Do the Du Duathlon

Ashley did it! She completed her first Duathlon. There was no timing for this event, which I think is fine since it's kids. There were probably only about 30-35 kids running the short course of this event with Ashley. They ran .5 miles on a paved path around some baseball fields, then a 2 mile bike in a neighborhood, and then back on the paved path for .5 miles more. Here is Ashley at the start (in the bright pink shirt, glad she wore that so I could see her from far away):

And here she is coming into transition to pick up her bike. She ran the entire .5 miles, and I think she was excited to get on the bike.

And here she is in the transition area....first rule - get your helmet on! Then they had to walk their bikes out of transition, which is hard for kids. They just want to get on and ride.

Here she is coming at the end of the first lap of the 2 miles on her bike. The guy in the yellow shirt is her escort. I was worried about her as the neighborhood she had to ride through had a ton of parked cars on the side of the streets, some hills, and she just didn't know the area. I was not the only psycho parent requesting an escort for their kid. It kind of sucked though, because the last part of the loop was uphill and in the middle of that, the kids had to stop and get marked saying what lap they were on. This meant they lost momentum.

And here she is crossing the finish. They had a "tape" for the all the kids to run through which was cute. Her friend Alyssa is right behind her. Funny story though, as they were both taking forever on that last run part. Alyssa's Mom ran to see if they were okay as Alyssa had pneumonia earlier in the week and Ashley was having allergy issues and a sinus infection. Of course they were fine, they had just stopped to pick dandelions. Yes, you read that right. They finally got running again when Alyssa's Mom reminded them they were in a race. Oh, and Alyssa's Mom is the one I ran the half with a few weeks ago, so that was kind of cute.
And here the two of them are at the finish. Yes, they are the same age. Ashley is not an amazon, she is just a little tall for her age, and Alyssa is a little short for her age.

Surprisingly, Ashley did not crash after this. In fact, the race was held at a park, and we spent another hour playing there and then Audrey had a birthday party to attend at a park later that afternoon where the two of them played for another 2 hours. I asked Ashley if she was sore this morning, and she said only a little. Now she wants to do a triathlon....

Psycho parent

Tomorrow Ashley is taking part in a duathlon (of which I have a hard time pronouncing for some reason...) where she will run for 1/2 mile, bike 2 miles, run 1/2 mile. Originally, Ray was going to be allowed to accompany her on his bike during her bike portion. Well, now they are saying parents are not allowed to ride along as they don't want the course too crowded. Which is fine and all, but I am a worried parent and not that I don't think Ashley can handle the bike portion, I am just afraid of her falling or getting lost.

Because I like to worry.

So I emailed the race director, and Ashley can be escorted by a race volunteer if I think she needs it. I am going to drive the bike course tonight (it is a one mile loop that she has to do twice) and see if it is hard or hilly. And I may position Ray or his brother on the far part of the bike portion just in case.

Because I am psycho.

I plan on taking tons of pictures of Ashley's first duathlon, but it's not her first race. She has already done a mile run, and she is going to do the Race for the Cure in June with me. And she seems to think she will run the entire 3.2 miles. I think she needs to start training. We might start going to the track one night a week for her to train and for me to get some speed work in. I royally failed a "tempo run" this week where you warm up, push the pace for a few miles, and warm down. I thought I had picked up the pace and when my Garmin beeped at mile 2 and let me know I was actually running the same exact pace, I was pretty pissed. And defeated. I guess I will try again.

A nice color of yellow

Everything here is a nice shade of yellow due to the pollen. We rinse the deck off or the playground, and 10 minutes later it looks like we didn't do anything to it and it is covered in yellow again.

Audrey and Ray have had seasonal allergies for years. Audrey has been taking Zyrtec since she was one.

And now we can add one more of our family to the list of allergy victims - Ashley. She has been stuffy for weeks, and last night spiked a fever. A quick trip to the doctor this morning, and she has allergies and a sinus infection.

So her and I are having a nice day off today.

All Grown Up

Since my office was closed on Friday and the girls did not have school, we decided at the last minute to head to Myrtle Beach for the holiday weekend. Warm weather was on tap, and we did actually get some beach time in.

The other exciting thing?

Both girls got their ears pierced.

Audrey came home from preschool on Thursday saying she wanted her ears pierced. And a note - Audrey has my threshold of pain, pretty high. Ashley - her threshold of pain is like Ray's, meaning it's nonexistent. Seriously. We told Audrey she could get it done, and Ashley said she wasn't interested.

And then Ashley waffled up until the last minute, at which I think she realized if her sister could do it, so could she.

Ignore the face painting.

Ashley didn't even cry, while Audrey cried long enough for them to give her a lollipop, then she was fine. And Ray was in charge of taking photos, so he's to blame for none of Audrey on my iPhone. Both girls sat in my lap for the "procedure", so I could not take pictures.

March Recap

So for the month of March, I ran exactly 60 miles. This was my second highest mileage month since I started running last June. My other highest month was October 2009 and I logged 70.3 miles that month in preparation for OBX Half Marathon.

I am going attempt to keep up with 60+ mile months and start seriously training again in July for a fall half marathon. Any tips on keeping motivated while not specifically training for something would be greatly appreciated!!

Great Wolf Lodge

I have a kid who is is afraid of loud noises, having nightmares, bees and spiders. But afraid of a roller coaster that goes upside down? Nope, she will ride it all day long. Afraid of water and some scary surfing thing? Not at all. Here is video proof...



Yes, she didn't do too well, but she didn't cry. In fact, she walked right down and shrugged her shoulders and said, "At least I tried it". I think kids her size and age are just too light for this, they need to be heavier on the board.

We had a great time at Great Wolf Lodge. We actually went to the one in Williamsburg, VA instead of the one in Concord, NC (they are equal distance from Raleigh) and I liked the water park better at the one in Williamsburg. And lucky for us, they weren't sticklers for the height requirement because Audrey was still a few inches short of the 42 inch requirement for the family raft ride, but they let her ride it anyway. Carry her up a couple flights of stairs about 25 times was not fun though.

Random thoughtsssszzzzzzzzzzzz

I did make it to the gym last night, but my left knee was tight, so I ran 1/2 mile on the dreadmill before calling it quits. I chose the bike instead and was able to watch some of American Idol. I love multi-tasking....

We are headed to Myrtle this weekend, so I am hopeful to get in a few flat decent miles run. I don't know much about running, but I want to keep a base up for the next few months before I start training for fall half marathons. And no, no one has convinced me yet to do a full.

Ashley has turned from a six year old to a 12 year old over night. Nevermind, a 16 year old. We have instituted a "no warnings you're out" rule when she gets sassy or talks back to Ray and I. (On a side note, I am raising a mini-me according to Ray. Ashley has to have the last word in arguments. I might sometimes once in a while act like that as well....just saying.) No warnings, just punishment. So far not being able to ride bikes with her friends last night resulted in her crying for over an hour, so I am thinking it might work.

The weather is finally warm. It is supposed to be in the upper 80s here on Friday, same at Myrtle Beach.

I would love to run at lunchtime at work (I work in downtown Raleigh), but now that it's warm, I would definitely require a shower. Next door to my office is a Salvation Army building, and I contacted them about letting me and a few coworkers use their showers. We are in the final negotiations, but I think it will be a go.

Raleigh Rocks 1/2 Marathon: The full recap

Okay, here's my full recap on the Raleigh Rocks 1/2 Marathon. Kind of lengthy, but deal:

For starters, this race was night and day as far as organization and such from the OBX 1/2 Marathon I did in November. Maybe it's partly because the OBX race had a full marathon attached to it and this one didn't, but still. There was no "expo", the website never stated where the water stations would be, and there were no pacers. My friend picked up my race packet for me, and we got stuck with these weird blue men's size small shirts. She was told that was all they had, even though she picked up on the very first day, but at a satellite location (not from the convention center where the race started). We saw a lot of women on race day wearing a white version of the shirt and we asked one where she got it. She said she got it when she picked up her packet and was told that the women's shirts were white. Nice. We got stuck with the men's.

Since I had no idea of the water stations, I brought my handheld water bottle. I am glad I did. There were maybe 4 or 5 water stations along the course, and as we were passing the first one, they were filling up the water cups with a hose from a nearby house.

I also don't remember seeing any mile markers past mile 8. I had my Garmin, so I was good to go.

But still, I am very appreciative of all the volunteers and the police guarding the course as well as the bands that played. The crowd support was sparse, but it was cold that morning, so I understand.

A mile by mile breakdown:

Mile 1: 9:59
I had my Garmin (luckily, at first I thought I left it at home and frantically called Ray then realized it was in the van the whole time) and I tried to keep our pace slower. My friend is speedy, and I knew I would die at the end if I ran the first few miles fast. We started in the shade of the tall buildings in downtown Raleigh, and we started sort of towards the back of the pack. We did some dodging, but it wasn't too bad. Mile 1 pace was right on target.

Mile 2: 9:53
We wanted to keep a 10:00min/mile pace and this mile kept right on that. We were headed straight down Hillsborough street, and I think it was slightly uphill, but it didn't feel like it.

Mile 3: 9:47
We turned off Hillsborough street onto a side street and past the first water station. Right after Mile 3, we were heading across Hillsborough onto NC State campus, and I saw my friend Wendy, the one I did OBX with. She was crazy, jumping up and down and taking pictures.

Mile 4: 9:34
Yes, the pace got better and better. And honestly, it didn't feel too fast. We were going up and down hills, but nothing major. We saw Ray and the girls between Mile 3 and 4. The girls were cute yelling for me.

Mile 5: 9:33
Another speedy mile for me. And there were hills in there! I saw Ray and the girls and my friend Wendy again before Mile 5. My friend I was running with was having shoe issues, so we pulled off to the side and she retied her shoe. I also started to nurse my Gu I had with me.

Mile 6: 10:08
Still a fast mile considering we had stopped for the shoe thing between Mile 5 and 6. This mile was pretty boring, running under a major highway, but we did see a cute kids' band playing 70s rock. That was funny.

Mile 7: 9:53
I was actually getting nervous. I was beginning to realize that I could beat my previous time be more than a few minutes. I saw Ray and the girls again during this mile. I also knew the hardest mile as far as hills was coming.

Mile 8: 10:10
My neighbor, who I didn't know was coming, was cheering me on right at the start of this mile! She had a poster and everything and was braving the chilly temps (it was in the 30s at race start time). Mile 8 had this huge downhill which messed with my knee, then a huge uphill (as in switchbacks it was so steep), but we made it. This part of the course was actually on a paved trail behind the art museum, so the new scenery was interesting.

Mile 9: 10:34
We crossed over the beltline on a pedestrian bridge, and there was another downhill and uphill as we came up to Meredith College. At the top of the hill was a bagpipe player which was cool except that it sounded like he was playing a death march.

Mile 10: 10:17
Back on the streets that we came in on, I took a Gu chomp and between that and my nerves, I thought I was going to lose my stomach contents. My friend told me "mind over matter" and I got through it.

Mile 11: 9:58
Back on track with our pace. I was super stoked at this point.

Mile 12: 10:10
Between mile 11 and 12, my friend asked if we could walk for a minute. I could have kept on, but I think that minute of walking helped. And our pace stayed pretty much the same anyway.

Mile 13: 9:20
We knew we were near the end, and we kept trying to pick up the pace.

Mile .18: 8:28
Obviously, we were a little long, but with all the dodging and stuff, I expected this.

Official results:
2:10:51
773/1173 participants
81/133 for my age group

It was a good race despite the things I had an issue with (like the lack of water stations). I was shocked how easy those faster miles were. I was actually able to talk to my friend during those fast miles (I know, I am saying fast and most of you are probably thinking what a turtle I am), and I didn't feel overwhelmed. I am still a little sore today, but nothing like I was with my first half.

My next goal? A sub-2 hour half marathon. If only LMC would coach me....:).