Catching Up

Now this is sad. I know I haven't updated this in quite awhile, but February? Really, it's been that long?? I was thinking more along the lines of sometime in March...

Well maybe I should do a quick list of some of the major things that have happened since then:

- Crazylegs Classic, April 25th - an annual 8K in Madison that I did with a friend of mine (at that time also Joan's roommate) It was quite fun for me to run in the rain (always love it) but she needed some convincing.

- Madison Marathon, May 24th - Days and weeks after the race, I kept referring to it as a "non-event," which should be considered odd for a race of 26.2 miles. Working up to race day, I was getting burned out on running - so much that I didn't care. I also didn't train enough, mostly not long enough. The actual marathon went great...for the first half anyway. I felt great for the first 13.1 miles, but then got to the halfway marker to realize I went out too fast. If I remember right, I was about 10 minutes ahead of where I should have been. From then on it was just a mix of running/waddling/walking to the finish. My end time was 4:50:30, my worst marathon time, not far from an hour behind what I ran at Marine Corps. Oh well, at least I finished.

- Biking to work - Yes, not really an event like the others, yet something to be talked about. Although, I didn't bike everyday through the summer, I did do it pretty consistently through July and August. I always wanted to start bike commuting more but just never did it. However, after my car got a flat tire one weekend, it just pushed me over the edge. I was just sick of dealing with my car. I haven't been so good about biking in lately, but I'm hoping to jump back on track this week. I'm also trying to fix up Ol' Blue (my old '78 Schwinn Traveler) to be my main commuting bike so I don't always beat up my nicer road bike.

- Dousman Duathlon, Sept 20th - This was probably my highlight of the season. I had never done a multi-sport race before so I didn't really know what to expect. The race was comprised of a 2 mile run, a 20 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. Conservatively, I was hoping for a time of a time around 1 hour and 40 minutes. The first run leg I probably ran too fast, but I was pulling back the reigns some to keep enough gas for the rest of the race. Looking back I could have made the fist transition faster, but being my first race I just wanted to take my time and not get caught up in racing. My bike leg was awesome, passing a lot of people along the way. I knew the biking was going to be my strong part, but I was just flying. It really felt good to be passing all the tri-geeks on their super bikes with aero-bars and carbon deep-rim wheels, especially since I was just using my normal road bike and my normal training wheels. Gaining confidence from the great bike ride, I sped up my transition and got running as quick as I could. Running after biking always hurts and this was no exception. My legs were dead but I just kept going. As long as I was passing just as many people as were passing me than I was doing good. During the last mile, I was coughing and dry heaving, but I just shook it off. I did have a final sprint for the finish line, as I always do in a race, but not as long of a sprint as usual. Still I finished with a time of 1:35:24, a time that I was quite excited about.

Well I think that gets things caught up for the most part. I did want to write more, but I think I'll do that in another post that I promise to do soon...