Official Triathlon Results

Today we got our official results with overall time and specific times for each leg.

Overall Time: 1:15:56

Overall Rank: 391/598

Swim: 7:59

Rank: 206

Bike: 36:56

Rank: 370

Run: 31:00

Rank: 452

Overall I am really happy with my times, especially since my main goal was to FINISH!

My Thoughts on Swimming: Well I can't believe I'm saying this but apparently swimming was my strength. This is pretty amazing considering I was most worried about this from the beginning and I don't have any kind of history of being good at swimming. I was on a really wimpy swim team when I was younger and I don't think I came in anything other than last. Not that a rank of 206 is winning haha, but the fact that it is my strength at all is impressive to me. Now I don't feel too bad about those years that I taught swimming, maybe I really did know what I was talking about (Kelly starts to get cocky).

My Thoughts on Biking: Biking was my favorite part of this race. I love my bike and I saw this as sort of my rest time, time to drink water etc. I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with biking throughout this training, but during the race I loved biking. I also was thanking my giant hill that I have to climb on my way home every day because those hills during the race didn't seem so bad :) I think I could've gone faster in the biking section (perhaps I shouldn't view it as rest time anymore?), so that can be a goal for next time. One of my biggest problems with biking is the fact that I knew I had to run after, so I didn't want to push it TOO bad. Hopefully when I am better trained for the running section I'll be less nervous to push it on biking.

My Thoughts on Running: Obviously running was my weakness, but considering that I had not trained for this part at ALL I'm not too sad about 31 minutes. That's only a little over 2 minutes longer than my 5k when I WAS trained AND I had not biked and swam right before. Although I'll love to improve on my time in a future triathlon, more importantly I'd like to improve on how I feel during the running part because on Sunday I was really dying. I'll like to HAPPILY make it through a running section next time. That might be asking a lot, but a girl can hope.

It would be fun to improve my overall rank too since 391 is not that impressive, especially to my little kiddos at work who asked me if I "won" the race haha. I didn't know how to explain to them that for me the accomplishment was in making it across the finish line haha. It's fun to compete but the real success is in knowing that I can do something I didn't know if I could do before. Plus, I was at the doctor today for a physical and I had never met this doctor before. When we were discussing how I eat, how often I work out etc she said that I look like someone who loves to work out. I'll take that as a compliment :) I don't know if 5 am Kelly would agree with that statement but I'll take what I can get.

I'd love to write more but unfortunately I have to go meet with a wedding videographer tonight. If you are not already planning a wedding now, but might think about it in the future- I highly recommend eloping! Planning a wedding is so much work and there is really not a lot about it that I actually enjoy. My second piece of advice is to space your wedding out far away from your friends. Being it other people's weddings is time consuming too- I am pretty sure I am on a first name basis with wedding paper divas an invitation company, who I actually recommend if you ignore my previous advice and decide to plan a wedding or bridal shower for someone. I hope everyone is having a great week.

Officially a Sprint Triathlete!

I DID IT!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO J

1/3 mile SWIM

9 mile BIKE

3.1 RUN

I’m sure of exact time yet because I was in the second wave to leave for the swim, and I’m not sure exactly how much time was in between waves, but my time was approximately 1 hour 15 minutes!!!!

RACE RECAP:

Our triathlon journey began last night when we made the long trek down Rt. 28 to Falmouth to pick up our race stuff. They gave us lots of free goodies and of course all of our numbers and things we need for today. Caroline was number 77 and I was 127! Lucky 7’s I guess! Caroline was not thrilled to hear she’d be starting with the ellites (and the under 24 age bracket). I missed that by only a year but I started in the second wave. I got all my stuff ready before I went to bed:

Today we woke up bright and early at 5 am. I actually slept until my alarm but I slept horrible last night. I had all sorts of ridiculous dreams about being disqualified because I was too late (which is weird because that was the least of my actual concerns with the possibility of drowning or permanently killing my knee!)

We packed up the truck and Eric so nicely drove us to Falmouth even though he is NOT a morning person! When we got there, the only part of me that looked ready for a triathlon was the number on my arm.

I went to the bathroom a thousand times and met a really nice girl who was also a first timer. Caroline, my fantastic hairdresser, did my hair in braids :)

Then, Caroline and I walked down the beach to get ready to swim. I was feeling a lot more confident about the swim section because the water was SO nice and calm!!! (Dear God- Thank you for that!). The guy talking on the loudspeaker was making jokes which I found amusing even though I was SO nervous. Caroline started and then I started a few minutes later. Here we go!!!

The swim was unbelievable, it went SO well. I was really worried about swimming in the open water because I couldn't put my hands on the wall in between to take a breath. However, I was happy I didn't touch the wall, I think the time went much faster. I was able to swim freestyle the whole time too, except when I was kicked a few times and I just picked my head up to move away from the kicking. Good thing that everything doesn't hurt as bad in the water :) I was PUMPED after swimming.

Transition #1: This was the transition where I needed to remember sunglasses, knee straps, and helmet but it went pretty quick too. I even decided last minute to grab my half of a banana I had stuffed in my backpack after I put the other half in my oatmeal for breakfast. I figured I'd rather eat before the bike than the run. I didn't do as good of a job as I would've hoped at getting the sand off my feet but I didn't really notice it until the run.

The bike was the part I was least concerned about. It is the area I was most prepared and I figured if I was tired I could always just cruise. There were a few unexpected hills, but as you guys know I live on a giant hill so it wasn't too bad. I even biked right by the lighthouse where my engagement photos were taken so that was a nice happy thought. I was in very good spirits during the bike ride. I was yelling to people in BC superfan shirts and thanking all the volunteers, haha. Anything to make the time go by :)

If you had asked me at this point if I would do a triathlon again in a few days, I would've absolutely agreed. I was having the best time. But, I was about to make what everyone says is the hardest transition, and I haven't ran (except 1.5 miles once last weekend) in 2 months.

Transition #2: All I had to remember at the second transition was to get rid of my bike and helmet and remember my running belt which had my number on it. It felt like I needed more so I asked Chris who took the picture below if I had everything. He gave me the okay and I was off!

Everything that I expected to go wrong during the run did not. My legs were okay with the transition, my knees were 100 percent fine (thank you pataella straps!) and I didn't even really get a side ache at all. However, what I did not anticipate was how unprepared cardiovascularly (is that a word?) I would be since I haven't run in so long. Swimming and biking never really make me out of breath like that (well swimming a little bit but not biking except up hills). I was out of breath within a couple of minutes and IT WAS SO HOT. Keep in mind the last time I was running was early May, and early May in Boston I was still wearing long sleeve shirts to run. My body was not ready for pounding sun. I felt really sick to my stomach so I had to walk about 3 times, which was a bummer. But I think that was actually better than having to walk because of my knee (which is a more permanent problem). I would've liked to be able to run the whole time, but it just was not going to happen. I was also pacing myself pretty bad when I was running (I should've brought my Garmin I think) so I was kind of sprinting and then having to walk, which probably isn't the best plan. But in the end I don't think I lost TOO much time during the run and still finished in a time I am proud of! Caroline finished right with one of those BC Superfans, wooo!

I finished a few minutes later. I was happy Caroline did not have to wait too long for me, I was picturing her starting ahead of me and then taking a nap by the time I actually finished haha. I was less than amused that we finished literally on the beach. It's hard enough to run on the beach normally, forget after a triathlon! Apparently some people fell at the end, so at least that wasn't me. The coolest part was when they announced my name and where I was from on the loudspeaker!

The clock says 1:18-55. Supposedly we were starting 3 minutes between each wave which would mean I finished in 1:15-55. We will see when the official scores come out. I'm interested to see how I did on each leg as well because I think I lost a lot during the run, but maybe not. Here and me and the sis at the end:

And me with my #1 fan :)

And me, Eric, Caroline and Chris. My parents were there too, but no pictures of them haha.

Overall, it was a ton of fun. I will definitely be doing more sprint triathlons in the future. But next time I will not hurt my knee and actually be able to train for the running part! It's funny how I told my PT that I was most confident about the running part (this was 2 months ago) so I didn't mind taking a few weeks off running. A few weeks turned into 2 months and then today I was definitely not so confident about running.

I hope everyone had an great weekend with some beautiful weather like we did! I'll probably be back tomorrow or the next day with more triathlon thoughts :)

Tomorrow!!!

I've officially made it to the Cape and I am relaxation pre-triathlon mode! I am definitely concerned about my physical preparation for this race, which of course affects my mental preparation but I am just counting on adrenaline to push me through :) Tonight my sister and I are driving to Falmouth to pick up our race materials and check out the course a little bit. Then we are eating a yummy dinner and heading to bed early. I still have a few more errands to run today but mostly I am just going to relax. I was wishing this triathlon was on Saturday so I could get it over with but it's rainy and the water is rough so I'm glad it's tomorrow now!

Yesterday on the way down I stopped to check out my wedding site in the summer. When we booked it, it was the winter and it looked a lot different. They were setting up for a wedding and all the flowers make it look even more beautiful. Here are some pics:

I really hope I have this beautiful of a day for my wedding next July because if I do, it will be really gorgeous!

Last night, I went out with the fam to an amazing Japanese restaurant called Inaho. If you are ever in Cape Cod, I highly recommend trying it. It's in Yarmouthport on 6A. You do need reservations but you can get them earlier that day if you are willing to go early :) Here are some beautiful pictures of the sushi.

I had shrimp dumplings and chicken teriyaki which did not look as fun, but did taste delicious. Actually the shrimp dumplings would probably make a good picture but I wanted to eat them, next time I promise one :)

I hope everyone has a great start to the weekend! I'll try to do a Pre-Race report tonight and definitely update you on how it goes tomorrow.

Mango Madness

Hi everyone. I know I'm slacking on the blog posting, but my summer job has been tough and having a little bit of extra time has made me feel like I need to be incredibly productive in all areas of life. So now I think I have a lot less time (funny how that works).

One of the only benefits of being diagnosed with IBS a little over two years ago was that it has gotten me into a lot of new foods. One of these foods is mango. It's not something I really ever thought about before, but it is one of the only fruits that has a lot of soluble fiber (the fiber my tummy likes) and so I began trying to eat it. I quickly found out that fresh mango was not for me. It was really tough to peel/cut and I read somewhere that the skin was poison which freaked me out (no idea if this is actually true of course). So I have been buying frozen mango at Trader Joe's for the past year. At first I was not quite sure how to use it, so I just mixed it with yogurt and enjoyed it. That was good, but then I started to be a bit more creative. I made a fantastic lunch mixture of rice, quinoa, black beans, carrots and mango. As per usual, I decided to eat that every day until I got sick of it. The past two nights I have tried some dinner with mango and here are the first results:

Fillet of sole, baked with mango slices on top...yum! Here is my whole dinner including baked potato fries and some carrots (also an excellent source of soluble fiber).

The next day I had some leftover sole, so I decided to mix it with more mango and some quinoa. I didn't even need any sauce, the mango added delicious sweetness, yum.

If you have never had mango, or haven't had it in awhile- give it a try. You'd be surprised by all the places you'll find to put it. I also make delicious smoothies with mango and banana, but I ran out of bananas so I haven't had one in a few days.

On a different note, I have continued to train for the triathlon in a low key sort of way. I know I said I am not going to do it, but I actually probably am- just very slowly and carefully. I am at the point now where I no longer mind if I am last, because it probably means I was taking good care of my knee. I think I'll be in a better place to take a long rest and deal with my knee after I complete this goal for myself. Given the fact that I ran on my knee for almost a month before I went to the doctor, I think running one more time will not kill it. Plus I am most likely going to walk the whole time since I haven't actually run in over a month now and I am not one of those people who can just bust out 3 miles without any training. So today I did 22 laps in the pool and an 8 mile bike ride. I'm going to continue to take it easy but also make sure I get some quality pool time in. I'm sure I'm going to regret not doing an open water swim before the tri, but I'm going to tell everyone to keep a CLOSE eye on me in the water to watch for drowning. Haha...not funny though. Tomorrow is Friday, yay!!!

Light from Within

STOP RAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry. I am just so sick of raining I might cry.

But actually I'm in a shockingly positive mood. Well, probably it's positive because tomorrow is my last day of school and then I have the rest of the week off before my summer job officially begins. I have big plans to hang out with friends from work tomorrow night, chill at the Cape with Eric for the rest of the week and then go to NYC on Saturday for a fabulous bachelorette party. So basically despite the rain, I am very happy right now.

Today was the end of the year concert, kindergarten slideshow and then "picnic"- of course this year the rain did not make for much of a picnic, but oh well. At least all of that is over, so all I have to get through is a half day with the kids and then cleaning up the room (which I am mostly going to make the kiddos do anyways).

As for triathlon training, things are up and down for me right now. As of this weekend I was thinking I should not do it at all. I was also going to stop swimming and biking for a bit to see if that helped my knee. Now today, I am really doing well with my PT exercises and I am just not ready to give up yet. I was thinking that there is no way I could bust out a 5k after swimming and biking without training, but now I am thinking that the worse thing that happens is I have to walk. Yes, I probably will then finish last but at this point I'd just be happy to be able to do it, even if I am last. I'm not saying I am definitely going to do the triathlon, but I am going to go with option #2 (I think it was #2...the one where I continue to train and see how things get a bit closer). Of course I say a bit closer like there is not only 3 weeks left! So that is where I stand right now. Thanks everyone for the advice on what you think I should do, I think the general consensus was to keep training, but be careful and I think that is ultimately what I am planning to do.

On one final note of excitement, last night we went to my parents house for Father's Day and my mom's birthday (which is tomorrow). I forgot that we hadn't really gotten around to celebrating my birthday because of my brother's graduation and an overall crazy month of June. My mom surprised me with a very KELLY cake.
As we all know I have lots of annoying dietary restrictions and one of them is I cannot really eat cake. Sure I have a bite here and there, but if I eat a whole piece of cake I feel very sick after. One thing I can eat is Edy's 1/2 the fat ice cream. So my mom found an Edy's ice cream called "Take the Cake" and molded it into a cake shape. We found these awesome candles at Christmas Tree Shop on Memorial Day weekend but I actually thought I had the one that said my name- apparently not though because it was sitting on top of my awesome cake. I ate almost the whole thing and it was absolutely amazing (don't worry, there was a normal cake for everyone else).

I leave you with... "People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within." I know it's a bit dramatic, but I need some light from within right now, because there certainly is not any outside. I hope it's sunny and beautiful where you are! (and also, can you tell me where you are so I can get there?)

Saturday Ramblings

Good morning everybody! I am exhausted today because for some weird reason I could not sleep last night. For normal people this would not be bad since I didn't have to wake up this morning, but of course my internal clock went off at 6:30 and I tossed and turned until 7 and then just got up. I'm glad it's the weekend though.

Last night I had a retirement party for a teacher at my school who has worked there for 30 years! Wow! This guy is a fabulous teacher. It was quite an inspiring party because he is the type of teacher that you want to be like. If only I could stop being driven crazy by kids, I swear I'd be that type of teacher, haha. I need some more patience.

On Thursday night Eric and I hit up our favorite hole in the wall Chinese restaurant. Normally I do not eat leftovers because I figure I shouldn't have unhealthy food multiple times in a row. This time I really wanted leftovers so I decided to add some summer squash and mushrooms to make my leftovers healthier. Made for a delicious lunch :)
Yesterday I also tested out my newly improved work out space. Eric got me a TV for the treadmill room for my birthday and it's all set up and ready. I can't run still, so I decided to walk on the treadmill.
This morning Caroline and I went for a bike ride. I was struggling a bit because of the lack of sleep last night. We biked for 58 minutes and did 12.46 miles. So that's about an average of 12 miles per hour...too lazy to do the math out. That basically means that even though I felt like I was barely moving, we were going about the same speed we have been doing on our other rides.

So the triathlon I was supposed to be training for is less than a month away and I have no idea what to do. I can't tell if PT is helping or not, I thought it definitely wasn't but it does seem to be improving a little bit. So the way I see it I have a couple of options from here:

1. Give up on doing a triathlon in July immediately. If I do this, I will probably take a few weeks off biking as well and see if that helps. I don't know what cardio I will do?

2. Continue to train biking and swimming and see how the knee is a couple of weeks before so I can maybe start running again and still do it.

3. Continue training biking and swimming and start running again. I know this seems like a bad idea, but I would obviously be very careful about it. Plus if stopping running is not helping at all, what's the point?

Would love to hear any opinions on which of these you think I should do. I have a ridiculously long car ride today by myself to think about that, 3 hours total for a bridal shower. I don't think I've ever mentioned on this blog before but I am not a fan of bridal showers. I know girl time is important in life, but so many of my friends are not friends with each other, I'd appreciate being able to bring Eric so I know one person. Plus, that would make this car ride a lot less painful! The other thing I don't like is that they don't tend to have alcohol at them. Now I actually don't drink a lot at ALL, but if I have to go to a party where I don't know anyone- at least give me a glass of wine. That doesn't even begin to touch on how boring it is to watch people open presents haha. But, the girl who this bridal shower is for has definitely helped me get through 3 years of teaching kindergarten, so she deserves an hour and a half commute there and back. I am sure she'd do it for me. Plus she hates bridal showers too haha, so at least I know she is not enjoying torturing me. She promises to have an assembly line for the present opening so things move quickly, but at a 120 person shower, who knows!
I'll be back tonight or tomorrow, have a great weekend :)