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Eleven years ago today

Eleven years ago, on September 7, Dave and I got married. And on that day in 1997, if you had told me that eleven years later I'd be walking barefoot along the pre-dawn streets of Santa Cruz wearing a thin layer of lycra and a wetsuit, I'd have laughed my ass off and told you to lay off the crack pipe.

We celebrated our eleventh anniversary with a race. Well, I did anyway. Dave came along for the ride. I raced the Big Kahuna half-ironman-distance triathlon on Sunday, racing this course for the fourth time.

I did this race last year. Last year I started training in May and worked hard for four months to get myself into shape to break six hours for the first time at this distance. This year was pretty different. I trained hard until April for Ironman Arizona, felt like I peaked in May, missed my favorite race in July when it was canceled because of forest fires, and pretty much messed around until September. I had low expectations going into this race. I wanted to break six hours again, but didn't know if I'd be able to do it and wouldn't have been crushed if I had failed.

I expected my swim to be the same and my bike to be a lot faster. Last year I was disappointed with my 3:07 bike split. And my run? I had no idea what to expect. Last year I had a solid twelve weeks of track workouts, plus another half-IM five weeks prior, on which to base my expectations. This year my speedwork consisted of three 5k races (the Splash & Dash series). And I did three 12-mile long runs. That's all.

The result, if you ask me, is pretty funny.

I basically raced exactly the same race. My swim was four minutes slower than last year -- a shock to me when I got out of the water -- but internet consensus says the swim was longer this year than last. My bike leg was a mere one minute faster than last year. Disappointing. I know I can and should go faster than 3:06 (18mph). But within one minute over 56 miles! How's that for consistency? And my run split was 2:06 -- 40 seconds slower than last year. But again, internet polling says that the run was a little longer this year. And I made one porta-potty stop, which I timed at one minute, so my run was more or less the same. My total time was 5:57, three minutes slower than last year. I'm happy I finished under six hours again. And I'm kind of tickled that my times were so close to last year's.

I looked at the top 20 finishers and compared the results of those who raced both last year and this year. Pretty consistently, those super-fast athletes were 5-6 minutes slower this year. So given the longer course, my three-minute slowdown could probably really be considered an improvement!

I really felt like I was working my butt off during the run. I ran hard, and I ran a nice even pace. And as much as I was suffering, I was almost sad when I knew it would end soon. I was having such a good time that I didn't want the race to be over! Crazy. I really love this race. The course is spectacular and the weather is always perfect.

My only regret is kind of goofy -- it's that I switched sunblock brands. I got badly sunburned. I will never race without my tried-and-true Bullfrog again. Ouch. I am going to have to surrender my Sunblock Police badge. I am ashamed. My shoulders are still tender, 48 hours later. Way more tender than my quads.

I can't wait to get back on the course for Sentinel in two weeks. Sentinel is ALWAYS fun. And since it's half the distance, it will be over before the fog burns off, so I'm a lot less likely to get sunburned. Not that I will ever let that happen again.

September 9, 2008 10:29 PM