Yes, I am only 5 days away from my big race! :) I feel a mix of feelings right now. I am very excited for the race. I can't wait to be out there on the course giving my all to cross the finish line. At this time, I am most nervous for getting to Jeju with my bike and everything I need. My flight is Friday at 7:40PM, I can't seem to find the information about the buses online, so I do not know how long it will take me to get to the airport. I know when I can take the bus up there and where to get it. At this point I'm just really hoping my school lets me out just after lunch so I can take the bus up early!
I am working on my race plan, so I know just what to do on race day. The weather will play a factor, since it is monsoon season here, there is a chance it could be extra windy, or even storming. I hope we will have a nice pleasant day, but chances are slim. If everything goes the way I want it to, I can plan to finish the race in as little as 5:45hrs, if things go the way I expect them to, I will finish in 6:30hrs, and if things go wrong I am looking at about 7:15hrs. The most important thing is that I cross the finish line with a smile on my face. I know this will be a very hard course, it is filled with hills, and the island is usually windy.
This past weekend, I did a short tri, called a sprint. It was just 400m swim, 20k bike, and 5k run. I managed to take 2nd place in my age group, and 4th place overall for the females. And I held back on the run, since the last thing I want to do is get hurt during a little race the weekend before my big one! I was really happy with coming in 2nd! I got a cool trophy and a big boost in confidence!! Just what I needed coming up to Jeju!!!
I hope to have a good race report after Sunday!!! I will post my bib # when I get it so you can track me on ironmanlive.com!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Go Big or Go Home... Right?
As you all know, I have been into distance running and triathlons for a little while now. Just thought I would share how and why I started.
It was 2005, I was a Junior at University, spring was upon us. :) I had been running most every day, just about 2-3 miles a day for fun, to be fit, to be healthy. I really enjoyed it. One day, I got this little post card in the mail. It said something like - You Can Do A Marathon... I was convinced ;) That's really all it took was a post card. It came from the Leukemia and Lymphoma society (LLS), Team in Training program. They offered to help me train for a race, give me a coach, a training plan, a group to workout with, even a T-shirt.... all I had to do was commit to raising money for LLS. Ok, that sounded great to me. Not only do I get to try out running a marathon, hopefully meet some new people, but I can raise money for cancer. So I turned to google and found out how far a marathon was and proceeded to register for the information meeting. Then I started telling everyone I was going to run a marathon! It was exciting, the thought of 26.2 miles didn't even phase me - it was new, challenging and exciting. I claimed this would be the biggest physical challenge of my life. Mind you, I had never done a race before. But in my head the idea was, go big or go home. So I went big! After 5-6 months of training and fundraising, I lined up at the Detroit Marathon (Oct 25, 2005). What an amazing accomplishment it was to finish the race. I had such a great time with TNT and met my best friends from the program, that when I moved down to Texas, I gave it another go! So on June 4th 2007, I completed my 2nd marathon - San Diego Rock N' Roll marathon.
Something else happed in 2005 that would change my life forever. When I look back on it, it's almost silly. I was relaxing and watching some TV.... and happen to stumble across the special on Kona Ironman World Championship. I was sucked in right away!! Watching people cross the finish line of this amazing race (that I had never heard of but has been around since 1981!). I watched in awe as 1,500 people from all walks of life completed this race. Their day began at 6am and they had until 12am to complete it. The TV show captured amazing, inspiring stories of the participants. Some were cancer survivors, some were missing limbs, there was even someone who was blind doing the race, some were people who battled with obesity and were doing the race after losing 100's of pounds, and some were busy mothers/fathers. All had their reasons and stories, and all set out to complete the biggest challenge of their lives - 140.6 miles of swimming, biking, and running. I watch and was seriously inspired... so inspired that right then and their I claimed that I would complete Kona by the time I'm 30! I was 21 at the time, so I gave myself plenty of time.
Shortly after setting the goal, I learned a little about the race, you have to qualify to be there, only 200 people there due to a lottery. So I altered my goal a bit, complete an ironman by the age of 30 and earn my way to Kona by 35! To this day, I still am working towards that goal. This random goal I set at 21 is now being pursued. And 6 years later, I'm getting closer to completing it.
I am just 19 days away from my first 1/2 ironman race, this one is only 70.3 miles. Physically and mentally preparing myself for what will be the greatest physical challenge I will ever complete. I feel both excited and nervous. My training has had it's up and it's downs. On the tough days I tend to think about the thing that got me started. Not only this inspiration I felt when doing my first marathon or watching my first Kona Ironman on TV, but the fact that I claimed that I will put my heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into my racing for the one person who fought so hard for her life and was just unable to win.... my mom! She has been the biggest inspiration in my life, specially since her passing.
I can't help but think about this, as I am getting closer and closer to my goal. But also because my Aunt, (mom's sister) has just under gone brain surgery! Luckily, everything went great and she is at home recovering now. Things like this make me think that I'm blessed to have my body, my ability, and to be able to get out and train and complete races!
It was 2005, I was a Junior at University, spring was upon us. :) I had been running most every day, just about 2-3 miles a day for fun, to be fit, to be healthy. I really enjoyed it. One day, I got this little post card in the mail. It said something like - You Can Do A Marathon... I was convinced ;) That's really all it took was a post card. It came from the Leukemia and Lymphoma society (LLS), Team in Training program. They offered to help me train for a race, give me a coach, a training plan, a group to workout with, even a T-shirt.... all I had to do was commit to raising money for LLS. Ok, that sounded great to me. Not only do I get to try out running a marathon, hopefully meet some new people, but I can raise money for cancer. So I turned to google and found out how far a marathon was and proceeded to register for the information meeting. Then I started telling everyone I was going to run a marathon! It was exciting, the thought of 26.2 miles didn't even phase me - it was new, challenging and exciting. I claimed this would be the biggest physical challenge of my life. Mind you, I had never done a race before. But in my head the idea was, go big or go home. So I went big! After 5-6 months of training and fundraising, I lined up at the Detroit Marathon (Oct 25, 2005). What an amazing accomplishment it was to finish the race. I had such a great time with TNT and met my best friends from the program, that when I moved down to Texas, I gave it another go! So on June 4th 2007, I completed my 2nd marathon - San Diego Rock N' Roll marathon.
Something else happed in 2005 that would change my life forever. When I look back on it, it's almost silly. I was relaxing and watching some TV.... and happen to stumble across the special on Kona Ironman World Championship. I was sucked in right away!! Watching people cross the finish line of this amazing race (that I had never heard of but has been around since 1981!). I watched in awe as 1,500 people from all walks of life completed this race. Their day began at 6am and they had until 12am to complete it. The TV show captured amazing, inspiring stories of the participants. Some were cancer survivors, some were missing limbs, there was even someone who was blind doing the race, some were people who battled with obesity and were doing the race after losing 100's of pounds, and some were busy mothers/fathers. All had their reasons and stories, and all set out to complete the biggest challenge of their lives - 140.6 miles of swimming, biking, and running. I watch and was seriously inspired... so inspired that right then and their I claimed that I would complete Kona by the time I'm 30! I was 21 at the time, so I gave myself plenty of time.
Shortly after setting the goal, I learned a little about the race, you have to qualify to be there, only 200 people there due to a lottery. So I altered my goal a bit, complete an ironman by the age of 30 and earn my way to Kona by 35! To this day, I still am working towards that goal. This random goal I set at 21 is now being pursued. And 6 years later, I'm getting closer to completing it.
I am just 19 days away from my first 1/2 ironman race, this one is only 70.3 miles. Physically and mentally preparing myself for what will be the greatest physical challenge I will ever complete. I feel both excited and nervous. My training has had it's up and it's downs. On the tough days I tend to think about the thing that got me started. Not only this inspiration I felt when doing my first marathon or watching my first Kona Ironman on TV, but the fact that I claimed that I will put my heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into my racing for the one person who fought so hard for her life and was just unable to win.... my mom! She has been the biggest inspiration in my life, specially since her passing.
I can't help but think about this, as I am getting closer and closer to my goal. But also because my Aunt, (mom's sister) has just under gone brain surgery! Luckily, everything went great and she is at home recovering now. Things like this make me think that I'm blessed to have my body, my ability, and to be able to get out and train and complete races!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Bump in the Road
"It's a long, hard road and it's going to have its bumps; there are going to be times when you fall and times when you don't feel like going on anymore, times when you're just crazy tired but it takes focusing on that one step you're taking."
I have hit a bump in the road in my training, and in my life in general. Last weekend I was healthy, loving life and cycling the East coast of Korea. This weekend was spent between my couch and bed. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling under the weather, it got worse as the day progressed. By the time I finished at school, I came home and took a nap, just to wake up and go to bed. Thursday morning, I felt the best thing to do was use a sick day at school. I made my way to the doctors late morning, the pharmacist across the street from the hospital speaks great English and is super sweet, she is the pharmacist that most all the foreigners in Anseong go to see when they are sick, or just visit when they are near by. She walked me across the street and checked me into the clinic. She took me to the waiting area. The whole experience was much different then in the states. From check in to check out I was only in the clinic for about 10-15min. Then when it came time for my co-pay, I was shocked again - $5! Yep, only $5 to see a doctor. I walked back to the pharmacy to have my 2 prescriptions filled - cough meds and antibiotics... about 3 min later I paid my $2.50 for the 2 prescriptions and was on my way back home. That's right, it took me longer to walk to the doctors then it took to get in and out of the checkup and have my prescriptions filled, all for less then the cost of lunch! Aside from the fact that I was feeling ill, the whole doctors experience wasn't bad!
I wish I could say the rest of my week was as easy going as the doctors visit. I slept on and off on Thursday, went to work on Friday, luckily I didn't have to teach since the kids were taking some test. I was exhausted by the end of the day. When I got home, I crashed. Right into a long nap. Just to wake up and go to bed... hmmm... sounds familiar. Saturday was a bit better, I woke up feeling rather good compared to the past few days. I managed to go grocery shopping and baked some banana bread with a friend. My friend and I ended hanging out and later getting some fried chicken (ew - never again). Fried food is not really my style, but I had a little bit of it anyway. Just as I was feeling better, I ruined it... AHH! About an hour or so after eating I started feeling ill, again. You guessed it - a touch of food poisoning from the fried food. So I've spent my Sunday mostly on the couch recovering from a bad choice in dinner. It's been 6 full days of not working out! Which is enough to drive me crazy. Although I'm still not feeling 100% I'm going to go to bed shortly with a positive outlook on tomorrow. I'm going to set my alarm for an early morning jog before work. Wish me luck on feeling great next week and getting back to my training... 3 weeks till the big race!!!!
:)
I have hit a bump in the road in my training, and in my life in general. Last weekend I was healthy, loving life and cycling the East coast of Korea. This weekend was spent between my couch and bed. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling under the weather, it got worse as the day progressed. By the time I finished at school, I came home and took a nap, just to wake up and go to bed. Thursday morning, I felt the best thing to do was use a sick day at school. I made my way to the doctors late morning, the pharmacist across the street from the hospital speaks great English and is super sweet, she is the pharmacist that most all the foreigners in Anseong go to see when they are sick, or just visit when they are near by. She walked me across the street and checked me into the clinic. She took me to the waiting area. The whole experience was much different then in the states. From check in to check out I was only in the clinic for about 10-15min. Then when it came time for my co-pay, I was shocked again - $5! Yep, only $5 to see a doctor. I walked back to the pharmacy to have my 2 prescriptions filled - cough meds and antibiotics... about 3 min later I paid my $2.50 for the 2 prescriptions and was on my way back home. That's right, it took me longer to walk to the doctors then it took to get in and out of the checkup and have my prescriptions filled, all for less then the cost of lunch! Aside from the fact that I was feeling ill, the whole doctors experience wasn't bad!
I wish I could say the rest of my week was as easy going as the doctors visit. I slept on and off on Thursday, went to work on Friday, luckily I didn't have to teach since the kids were taking some test. I was exhausted by the end of the day. When I got home, I crashed. Right into a long nap. Just to wake up and go to bed... hmmm... sounds familiar. Saturday was a bit better, I woke up feeling rather good compared to the past few days. I managed to go grocery shopping and baked some banana bread with a friend. My friend and I ended hanging out and later getting some fried chicken (ew - never again). Fried food is not really my style, but I had a little bit of it anyway. Just as I was feeling better, I ruined it... AHH! About an hour or so after eating I started feeling ill, again. You guessed it - a touch of food poisoning from the fried food. So I've spent my Sunday mostly on the couch recovering from a bad choice in dinner. It's been 6 full days of not working out! Which is enough to drive me crazy. Although I'm still not feeling 100% I'm going to go to bed shortly with a positive outlook on tomorrow. I'm going to set my alarm for an early morning jog before work. Wish me luck on feeling great next week and getting back to my training... 3 weeks till the big race!!!!
:)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
3 Days of Beautiful Oceans and Mountains!
This past weekend, we had a long weekend - Monday was memorial day for Korea! Whooo! Which meant, time for me to come up with something fun to do. So I decided to gather a few people and set off on a 3 day ride from the city of Busan up the East coast to a city called Uljin. The distance covered was about 180miles (300km). The ride was filled with hills... many many hills. Mostly just rolling hills. The biggest climb was about 550ft. The downhills were very rewarding. I took some fabulous photos! We rode about 80 miles on day 1, 80 miles on day 2, and 20 miles on day 3.
The trip included beautiful beaches, awesome mountains, lots of crabs, the East sea, a sunrise on a Buddha! Some of the photos are below, click the link for all the photos!!! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100216092680452.2596306.12104592&l=533911f1a2
The trip included beautiful beaches, awesome mountains, lots of crabs, the East sea, a sunrise on a Buddha! Some of the photos are below, click the link for all the photos!!! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100216092680452.2596306.12104592&l=533911f1a2
Thursday, June 2, 2011
My BIRTHDAY!
Well Tuesday was the day.... my birthday!!! I'm now 27, wow! Sometimes, I feel like I just graduated form university. I've done so much since graduation, sometimes it's hard to believe I'm only 27. Although, here, when I tell someone I'm 27 they are shocked and think I look like I'm about 21 or 22. :) No complaints there!! I had a fabulous birthday! My day started with an excellent 25k cycle. After my morning class at school, one of the boys gave me a candy bar. The teachers all sung me happy birthday and we all had cake for breakfast. My co-teacher gave me a really nice house plant! One of my co-workers gave me a mini-cake! Also, I was lucky enough to not have to teach any of my regular classes for the day! In the evening, I met with a few of my friends in Anseong, we had wine and real cheese!!! Cheese here is either rather fake, or imported and very expensive! My friends are awesome and were kind enough to give me some cards and gifts! It was a great birthday!!! :)
On the weekend before my birthday, I did something I never really thought I would do - or would enjoy doing... I took part in a 12hour bike race!!! The race was up in Seoul and all along the Han river. The race began at 9pm and went through till 9am. The goal was to complete as many KM as possible during the 12 hours. I had a riding partner, and about an hour in, we added 1 more to our group. We had picked a good pace and decided to stop every hour, on the hour, for a short rest to have a snack and drink/refill water/Gatorade. At about 3am, we had already completed 75 miles. The 3 of us stuck together till about 4:30am, where myself and Dan slowed down a bit and Michael speed up! I hit the 'century' point at about 6:30am! I had to stop and take a photo of my Garmin because I was so excited. At that point I had a goal in mind and about 4 hours to get it.... so I began my chase... took a bit of it alone while Dan rested... then he joined me for about the last hour. I hit my personal goal, of 140 miles, at 8:45am. I choose 140 because it's the distance of an Ironman race. Our original goal was 150 miles, but the last few hours I was quite tired and had lost my pace. I was very proud to only miss our team goal by 10 miles and to hit my personal goal. I was really surprised what I could do - a 12 hour race thought the night! I did a total of 224km in 12 hours, which put me in about 6th place! Micheal who sped ahead only beat me by 20k. All of the races were between 200k - 243k! I wasn't far behind the leader, and wasn't last! :) Quite pleased with it!
This coming weekend, I've got another big challenge! Myself and 2 others are taking the bus down to Busan on Friday night, and Saturday morning we begin our cycle journey to Seoul! :) Not sure if we will make it, we only have 3 days, but it will be one fun, beautiful, and challenging ride!!!
At this point I have 31 days till my Ironman70.3 and I'm feeling very confidant in my abitilty to reach my goals. My goals are: To finish, To finish with a smile on my face, and To have FUN! :)
On the weekend before my birthday, I did something I never really thought I would do - or would enjoy doing... I took part in a 12hour bike race!!! The race was up in Seoul and all along the Han river. The race began at 9pm and went through till 9am. The goal was to complete as many KM as possible during the 12 hours. I had a riding partner, and about an hour in, we added 1 more to our group. We had picked a good pace and decided to stop every hour, on the hour, for a short rest to have a snack and drink/refill water/Gatorade. At about 3am, we had already completed 75 miles. The 3 of us stuck together till about 4:30am, where myself and Dan slowed down a bit and Michael speed up! I hit the 'century' point at about 6:30am! I had to stop and take a photo of my Garmin because I was so excited. At that point I had a goal in mind and about 4 hours to get it.... so I began my chase... took a bit of it alone while Dan rested... then he joined me for about the last hour. I hit my personal goal, of 140 miles, at 8:45am. I choose 140 because it's the distance of an Ironman race. Our original goal was 150 miles, but the last few hours I was quite tired and had lost my pace. I was very proud to only miss our team goal by 10 miles and to hit my personal goal. I was really surprised what I could do - a 12 hour race thought the night! I did a total of 224km in 12 hours, which put me in about 6th place! Micheal who sped ahead only beat me by 20k. All of the races were between 200k - 243k! I wasn't far behind the leader, and wasn't last! :) Quite pleased with it!
This coming weekend, I've got another big challenge! Myself and 2 others are taking the bus down to Busan on Friday night, and Saturday morning we begin our cycle journey to Seoul! :) Not sure if we will make it, we only have 3 days, but it will be one fun, beautiful, and challenging ride!!!
At this point I have 31 days till my Ironman70.3 and I'm feeling very confidant in my abitilty to reach my goals. My goals are: To finish, To finish with a smile on my face, and To have FUN! :)
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