I love the smell of road rash in the morning

On Saturday 8/9/08 I raced the biggest/longest race of my life. And I finished. The only thing I've ever done that was harder than this race (physically) was delivering my son. My son tore things up a bit when he came into the world and this race tore me up a little bit upon entry as well.

The swim (1.2 miles) took way longer than it should have. It took me an hour. But I wasn't last.

Not 100 feet out of transition on the bike I wiped out on soft gravel. My brain had first told me to WALK my bike over that spot, but I thought I could be tough. Flesh is soft and gravel is sharp and hard. I ripped my left arm up pretty good and got road rash from my shoulder to my knee. But I wasn't broken. With a little assistance I picked myself and my bike up and I gave the rest of the race a go. 56 miles of hills and rolling hills on the bike later. . . I returned to the scene of my fall, got off the bike and walked that damned thing back to transition. At that point I wasn't quite last either, but the leaders were finishing up the race at that point. How nice for them.

I still had 13.1 miles left to run. At many points along the bike portion I thought to myself, "I can just stop now." But I knew I was kidding myself. I wouldn't stop until I was done, or too sick to continue. Oddly enough when I started running I wasn't all that fatigued in the legs. They felt decent. I was tired, but not dead yet.

The trail we ran most of the half marathon on was beautiful. Because there were so few people in the race, there were whole miles that went by where I didn't see another runner, just the prairie or one of the volunteers. Give those volunteers a hand for passing out water for hours and cheering for every last one of us! Did I mention I still wasn't last? I mentally bargained with myself to finish the run. . .one mile at a time. It worked. I ran up that damned Amsterdam Hill at mile 11.5. Well, maybe it was more like a shuffle, but it was NOT a walk! Once I had that done, I knew I could make it in.

Charles, and friends Heather, Jon and Taena were there at the end cheering as hard as they could when they saw me come out of the woods. I almost stopped there to cry, but I gave it the last bit of juice I had and ran over the finish mat. My bike sat alone on its rack. There was one runner behind me, someone must have collected her bike for her. I finished. I wasn't last. I cheered hard for the last person.

I do love this sport, but I also now believe that this distance is not meant for me. It's just a little too much.

I am sore, I am bruised, I am scabbed up, I had a tetanus booster (ouch) but I am a finisher. I hope I can be a finisher with everything important in my life.

Our State Fair

Our State Fair is a great State Fair, don't miss it, don't even be late!

Now, if you can't sing the whole of that song, or even that part of it you must not be from Iowa. Well, I'm not from Iowa. . .originally. I am, however, a born again Iowan. I can't remember the first time I went to the fair. It was either the year I was pregnant with my son, 1995, or the year before that. I suspect the latter.

Having grown up in California, a HUGE state with what, I am sure is a representatively huge state fair, I didn't care a whit about the thing. I never even considered going. I'm not sure where it is either. I think it's somewhere in Southern Cal.

Moving to Iowa in 1986 was eye opening in many ways. As a student from 1986-1990 I almost always went home over the summer and missed the fair. After I graduated, however, all I ever heard about at the end of July and beginning of August was the fair. Who planned to go? How many times were they going? How many corndogs would they eat? And on and on.

I have to admit that while some things get a bit passe, the essence of the fair - the people - never does. Almost a million people attend the fair during its 10 day run in August. Of course, those attendance counts also include the repeat offenders but don't include those little enough to not pay admission. So I guess it does probably come out pretty even up.

I love the people. I love how they sound, how they walk, how they interact with eachother, and what they wear. The fairgrounds come alive with people. They are everywhere and the demographics of the fairgoers are as varied as the sayings on their shirts. My favorite shirt to date said "Muck Fe." You figure it out.

Save a corn dog and a funnel cake for me! http://www.iowastatefair.com

Triathlon

I am a blog slacker. . .so shoot me.

I just finished my second Tri of the season. I finished in 3:13, a PR (personal record) for me. Triathlon is a bit of insanity, a bit of addiction, and a whole lot of fun. I have pushed myself mentally and physically beyond anything I would have ever thought possible. It has been a mind opening experience. In less than 2 weeks I will race in my first ever Half Ironman Triathlon. I am nervous. . .CRAZY nervous. . . but I will show up to the race, and I will give it everything I have. With luck, I will finish. . .with better luck I will not be DFL (dead-fucking-last). . .but I'd rather be DFL than DNF (did-not-finish) or DNS (did-not start).

A doctor who finishes medical school DFL is still a doctor. Someone who goes to medical school but doesn't quite make it still tried, but to not even start on a dream is a great loss.

Triathlon is the reason I am in graduate school finally. I didn't want my life to be a DNS.

Geez

Time flies. What the heck happened. No post for a month?

Well, I finished my first term at Des Moines University in my MPH program. Straight A+ all the way. Who knew? My second term is almost 4 weeks gone and one class will be done on Friday. Classes this term are a bit hedgier than last. I am not enjoying my Social and Behavioral Health class so much. Plus, at the same time I am trying to have a life, and train for races. That's a lot.

I turned 40 last week. I feel great about it. I am one hot 40 year old mama!!

And my garden grows as well.

Motivation

To get out and do either a run or a bike ride tonight is waning. I was thinking I would do my grueling bike hill workout, but it is like 45 degrees, cloudy and windy making it feel like 35. I think NOT. I will get up and run in the dark and the cold tomorrow, but I just can't stomach the wind and the hill tonight. This means I need to commit myself to do the PRC Training Duathlon on Thursday night at Big Creek. I am not wild about this, but my son is babysitting so I would have to be there anyway. I will just suck it up and do that. Looks like Weds and Thurs will both be low 70's but then colder for the weekend. This spring is getting to be depressing.

All my plants think it's spring, but I am afraid they may get too cold tonight and get frosted. That happened last year and some of the plants can't take another spring like that again. I was out working in the yard a bit yesterday afternoon preparing for some tree planting next weekend and I noticed a few spots where there was some ground heaving (not nice) and a few plants that didn't make it through the winter.

Luscious

I love forsythia.

ran the Drake Relays 8K road race today. A respectable 51-ish minutes. I tried for a bike ride afterwards but the wind and cold temps killed me so I cut it short.

I have a training session with a swimming coach on Monday. I hope he can help me get faster - go Mel, go!

SockQuest - I'm dead

These lovely socks made by Eli and Brenda slayed me last weekend.

School is fantastic. Who would have thought that I liked school?

Wednesday night ritual ride was a blast last night http://www.punkrockcycling.com/.