St. Shamrock Leprechaun Races

March 10th marked the first day of my 2012 racing season.  I started off with the 4 Courts 4 Miler.  My friend Travis convinced me to sign up for it.  It didn't take much persuasion, as it sounded like a fun, festive race.  I was NOT excited for the elevation of the course, however.

Check out the elevation chart at the bottom of this photo

That's right.  A nice, long, easy downhill to start, with an ugly, long, tough UPhill to end.  It was not pretty.  I had decided that I would just treat this race as a nice training run, as my big Spring race is the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler on April 1st.  I had my fancy dancy HUGE IronMan GPS watch on so I could monitor my heart rate as I went.  I wanted to stay in Zone 2, as this is what my coaches have prescribed for the non-track workout runs.  Well, I can tell you that race day forces you to behave differently.  And so do hills.  Sure, it's easy to go for a leisure Z2 run on my own, but in the hype of race day and going up hills, my heart rate spikes in to Z4 and even Z5.

Going downhill is easy-peasy!

It was a very cold morning and everybody set off fast down the hill.  I didn't go all out as I knew I needed to keep something in the tank for the run back up those hills.  I checked my heart rate and it was keeping steady.  Then at mile 1.5-ish, I looked down and saw my watch had borked.  It was frozen and the screen was all funky.  I pulled myself over to the grass to walk, tried to press some buttons, tried to restart it, tried to warm it up with my breath . . . nothing worked.  So I got back on the road to run the rest of my race.  I was disappointed that on my very first race, my very expensive watch didn't perform.  And I didn't have any data to go back to after my race.

Oh well.  I can tell you that I had to stop a few times to walk while going up the hill.  And I can also tell you that by the time I crossed the finish line, I was ready to vomit.  :)

My throw-up face.

Love that the photographer zoomed in on my socks. :)

I felt fine about my finishing time, as I didn't really have a goal in mind.  I'd never run a 4 mile race, and I had never really had to deal with the extreme hills before, so I pretty much didn't care about my time.  And despite the cold temps and freezing wind, it was a really fun atmosphere with some great people.

The next weekend, I drove down to VA Beach to participate in my first Team Z race event!  Team Z is the triathlon club I joined in mid-December.  It has been SO incredibly helpful in my quest to become a better triathlete.  While it is quite pricey, they offer countless clinics, skill-sessions, and professional coaching at all group practices.  They offer you very specific training plans based on your abilities and goals, and provide you with tons of options on where to train with the team during the week (every day except Friday - rest day!), as well as multiple options on the weekend bike and run long workouts.  I've learned so much from just the last 3 months.  Anyway, I signed up for the Shamrock 8k.  Normally I wouldn't travel 3.5 hours for an 8k, but like I said, I wanted to experience a Team Z race event.  It was kind of a hassle figuring out the logistics of getting down there in time for my packet pick-up on Friday while not using a vacation day from work, but I'm SO glad I decided to go through with it.

Friday night we had a team dinner and ate through a crazy thunder & lightning storm.

This is before it really started coming down

We had fun at the dinner avoiding the leaky ceiling (our table was on a dock over the water with temporary roof and walls that could be removed in the summer time), the water streaming in on the dock floor, and indulging in good food, dessert, & company.

My carefully painted nails. Notice also my awesome blood blister on my right big toe.  Sexy.

My coach was jealously eyeing it, so I obliged him with a taste

Chocolate Chunk milkshake

The 8k was Saturday morning. Those of us who were running and supporting (most of the team would run Sunday in the half & full marathon) got there early and met up as a team before the race officially started.

We hung out and talked and laughed and enjoyed each other's company.

Recognize my outfit? ;)

My coach asked me what my goal was for the race.  Honestly, I didn't have one.  I'd never run an 8k race, so I didn't have a time to beat, nor did I care about going all-out, as I didn't want to run the risk of getting injured before the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler (I'm so afraid of a repeat of last year!).  So I told him that.  He asked me if I DID have a time goal, what would it be?  I told him that I thought it'd be awesome if I could run an average 10.5 minute mile throughout the course, but I didn't expect that I'd be able to do that.

We all made it to the start area and got settled in to our corrals.  The race started and I set off.  Like the weekend before, it was really fun to people-watch, as most everybody was dressed festively for St. Patrick's Day.  This race, after all, WAS on actual St. Patrick's Day!

It was a very flat course, which I appreciated.  I also loved when we turned the first corner and got to run along the boardwalk parallel to the beach.  The morning sun was out and the breeze felt so nice.  I really took in the scenery and enjoyed myself.

I crossed the finish line feeling like I was ready to stop running.  :)  I went through the finisher's "chute", collected a bottle of water, some food, 2 shamrock race koozies, annnnnnnnnd.........  A MEDAL!  So freakin' awesome!  I had no idea this race offered me a medal!  I've never heard of getting a medal for anything less than a half marathon.  I was STOKED!  I got my official finisher's photo taken, then headed down to the beach to enjoy the festivities and beauty of the morning.

My shamrock headband blew off my head when I rounded the corner to run on the boardwalk

I laughed out loud when I saw how this turned out!

Watching the dude do his sand thing

The festive people enjoying the post-race party

Beautiful morning on the beach

King Neptune protects

My cell phone self-portrait

After wandering around for a bit, I remembered to check my watch to see how I did.  I was shocked to see that my watch told me I ran an average 10:23 mile pace!!  I beat my goal!  So awesome!  I was completely surprised and really proud of myself.  Yay!  I was thenready to go meet up with my team to celebrate.  I caught up to them at our pre-determined breakfast spot and we all indulged in some hot, delicious food.

Nomz

That evening was another team dinner and some pep talk for the half & full marathoners who would run their race the next day.  I was feeling mighty good with my race out of the way and nothing to worry about but eating & enjoying the scenery.  :)

The next morning I woke up early to drive 3 of my housemates to their race and to help my coach set up the huge tents on the beach.  Boy, did I underestimate the man-power it would take!!

Beautiful morning on the beach before the sunrise

I ended up coining myself as "Coach's Assistant" that day, as after the 2 hours it took to assemble the tents, I then was given a big camera and was in charge of taking pictures of Team Zers on the race course while cheering everybody on.  It was actually hard work!  I don't know most people on the team, as there are hundreds, and I just joined a few months ago.  Normally it would be fairly easy to pick Zers out of the crowd, as the team color is green.  However, it being a St. Patrick's Day theme, EVERYBODY was wearing green!  My coach had to call out to me, "Zer!" so I could get the camera ready and try to get some action shots.  Pressure!  I also under-estimated the amount of energy it takes to constantly cheer, yell, and be enthusiastic for hours on end.

I was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day!  We did get a team photo of those who stuck around after all the marathoners finished.

This was probably only half of the team that day.
A LOT of Zers stuck around DC that weekend to run the Rock n Roll half/full marathon

I drove home that evening bone-weary-tired, but really happy with the weekend.  A few days later, I got this email listing my official stats of the race.  My watch was a bit off as far as my pace goes, but I was still faster than my dream goal!  WOOT!

Another happy finish to the race I ran yesterday, but that's for another post!  So far, an awesome start to my 2012 race season with Team Z!  I seem to really have benefited from all the training and knowledge I've obtained so far.  I'm really looking forward to the rest of this year!