Vineman 70.3 Race Report

Another 70.3 into my little personal record book!  I love this race and cannot wait to do it again next year!  It is quickly becoming my favorite race, and I'm trying to convince Derek that we need to make it an annual event.  It's a gorgeous, challenging course, and your in the wine and foodie mecca of CA!  What's not to like?  This year we really wanted to go wine tasting and float down the Russian River (after the race of course!)

We left on Friday morning to drive up to Ripon to break up the long drive from Pasadena to Sonoma and get a little family time in along the way.  As always it's good to see family and have a visit.  One day soon we will be living back in Northern CA and I can't wait!  On Saturday morning we were up early, did our shake-out ride/run and were on the road to Sonoma.  As usual, I was a little slow getting ready and we were on the road later than Derek wanted to be.  Once there we checked into our cottage and went to the race expo.  I will say that the expo a bit disappointing, there were far fewer vendors this year.  We had to sit through the 30 minute video presentation on the course, and I'm curious to know how many people crashed on the right hand turn onto Sunset after we were told multiple times to be careful there! 

We went to Kin for dinner, it's an awesome little restaurant in downtown Windsor.  Love the sweet potato tater tots!  We were back in our room early to get everything ready and go to bed early and for the first time ever I slept really well the night before a race!  That never happens!  I'm usually lucky to get a few hours of sleep. 

Race Morning:

The alarm had us up at 5:30!  It was almost like sleeping in! For pre-race breakfast I ate 2 big bowls of Corn Flakes with whole milk, a banana and 1 packet of honey peanut butter on the banana.  Normally I don't want to eat in the A.M. on race day, but today was different, I was hungry! It was cold and foggy early but started to clear up once we arrived at Johnson's Beach.  Vineman is a point to point event and I think that T1 and T2 are separated by 15 miles or so.  Basically you only bring what you need.  I wasn't nervous at all, that is until Derek's wave went off, which was about a half hour before mine, his @ 7:50 and mine at 8:22.  My goal of the day was to try to catch and pass him but I knew that I had my work cut out for me.

Swim:  30:03 14th AG

I was able to get in the water a couple minutes early and get a decent warm up in.  I loved my 2xu wetsuit, I can't remember the style but it was sleeveless and awesome!  The water was a balmy 72.  It's a floating start and I took my place front and center.  So when the gun went off I was able to get out in front and find feet to follow.  For a tri start it was really mild and I never was touched or man-handled the entire swim.   I was in the midst of a pack of about 6-7 girls who were swimming well, but just a little slower than I would have liked.  I couldn't force my way through them because they were swimming shoulder to shoulder and I thought it would have taken too much time to go around them.  At the turn around I was able to get through the pack and saw a girl about 15 yards ahead of me, I swam hard to get on her feet and followed her all the way into T1.  Gotta love not having to sight at all, I just trusted her that we were swimming straight.  Overall I'm happy with my swim, I wanted to go under 30 minutes.  I missed it by 4 measly seconds, but I'll take it.  Derek ended up swimming 43:03 which for him is better than last year, but slower than he is capable and he's a bit disappointed in his swim and said he could have swam a lot faster.

Bike:  2:57 29th AG

Since my wave was one of the last to go off it meant that the course was full!  I love this bike course because it's super pretty going through all the vineyards, but it's pretty much either uphill or downhill, nothing if flat!  Right out of T1 the road was packed!  The first few miles were the worst and it was hard to make totally legal passes without drafting, but eventually around mile 35ish it cleared up a bit, but then got clogged up again at Chalk Hill.  I passed a lot of people over the 56 miles but passing legally made it really hard to get in a rhythm.  I'd have to soft pedal a bit behind a line of people and then surge to get past all of them.  I felt really strong the entire way through and probably could have pushed harder, but ever since my incident with the "bee" two weeks ago I've become a little more timid on the bike.  Again at Chalk Hill I thought, "is that it?"  It's a nasty little hill but not as bad as it's made out to be.  I did follow a girl for about 20 miles and we just passed and repassed each other.   Finally I lost her on the descent coming down CH.  I picked it up heading into town but apparently I was not going as fast as I would have liked or thought!  I'm pretty happy with my bike time, but my goal was to go under 2:50 and I know that I am capable of doing that on this course.  I really think that my little accident a few weeks ago made overly cautious.  I averaged around 19mph on a tough course and improved 7 minutes from last year.   Derek and I both rode on IRT Wheels for the first time in a race and I must say I loved them! They were awesome! I like having something that is different than all the Zipps you see. It's a smaller company based out of SoCal and they have a great product, loved it. 

My trusty steed with IRT wheels, before we left.

Not race day, but this was my race outfit.  Love Betty Designs!

Nutrition;  I pretty much ate the entire time on the bike!  I was a moving buffet.  I had 2 apple cinnamon Honeystinger bars (180 cal. each), 2 packets of orange blossom Honeystinger engery chews (160 cal. each), 3 Salt Stick salt tabs, 3 bottles of Skratch Labs lemon/lime mix (80 cal. each), and 1 bottle of water (total 920 cal).    I was not going to make the same mistake as last year where I was starving for the entire run!  I've discovered that I need to eat a lot on the bike to have sufficient energy to run afterwards.

FOOD!  Yea, I ate pretty much all of that on race day

Derek's bike was another frustrating ride.  Last year he lost a contact and he literally cannot see without contacts, and this year his aerobars came loose on a descent and tilted dramatically down!  He said he almost went over the front but was able to save it!  Disaster averted!  Once he was able to get the bars in a semi-correct position he was able to ride again but couldn't stay in the aero position on any descent for fear of going over the front.  Apparently, when the bike shop installed his new aero bars etc. they should have put a carbon compound between them and the stem, which they didn't! 

T2/Run:  1:58

My AG had a much better rack placement this year as opposed to last.  I was lucky enough to be in the first 3 racks this year and didn't have to run all the way to the back.  I was in and out in a hurry!

My legs felt really good coming right off the bike and I was ready to run.  I think a lot of that has to do with my new fit, it really has made a difference.  I didn't have dead, heavy legs for the first mile or so.  I realized at the mile one marker/aid station that I forgot to start my Garmin, oops!  Not really sure what I went out the first mile at, but it felt like low 8s? It was pretty hot  and I made sure to get lots of water at every aid station, one to drink and 2 to pour on myself.  Usually I do not do well in heat and I really wanted to do my best to stay cool.  I was able to keep my pace in the high 8s and low 9s.  The hills around mile four are the worst and my pace crept closer to 9:30 but I did my best to recover on the downhills.  My HR was good and I was able to keep it in the 160 range for most of the course.  I had a high point around mile 6 I saw Derek as I was entering the vineyards at La Crema Winery and there was a misting tent!  I was so excited to see both!  Derek looked good and I knew that I needed to turn it on if I was going to catch him (he was about 1.5-2 miles ahead).  The loop through the vineyards hurt!  All of a sudden there was no breeze and it was HOT with no water/ice to dump all over myself in sight.  This year we made a right out of the vineyard to the turnaround point and I saw Derek again this time he was about a mile ahead of me.   I was catching him but I knew that time was running out.  My right hip flexor started hurting around what I thought was mile 8 but was really mile 9 (not starting the Garmin had me all confused, I couldn't do basic math), but I just pushed through.  I was not slowing down, I had to catch my husband!  The last few miles I was able to get down to the low 8min/mile pace but I didn't have anything left.  I was tired and ready to stop moving.   I was also in no-mans-land as far as girls from my AG, all the fast girls out in front so I didn't see or pass but one or two girls from my AG the entire run unless you count the girl who had "26" on her calf that passed me in the finish chute but turned out to be in my AG Turns out Derek was able to hold me off and finished 7 minutes before I did.  I did negative split the run course, so I'm really happy with that!


Overall 5:33:33 27th AG.  A new PR for me!  Derek finished in 5:57:57, and I'm really proud of him.  He did great and it was so nice to have him standing on the finishing line waiting for me.  I'm pretty happy with my performance at this race.  I know that I could have done better and have a much faster 70.3 in me, but I did the best I could with what I had to work with on race day.  I know that taking 6 weeks off from running and only being able to run the last month of training is not ideal, but out of my control.  Next year I will do better! 


My parents were at the finish too!  It was nice to have someone there to cheer you on.  I love that they drove all that way to see us.   We went to dinner in downtown Healdsburg and the Healdsburg Bar and Grill, which was so yummy!  Derek was in beer heaven and I swear that was one of the best martinis I've had in a long time.  Plus we had chorizo corn dogs, talk about fat dipped in fat and then deep fryed in fat!  Pure heaven.  We stayed several days after the race to go wine tasting, shopping, etc.  But I'll save all that for another post, this one has gone on far too long!  Sorry I don't have many pictures, I forgot the camera pretty much every day.

Just a few of our wine country purchases!

In front of our favorite winery!

Here is the link to my official race pictures, I will warn you they are bad! But then again I don't think anyone ever likes theirs.

http://www2.brightroom.com/email/98176/2045/139261673

Where does the time go?

It's been a busy month.  Derek and I went and watched the last stage of the Tour of California in downtown L.A. (our old stomping grounds).  It was really cool to see all the pros and watch them, they are incredibly fast!   We rode the train from our house in Pasadena to downtown, which was nice that we didn't have to drive.  The day was really hot, but we had a lot of fun.  I forgot my camera and had to resort to crappy iPhone pics, sorry. 

I got 3 in the frame!

We also had family come visit us over Memorial Day weekend, which is always nice!  We hardly ever get visitors so it was fun to go out to dinner, eat way too much, drink, shop and do family stuff.  Unfortunately, we ended up taking the weekend off of training and only got in one long run.  Oops, but family is important. 

Breakfast from Marstons, good but so not healthy.

The last few weeks have been great on the Swim, bike, run front.  We've been logging lots of miles on the River Trail, Rose Bowl and pool.  The last 2 Sundays we got a late start and didn't finish our rides until noon, and had long runs off the bike after which were somewhat miserable because of the heat.  Plus where we run off the bike is on a black, asphalt path with absolutely no shade, not optimal.  I don't sweat that much and the heat really bothers me, but I was able to maintain 8:30 miles for a 6 mile run in the heat, which made me feel a lot better especially due to my calf.  I just hope that Vineman isn't hot this year, I'm one of the last waves to go (8:22 start time) so it could potentially be really, really hot on the run.  Or with all the hot runs Derek and I have done lately, I'll be ready for the heat!  I did get this snazzy little thing from TP Therapy cool point, I've only used it on one run so far so I'm not quite sure if it works or not.  It seemed to help, but the verdict is out still.

Derek and I both had Retul fittings done recently with Julian Franco of Franco Bicycles  Julian is the nicest guy and has made me so much more comfortable on my bike!  What a difference.  My fit was way off and I was sitting way too far forward on my seat.  Both Derek and I are already averaging 2-3 mph faster without even trying!  I feel so much stronger and faster on my bike.  My next road bike will probably be one of theirs too.  They basically will build you whatever you want!   You get to pick everything instead of buying a bike and then having to re-buy every component to make it exactly what you want.  I think Derek is already planning his out and will probably give me a wish list on the day I pass the CSR! 

I was so excited last weekend when an IM race in Lake Tahoe was announced.  We went back and forth and couldn't decide if we wanted to do it.  Well, it turns out we waited too long and it's sold out, poop!  So we're going to volunteer and do it the next year.  Hopefully by that time we'll also be living back in Sacramento and will be able to go up and train on the course.    I'm a bit disappointed but I guess it wasn't meant to be!

Ok enough of my ramblings.  Derek and I are off to Pismo this weekend for a little vacation!

It’s been a busy week! And I’m starting to realize I need to keep better track of how many miles I’ve ridden, swam, and ran.  I think last week I rode 160-180ish miles on the bike and swam an undetermined length in the pool.  Plus school is really kicking my @ss! I'm getting frustrated because I'm so close to passing into the next speed group, and I keep missing it by one or two errors. What other school considers a 97.5% a fail? It's crazy how high the standard is, but I totally understand. I will get there and pass a test soon. Then I'll be at the bottom of the heap again, to claw my way back out. Ah, the joys of court reporting school. 

Loot from the farmers market next to the house.

Last Sunday Derek and I went on another long ride on the SGRT.  The last 20 miles or so were through a really sketchy area, so we did our best to hammer it to the turnaround point and back.  There are little underpasses that go underneath the road, and it smelled so bad in some of them!  I could only think of the nasty crap I was riding through and not to fall down!  Derek has been having little run-ins with squirrels!  He has nearly ended the life of two on the bike.  Poor little guys run out and he misses them by mere inches, Derek almost went down on one because he locked up his brakes!  On Thursday Derek left work early, which he never ever does, to go ride 40 miles on the river trail.  We only made it a little over 20.  The wind was crazy!  I literally was giving it everything that I had and could only keep 17-18 mph.  The wind was just brutal.  We decided to turn around and call it a day.  There is one part where the path turns and we got a nasty cross wind, it was so hard to keep my bike upright!  I don’t even have high profile wheels either, and know I would have had a hell of a time to stay up if I did.  Maybe that is a little taste of what Kona is like; I’ll keep that in mind if I ever make it there.

Derek getting ready before the crazy, windy ride.

I still haven’t been able to run and my PT says that I have Peroneal Tendinitis, which sucks!  So, there has been lots of ART, stretching, rolling and ice around here. Thankfully he said I’m good to cycle and swim.  I’d go stir crazy if I couldn’t.  A new thing is that I’m going to start swimming with the Rose Bowl masters team.  For some reason when swimming on my own I’ve been getting bored and finding myself half-assign it. Which is weird, but I really think it’s because I don’t have someone to chase or someone behind me.  My first workout with them will be this coming Thursday, and I’m excited!  I haven’t swum in a structured team setting in years.  I just don’t want to be last, which I probably won’t be, but I still have that irrational fear.   

Sunday is the final stage of the Amgen Tour of California at L.A. Live.  Derek and I are going to ride the metro to our old stomping grounds (we used to live 3 blocks from L.A. Live) and watch the finish.  We’ve been watching the stages every day, and so far it’s been such a great race.  I was so excited yesterday when Sylvain Georges won the stage after being in the breakaway for 184km!  Riders in the breakaway hardly ever succeed in staying away and winning, but this guy did!  He held off the wolves just long enough!  Tomorrow will be a crazy, busy day because we have to get a long ride and swim in before heading to watch the race.  I think there is a super early morning in my future!

Absent blogger!

Oh, where do I start?  I've seriously neglected this blog for far too long!  So much has happened since I last posted.  The biggest and most important thing that happened is.....Derek and I got married on Maui!!!!

View from our balcony overlooking Lanai and Black Rock

We had the most amazing time!  It truly was a perfect day, and so many of our family and friends made the trip.  We spent a week on Maui and a week on Oahu, I never wanted to come home!  The hike to the top of Diamond head was probably the most athletic thing we did, other than surfing.   We pretty much spent two weeks eating, laying in the sun (pool or beach), surfing and shopping.  It was absolutely perfect!

Me a hot, sweaty mess at the top of Diamond Head

Derek and I on Maui in front of Black Rock

What we did almost the entire two weeks! Sit in the pool or on the beach!

School is still hectic, and darn it, one of these days I'm going to be finished and amongst the working!  I swear court reporting school really kicks my butt almost every day, but I will prevail and make it.  Most working reporters say that school is harder than work, I hope they're right! 

Derek and I are training for Vineman 70.3, again.  Last year didn't go so well for either of us. I like to think of it this way, I did Vineman and he did Blindman!  I was sick the entire week leading up to race day, and really could have done so much better.  And, well, Derek lost a contact on the swim and he is seriously almost blind without contacts, -7.75 which is very strong!  I have no idea how he rode 56 miles on a bike with vision in only one eye, but he did it. He likes to say that he is stubborn or determined, and I affectionately call it stupid.  Either way we both had less than stellar races in 2011.  I finished in 5:47 and Derk 6:33.  So we signed up to have another go at it!  Hopefully this year will be better than last. 

Lately our days have been filled with swim, bike, and run.  Well, not so much run for me, since I have injured my Peroneal muscle in my calf and it hurts to walk, especially going down stairs.  I've been seeing an ART guy and he's been working his magic on my leg.  I'm hoping to be up and running soon!  Derek runs the Rose Bowl loop and I attempt to walk Max around the small loop, but we only make it half way since Max refuses to walk. 

We've been logging lots of miles on the San Gabriel River Trail, which is awesome, but not very pretty.  Whoever decided ,way back when, to cover over L.A.'s natural rivers with concrete was a moron.  It's really ugly! I do like the fact that we can ride 60-100 miles and be in the aerobars 95% of the way, and not have to worry about cars at all!  Just the occasional dog, kid on a bike, or rooster will jump out.   For some reason it seems to get really windy some days, and that you're battling the wind both out and back, and then it'll change and come from the side.  I guess it just makes me stronger!  I really hate wind though.

See!  Not so pretty, but Derek looks cute.

Higher up the trail, but you only get "nature" for a few miles

Me, on the last run I did before I hurt my leg. :(

On Sunday will be my first "test-run" in a few weeks, and hopefully it'll go well.

Yay for July!

I love July!  I think it may be one of my favorite months.  It's summer, hot, full of BBQing, swimming, days at the beach and the Tour!  When I was little and on vacation in Gold Beach with my family I used to hate it when my Uncle Jim made us watch the Tour de France everyday.  I thought it was silly to watch men ride around on bicycles, who does that?  Fast forward to now, and I can't wait to get home and watch the days coverage of the Tour.  I'm glued to the television for 3 hours watching the latest stage.  I even love the announcers.  I'm really hoping that Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans kick ass in the mountain stages, and that Thor holds onto the yellow for a few more days. 

As far as my own training, Derek and I have been logging a lot of miles on the bike, meters in the pool.  Unfortunately I've been running alone, since Derek has a nagging Achilles injury.  I like running alone but I also miss my partner and having someone to talk to.  We recently started biking along the San Gabriel River Trail, and it's awesome!  I love it.  We could ride all the way to Long Beach if we wanted.  I really like that we can ride 50 miles without having to think about cars or anything.  Every now and  again a squirrel jumps out to play chicken with me, but I have yet to run one over.  Hopefully that day doesn't come!  Derek just bought me 2 really cute cycling kits from Betty Designs which I love! (see pic below).  I also have an Adamo seat from her and water bottles.  I love her stuff and can't wait to get more.  The next thing on my wish list is a workout bikini.

On the trail in my awesome Betty Designs jersey.

Vineman is a little over a week away, and I'm getting really excited but also a bit nervous.  The last 2 days I've had a really sore throat and my nose is bothering me.  I keep telling myself it's allergies, but as a precaution I've been drinking Airborne and all kinds of stuff like that.  I'd hate to have put all this time and energy and then get sick the week before!  I'll still race, unless I'm bedridden, but I really want to be able to do my best on race day.  I've done all that I can do up until now and just enjoy my taper week and bring whatever I have to the table next weekend.  Hopefully I'll feel better!  I can't wait to get away for a long weekend with Derek, even if it won't be that relaxing.  It'll be fun to get out of town, see family, race and drink some wine! 

California Classic Weekend

On Friday Derek and I packed up the FJ and headed for a fun filled family weekend in Fresno to do the California Classic Challenge, metric century ride on Saturday followed by a half marathon on Sunday.  This is the perfect training weekend for us, since Vineman 70.3 is coming up in July.  We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle at the Casa Durham.  Almost the whole family made the trek; my mom, Aunt Chris, Tommy, Tarah, and Terry (well for a few hours while on his way to Napa).  We stayed up and hung out for a few hours.  Bright and early Saturday morning we were up and eating yummy steel cut oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts before the race.  I wore my new outfit from www.bettydesigns.com which I was so excited to get as a gift from my love!  Derek and I had to leave a bit early to pick up our race packets, since we were late.  We got everything ready and met everyone at the start line.  Derek, Diane, Chris, Tarah, Shawn and I all tried to start together but with 1,500 people we got separated.  I was in no man's land with the girls in front of me and the guys behind.  I knew that eventually I'd meet back up with them again.  It was really slow going for the first 4-5 miles through town, there were a few times that I even had to unclip and stop but once on the 168 it was full steam ahead. 

The 168 freeway was closed for 10 miles for us to ride on, and that was really cool.  I finally caught up with the girls, and we slowly spun down the 168.  It was much smoother than I had anticipated.  For some reason I was thinking that it would be a really rough 10 miles, but it was probably the smoothest part of the entire ride.  Derek and Shawn caught up with us about 3-4 miles after getting on the 168 and we were all together again.  Once off the freeway we no longer had any traffic control, which I though was a bit strange since we were on country roads that people go blowing by you at 70 mph!  There were several uncontrolled intersections that cars would not stop, so it was a bit scary! 

me, Shawn and Derek stopping to say Hi to Mary. 

It would have been nice to have a little police presence out on the road so drivers slowed down just a little bit.  A semi truck passing you on a little country road can be unnerving at times.  We stopped again around mile 30 at the first rest stop and it was crazy!  Hundreds of people were there and only 4, yes 4 porta potties!!  Really!  Thankfully I didn't have to go, or I would have had to wait in at least a 20 minute line.  Once back on the road, we just cruised along at about 18 mph and talked.  It was so much fun to cruise along and chit chat.  There were some really pretty areas that we went through, but also some really scary ones. The route back to the finish took us through some pretty rough areas of Fresno, I really think the race organizers need to plan that part of the course a bit better.  I'm not really sure what our finish time was, since we did not have chips and I didn't start my Garmin until mile 24.

Derek, Shawn, Diane, Tarah, me and Chris

Afterwards we hung out and had lunch at the park then went home to rest.  When we got back to the house we all sat in the ice cold pool for a bit and then the spa!  Perfect recovery combo.  I also used my Grid foam roller and my legs were never sore.   Uncle Jim made us an awesome tri-tip for dinner with salad, corn, veggies and pilaf.  I was totally stuffed!  Derek and I went to bed pretty early since we had to be up super early again on Sunday. 

Yumm!  Courtesy of the Durham support team

We were up bright and early Sunday morning and out the door a little late.  Derek, Diane, Chris and I barely had time to park and get to the start line to fine Mary.  I think we talked for maybe a minute before the gun went off.

Derek, Mary, me, Chris and Lisa

It was crowded!  Derek and I once again started way too far back and had to fight the crowds.  We ended up running on the sidewalk for about a half mile to get around the mob.  Our time goal was to run the half in under 2 hours.  We started off in the 8:30-8:40 range and kept that pace, it felt good and wasn't a push.  The first few miles of the course really twisted and turned, but we did get to see Shawn a bunch of times and unload our warm clothes on him.  Thanks Shawn for always being our pack mule!  Once out of downtown Fresno we were taken through some really rough areas and beautiful industrial streets.  I mean after Big Sur the views here were just as stunning, I heard later that there were a few hookers out and about, I was a bit disappointed that I missed them!  Mile 6 we entered the Fresno zoo, and Derek took off!  He is really creeped out by zoos and caged animals really bother him, so he was off like a little rocket through the zoo. Once out of the zoo I fot him back on pace and we cruised along.  Around mile 8 I decided that I wanted to run faster and see if I could break 2 hours.  Derek tried to keep up, and stayed with me for a bit, but then dropped back.  I just kept finding people ahead of me to catch and pass, my last few miles hovered around 8:00.  Turning the corner and running onto the field I knew that I was well below 2:00 and ended up with 1:48:56 Woohoo.  Derek was not far behind, he sprinted to finish in 1:51:03.  He crushed his goal!  I gave him a water as soon as he crossed, but he just walked to the side and flopped down in the grass, he was spent.  I am so proud of him! he did such a good job and really put in a huge effort.  Especially on tired legs.  Shiny new PRs for both of us. 

Derek was spent after his finish!

Derek and I on the field.

Mary, Derek and I

After we finished we went back out on the course to cheer Mary and Chris on.  After Mary went by we waited for Chris.   I ran the last half mile in with her, in case she needed a little moral support!  She looked great and was running at a good little clip and she was extra cute in her lulu outfit.  We all hung out on at the stadium afterwards, ate breakfast, talked with my mom, Shawn and Jim (the awesome support team!).  Chris and I happened to turn around at one point to see Diane running across the finish line!  She walked/ran the half and beat her old time by 20 minutes!  Overall it was a great weekend filled with family, food and racing.  It was a perfect weekend and perfect training for Vineman in two months.  Lots of swim, bike run in my future.  I get the whole next week off of school to relax and recover from this weekend.  Even better we'll get to see the see the family in a few weeks in Vegas for PJs 21st!  Can't wait!

big sur and other news

Hmmm where do I start?  This was supposed to be just a race report of the Big Sur Marathon, but the weekend turned out to be so much more than I ever expected.  Friday we packed up the Ferrari, a feat in and of itself, then drove up to Monterey  We stopped by the expo and picked up our bibs etc, and met Bart Yasso (geeked out a little bit).  Had a nice dinner with Irene at the Whole Enchilada which has the best Mexican food ever, and turned in for the night.  Saturday Derek and I went on a little shake out run along the beach down by Fisherman's Wharf, and it was gorgeous outside!  I'm talking 70 degrees, sunny and no wind, which is unusual there.  I want to move to Monterey, there is the best running/bike path that goes on for miles and miles along the coast.  I'd go run it every day.  My mom and Dad drove over to go to lunch and spend the day with us in Carmel.

Carmel was amazing as well and we had a lovely lunch outside, my Dad even got to eat his favorite dish, abalone, for an appetizer.  We walked around, shopped, had coffee and did all that you're not supposed to do before a full marathon.  Rest my legs?  Walk up and down hills?  No, I didn't do that!  It was a fantastic day.   Once back to Irene's I had to figure out all the stuff I needed and get it ready, since at 4am my brain does not function and I'd surely forget my shoes if they were not set there!  Race morning came and it was cold and my lower back really hurt!  So I was a bit worried because I could barely stand straight, so I took a couple of Tylenol hoping that would help.   It was 40 degrees out and windy!  I'm a fair weather runner and to me that is freezing and just short of torture.  Thankfully we arrived to our bus pickup location and got to sit in a warm and toasty bus, then in a semi warm tent for RW Challenge people.  It was nice to not have to sit in the cold wind.  RW Challenge had a great set up with food, coffee, our own nice porta potties and tents to keep us out of the wind.  I waited until about 5 minutes to the start to get out of my cozy Lululemon sweats, and then froze walking to the start area, my teeth were chattering while we waited in the corral.  Once the gun went off it was slow going for the first 2 miles.

Start line way in the distance

Derek and I accidentally got into the wrong corral and had to weave in and out of people for the first 2 or 3 miles.  In a way I think it was a good thing because we didn't start out too fast and just got into a nice rhythm.  We chatted, took pics and enjoyed the view through the Highlands. The course is basically all uphill or downhill the entire way, and through the Highlands the road is really slanted and not so bad on fresh legs but the end it killed!  At mile 4 we saw Shawn, Derek's cousin who's a CHP officer, we stopped briefly and gave him all our cold weather stuff.  It was really cool to see someone on the course, and have the option to not carry all my accessories!  We then settled into a nice easy pace.  The views were absolutely gorgeous!  I was amazed and distracted the entire time, at least there was something to take my mind off the fact there was yet another hill to climb.   One of my favorite parts was the grand piano about mile 10ish, and then coming back so we got to see him twice!  The first half went by really fast and before I knew it, we were at Rocky Creek bridge turning around.  This is where we picked up the pace since we felt really good.  I think we went out a bit too conservatively the first half.  We were not pushing ourselves and really just took it easy.  So on the return we decided to kick it up a notch.  I will say that it turned into an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny no wind and about 70, I was regretting my decision to not wear a tank top! 

I don't even look like I'm running

Derek looking good

Piano man!

Derek and I passed a lot of people who had passed us earlier, they were either going really slow or walking the uphill.  Neither one of us walked once the entire course, unless you count stopping to get water, pee or take a pic.  I felt fantastic and know I could have gone a lot harder the entire time, but I really wanted to enjoy the view and conversation with Derek.  I think one reason we felt so good was that we really stayed on top of keeping hydrated and nutrition, we took in 1 Gu and 1 salt/electrolyte tab an hour.  Around mile 20 we started to get back into the Highlands and the road camber (slope) hurts!  There were strawberries at mile 21!  At first I didn't think that sounded good but once you've eaten like 4/5 gu's a handful of strawberries was nothing short of heaven.  I was still feeling good but my hips hurt when the road became really sloped, I'd try to run along the edges or the middle but that didn't help much.

There was a little detour through Point Lobos of about 2 miles, it was pretty but there was no breeze anymore and it got HOT!  This is about where Derek's knees started bothering him so he would slow down and have to say something to reel me back in.  I didn't want to slow down much because then my back would hurt.  Somehow we made it through this part without getting snippy at each other!  Once out of PL it was about 2 miles to the finish and I was so ready to be done.  I never hit the "wall" that people talk about, or was ever in any terrible pain, I just wanted to be done and get my massage!  It seemed that at every turn or hill I'd think the finish line would be right there, but it wouldn't.  We finally got to the finishing chute and my Mom, Dad, Mary and Daniel were there to cheer us on.  It was really cool to see them and be able to give them sweaty hugs.  They went to the RW Challenge finish area with us where there was a lot of food and stuff to drink.  I went over to get a massage in the VIP tent, probably one of the best massages ever!  My therapist said that my legs felt great and that if she didn't know I'd just ran a marathon she'd never have known.  I guess all the stretching and work on my Grid have paid off!

Yay! We're done!

We finished in 4:31:29, according to my Garmin our average pace was 10:08 and there was an elevation gain/loss of 1986/1976 feet.  That's a lot! 

After resting in the finishers area I was ready to go check into our hotel and take a shower, but Derek kept wanting to sit.  We finally left with my parents to go get the Ferrari in Monterey.  When we got there Derek tells me he has good news and bad news, I'm thinking that we can't go to a hotel for a few hours since it's too early.  So he tells me that we're staying somewhere else but we have to sit in traffic on PCH to get there.  PCH was closed for the marathon and going back towards Carmel it was all backed up.  I was fine with that, I love the idea of staying somewhere nice, but he wouldn't tell me where!  So we're driving towards Carmel and pass the turn off for Pebble Beach, not staying at The Lodge.  Pass the Carmel Valley turn off, not staying in there, hmmm that leaves either Tickle Pink Inn or the Highlands Inn.  And it turned out we were staying at the Highlands, he won't let me go up to check in with him which I was fine with since there seemed to be about 10,000 stairs to get to the lobby.

Way too many stairs!

I stayed with the Ferrari, and then we were taken to our room or shall I say suite.  Oh my god!  It was huge, had a 2 person jacuzzi, fireplace, living room and huge balcony with the most stunning view of the coast.  I cried as soon as we got inside!  I think I was so overwhelmed with the fact that I just finished a marathon and the fact that we were now staying at the Highlands Inn, somewhere I've always wanted to stay but never have since it costs a fortune!  Derek was a little freaked out because I was crying, he had me go sit out on the balcony to enjoy the view.  It is breathtaking, and pictures really do not do the view justice, I think it's my favorite place in the world.  Then he's there next to me on his knee with a beautiful ring in his hand, and asked me to marry him.  Now cue the tears again, I could barely squeak out yes because I was crying.

Isn't it pretty!  Both the ring and the view.

I had no idea that this was going to happen!  Talk about shocking!  I was all excited to be staying there and then he surprised me with a proposal!  My next surprise it that I have to hurry up and get ready because our families are all down at the main building waiting for us to have a celebratory lunch.  What?! They all knew about it!  I was so overwhelmed with everything that I am certain I looked shell shocked when we finally made it to the restaurant.  Lunch was amazing and it was so nice to share the day with so many people that I love.  Afterwards we had drinks in the lounge overlooking the water.  Mary and Shawn joined us at one of the fire pits for drinks and s'mores while watching the sunset.

 It was an absolutely perfect day.  Derek even had an expensive bottle of wine in the room for us to drink!  I even stayed up until 10pm, which is way past my bedtime,especially after a marathon and being up at 4am!

We slept in on Monday and had breakfast in the room while we enjoyed the view of the ocean, I swear I did not want to leave the room!  Eventually we left and drove to Pacific Grove to drive the Ferrari along the coast and up 17 mile drive.  We stopped along the way and took lots of pictures. I love 17 mile drive!  It is so gorgeous.  Derek and I thought it was funny that every time we stopped to get out and take a few pictures we'd turn around and there would be people posing next to the Ferrari taking pics!  It got more action than we did.

That field right behind the Ferrari is home to some of the luckiest cows in the world!  They get to hang out in it all day and enjoy a multi million dollar view.  I was kind of jealous of them.  

We drove the marathon course after 17 mile drive and I am so happy that we did not do that beforehand.  I would have been freaking out, I knew the course would be hilly but I didn't realize that the entire thing was going to be up, down, up, down and so on.  Plus from the car the hills seemed much longer and steeper than they did by foot.  At least on foot I could put my head down, or look at the ocean or talk to Derek and get him to quote a silly movie or something.  After we went back to the hotel and shared a bottle of wine on the balcony while enjoying the view and then had an amazing dinner at Pacific's Edge restaurant at the Highlands, it was pure heaven.  Champagne, wine, salad, huge rib eye and yummy dessert!  I left in a food coma. 
 

I earned that steak and bottle of wine!

Derek almost had to drag me out kicking and screaming, but I decided that if I ever wanted to come back I'd need to go quietly. 

Overall it was one of the most amazing, memorable weekends of my life.  I thought it would just be running a marathon together, but it was so much more.  I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful man in my life!  He wanted to create an event that I would never forget and he sure did.  Now time to plan a wedding!