A Beaming Report From IronGirl Roshelle!

So I finished another duathlon event yesterday. The IronGirl in Bloomington, MN. It was wonderful!!!!! The event coordinators did a FABULOUS job and I would HIGHLY recommend the other IronGirl events to anyone that might want to try!!!! This event included everything from professionals to first timers. See the website at http://www.irongirl.com/bloomington/index-bloom.html for other IronGirl events.

Weather ~ 65F and sunny (little chilly when I got there, but absolutely perfect running and riding weather!) Distance ~ 2 mile run, 22 mile bike, 2 mile run
Total participants (signed up) ~ 600 (limited to keep event small)
Total participants (attended) ~ 507
Total finished ~ 502
My Age Group ~ 26-30
My Total Time ~ 2hr 25mn 03sec
My Age Rank ~ 75/95
My Overall Rank ~ 408/507
Goal for the day ~ to run all 4 miles with OUT walking

Pre-Race Routine: Woke up at 5:00 am (I was very happy because my last event I had to wake up at 3:00 am), stumbled into the shower, consumed my power bar, 2 bananas, a gatorade and 2 bottles water, threw a pillow at Jeff to wake him up, then we headed to event at 6:00 am. Transition didn't open until 6:30 so I tried to sneak in as much sleep as possible. Jeff dropped me off, I setup transition, (I love only having to setup for run/bike, no swimming, yahoo!!!), walked around to get familiar with transition directions, used restroom, then started warm up (10 minutes of stretching, 10 minutes jogging, 10 minutes stretching, 10 minutes jogging, one last set of stretches).

RUN: 7:30 am mass start and it was really cool as it was 500 or so women all standing in a huddle to stay warm since the sun was barely up. The gun sounded and I let the crazy ladies that will run you over to save 3 seconds go past, then off on my run. It took me 25min and 41sec but I didn't walk so I was happy!!! I was 489/507 so I'm DEFINITELY going to work on my running for next season!!!! The route was absolutely beautiful and I met a few women that were a blessing to run with.

BIKE: The run was alot easier than I thought it would be, so I wish I would have ran faster, but I didn't walk and that's all I cared about. Grabbed my bike and I was off!!! The 100 or so women that passed me on the run unfortunately got passed by ME during the bike! I finished the 22 miles in 1hr 28min which was 322/507 and 59/95 in my age group. ALOT better than my run huh?!?!?!?!?! Woohoo!!!! The ride was also absolutely beautiful and the traffic cops did an awesome job!!! It was mostly rolling hills and there were some pretty decent ones here and there, but nothing too bad thank goodness . Also, it was two 10 mile loops, so I knew the course the second time around which was really nice!

RUN: So my goal was to run the whole way and I was going to do this no matter what it took. I got off my bike and started feeling the "why aren't my legs working" feeling, but I kept going and threw my bike into transition, threw on running shoes, and was off again. The first 1/2 mile was yucky because I didn't have my running legs yet, but I knew the feeling would go away soon and kept going. I felt like I was running soooo slow, but was still passing ladies that were walking, so it helped me keep going. And of course, about 20 or so of the ladies I passed on the bike, were now passing me on the run (I hate when that happens ) Jeff met me 1/4 mile from the finish line and says, ok, lets sprint to the end (which I usually do) ~~well my head was saying YES YES GO GO, but my legs were screaming NO NO YOU ARE CRAZY . So I kept my regular pace and finished the 2nd run in 26min 5sec and I DIDN'T WALK!!!! WOOHOO!!! The coordination of this event was incredible.

The commentator was my favorite part!!!! Every time I came into transition, he always had something cute to say. During T1 (when I switch from run to bike), he says, "now here comes Roshelle, one of our better dressed athletes of the day" and starts describing everything I'm wearing from my my pearl izumi shorts and arm warmers to my light blue jersey, etc. It was hilarious!!!! Then at the finish line he announced my full name, said what city I was from, and thanked me for joining the other tri girl athletes. It really feels great to hear your name on a loud speaker when crossing the finish line AND to have someone call you an athlete. It makes all the hours of training REALLY worth it's while.

Thanks again to all of you for your support!!!!
God bless you all!
Roshelle

This Betty's beat! (The FatTire Ride Report)

Well, FatTire has changed since I last rode it back in the late 90’s. This was only my second FatTire, and as Sue said … “you seem to block the tough parts out of your memory” … yes, exactly. Although I had some confirmation that this course was harder than the one I remember…a little bit of solace ;-)

We pre-rode on Thursday – and I thought the early hills would plane out to some nice mellow riding but it was a hilly course throughout. After we ride it I thought maybe I would rather be surprised on race day.

Luckily there were a few fire roads and downhills that helped ease the ride at least for a few moments here and there. Miles 1-3 were tough because I am not a good starter to begin with, let alone all uphill. So you start going up for a while, mainly to thin out the herd of riders that all start at the same time. It’s a mass start for the Short and Fat (16 miler I did) and the 40 miler. So it’s best to either shoot out or to lay a little low and allow bike courtesy to kick in and let some riders pass. It’s such a great group of riders though, as long as you respect the riders, they respect you. The group I was riding with (you start to separate into your speed groups) formed some good camaraderie. Quite a few of the uphills at the beginning were rocky so as someone hopped off their bike to walk, you got cheered on as you tried to grind up it. Next time we said we’ll bring a ghost bike to put in line to keep a spot, and then ride our bikes around for a few miles to warm-up first!

Race time was 10:00am but we got there at 8:00am to get a good spot, which we did. Forecast was for storms all morning but the race gods were smiling upon us, the rain held off – lots of gray skies and lots of wind but no real rain (yeah!, not sure I would get up some hills with pouring rain to top it off).

So the guns go off and we’re off (some of us a little slower than others….teeeheeee). First 3 miles, a tough start for me, lots of gravel and gravel/rocky uphills, then there was some reprieve in mile 4. Quite a bit of sand early in the course (for those of you who don’t mountain bike, sand to a mountain biker is like pouring honey on the road in front of a road biker)! It can just kind of slow you to a crawl. All you can do is try and ride through in a low gear, go around it, whatever works. Almost lost it on a couple sand spots I zipped through. But some uphills were a sandy beach all the way up so you look for some side grass to traverse. Or walk. Which I did! Some of the night’s drizzles dampened it down from Thursday which was a good thing. Then la-dee-da, riding’s tough but not alarming ‘til mile 7 and 8!! Up and down and snarly, no stopping. After that, you hit the fire roads for about a mile (gravely and mostly downhill) so you need to watch your line in the gravel but you get a little rest time. And then the next 4 miles or so are all on the Birkebeiner ski hills – all grass hills and it was a wild roller coaster ride. Time to take my second GU gel on that one! It was up and down all the way and with some really screaming downhills … woohoo what a rush! Whenever you see the “caution” sign you know a good one’s coming! Many of those hills, if you tucked and let her rip sans brakes, allowed you to avoid pedaling up the next hill. For this hill slug, it’s ALL about efficiency!! The hills are kind of famous in this stretch, one is actually named – it’s called “Big Bertha”!

Then, the last few miles. You’d think, oh, this will be smooth sailing. Some of the worst miles of the course! It starts with some double track, a little single track that’s a little rocky and rooty. And then you start hitting elevation as you realize you are climbing up one side of the ski hill. So it gets progressively tougher, eases up a bit then tough again. At this point, your body is full of GU gels and it won’t help anymore cuz your muscles say “that’s it, I’m out of here”. Once you finally come out of the woods, you do some climbing on gravel roads and once again think “this is it, I’m home”…and BAM! There is the final climb of the ski hill. This is where 90% jump off and walk and 10% are able to grind up it (well at least this far back in the ranks). Well, I tried, but had to do the old “hike and bike” again. I was beat and just wanted to finish. Everyone is still cheering you on. I had David’s voice in one ear and Roshelle’s in the other getting me up that hill. And I appreciated every minute of it. Thanks to all the Betties for pushing me up those hills!

Last 1.5 miles, up a ski hill….those FatTire trail makers are masochists!

Then you swing around to a massive downhill curve (down the ski hill), which I forgot was on such a steep decline and I almost lost it at flying speed! Rubber side down…rubber side down…rubber side down…! I hit some rocks and bumps and my right pedal unclipped and was able to save me and the bike, caught a bar in the gate, re-grouped myself, re-clipped and kept on. But no fall. Then, the very last .2 mile to the finish line gate is uphill! Cruel world! And for god’s sake, it’s a race, you can’t get off and walk!! You have to grind it up. Exactly what I did. To the finish, finally. My time was about 30 minutes better than the first time I raced Fat Tire, so that’s a good start, but I have much room to improve relative to the other racers! But I finished, I was freaked out at the beginning as usual, but at that point of crossing the finish, I forgot all about it and just smiled to have put 1 more Fat Tire under my belt! Second time for me, first time for Lily Blue (my bike).

Did I mention I was looking forward to some off-season ???

Lake Geneva Triathlon Ride Report....By Roshelle!

So I survived on Saturday~~barely!!!!!!! Actually, it was one of the best experiences in my life and I can't wait to do it again with Renee on the 24th, but I will DEFINITELY be thankful that there is no swimming. I honestly thought I was going to die!!!!! Ok, it wasn't THAT bad.

So we got there the night before to pickup our registration packets and eat the pasta dinner they provide. My nerves were not getting to me yet because I knew my hubby and our friend Dieter were doing the tri with me. They were also going to be in the same wave as me, which made me feel alot better too. We took the RV, so tried to sleep as much as possible, then woke up at 3:30 am, yikes!!!! But I'm glad we woke up that early because it gave me time to eat and let my nerves settle. We got up, got ready and headed towards the transition station to setup. Well, we got there at 4:30, as soon as it opened to get a closer transition spot, and I'm glad because by 5:30 the entire place was jammed packed. So, we are anxiously waiting for the event to start~~ did I mention it was only 50 degrees when we got there!!!! The half iron man group was suppose to start at 6:45, well because there were so many people that were registering that a.m., they didn't start until 7:30. Well, by then it was a beautiful 60 degrees!!! So our group finally got to go about 8:15 and we were in the second wave. Holy crap, it was my turn!!!! I'm freezing my butt off and did I mention there was a 10 mph wind, so the waves were actually cresting and there were white caps!! huh??? what?? get in that freezing cold water and swim, no way!!!!

So Jeff looks at me and says "I'm going to tell you something, you are going to get out there and you may want to quit, you are going to get tired and scared and may just want to stop and call for help, but whatever you do, just keep going, no matter how much it hurts and no matter how scared you are, just keep going, you can do it! you can do this Roshelle!". Thank the Lord he said this to me, because I didn't even get a quarter of the way out there and the waves were crashing all over me. I tried again and again to get my freestyle going and breathing pattern going, but every time I tried, I'd get beat down by another wave. A big honking wave hit me and I swallowed a bunch of water, then another big one hit me and went up my nose, and at the same time a guy on my left side was yelling for help to the organizers and I feared for my life that he was going to grab onto me to keep his head above water. At this point, I was so close to calling for help myself, but then all of a sudden I heard Jeff's voice in my head. I turned around and saw him right behind me and he just gave me this look a reassurement that I could do this, that made me realize, I CAN DO THIS!!!! So I just kept on going!!!!! I can't believe it, people were quitting all around me and I just kept going!!!!! I got to the buoy, and thought that the honking waves would help push me back to shore, well, yeah, they didn't :-) It was just as hard going in as it was going out. The feeling when my feet were able to touch ground as I got to shore is indescribable!!! It felt like 2 hours, but it was only 18 minutes that I was actually in the water. Wow!!!! And I still had a bike ride and a run to go!!! Oh yeah, I have to mention, I beat Jeff out of the water, woohoo!!!!

I got to transition, pulled off my wetsuit, put on my cycling gear and I was off!!! I started going and within no time I saw a black blur to my left.... it was Jeff :-) He was gone and I didn't see him again until the end. I was told the bike ride was a 17 mile rolling hill course. Yeah right!!!!! The first hill was a mile long climb (rolling hills, my butt) and I felt like I was pulling sandbags behind me because I still had water legs. I prayed to the heavens that I wouldn't let myself get off and walk because I wanted to sooooo bad!!! Finally got through that hill, and oh, how nice, another and another and another. And did I mention the 10 mph winds!!! So I had an awful headwind all the way until about mile 15 when it started to flatten out, and I saw hope at the end of the tunnel because I knew I only had 2 miles to go. NOPE!!!!! The next thing I know, I'm back to those original hills I hit at the start and I'm just dying. Then, my gps shows 17 miles and I know I'm not close to the finish....18 miles.... 19 miles... 20 miles... I finally asked one of the people riding by me if we went the right way and her gps also said 20 miles. Finally we see the transition area at 21 freaking miles!!! Yikes again!!!! So I get off my bike, throw on my shoes, stumble my way through the transition area as I don't have my running legs yet (and suck in my tummy and stand up tall as I run past the camera guy!!) and there is Jeff and Dieter, my fan club cheering me on!!!!! They ran with me for a little bit, then said they'll see me at the finish line.

Yeah, I'm almost done... then I see the hill!!!! Oh geez, is this almost over I say to myself. I said screw it, walked up the hill, ran down, walked up the next hill, then ran down, as I was approaching the finish line, I almost started to cry with enjoyment. The pain I was feeling in my legs, arms, chest, neck, everywhere, suddenly disappeared and all I cared about was that I did it!!!! I finished!!!! I crossed the finish line and I got my medal!!!! Ok, EVERYONE, got a medal, but I wore that damn thing all day!!!!! About 99.9% of the time during the tri, I was swearing at Jeff and saying how the hell did he talk me into this~I'm NEVER doing this again, but within 5 minutes of crossing the finish line, I was already looking forward to tri-girl on the 24th with Renee.

I ended up finishing in a little under 2 hours and placed 102nd out of 200. 5th out of the 20 in my age group. It is an awesome feeling and I can't wait to do it again!!! Thank you all for your support and help with training over the past months. You guys have been the best support system a girl could have!!!!!! Without Jeff and you gals, I couldn't have gotten through it!!!!

102 OUT OF A FIELD OF 200!!

She did it!! Roshelle finished her first tri in Lake Geneva today...Betty-thumbs up to our tri-girl. You are Queen Bee Betty today!!

A big CONGRATULATIONS from the Betties in your life Roshelle!!

Tell us, is it true those weekly Betty rides and events were the pinnacle of your training success???

Busy Bee Betties

Oh my, are we Busy Betties or what?! We've managed to get in our weekly rides, but the end of summer activities seem to be picking up.

Sue's been scoping out the best biking baked goods for us -- her vote is with Cream City Century (yes, she is a high mileage Betty) -- we know to train for this next year with her. Deena's starting school, Megan's starting school (and landed her new dream job -- woooohoooooo!!!!), Cari just finished school -- we're not only great riders, we're Brainy Betties too. Cecilia is basking in the sunlit glow of California, missing us Betties immensely no doubt.

And there is some racing on the horizon --- Roshelle is gearing up for her first tri -- she will be our very first Betty-Tri-Girl I think. Look for her as she eyes up the podium in Lake Geneva...and Renee will be doing FatTire in a couple of weeks...and the IronGirl duathlon is coming up. I have to say my newly found running skills are non-existent so that should make it interesting...;-) I will count have to count on Roshelle to give me a few big pushes to get me started running again after she finds me wandering aimlessly on the course....teeeheeee.

Remember girls, wherever you ride, other Betties are always cheering you on, and the Betty Angel is always watching over you on your bike...Betties never leave Betties behind.

Rubber side down ladies.