for the little one than for me. She has been asking me constantly if she could race with me all year and finally her chance arrived. She woke up early and got ready, then we got in the car for the one hour drive to the race site. She didn't want breakfast, but I brought along a granola bar for her because I knew she would get hungry. When we got to the race site, everyone kept saying how cute she was and she was just soaking it all up. I didn't expect her to run that much since the last few times she would ride for a long time, then run a little before getting back in to ride again. We were in the last group which was supposed to start 3 minutes after the group before ours so we were cheering on all the Girls on the Run girls from the front, then we went to get in line for our start, but there was no one there, I guess then just let all the rec runners just go when ever. So we got to the start and she was ready to run, she got out and ran across the start line, which brought a huge applause from all the people watching, her friend was there as well and all the people were screaming how cute they were and saying run girls run! This overwhelmed them a little and they ran to their parents, but did not get in the joggers. After about 100 yards she was ready to ride, but after 10 seconds she wanted to get out and run again. This time she ran for a really long time before saying she was thirsty. She got back in, had a couple sips of her vitamin water then was ready to run again. This went on for the next two miles. I was really amazed how long she ran, and all the volunteers were so great encouraging her at all the turns, she was loving all the attention. After about 2.5 miles I could tell she was getting tired as her breaks were getting longer and her runs where getting shorter. But still she persisted in getting out to run, I think I had one downhill with her in the jogger that I could stretch out my legs but the rest was slow jogs or fast walks to keep up with her pace. Then we came to the final stretch and she got out with about .1 to go and ran the rest of the way to all the cheers and applause from the crowd and hit the finish. I think she ran about 2.5 miles of the 5k but was still ready to bounce in the castle they had setup.
The next morning her feet were sore and told her mom she couldn't walk because she was too tired.

FSSeries Sprint Tri Race Report

This race was more of practice then a race, but still I wanted to do well. My primary goals were to go hard in all three, remember how to transition, and have fun. The morning started off cold and I really didn't want to get in the water to warm up before the swim, so I only warmed up the run, my knees were bugging me in the cold until I started to warmup but still I didn't feel like I was ready to race, but without a taper it was probably to be expected.
Total time 1:22:36 ( I think )
Swim - 13:58 - should have warmed up first it wasn't as cold as I was expecting and after jumping in and redlining right away, I finally relaxed and tried to get into a rhythm and remember to sight as I was all over the place the first 200 yards or so but eventually got going.
T1 - 3:49 - There was a really steep long hill just after the swim exit from the water and then a short jog to the transition area, then I had a small problem with my wetsuit so 3:49 is pretty good.
Bike - 34:27 - 18.6 mph - Bike went fairly well, still need some work on it though. Started off great with a nice down hill, but then it was up for like 2 miles to tryon this part was really hard, but then it was fairly flat for a while so I got to recover a little before the rolling section, and then a wonderful downhill finish except for the .3 miles back up to transition that I will have to do again on the run. I think I could have done better on this, but I backed off a couple times on the downhills so I could recover a little.
T2 - 1:30 - This was smooth and easy, found my spot, off with the helmet and shoes, then on go the running shoes and grab the number and I was off.
Run - 28:46 - Mile 1 was 8:30, coach said I should save some for the end so I backed off the second mile, and because it was mostly uphill :-), and did 9:07, then I thought I was going really fast on mile 3 as it was all downhill until that final uphill to the finish. I heard it might have been a little over a 5k, but either way I think it was a decent time for the hilly course it was.
All and all it was a good race, don't know my official results yet since I didn't want to hang out another hour to find out but I might update this post later with them if they are good ;-)
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Update I got 3rd out of 19 in the clydesdale division, woo hoo
ends up the run course was 3.3 miles, so I averaged an 8:45 / mile pace. Now I feel better, I knew I wasn't going that slow
Official splits
sw T1 Bike T2 Run Total
William Reid 15:29 2:14 34:56 1:14 28:55 1:22:46.1

Training at Altitude

The altitude today was sea level :-).
On the schedule for today was a 30 minute ocean swim followed by a 3 mile run on the beach.
We arrived in Daytona at 11pm last night and I must have been really tired since I slept in until about 7:30. Ate breakfast and woke the family so we could all goto the beach. Got to the beach around 9 and I put on my wetsuit and got ready to swim. The water temp was 72 degrees, the waves were 2 to 4 feet and my Dad tells me there was a shark attack two days ago about 10 miles south of here. Sound like fun? So I head out into the water and the waves look a lot bigger when they are crashing down on you. It takes me 6 minutes to get past the breakers and the surfers, somehow my goggles stayed on, but the left side was filled with water. Drained the goggles and started to swim into the current. I swam about .25 miles ( measured it later while running) in 16 minutes, dodging pelicans and surfers and waves that kept crashing on my head, then turned around and swam back. The current was very strong as it only took me about 6 minutes to get back, once again I had to dodge the surfers that kept looking at me funny. Then I got to body surf back into shore. When I got out I was tired, my legs were tired, my arms were tired and my lower back was tired. It is much harder swimming in the ocean with all the different forces pulling you this way and that. Luckily I avoided all the sharks, but I have to say there were a couple times while I was out there that I thought about it...
After changing out to the wetsuit and into my running shoes, I headed south into the wind. I was supposed to run 3 miles at 9:30 pace, but into the wind the best I could manage was 9:45 after a mile I turned around as I didn't want to make the family wait too long for me and I was ready. Running back with the wind was much better, I was doing a consistent 8:45 pace and feeling much better. It is much harder running on the beach and my hamstrings were telling me all about it. Finally I saw the end. Then I did a couple of sprint races with the kid, to the life guard, she won, then back to grand pa, she won again.
It was a tough workout, but I really enjoyed it.