So, I did it! (and had fun...don't tell anyone)

So, that's me. Up there ^. With the ears. Crossing the finish line of the 2011 Walt Disney World Half Marathon. I generally don't go in for tooting my own horn but...TOOT! I'm damn proud of myself for it. If you'd told me three years ago that I'd do that I'd have laughed in your face. It's really kind of amazing what you can do when you stop whining and saying "no" to yourself.
I'm going to divide this up into two posts, one a race report and a separate one on general WDW Marathon Weekend tips.
But, before I go any further, I have to give a HUGE thank you to Mr. TheyTri for all of his support in this. I know he was worried, but he stayed positive and supportive the whole time. Thank you, honey. And I have to give another huge thank you to Cat Webb and Sam Dickey for running with me and making my first half experience fun! I'd not have done nearly as well without them making me smile the whole way! And, last but not least, a big thanks to Jeremy Webb and Dave Dickey for making the trip so much fun with so many laughs! And congrats to Jeremy on his half PR!
So, Thursday we wake up before the crack of dawn to catch our flight to ORL from Westchester County Airport. I love Westchester Airport. It's tiny, efficient and, most importantly, 20 minutes from the house. No problem with flight at all. Our other two traveling parties weren't so lucky out of Houston and Chicago.
We arrived in Orlando, collected bags and then hopped on the Magical Express to Port Orleans Riverside. We took advantage of the online check in to skip the long line and fortunately, a room was ready for us. dropped off our bags and then headed to Hollywood Studios for some lunch and to wait for everyone else to arrive. Good meal then we decided we were too exhausted from the 4 a.m. wake up so we went back to room to crash. After a snooze we met Jeremy and Cat at Epcot for a celebratory drink at the Rose and Crown. Then onward to meet Sam and Dave for dinner at Shula's at the Dolphin. Aside from Mr. TheyTri putting his foot in his mouth within 10 min. of meeting Dave, laughs abound. Drinks abound, too.
Friday is packet pick up at Wide World of Sports. We bus it over, the Mears busses were so efficient (at this point)...way better than the Disney busses which were *painfully* slow from Port Orleans. Our lines weren't very long so we managed to cruise through getting numbers and collecting our goodie bags. We poked around the expo a bit but I wasn't, to be honest, all that impressed by it. It was crowded and nothing we haven't seen a thousand times before. (Though, we all did laugh at the "will run for wine" shirts).
Magic Kingdom for a bit then back to the hotel early for race prep and early bedtime. I had nervous energy but had a glass of wine (ok, 2) with dinner to calm my nerves and then crashed out.

Woke up before alarm at 2:55 a.m. Coffee on. Clothes on. Ready to go. I wasn't sure what to eat, I get nauseous if I eat too early, so I just had 2 bites of a Luna bar and two bites of a Lara bar and then decided I couldn't stomach it. Brought a packet of Justin's Honey Almond Nut Butter for the bus ride instead. (Thank God...hit the spot). Coffee. Let's GO!
Chilly morning, but not bad. Board the bus quickly and we're off. But...not off far...the traffic getting to the Epcot parking lot was *horrible*. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to take what should have been a 5 minute ride. I was so anxious we were going to miss the start. Disney really needs to sort that out...institute a bus only route to Epcot or something. It was all the more frustrating later when I saw that we could have walked to the corrals from Port Orleans French Quarter in about 5 minutes. I'm sure Disney frowns on that but I can assure you people will do that next year if they don't sort out the busses.
Anyway, we get there and we finally link up with the rest of the team. Quick smooch from Mr. TheyTri and then we head to our corrals. Cat and Sam hung back with me in my lame-o F corral so we could all run together.
After all the pre-race stuff, Al Roker, Anthem etc...the fireworks go off and the first corral goes! Go honey and Jeremy! We hang around for another half hour or so until they get to our wave and then...we're off!
I oddly didn't feel that nervous. I was nervous before we left the hotel but the bus situation made me so annoyed that I just wanted to get going!

The course is flat, flat, flat, with only a few 'hills' caused by overpasses. Love it. My kind of course! We shuffle along to the 5k mark and then take a little walk break while Cat and I take our jackets off...was a bit overdressed and was overheating once I was moving. Then, back to the run. Just about mile 5.5, just when I'd ordinarily start to be crabby and wanting a walk break, we enter the Magic Kingdom. How can you be crabby running up Main Street USA with crowds cheering you? You can't, I tell you! We smiled and kept running through Tomorrowland, with a bit of a potty break, then through Fantasyland and through Cinderella's Castle. Again, impossible not to smile. We, of course, had to stop and take a picture. The whole point of running the damn thing!
On through Frontierland and then through the backstage area and out onto the road again. By this time we're getting tired and the road at this point in the race is narrow and crowded. We took a few walk breaks simply because it was pointless to run...too many bodies in too small a space.  We pretty much did a run walk the last four miles or so. With me earning the nickname Captain because I made the girls run the downhills! I felt surprisingly good, though my right side started to crap out on me...hip, knee, pinky toe. I was also surprisingly cheerful. Running with friends is so key!
Finally we spy the Epcot entrance. We agree (or, I command) that we're gonna run the whole last stretch once we enter the Epcot park. It seems like the longest mile on Earth, but we get there and we, all three, cross the finish line smiling. I hear Mr. TheyTri cheering from the stands and I see him smiling with Jeremy and my in-laws, supporters extraordinare!
We joke and smile and make a bee-line for our medals. Then grab some food and meet back up with Mr. TheyTri and Jeremy.
I felt great. I knew I was going to be sore, but I didn't feel dead. I was happy and proud and it was a really remarkable feeling. I tell myself "no" a lot. "Can't." I guess I proved myself wrong.

Almost Time!

Down near the end if my last post I mention in passing that I wasn't feeling well. That was the first link in a month-long chain of health anomalies. I was sick with a terrible cold for about 10 days. Then, just after Christmas, managed to pinch something in my back/neck that turned me into Frankenstein and then I somehow managed to burst a blood vessel in my right eye making it all red. Fortunately all my tribulations are clearing up and I'm healthy got Disney trip!
What I am, however, is under-trained. I lost valuable training time, time I couldn't afford to lose. But, and here's the weird thing, I'm not worried. I know it's going to be harder than it would have been if I'd not gotten sick and if I'd buckled down sooner to up mileage. But, for me anything past the start line is a PR. It may not be the most pleasant morning of my life, but I'll be there with friends and a very supportive Mr. TheyTri and I'll just buck up and do it!
I'm very much looking forward to the trip, despite the race apprehension hanging over me. It is, frankly, why I choose the Disney races. For me, they are events, more than a start and finish line. Because I'm not "competing," it's about the entire experience. We'll be Tweeting from WDW from Thursday on. Stay tuned!




PS, this was thumbed in on my iPhone so hopefully there is nothing www.damnyouautocorrect.com worthy!

Slacker

Ok. So, I could proffer many excuses as to my slacking on the posting but I won't bore you with them. Suffice it to say, I've been having a little triathlon off-season myself. We all need breaks!
I've been doing moderately well with my running. Disney is less than a month away. It's going to be...not easy. But, I knew that when I registered and I registered anyway. Mr. TheyTri has been very supportive and pushing me (in the good way) to get out and train. I've been running every weekend and try to get in at least one or two sessions during the week. Rough stuff now that it's dark so early and the weather has been so rough. But, I bought some cold weather gear on Friday and went out for an hour yesterday. Nike stuff kept me toasty. And I'm a little in love with the Nike headband I bought...only thing I've found that keeps my hair outta my face during this in-between length phase.
Going to try and keep at it for the final push. I should be downstairs on the treadmill as I type but I gotta be honest, I'm feeling kinda lousy today. We'll see if I can rally later. if not, will try for tomorrow. Gotta keep at it so I can finish and, more importantly, not be in such pain following the race that I can't enjoy being at the parks!

Texas Tips!

Our good friend, Jeremy, sent us a list of some of his best tips for Texas tris! We've added it to the main TheyTri.com Texas page. That'd be on our sloooooooooooooooowly expanding web site. I really gotta figure out this wiki thing. :)
Thanks, Worm!
https://sites.google.com/site/theytri/races-1/texas/texas-triathlons

Blurg with a side of Yay.

So, I've been a little 'lifed' lately and kind of a Slacky Slacksalot on the blogging. Work has been very busy and life has been very busy. Isn't it for everyone? But, Mr. TheyTri and I have also been sharing a nasty cold back and forth for going on a month that has really knocked us both down for the count. We're both finally on the mend, I think.
But, for the good news! Mr. TheyTri and I are now the proud Aunt/Uncle/Godparents of handsome baby William Ryan. My brother and sister-in-law welcomed the newest member of our family 3 weeks ago and he's just a peach. I could eat him whole. So, that's good.
Also, I managed to get in my longest run yet on Sunday of 8.5 miles. I didn't intend to. I intended to match my previous long-run of 6 miles because I'd been essentially off for nearly two weeks with that wretched cold and I didn't feel up for adding distance. In fact, I was suspect that I'd even get through the 6. But, Mr. TheyTri said he'd wait at the parking area that was one further down from the last one, thinking I'd get in a little bit more distance without having to double back like I did on previous long run. We didn't realize it was so much further away!
The negatives: I'm still having to do run/walk. I need little breaks. I'm not sure this is entirely in the negative column because it frankly keeps my over-all time/pace better. But, I'd like to be able to run further before needing a break and longer between them. Working on that.
The second negative was my hips really started to bother me. And once they hurt, I was compensating elsewhere so then my knee hurt. Again with the reminder that I need to do better with stretching! I really have no one to blame for that but me.
The positives: I didn't die.
I got through 8.5 miles, angrily and slowly, but I got through them and realized that I could have gone another 4.6 miles if I'd had to. It would have been ugly and slow and there probably would have been tears but I could have done it and not expired. I was really, really unhappy from mile six onward but it was more vital than I would have admitted at the time to know that I could do it.
Learned that I hate the fuel belt. So need to come up with a better hydration plan. I can't make that thing stay in one place in a comfortable position. Was very frustrating!
But, we're chugging along toward Disney. I'm really looking forward to the trip. And now I'm even, kinda, sorta, maybe, looking forward to the event. I'm not calling it a 'race' because 'race' implies that I give a crap how fast I go. I assure you I do not!

Ironman Access hubbub

So. $1000. I've been thinking about this since I heard the news of Ironman's new Ironman Access program this afternoon. I thought I'd attempt to articulate my thoughts on it from the person NOT registering for the race. I'm trying to temper my comments because I don't want to give the impression that I begrudge Mr. TheyTri what he needs to be a successful athlete. BUT. BUT. BUT.  I'm annoyed. Triathlon is goddamn expensive enough without an extra $1000 to assure a spot in a race.
I'm so irritated by this and I'm not even the one racing. I realize no one is putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to participate in this "program." But it tilts the table in a terrible way. I'm especially irritated that it allows people with deep pockets to jump the line ahead of volunteers.
We, the family and friends of triathletes, already pay a lot. We pay in loads of laundry. We pay in over-priced crappy hotel rooms. We pay in portajohns. We pay in $10 bumper stickers. We pay in massages and applications of BioFreeze. We pay in the delightful pre-taper week of cranky, crabby and overtrained. We pay in the "together" time lost while our tireless, dedicated athletes go on 6-hour training rides and 2-hour runs on our weekends.
And now, this. This obnoxious money grab. It's a slap and it's very, very disappointing.

Progress

So, today was the six miler. I was DREADING it. Justly, I think. I barely got through the five last Sunday and woke up this a.m. with a very sore lower-back and I also, maybe, kinda, sorta burnt the crap out of my left hand last night making dinner. I did not have high hopes.
But, we must do what we must do. So I had Mr. TheyTri drive me up to the trail head near our house so that I could run more downhill than uphill and was off. First mile felt like total hell. I was tight and tired and stressing myself out and kept making bargains with myself like "when you get to mile 2 you can take a walk break."
But, i settled down a bit and got into a rhythm. A fairly (for me) speedy one. I got to mile 3 before I took a little 30 second walk break to have a little water. Set off again and was still maintaining an OK pace. Got to the end of the trail and saw Mr. TheyTri and TheyTri doggie waiting for me. Smiled at them and told them I still had 1.75 miles to go so they'd have to meet me further down the trail. I kept plodding along. I had to take a few more 15/20 second walk breaks but am overall pleased that I got through so much of the run actually...well...running!
The best news is that I didn't have any troubles with my calves or feet falling asleep. That's great.
I'm now very tired and need a nap!