Sunday, September 10, 2006

One last Tri (update) and 20 Miler Done!


The 'official' results for St. Croix Valley were FINALLY posted last week on Thursday. Took those folks forever to get them upload on the site. Then took me even longer to post this -- but at least there is a photo of me "charging" the finish line. (And, if you look closely to the left of me, you see two cheering women. Those are my good friends Angel and Carla both of whom are competing in Ironman Wisconsin as I write this. GO Angel and Carla!!!)

My swim was 13:56, with a T1 time of 2:45. I was well ahead of last years 2:07 swim time and 4:22 T1 time. (6:11 ahead on the swim; 2:37 ahead during T1, for a total of 8:48 ahead of 2005 results.

Then the "2-flat" meltdown. My bike time was recorded as 1:00:09. Last year it was 44:35. A whopping 15:36 over last year.

I'm guessing that the officials added all the time it took for me to get back in to the transition area after discovering Flat #1 and then trying to find someone with an airpump, filling the tire, getting back in and out of transition again in to my bike time.

T2 was faster this year (1:18 vs. 1:58 in 2005 (40 seconds ahead).

Run took me 32 SECONDS longer this year over last year (45:51 vs 45:19)

Total recorded time on the course for 2006 = 2:04:47
Time for 2005 = 1:56:19
"Official" difference of 8:28.

Grrrrr.

I know that, technically, the recorded time is the recorded time, but my "woulda/coulda/shoulda time" = 1:45:23 (if swim, T-times and run time were all as they were and IF my bike time had equaled 2005 time).

Sigh. Thus endth my 2006 Triathlon season.

All in all, I had a great season all the way from Tri-U-Mah in February until St. Croix Valley. I'm already excited to start training for 2007!

Speaking of training: I'm STILL training for Twin Cities Marathon. There is only about three weeks to go till race day and, thank heavens, we are just entering taper time.

I ran my last LONG run yesterday with my team. Marcia, Cheryl, Mary and I slogged along together for the entire 20 mile run.

We started at the State Capitol and followed the Marathon course back to mile 16, which runs along Minnehaha Parkway. That was our turnaround and we headed up the Marathon course again to the "finish". This is a great practice run because you can make mental notes of where certain spots are along the trail: "Okay, this is the distance from the Lake Street bridge to the Franklin Bridge -- lots longer that I thought". "Here is the spot that the big dreadful hill starts". "There are the portapotties".

We start out fresh for the first 10 miles and by the time we turn around to head back, we've got some of the mental/physical challenges created -- tired; sick of doing the walk/run thing; this is how the hill feels NOW, not 8 miles ago, etc.

Our little running group has really bonded over the training season. We were all keeping each other very motivated and on-task with our pace and our run/walk pace. It's been a blast running with them and really getting to know them.

After we were done with our run, the four of us had lunch at Cafe Latte -- a popular St. Paul restaurant. Food and conversation were both terrific.

Now we enter taper -- pull back on the miles a bit, rest, recover and get ready for October 1st. Fortunately, I've got lots to keep me occupied at work and at home.

Hubby and I leave for Europe on October 3rd. We're working on finalizing our plans. It will be both of our first times overseas. We are both very excited and I'm sure I'll cover more about our plans on the blog over the next couple of weeks.

Now, though, I think I'll go stretch my quads....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good job on the 20 miler AmyB! I will be there on the 1st to cheer you on!!

Dori said...

Awesome! Hurray for taper time. It brought back memories, reading about your Capital Run. I'm sorry I wasn't there to do a water stop for you. Maybe we can run when you taper to 10 miles.

Mmem said...

WTG on completing the tri! Crappy luck with the flats, but I am still in awe that you finished.

And another HUGE WTG for completing your 20 miler! That is, well, almost a marathon, whoa!

Bon voyage to Europe!