Meeting her was EVERYTHING. Running /
Triathlon has brought me to amazing places and has given me the opportunity to
meet some of the world’s most inspiring people. I will forever be grateful for
my introduction to these sports. If you are contemplating doing a 5K, Marathon,
Triathlon…don’t think. Sign up. Just do it. It will be worth it. I promise. The
end.
As you can tell by that big smile on my face, my weekend in St. Louis,
MO was awesome. It was filled with laughter, bonding, honoring….and a crappy
race lol (more on this later). I had one goal: HAVE FUN. I’m usually all
business. I have splits (hold 6:30s), time goals (1:24/25), and places (top 5
female) that I aim for. This time, I just wanted to socialize, catch up with
friends that I only get to see once a year, attend the banquet, meet the Hall
of Fame Inductees, and last but not least, not put too much pressure on myself
to perform well in Sunday’s race. The last statement is laughable. I’m
incapable of not putting pressure on myself. I can’t NOT test my limits every time I toe the line.
Representing
NBMA
Thanks for the shirt Alex!! If you
haven’t noticed, pink is my favorite color. I’m the girliest tomboy you will
ever meet.
After checking into the hotel I did my usual “stock up on water/snacks,
grab lunch, and browse the city” ritual. Unfortunately my legs were super sore
(again, more on this later) so I decided to head back to my room and relax
before heading to the race expo.
View
from my room
The St. Louis Gateway Arch. Why do I always think of Nelly when I see this?
At
the Expo w/ NBMA ladies
Always fun representing Point 2 and Flat-Out Events
In my quest to have fun I decided to drink wine and stay up late Friday
evening. It was allll good until I woke up Saturday morning in a total panic. You
would have thought I took a muscle relaxer that wouldn’t wear off for days. I
was totally freaked out. I can’t remember the last time I drank so close to a
race. Mission: Failed.
I had a short workout to do that morning so I jogged to the race course
and did a quick tempo workout along the Mississippi River. I quickly noticed a
few things: it was windy, way warmer than what I’ve been training / racing in,
and my body was fatigued. I reached out to my Coach. She instructed me to
find two or three people I could draft off of who could help block the wind and
we also decided to scale back on my time goal – go out in 1:27 half marathon
pace and see what I have left over the last 5 miles.
Saturday Night
The Annual Black Distance Hall
of Fame and Awards Night did not disappoint. It’s such a pleasure to meet
and honor those who have recently accomplished extraordinary things, and induct
those who have paved the way for us. Highlight of my night: seeing Tony Reed get inducted!
Thanks for the interview Timothy
When you’re with these two it’s like you’re
hanging with celebrities.
With
Ella Willis
Youngest person, male or female, to win
the Detroit Free Press Marathon. She’s run under 3 hours for the marathon more
than 10 flipping times!!!!
And the moment you’ve been
waiting for …. The Race
Marathon
Recovery + Triathlon Training Fatigue = A Very Slow Sika
I’d prefer to not even talk about this
race. Ugh so embarrassing. I hate making excuses! Nonetheless, my list of excuses
are below ;-)
First excuse – I did the Newport News One City Marathon a few weeks ago. Not
only did I race 26.2 miles, I gave every ounce of myself – mentally and
physically. I literally left it all out there on that course. And you know what? It was worth it. It
led to a nearly 7 minute PR and I came agonizingly close to breaking 3 hours
(final time: 3:00:06). To put the time in perspective for my non-marathoner
readers: to qualify for the Boston Marathon I would have to run under 3 hours
and 35 minutes. A few weeks ago I ran about 35 minutes faster than the Boston
Qualifying time. Now I don’t know about you but I can only give that level of
effort a few times a year. I CANNOT do that every race. And I'm not rattling off my times to brag. I have friends that are way way faster than me. I'm just trying to paint a picture.
Excuse number 2 – I’m in the middle of a heavy block of triathlon
training = fatigue and soreness. I did two workouts last week that left me
physically depleted. The first was a 4,000 yd swim workout which included A LOT
of 200 meter repeats at race pace. And the second workout really did me in. I
did a super hard effort on the bike on Thursday. Not to get too technical…but
it was a 20-minute Maximal Lactate Steady State (MLSS) interval to measure my FTP/Power
on the bike. It pretty much mimics climbing a hill for 20 minutes straight. Needless
to say, I woke up Friday morning incredibly sore. It was as if I had raced.
Last excuse – Work! Yes, that thing we must do to make money. I had a particularly busy / stressful week at
the office. Lots of organizational changes going on. Plus I have a laundry list
of projects I’m working on. Thank goodness I love my job.
My
new CycleOps Hammer Trainer
I’m working with TrainerRoad this season
to help develop my bike fitness. This is the first time I’ve trained with a
power meter. It’s a learning curve but I’m excited to see how well I progress
over the next couple of months.
Start of the race....
All I could think was "this was a bad idea...a very very bad idea." You see...my previous race time got me into the elite field. Which means I was starting with some very fast, talented runners. With prize money on the line and looking at past results I knew that there was a small chance I could place well. Physically I'm in the best shape of my life so of course a small part of me thought that I could run through the pain and come away with a time in the 1:24 range.
 |
| Here I am thinking "oh $h*#" |
 |
| Could I look anymore tense??!! |
 |
| My Dad says I look like a buff Ethiopian hahaha!! |
Starting with the elites is a unique experience, but in this case it probably wasn't a good idea. We started a few minutes before the rest of the thousands of participants. Because there were so few of us and I wasn't fast enough to keep up with the women I practically ran alone for 13.1 miles. Within the first mile we had to run up a pretty steep hill. I knew IMMEDIATELY I was in trouble and that this was going to be a LONGGGGGGGGG race. As you can see from my splits below I struggled to find any semblance of a rhythm.
The course was deceptively hilly (net incline). And my freakin legs were in agony. Every time I saw a hill I pretty much wanted to cry!! It’s a good thing
that the race didn’t go by my hotel because I totally would have peeled off
the course and gone straight to my room. Had I not been in the middle of
downtown St. Louis for the majority of the race I would have shamefully dropped
out. At one point in the race, I think it was near mile 6, a (black) guy
shouted “you go my sista”. I was too messed up to even respond. But of course
in my head I was thinking “dude, believe me, you don’t want to be claiming me
right now.”
 |
| Running alone through the streets of St. Louis. |
By mile 7 I was in agony. My quads and glutes were on fire. I began to slow to a jog. My body was
wrecked. A guy ran by and told me to stay tough. I decided to latch on to him. I thought to myself "just stick with him for a mile." At this point I was just pleading with my legs to keep turning over. I knew there was a long decline at mile 10 so I promised myself that I would get there. And I did :-) With 5K to go I knew I was going to make it to the finish line. For me, that's my magic number. No matter what race I'm in I know that I can get through the last 5K (3.1 miles). I've raced that distance more than any other.
I finished!!!!!
 |
| So there it is. 1:28:09 ... 6th woman overall. |
Love this picture. I'm a mess LMAO
 |
| Here I am explaining to Alex why I sucked so bad. |
Looking
back now, I honestly don’t know how I made it to the finish line under 1:30. Now that I've had time to process everything this is actually a good thing...a very good thing. My half marathon PR at the end of a Half Ironman is 1:34. I think this race shows that I can in fact run faster after the swim/bike.
And on that note, so long road racing. Triathlon Season - I'm ready for you! My first race of the year will be the Kinetic International (an Olympic Distance race in Lake Anna, VA).
I get to represent Virginia / Maryland Triathlon Series this season!
Last but not least, please take this 3 minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FY73DRP
It's for a friend's college research project. There's very little data on African Americans in triathlon and it would help a ton!! You do not have to be Black or a Triathlete to take the survey. And if you actually read this entire boring blog, then you have 3 minutes to spare ;-)
Good luck to everyone racing Boston next week!
