Monday, August 24, 2015

Gearing up

Well I guess I've procrastinated long enough about discussing my last race. To be honest life really has been busy. When I signed up for Challenge Penticton back in the winter I had all of these grands plans on blogging every week, documenting every training day including pictures and feelings. Gah, who has time for that $#*!
Seriously though, I have been meaning to do a race recap of Chelanman because it was a tough race. First before I even get started my heart goes out to all of those people who have lost their homes. Chelan has been hit hard with wildfires and it is frightening. When we were there it was hot and dry already. Fast forward 4 weeks and I can only imagine how tinder dry it was. I'm very sad for the town because it really is a great community.

So due to my work schedule we didn't have a lot of time to get to Chelan. We left super early on the Friday (race was Saturday).  Got in late and just made it to the race meeting. Barely had a chance to even do my workout. Ugh, this is off to a bad start.
The kids travelled well though. At least they got some rest.


As we were pulling in to Chelan I take in the scenery. I notice the ginormous hill to the left of this upcoming tunnel. Guess what? I get to ride down though this tunnel and then go up that ginormous hill. Double ugh.

We got to our hotel and it was absolutely lovely. Our room walked right out onto the beach to the lake. It was absolutely awesome. The kids were happy. Had a quick dip in the lake before getting my racing gear ready and hit the hay.

The morning started out ok, until the Starbucks line up was so long I couldn't risk waiting to get a coffee. So no coffee for me... triple ugh!
My husband dropped me off so he could go find a parking spot. I never did see him again until I was out on the bike course.

At least I had my own personal cheering squad. 
They had a great view.
So swim course was good, my swim was a little slower then usual (I blame that on my absence of coffee). Bike course was hot, hard, and humbling. I had no idea the course was going to be that tough. The first part was an out and back but it was more like a false flat with rolling hills (both ways). Does that even make sense? Then we turned onto the main highway which sent us screaming down the road in that tunnel I showed earlier. Seriously my speeds were fast and it got a little scary. Then we tuned onto Coulee road. This is where things got ugly. My family was right at the beginning of this climb which was only around 8-10% but it was over 10 miles long. The husband warned me that I was not going to be happy. Funny thing though, this is where I actually passed people. 
Once I did this ridiculous loop I was heading back to town and right into transition for my half marathon run... in 40* heat. Awesome!

They actually had people hosing us off at every aid station because it was so hot. When we went through each aid station we had to take water or gatorade. They weren't letting us through if we didn't. The run was an out and back on the secondary highway. There was no shade. It was so hot. Surprisingly my run faired better then my bike. Not sure how that happened. I'm actually not even sure how I even finished this race. It was ugly.


On the plus side we did get these awesome medals.


So would I recommend Chelanman? Absolutely! I think if I was training for a half distance instead of using this race as just a training day I would have enjoyed it a bit more. Tough course but so worth it. The support was fantastic, the scenery great and just a great family event. They cover everything. Half Iron, Olympic, Sprint, Du, Kids races and they even had 1/2 marathon, 10k, 5km.

The kids partook in the festivities too. They both did the kids race. 

Sadie was second out of the water and her transitions were super fast!!!

She finished strong. This was not a timed event which she was a bit disappointed but I reminded her time shouldn't matter.

Lola did fantastic too. She swam hard and insisted I run while she biked. She blew me away. I couldn't keep up.

She got back into transition well before I did and she just kept on going.

Another strong finish!

I was so proud of these two. They did not stop once. They had so much fun, and now they want to do more. 

So since Chelanman I've been hunching down and training hard. Lots of long bike rides. Tons of open water swims and of course lots of miles run. I am on my taper and feeling pretty good. My awesome coach has been so supportive and getting me to where I need to be. Now I just have to make it to the start line in 6 days. Currently Penticton and the rest of the Okanogan is under a thick blanket of smoke. I'm trying hard to not think too much about it. Really, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. Here's hoping I will get to test out all of my hard work.