For those of you who follow the triathlon scene, you know that this year Ironman introduced a new race - Ironman Texas. The race took place in The Woodlands on May 21st. Let me tell you, it was tempting to sign up since it was so close to home, but I resisted because I know what May can be like in Texas. However, I knew a couple of people who did sign up and many members of the triathlon forum I frequent had signed up as well. Because of this, I wanted to go and spectate and decided that if I was there I might as well sign up to volunteer as well.
We drove to The Woodlands Friday after work. After checking into the hotel we made some signs for my friends, made sure we had things ready to go and got in bed. The alarm went off really early Saturday morning so we could get to the race start before the swim start.
We arrived at the race location, somehow managed to find one of the parking garages and began the walk to the swim start. The transition area and swim start were probably close to a mile apart, so we got some decent walking in. As we got toward the swim start, we saw another friend on the bridge who was also there to spectate and volunteer. We decided to stop and stay there with him on the bridge so we could see the start. While we were standing there, I was fortunate enough to see BOTH of my friends who were racing as they were on their way to the start. That was cool.
As it got close to the swim start, there were still a lot of swimmers on shore. I was wondering if they would delay the start until all of them got in the water, but this is Ironman. You have 17 hours to do the race. There would be no delay. Either you were in the water or you weren't when the gun went off. If you weren't in, the time just counted anyway.
As always, the swim start of an Ironman race is a sight to see. Over 2,000 athletes all starting to swim at once and arms moving in the water like crazy. When I did IMFL, I thought the swim would freak me out, but it was actually one of the funnest parts of the day. Being in the midst of that many athletes is amazing.
At IMTX, once the swimmers start you really can't see them much until they come back to head down the canal to the finish. Because of that we decided to walk back over to the swim finish and find a spot to wait for my friends to get done. I knew both of them expected to be out of the water between 1:20 and 1:40. The cutoff is 2:20. We found a nice little spot on a hill and waited.
The first pro swimmer came out of the water in 50-something minutes. He was several minutes ahead of the next swimmer. Truly amazing. Then a few more pros came before a few of the fast age groupers started coming out. True to time expectations, we saw my first friend come out. Because of where we were, I got to see him exit the water and then I ran to the chute right before he would enter the change tent and got to high-five him there. Then I went back to our spot to wait for my other friend. And wait we did. We were not sure at the time what happened, but he did not come out of the water until a little after 2 hours. We were a little worried. I was able to give him a high-five as well before he enterred the change tent, but I could tell he was upset. I just hoped he would shake that off and not let it affect his day.
After we knew they were both out on the bike it was time for us to fuel up. Madison wanted some Starbucks and I wanted to go to the expo and do a little shopping. The only thing was the "big" expo was closed and the "little" expo wouldn't open until noon. Bummer.
Once the kids had their Starbucks, I needed food. We walked down the shopping area and found a little Mexican food place that had breakfast tacos. Perfect. It really hit the spot.
By the time we had done all of this, we knew the pros would be coming in from the bike soon so we walked back over there and found a spot on the curb. By now it was getting hot and the humidity was high. I was sweating through my shirt just sitting on the curb. We got to see the first bikers come back in. It was amazing watching the way they dismount their bikes. I want to find a nice piece of grass and practice that!
At this point, we were all hot and Dalton was getting bored, so we headed back to the hotel for a little pool time. The water was cold, but it was nice to chill out for an hour or so. My other friend who was their spectating had gone out on his motorcycle and called to tell me that he had seen our friend on the bike course at mile 100. We decided to try and make it back to the bike finish in time to see him. We quickly changed and headed back. We set ourselves up at what we thought was the run exit. After being there a while and not seeing our friend, we started getting worried again. And then we found out we were actually at about mile 8 of the run course. Well shoot. We still had to eat dinner before our volunteer shift and we knew we would not see him. We decided to go ahead and go eat.
After filling up on Chick-fil-a we headed out to our volunteer spot - Aid Station #4 on the run course. We quickly found a table that needed help and went to work handing out coke and ice and water. Ice was a big favorite. People would take a cup and dump it down a top or shorts or put it in their hat. Pretty much every person that came by was soaked - either from sweat or from dumping water on themselves or a combination of both. I coudn't imagine how they felt doing an Ironman in the heat and humidity like they were. There was a reason I picked Florida.
We finally saw both of my friends come by and both were on their second lap, so we knew we would see them again. Dalton switched to handing out wet sponges and really enjoyed that. And as it got later, more people started asking for chicken broth. Hardly anyone asked for the Ironman Perform drink which is like gatorade. I don't blame them. I had tried it during training and it did not taste good to me and it upset my stomach.
We were at our aid station from 6:30-11:30pm. As some of the later runners came through, you could see them calculating times to see if they would finish. The last "official" runner came through around 11. We never went back to the finish line, so I don't know if she made it or not. All I know is after she went past us and we were told we could pack up, we did. And then we headed to the hotel for a quick shower and crashed. It had been a long day, but a fun one.
I don't know that I will ever do IMTX unless they change the time of year they have the race, but I would love to volunteer in some capacity every year. It was a lot of fun and is a different perspective from racing. One thing I thought was interesting was all of the things I saw on the run. Almost everyone was walking through the aid stations - I'm sure because of the heat. One lady stopped to pat some dogs who were out for an evening walk. A couple of people stopped for a few minutes and just sat on the park bench near us. No one seemed to be in a hurry.
Like I said, the weather wasn't ideal, but I think The Woodlands is a good place for an Ironman. It seemed to be very spectator friendly and there are lots of shops and restaurants near the transition and finish lines for spectators to occupy their time. I think it will only get better.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Armadillo Hill Country Ride - 5/14
I'm finally getting around to updating the blog, so there will be a few posts close together even though the events were not.
On May 14, I did the 40 mile route of the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. This was only the 2nd or 3rd time I've been on my bike outside since Ironman Florida in November. I wasn't expecting much.
The ride was tough for me. It actually started out a little chilly (high 50s, but that is chilly for us that time of year). I started out with arm warmers and a jacket. And not only was it chilly, it was really windy. The winds have been really strong this spring and the winds on this day were no different. There were probably between 15 and 20mph.
The first part of the ride wasn't too bad, but coming back was not so much fun. My knees started hurting and there is a part of the course where there are 3 pretty tough hills in quick succession. It wasn't fun.
The ride took longer than I had hoped, but I was back out on the bike and I finished. It's a start to getting back out on the bike.
On May 14, I did the 40 mile route of the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. This was only the 2nd or 3rd time I've been on my bike outside since Ironman Florida in November. I wasn't expecting much.
The ride was tough for me. It actually started out a little chilly (high 50s, but that is chilly for us that time of year). I started out with arm warmers and a jacket. And not only was it chilly, it was really windy. The winds have been really strong this spring and the winds on this day were no different. There were probably between 15 and 20mph.
The first part of the ride wasn't too bad, but coming back was not so much fun. My knees started hurting and there is a part of the course where there are 3 pretty tough hills in quick succession. It wasn't fun.
The ride took longer than I had hoped, but I was back out on the bike and I finished. It's a start to getting back out on the bike.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Shape Diva Dash 2011
I've been a regular subscriber to SHAPE magazine for a few years now. I enjoy the magazine and when I saw an ad in the magazine for a Diva Dash, I decided to check it out. This would be the first year for the race, but it looked like fun. The Diva Dash would be a 3 mile run with obstacles about every half mile. Since this is suppose to be my year of "fun", I decided to sign up and do it.
For a first year race, it had some good and some bad parts to it. So, I'll break it down for you.
Registration
Registration was fine. It was done online and was just like signing up for any other race. The only thing was there were different waves and once they were full, your only option was a later wave. I waited too long to actually decide to do this, so the first available wave for me when I signed up was the 10:45 am wave. I knew it was risky with the heat, but I figured this was for fun, so who cared. Eventually 3,000 women signed up to race.
Packet Pick-Up
Originally, packet pick-up was just going to be on race day. It said to pick up your packet an hour before your wave. Well, I guess with 3,000 women doing the race, someone got smart and they decided to open a packet pick-up option on Friday night. This was good. The bad, however, was that they decided to hold the Friday night packet pick-up at Runtex on Riverside. Those of you from around here know that there is NO parking at Runtex on Riverside. Pick-up started at 5pm. I got there around 4:30 and there was not one spot to be found. I had to pay for street parking on Barton Springs and walk over. It's not a long walk by any means, but by the time I got back over there, a line had formed.
Usually, packet pick-ups will start a little early. Not this one. I don't think they even had the bags stuffed yet. And there is no space inside Runtex, so we were all standing outside in the 90+ degree heat. I will give props to Runtex, however, for bringing out free water for all of us. The water may not have been cold, but it was very welcome.
After standing in line in the heat for 20-30 minutes the line finally started moving. Then we found out the line to the right was for merchandise. If you didn't want to buy anything, you could walk (through all the store merchandisse) to the place where they were handing out bibs. I made my way to the 10:45 line. When I reached the front, I signed the waiver and was handed my bib. And that was all. No bag, no goodies, nothing. Just my bib. I saw some stuffed bags to the side, so I went over and grabbed my own before making my way out of the mad house and back to my car.
Once I was back at my car, I checked out the contents of the goodie bag. Of course, there was a SHAPE magazine in there. There was also a Luna bar, a pair of cute socks, and our pewter finisher necklace. I thought that was a little strange to get the finisher necklace in the goodie bag instead of at the end of the race, but oh well.
Race Morning
The race venue was at Walter E Long Park aka Decker Lake. This is also the sight of the Danskin Triathlon and the Austin 70.3 triathlon, so I am very familiar with it. The race info had said there would be shuttles to take us from the parking at the Travis County Expo Center to the park. This is nothing new. The same thing happens at the triathlons. I figured it would take a while and I like to be early, so I had arrived at 8:40am. And it was a good thing I did.
The best we could figure out, there were only 3 buses in the shuttle rotation. And there were tons of people in line to catch them. Racers and spectators. Some of the ladies around me were in the 9:30 or 9:45 wave. I knew they wouldn't make it. I stood in line for an hour before I climbed on the bus to be shuttled over. If I would have known it would take that long, I would have walked the 2 miles. It would have been faster. Next time, they need to have a lot more buses in the shuttle rotation.
Since I had gotten there so early, I made it to the park by about 10am. I saw many girls enter the starting chute that were past their start time, however. I watched the 3 waves ahead of me take off and then I got in the chute and headed to the very front. I knew there were a lot of first timers and a lot of people doing this just for fun and I wanted to be ahead of the crowd going into the obstacles.
The Race
When it was our time to go, I took off with the other ladies at the front. A few of them really took off. I just settled into a good pace ahead of the crowd. I felt pretty good about where I was at and hoped that when I reached the obstacle there wouldn't be a line. I had carried my bottle of water with me as well because someone had mentioned there wasn't much water on the course (and they weren't kidding - more on that later). As I rounded the corner to approach the first obstacle, I saw that it was really pointless for me to have carried my water as I would need both hands for this one. I ditched the water and hit the obstacle.
Obstacle #1: walk across an approximately 2" diameter rope (probably 15-20ft long)while holding onto two very thin ropes about waist high. I thought this was kind of fun. I wasn't speedy fast, but I wasn't slow either. I hopped off the other end and continued on my way.
The other thing about races out at Decker is that the runs are always VERY hilly. It doesn't matter which direction you are headed, you will be running up several hills at some point. Joy.
After we got up the first hill and turned to the right, we found our second obstacle.
Obstacle #2: the "maze". I wouldn't really call this a maze because there weren't any wrong turns, but you did have to duck down the whole time and follow the twists and turns until you came out the other side.
As I exited the other side I kept running. At this point the sun is starting to poke out from behind the clouds and I am missing my water, but I pressed on. I kept running until I saw the third obstacle.
Obstacle #3: the balls. This one wasn't hard either. They had an area full of big balls, taller than people. They were packed in pretty tight, but all you had to do was push them aside and run through to the exit. I was out of there quickly and on to the next one.
Luckily, somewhere in here we had some downhills. It made me feel good at one point to run past some walkers and hear one of them say, "she must be a runner" because I was running at a pretty good pace. As I got down the hill and turned the corner, there was the next obstacle.
Obstacle #4: the rope/Survivor one. For those of you that watch Survivor, this one seemed like something on one of their challenges. It was a big A frame with rope cross-crossing in every direction. All you had to do was find the big holes in between the ropes and crawl through to the other side. It was maybe 3' wide, so not hard to do. If it had been longer, it would have been more challenging. From what the volunteers told us, we were at mile 2. We still had not seen a water stop. The heat was getting unbearable.
The real challenge at this point was the hill that faced us as we left the obstacle. Uggghh. And all we had to do was run up it, do a u-turn and head back down to where we were. I will admit that I did a little bit of walking up this hill. But, as I turned that corner, I started running again. I knew I only had about a mile left to go.
Probably a quarter mile later we came across the one and only water station of the whole race. This is definitely an area that needs to be improved on. There needs to be more water in a race like that. I stopped, drank a glass, dumped a glass on my head, and then drank some more. Then it was time to tackle the next challenge.
Obstacle #5: the tubes. In this area, they had lots of intertubes (like tires) next to each other. You had to run (or walk) through them kind of like football players do in their drills. I decided I wanted to run through them. I did pretty good at first, but to run through them, you really have to pick your feet up and run with high knees. This is NOT how I normally run, so before I got to the end I got tired. It was a fairly long distance of tubes, so I was not surprised I got tired. When I got to the end, there was a medical staff attending to a racer, probably from heat exhaustion. Hello, more water would be nice.
I left that obstacle and ran toward the next one. As I rounded the corner I thought "there goes my time". I was doing well up to this point, but the lines for the last obstacle were huge.
Obstacle #6: water trampolines. You know those big trampolines they put in the lake in the summer? Well, there were about 5 of those, but on a smaller scale, tied together close to the shore. You had to make your way across all of them and back to the shore a little further down. There was a possibility you could fall into the water, but it was probably only a foot deep here.
I could have skipped this obstacle and no one would have ever known, but I came here for fun and part of that fun was completing all of the obstacles. There were only two stations for this one, and only one person could go at a time, so like I said the lines were LONG.
As I got in line I looked at my time. I wanted to know at the end how much time I spent waiting in line. I will admit that they wait was kind of welcome. There was a nice breeze blowing which helped to cool me off just a bit. By the time I got to the front, however, 14 minutes had passed. Ouch. That really hurt my time. I quickly made my way across the trampolines and got off on the other side. I was headed to the finish line, but not before climbing one last hill. Have I mentioned how hilly this course was???
The Finish and Timing
After crossing the finish line you were coraled into a narrow path where you walked passed a table. One lady was calling out your bib number and another lady was writing it down on a yellow notepad in the order you were in line. No times. Did I mention this race was not chip timed? I have no idea how they are going to determine who the overall winner was or who the age group winners were without knowing what times the people finished in. And on top of that, it would have been very easy to skip the long line at the last obstacle. As it was, the finish time on my watch was 47:04. Take out the 14 minute wait and my time was pretty respectable at 33:04. But how would anyone have known whether I did the obstacle or not? I didn't expect to win anything, but it's the principle. The overall winner received a 5 day trip to Aruba and I can almost guarantee the winner was in the first wave of the day and didn't have to wait at obstacles. I definitely think it should have been chip-timed and there should have been mats at places to account for the wait time.
Shuttle Back
I had a soccer game to get to, so I did not hang around. After leaving the finish area I grabbed a cup of water and walked back to the shuttle area to catch the shuttle back to the parking lot. There was a line again, but it didn't take as long as this morning to get on a bus and make my way back.
Overall
Overall, I like the concept of the race. There are definitely things that need to be improved upon and personally, I would like to see the challenges a little more challenging, but I know they were trying to attract women of all abilities for this race. The goal of the race was to have fun and I did, so mission accomplished.
For a first year race, it had some good and some bad parts to it. So, I'll break it down for you.
Registration
Registration was fine. It was done online and was just like signing up for any other race. The only thing was there were different waves and once they were full, your only option was a later wave. I waited too long to actually decide to do this, so the first available wave for me when I signed up was the 10:45 am wave. I knew it was risky with the heat, but I figured this was for fun, so who cared. Eventually 3,000 women signed up to race.
Packet Pick-Up
Originally, packet pick-up was just going to be on race day. It said to pick up your packet an hour before your wave. Well, I guess with 3,000 women doing the race, someone got smart and they decided to open a packet pick-up option on Friday night. This was good. The bad, however, was that they decided to hold the Friday night packet pick-up at Runtex on Riverside. Those of you from around here know that there is NO parking at Runtex on Riverside. Pick-up started at 5pm. I got there around 4:30 and there was not one spot to be found. I had to pay for street parking on Barton Springs and walk over. It's not a long walk by any means, but by the time I got back over there, a line had formed.
Usually, packet pick-ups will start a little early. Not this one. I don't think they even had the bags stuffed yet. And there is no space inside Runtex, so we were all standing outside in the 90+ degree heat. I will give props to Runtex, however, for bringing out free water for all of us. The water may not have been cold, but it was very welcome.
After standing in line in the heat for 20-30 minutes the line finally started moving. Then we found out the line to the right was for merchandise. If you didn't want to buy anything, you could walk (through all the store merchandisse) to the place where they were handing out bibs. I made my way to the 10:45 line. When I reached the front, I signed the waiver and was handed my bib. And that was all. No bag, no goodies, nothing. Just my bib. I saw some stuffed bags to the side, so I went over and grabbed my own before making my way out of the mad house and back to my car.
Once I was back at my car, I checked out the contents of the goodie bag. Of course, there was a SHAPE magazine in there. There was also a Luna bar, a pair of cute socks, and our pewter finisher necklace. I thought that was a little strange to get the finisher necklace in the goodie bag instead of at the end of the race, but oh well.
Race Morning
The race venue was at Walter E Long Park aka Decker Lake. This is also the sight of the Danskin Triathlon and the Austin 70.3 triathlon, so I am very familiar with it. The race info had said there would be shuttles to take us from the parking at the Travis County Expo Center to the park. This is nothing new. The same thing happens at the triathlons. I figured it would take a while and I like to be early, so I had arrived at 8:40am. And it was a good thing I did.
The best we could figure out, there were only 3 buses in the shuttle rotation. And there were tons of people in line to catch them. Racers and spectators. Some of the ladies around me were in the 9:30 or 9:45 wave. I knew they wouldn't make it. I stood in line for an hour before I climbed on the bus to be shuttled over. If I would have known it would take that long, I would have walked the 2 miles. It would have been faster. Next time, they need to have a lot more buses in the shuttle rotation.
Since I had gotten there so early, I made it to the park by about 10am. I saw many girls enter the starting chute that were past their start time, however. I watched the 3 waves ahead of me take off and then I got in the chute and headed to the very front. I knew there were a lot of first timers and a lot of people doing this just for fun and I wanted to be ahead of the crowd going into the obstacles.
The Race
When it was our time to go, I took off with the other ladies at the front. A few of them really took off. I just settled into a good pace ahead of the crowd. I felt pretty good about where I was at and hoped that when I reached the obstacle there wouldn't be a line. I had carried my bottle of water with me as well because someone had mentioned there wasn't much water on the course (and they weren't kidding - more on that later). As I rounded the corner to approach the first obstacle, I saw that it was really pointless for me to have carried my water as I would need both hands for this one. I ditched the water and hit the obstacle.
Obstacle #1: walk across an approximately 2" diameter rope (probably 15-20ft long)while holding onto two very thin ropes about waist high. I thought this was kind of fun. I wasn't speedy fast, but I wasn't slow either. I hopped off the other end and continued on my way.
The other thing about races out at Decker is that the runs are always VERY hilly. It doesn't matter which direction you are headed, you will be running up several hills at some point. Joy.
After we got up the first hill and turned to the right, we found our second obstacle.
Obstacle #2: the "maze". I wouldn't really call this a maze because there weren't any wrong turns, but you did have to duck down the whole time and follow the twists and turns until you came out the other side.
As I exited the other side I kept running. At this point the sun is starting to poke out from behind the clouds and I am missing my water, but I pressed on. I kept running until I saw the third obstacle.
Obstacle #3: the balls. This one wasn't hard either. They had an area full of big balls, taller than people. They were packed in pretty tight, but all you had to do was push them aside and run through to the exit. I was out of there quickly and on to the next one.
Luckily, somewhere in here we had some downhills. It made me feel good at one point to run past some walkers and hear one of them say, "she must be a runner" because I was running at a pretty good pace. As I got down the hill and turned the corner, there was the next obstacle.
Obstacle #4: the rope/Survivor one. For those of you that watch Survivor, this one seemed like something on one of their challenges. It was a big A frame with rope cross-crossing in every direction. All you had to do was find the big holes in between the ropes and crawl through to the other side. It was maybe 3' wide, so not hard to do. If it had been longer, it would have been more challenging. From what the volunteers told us, we were at mile 2. We still had not seen a water stop. The heat was getting unbearable.
The real challenge at this point was the hill that faced us as we left the obstacle. Uggghh. And all we had to do was run up it, do a u-turn and head back down to where we were. I will admit that I did a little bit of walking up this hill. But, as I turned that corner, I started running again. I knew I only had about a mile left to go.
Probably a quarter mile later we came across the one and only water station of the whole race. This is definitely an area that needs to be improved on. There needs to be more water in a race like that. I stopped, drank a glass, dumped a glass on my head, and then drank some more. Then it was time to tackle the next challenge.
Obstacle #5: the tubes. In this area, they had lots of intertubes (like tires) next to each other. You had to run (or walk) through them kind of like football players do in their drills. I decided I wanted to run through them. I did pretty good at first, but to run through them, you really have to pick your feet up and run with high knees. This is NOT how I normally run, so before I got to the end I got tired. It was a fairly long distance of tubes, so I was not surprised I got tired. When I got to the end, there was a medical staff attending to a racer, probably from heat exhaustion. Hello, more water would be nice.
I left that obstacle and ran toward the next one. As I rounded the corner I thought "there goes my time". I was doing well up to this point, but the lines for the last obstacle were huge.
Obstacle #6: water trampolines. You know those big trampolines they put in the lake in the summer? Well, there were about 5 of those, but on a smaller scale, tied together close to the shore. You had to make your way across all of them and back to the shore a little further down. There was a possibility you could fall into the water, but it was probably only a foot deep here.
I could have skipped this obstacle and no one would have ever known, but I came here for fun and part of that fun was completing all of the obstacles. There were only two stations for this one, and only one person could go at a time, so like I said the lines were LONG.
As I got in line I looked at my time. I wanted to know at the end how much time I spent waiting in line. I will admit that they wait was kind of welcome. There was a nice breeze blowing which helped to cool me off just a bit. By the time I got to the front, however, 14 minutes had passed. Ouch. That really hurt my time. I quickly made my way across the trampolines and got off on the other side. I was headed to the finish line, but not before climbing one last hill. Have I mentioned how hilly this course was???
The Finish and Timing
After crossing the finish line you were coraled into a narrow path where you walked passed a table. One lady was calling out your bib number and another lady was writing it down on a yellow notepad in the order you were in line. No times. Did I mention this race was not chip timed? I have no idea how they are going to determine who the overall winner was or who the age group winners were without knowing what times the people finished in. And on top of that, it would have been very easy to skip the long line at the last obstacle. As it was, the finish time on my watch was 47:04. Take out the 14 minute wait and my time was pretty respectable at 33:04. But how would anyone have known whether I did the obstacle or not? I didn't expect to win anything, but it's the principle. The overall winner received a 5 day trip to Aruba and I can almost guarantee the winner was in the first wave of the day and didn't have to wait at obstacles. I definitely think it should have been chip-timed and there should have been mats at places to account for the wait time.
Shuttle Back
I had a soccer game to get to, so I did not hang around. After leaving the finish area I grabbed a cup of water and walked back to the shuttle area to catch the shuttle back to the parking lot. There was a line again, but it didn't take as long as this morning to get on a bus and make my way back.
Overall
Overall, I like the concept of the race. There are definitely things that need to be improved upon and personally, I would like to see the challenges a little more challenging, but I know they were trying to attract women of all abilities for this race. The goal of the race was to have fun and I did, so mission accomplished.
Friday, April 8, 2011
2011 Cap 10K
Yeah, I'm a little late, but I have another race in the morning, so I thought I'd better write my race report from the Cap 10K race a few weeks ago. I've done the Cap 10K race for several years now. It's the larget 10K race in Texas and a lot of people dress up for it, so it's lots of fun.
This year, race morning turned out to be a beautiful morning for a race. Temps were in the high 50s and it was a little overcast. It was a little cold standing around before the race, but I knew it would be perfect once we started running. As always, I had gotten to the race start early and hit the port-a-potties. Then I stretched for a bit because I was still having knee issues. After stretching for a while, I hit the port-a-potties again and then I headed for my coral.
Standing in the coral waiting for the race start, I started talking to an older gentleman. Turns out he was from Bryan (in fact he use to be the mayor) and he was an Aggie graduate. We talked some more and he told me he was 77 years old and didn't take any medication. He runs to stay healthy. He also competes in the senior games. I want to be like him when I grow up!
The gun went off and I wished him good luck. It took a few minutes to get to the start, but when I did I took off and tried to settle into my pace. I knew I wouldn't get a PR in this race, but I hoped to come in under an hour. I wasn't going to push the pace with the knee issue.
I felt pretty good running up Congress. As I approached the first mile marker and hit the split button, I saw an 8:53 pace. I knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain that, so I slowed down a little bit. Besides, I had forgotten how hilly the first few miles could be. Note to self: get back to hill training.
Mile 2: 9:12. Ok, that's a little better and now with the uphills are a few downhills. Mile 3: 9:16. Keeping a fairly good pace here. If I can get through the hills, I should be ok. The spectator support at this race is good and it kept me focused on moving forward. Finally I was through the majority of the hills. Mile 4: 9:03. Just 2 more to go. Mile 5: 9:09. I'm hanging in there and confident I can finish with a decent time. Mile 6: 9:10. I thought about pushing it the last .2 miles, but knew at this point I would not PR, so I decided it wasn't worth it. I cruised on in to a 56:36 finish time. The last .2 took me 1:50.
After I finished, I grabbed some water and stretched my legs out. I know I need to get better at stretching and make it more of a focus after all my runs and races. I started getting cold as I was sweaty from the run and the temps were still in the high 50s.
Another great race was in the books. I found out later that many of my friends had done the race as well and I didn't see anyone down there. I guess with 23,000 runners, that's to be expected.
This year, race morning turned out to be a beautiful morning for a race. Temps were in the high 50s and it was a little overcast. It was a little cold standing around before the race, but I knew it would be perfect once we started running. As always, I had gotten to the race start early and hit the port-a-potties. Then I stretched for a bit because I was still having knee issues. After stretching for a while, I hit the port-a-potties again and then I headed for my coral.
Standing in the coral waiting for the race start, I started talking to an older gentleman. Turns out he was from Bryan (in fact he use to be the mayor) and he was an Aggie graduate. We talked some more and he told me he was 77 years old and didn't take any medication. He runs to stay healthy. He also competes in the senior games. I want to be like him when I grow up!
The gun went off and I wished him good luck. It took a few minutes to get to the start, but when I did I took off and tried to settle into my pace. I knew I wouldn't get a PR in this race, but I hoped to come in under an hour. I wasn't going to push the pace with the knee issue.
I felt pretty good running up Congress. As I approached the first mile marker and hit the split button, I saw an 8:53 pace. I knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain that, so I slowed down a little bit. Besides, I had forgotten how hilly the first few miles could be. Note to self: get back to hill training.
Mile 2: 9:12. Ok, that's a little better and now with the uphills are a few downhills. Mile 3: 9:16. Keeping a fairly good pace here. If I can get through the hills, I should be ok. The spectator support at this race is good and it kept me focused on moving forward. Finally I was through the majority of the hills. Mile 4: 9:03. Just 2 more to go. Mile 5: 9:09. I'm hanging in there and confident I can finish with a decent time. Mile 6: 9:10. I thought about pushing it the last .2 miles, but knew at this point I would not PR, so I decided it wasn't worth it. I cruised on in to a 56:36 finish time. The last .2 took me 1:50.
After I finished, I grabbed some water and stretched my legs out. I know I need to get better at stretching and make it more of a focus after all my runs and races. I started getting cold as I was sweaty from the run and the temps were still in the high 50s.
Another great race was in the books. I found out later that many of my friends had done the race as well and I didn't see anyone down there. I guess with 23,000 runners, that's to be expected.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Diva 5K Run
One of the local high schools put on a Diva 5K Run. Madison and I decided to sign up and run it together. Race information said it was an all female race (ok, well there were a couple of men who dressed as ladies and snuck in) and you even received a tiara and a boa toward the end. What could be better than that?
After a week of beautiful afternoon temperatures, we woke up race morning to cold and rain and wind. LOTS of wind. Luckily, this race wasn't until 4:00pm, so maybe it would warm up. If only we could have been so lucky.
The overcast doom of the morning did give way to sunshine, but the wind stayed at gusts of 20-30mph and the temps stayed in the high 50s and low 60s. The temp was perfect for a 5k, but not with the wind.
Madison and I had ordered matching outfits - hot pink running skirts and a matching top. Afterall, this was a DIVA race and we needed to look the part. We did decide that with the wind, we would wear an UnderArmour top underneath.
Once we got to the race site, we headed toward the start. We tried to stay warm, but it was just impossible. We lined up at the front of the pack. This wasn't necessarily on purpose, but no one else seemed to want up front. We just hoped that someone who knew where they were going would pass us real quick. The start of the race was in the football stadium, but after that we weren't sure. Since this was the first year for this race, I wasn't sure how clearly the course would be marked.
Once the horn blew for us to take off, it didn't take long at all for us to get passed by a few people. In fact, the one woman that really jumped out front stayed out front the whole time and eventually won the race.
We ran around the track and out of the stadium onto the school grounds. Most of the race was weaving around the parking lot and around the school. There was one little section where we went onto a neighborhood street, but then we were right back in the parking lot again.
The race course itself wasn't bad, but the winds proved to be brutal. Especially when they were in your face going uphill. I started to get hot about a mile in and wished we hadn't worn the long sleeves. Plus, with it being a 4pm start and Dalton having a soccer scrimmage at 12:00, I never really ate lunch, so I was feeling that as well.
The one and only water station wasn't until mile 2, which I thought was a little far into the course. This is one thing I have to admit could have been done better. They had the tiny cups instead of the bigger ones and they had them FULL. You couldn't pinch the top together to keep the water from spilling. Because of that, I ended up with water up my nose and not a lot of it in my belly where it needed to be. Oh well, I had to keep going to keep up with Madison who was doing very well.
Onward through the parking lot and back toward the start. About a 1/4 mile out, we were handed our tiara. I tried to put it on, but doing that while running proved to be difficult, so I just carried it. At the next corner we were handed our boa. I quickly wrapped that around my neck so it wouldn't fly away. And then, as we entered the stadium again, we were handed a rose. It was a little tricky running the last bit with all of that, but I made it to the finish line.
Madison beat me by about 20 seconds. I still can't find the "official" results from the timing company, but I estimate her time around 26:40, because my time was right at 27:00. There were not a lot of people who finished before us, so we decided to stay and see if either of us placed. At one point they posted "unofficial" results on a bleacher. It appeared that Madison got 3rd in her age group and around 14 overall, and I got 7th in my age group and 21st overall. Dang, I hate my age group!
We had to wait about an hour before the awards ceremony, which I thought was way too long. And because the wind still hadn't died down we were freezing again. We huddled as best we could to keep warm. And when they got to Madison's age group, she did indeed get 3rd. Not bad for her first official 5k.
Overall it was a great day. There are things that need to be improved upon (earlier water station, water at the finish, awards sooner, etc), but for a first year race they did a good job. We had fun and that was what mattered.
After a week of beautiful afternoon temperatures, we woke up race morning to cold and rain and wind. LOTS of wind. Luckily, this race wasn't until 4:00pm, so maybe it would warm up. If only we could have been so lucky.
The overcast doom of the morning did give way to sunshine, but the wind stayed at gusts of 20-30mph and the temps stayed in the high 50s and low 60s. The temp was perfect for a 5k, but not with the wind.
Madison and I had ordered matching outfits - hot pink running skirts and a matching top. Afterall, this was a DIVA race and we needed to look the part. We did decide that with the wind, we would wear an UnderArmour top underneath.
Once we got to the race site, we headed toward the start. We tried to stay warm, but it was just impossible. We lined up at the front of the pack. This wasn't necessarily on purpose, but no one else seemed to want up front. We just hoped that someone who knew where they were going would pass us real quick. The start of the race was in the football stadium, but after that we weren't sure. Since this was the first year for this race, I wasn't sure how clearly the course would be marked.
Once the horn blew for us to take off, it didn't take long at all for us to get passed by a few people. In fact, the one woman that really jumped out front stayed out front the whole time and eventually won the race.
We ran around the track and out of the stadium onto the school grounds. Most of the race was weaving around the parking lot and around the school. There was one little section where we went onto a neighborhood street, but then we were right back in the parking lot again.
The race course itself wasn't bad, but the winds proved to be brutal. Especially when they were in your face going uphill. I started to get hot about a mile in and wished we hadn't worn the long sleeves. Plus, with it being a 4pm start and Dalton having a soccer scrimmage at 12:00, I never really ate lunch, so I was feeling that as well.
The one and only water station wasn't until mile 2, which I thought was a little far into the course. This is one thing I have to admit could have been done better. They had the tiny cups instead of the bigger ones and they had them FULL. You couldn't pinch the top together to keep the water from spilling. Because of that, I ended up with water up my nose and not a lot of it in my belly where it needed to be. Oh well, I had to keep going to keep up with Madison who was doing very well.
Onward through the parking lot and back toward the start. About a 1/4 mile out, we were handed our tiara. I tried to put it on, but doing that while running proved to be difficult, so I just carried it. At the next corner we were handed our boa. I quickly wrapped that around my neck so it wouldn't fly away. And then, as we entered the stadium again, we were handed a rose. It was a little tricky running the last bit with all of that, but I made it to the finish line.
Madison beat me by about 20 seconds. I still can't find the "official" results from the timing company, but I estimate her time around 26:40, because my time was right at 27:00. There were not a lot of people who finished before us, so we decided to stay and see if either of us placed. At one point they posted "unofficial" results on a bleacher. It appeared that Madison got 3rd in her age group and around 14 overall, and I got 7th in my age group and 21st overall. Dang, I hate my age group!
We had to wait about an hour before the awards ceremony, which I thought was way too long. And because the wind still hadn't died down we were freezing again. We huddled as best we could to keep warm. And when they got to Madison's age group, she did indeed get 3rd. Not bad for her first official 5k.
Overall it was a great day. There are things that need to be improved upon (earlier water station, water at the finish, awards sooner, etc), but for a first year race they did a good job. We had fun and that was what mattered.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Great Urban Race Austin 2011
*Sorry about the spacing of the pics vs the wording. Blogspot is not spacing as I want it to.*
As part of my objective to "have fun" this year, my friend Selene and I signed up to do the Great Urban Race. It's kind of like a local Amazing Race. We decided to do this just a couple of weeks before the race, so we didn't have a lot of time to prep or strategize, but I had read a race report I found online and gotten some ideas of things to do.
This morning we met and rode downtown together. We went to the race start and checked in to get our race numbers. We had Joel, Madison, Dalton, Brandi, Amy and a friend of Selene's at home ready to search the Internet for our answers and we had Tom and Patrick downtown with us. Their plan once we got clues was to help us figure out the best route between them.
Once we were allowed to open the clues, I snapped pictures on my cell phone and texted them to our support crew as Tom, Patrick and Selene tried to figure out what they could. Some were fairly easy. Once we had a few figured out, Selene and I headed out. I had read from last year that there was a clue in the paper, so this morning I scanned the classifieds and sure enough there was a clue in there, so I had that and it was fairly far north of the start. We figured that might be the furthest north, so we decided to start there and work our way back south.
Unfortunately, neither of us nor any of our support crew was overly familiar with the public transportation so we decided to head that way on foot. This was probably a couple of miles from the start and took us 20-30 minutes to get there. We ran some and walked some and worked up a good sweat. Along the way we looked for opportunities to take pictures to fulfill our picture tic-tac-toe. We were able to get a picture of us with an out-of-state license plate as well as with someone with a tatoo.
We finally found our way to the Littlefield fountain and got someone to take our picture acting like we were diving into the fountain.
By this time, our crew had figured out that one of the clues was leading us to the University Co-op. We found our way there and found the Bevo statue. Selene had to make a paper airplane and I had to throw it and try to make it land on a target. We only had 3 chances. The first one didn't go very far. The second one landed on the target, but not in the middle bullseye. The third one also missed, but since I had landed on the target, they gave us the guitar pick, took our picture and sent us on our way.
These were the only two clues up north, so we started heading south. We had hoped to catch a bus, but started walking/running that way on foot anyway. Along the way we found a mural on the wall and snapped a picture to complete our picture tic-tac-toe. Three clues solved.
We continued south on Lamar to Pease Park. We had to go to the southern most part of the park and find the picnic tables with the "creatures" on it. The creatures turned out to be 2 different kinds of cockroaches. We had to properly identify which kinds they were (out of a list of 3 kinds) and then take a picture of both of us with one of us holding the cockroach. After decided what they were, Selene picked up a cockroach, we got our picture taken and then we were off again.
On our way to Uncle Billy's on Barton Springs, we realized we were a few blocks from the challenge we needed to complete at Pure Austin. We took off running to get there. We had a hard time figuring how to get inside, but once we were inside I hopped on a bike and began pedaling. The equation on the clue had given us an answer of 0.56. That was the distance I was suppose to go. The tripometer only had one decimal point. It stumped us for a bit until we heard others say their answer and realized we needed to round up. When I went the distance we had to get a pic of both of us AND the computer showing how far we had gone. Before we could get someone to take a pic, the computer cleared. The race staff reset it and got the pic and we were on our way.
Continuing south on Lamar, we headed to Barton Springs and to Uncle Billy's Brew pub. While there, we had to correctly identify 3 out of 6 ingredients used to make beer. Well, neither of us are big beer drinkers and the ingredients were in their raw form. After guessing out loud and studying the look on the staff person's face, we finally got it right. We got our coupon and moved on.
The next location was probably the southern most location on the route. We headed to Roadhouse Relics, studied the picture vs the real thing and found the 3 differences. We were off again to the next location a few blocks away.
Once we got to Mighty Cone, we had to pick up a crunchy treat. This was either a fried pickle or a fried shrimp. We both went for the pickle. We had to feed each other and have someone take a picture of us while doing so.
From there we headed up Congress to Lucy in Disquise. This is a very popular costume shop. We got a fake mustache, found a guy with a real mustache and got our picture made.
We headed north on Congress over the bridge and headed to the Children's museum. We had to make a craft there and Selene got to work on it. We were trying to get info on a bus route to take us East to get the last two clues taken care of. After the paper craft was done we headed to 3rd and Colorado where a bus was suppose to come in about 5 minutes. There was a lot of construction there, so when 5 minutes had passed and no bus had come, we figure the routes had changed due to construction. We decided to head to 4th street and start heading East, hoping to find a bus along the way. Unfortunately we arrived at our next destination without use of a bus.
At this pit stop, we had to sample some coffee and decide which 3 countries the coffee came from (we had 4 choices to choose from). Unfortunately, neither Selene or I are coffee drinkers, so this was not a challenge we enjoyed. We thought the coffee was nasty. There were several teams there at the same time and we kind of all worked together to get the answer. We grabbed our coffee sample and headed for our last stop.
The last stop was at Any Baby Can. We had to take some items for donations. Luckily you can use ground support so Tom and Patrick had stopped and gotten the supplies for us earlier. We turned those in and headed to the finish, again, hoping to catch a bus. Unfortunately, no bus.
We ended up doing the ENTIRE race on foot. We estimate that we traveled over 10 miles today, probably closer to 13. We crossed the finish line back at Maggie Mae's in just under 4 hours. The top 25 teams qualify for nationals at the end of the year in New Orleans. While we didn't think we were in the top 25, we weren't ruling it out. If other teams who had finished before us had not completed the clues properly, they would incur a 30 minute penalty. But in the end, we had taken too long.
We had a ton of fun, definitely got our workout in for the day and learned lots of lessons for the next time we do this. If the Great Urban Race comes near you, I would highly recommend this if you are the type that likes a fun adventure.
As part of my objective to "have fun" this year, my friend Selene and I signed up to do the Great Urban Race. It's kind of like a local Amazing Race. We decided to do this just a couple of weeks before the race, so we didn't have a lot of time to prep or strategize, but I had read a race report I found online and gotten some ideas of things to do.
This morning we met and rode downtown together. We went to the race start and checked in to get our race numbers. We had Joel, Madison, Dalton, Brandi, Amy and a friend of Selene's at home ready to search the Internet for our answers and we had Tom and Patrick downtown with us. Their plan once we got clues was to help us figure out the best route between them.
Once we were allowed to open the clues, I snapped pictures on my cell phone and texted them to our support crew as Tom, Patrick and Selene tried to figure out what they could. Some were fairly easy. Once we had a few figured out, Selene and I headed out. I had read from last year that there was a clue in the paper, so this morning I scanned the classifieds and sure enough there was a clue in there, so I had that and it was fairly far north of the start. We figured that might be the furthest north, so we decided to start there and work our way back south.
Unfortunately, neither of us nor any of our support crew was overly familiar with the public transportation so we decided to head that way on foot. This was probably a couple of miles from the start and took us 20-30 minutes to get there. We ran some and walked some and worked up a good sweat. Along the way we looked for opportunities to take pictures to fulfill our picture tic-tac-toe. We were able to get a picture of us with an out-of-state license plate as well as with someone with a tatoo.
We finally found our way to the Littlefield fountain and got someone to take our picture acting like we were diving into the fountain.
By this time, our crew had figured out that one of the clues was leading us to the University Co-op. We found our way there and found the Bevo statue. Selene had to make a paper airplane and I had to throw it and try to make it land on a target. We only had 3 chances. The first one didn't go very far. The second one landed on the target, but not in the middle bullseye. The third one also missed, but since I had landed on the target, they gave us the guitar pick, took our picture and sent us on our way.
These were the only two clues up north, so we started heading south. We had hoped to catch a bus, but started walking/running that way on foot anyway. Along the way we found a mural on the wall and snapped a picture to complete our picture tic-tac-toe. Three clues solved.
We continued south on Lamar to Pease Park. We had to go to the southern most part of the park and find the picnic tables with the "creatures" on it. The creatures turned out to be 2 different kinds of cockroaches. We had to properly identify which kinds they were (out of a list of 3 kinds) and then take a picture of both of us with one of us holding the cockroach. After decided what they were, Selene picked up a cockroach, we got our picture taken and then we were off again.
On our way to Uncle Billy's on Barton Springs, we realized we were a few blocks from the challenge we needed to complete at Pure Austin. We took off running to get there. We had a hard time figuring how to get inside, but once we were inside I hopped on a bike and began pedaling. The equation on the clue had given us an answer of 0.56. That was the distance I was suppose to go. The tripometer only had one decimal point. It stumped us for a bit until we heard others say their answer and realized we needed to round up. When I went the distance we had to get a pic of both of us AND the computer showing how far we had gone. Before we could get someone to take a pic, the computer cleared. The race staff reset it and got the pic and we were on our way.
Continuing south on Lamar, we headed to Barton Springs and to Uncle Billy's Brew pub. While there, we had to correctly identify 3 out of 6 ingredients used to make beer. Well, neither of us are big beer drinkers and the ingredients were in their raw form. After guessing out loud and studying the look on the staff person's face, we finally got it right. We got our coupon and moved on.
The next location was probably the southern most location on the route. We headed to Roadhouse Relics, studied the picture vs the real thing and found the 3 differences. We were off again to the next location a few blocks away.
Once we got to Mighty Cone, we had to pick up a crunchy treat. This was either a fried pickle or a fried shrimp. We both went for the pickle. We had to feed each other and have someone take a picture of us while doing so.
From there we headed up Congress to Lucy in Disquise. This is a very popular costume shop. We got a fake mustache, found a guy with a real mustache and got our picture made.
We headed north on Congress over the bridge and headed to the Children's museum. We had to make a craft there and Selene got to work on it. We were trying to get info on a bus route to take us East to get the last two clues taken care of. After the paper craft was done we headed to 3rd and Colorado where a bus was suppose to come in about 5 minutes. There was a lot of construction there, so when 5 minutes had passed and no bus had come, we figure the routes had changed due to construction. We decided to head to 4th street and start heading East, hoping to find a bus along the way. Unfortunately we arrived at our next destination without use of a bus.
At this pit stop, we had to sample some coffee and decide which 3 countries the coffee came from (we had 4 choices to choose from). Unfortunately, neither Selene or I are coffee drinkers, so this was not a challenge we enjoyed. We thought the coffee was nasty. There were several teams there at the same time and we kind of all worked together to get the answer. We grabbed our coffee sample and headed for our last stop.
The last stop was at Any Baby Can. We had to take some items for donations. Luckily you can use ground support so Tom and Patrick had stopped and gotten the supplies for us earlier. We turned those in and headed to the finish, again, hoping to catch a bus. Unfortunately, no bus.
We ended up doing the ENTIRE race on foot. We estimate that we traveled over 10 miles today, probably closer to 13. We crossed the finish line back at Maggie Mae's in just under 4 hours. The top 25 teams qualify for nationals at the end of the year in New Orleans. While we didn't think we were in the top 25, we weren't ruling it out. If other teams who had finished before us had not completed the clues properly, they would incur a 30 minute penalty. But in the end, we had taken too long.
We had a ton of fun, definitely got our workout in for the day and learned lots of lessons for the next time we do this. If the Great Urban Race comes near you, I would highly recommend this if you are the type that likes a fun adventure.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Injuries, Illness and Ice - Plus a 3M Half Marathon Race Report
"Running should be a relief from stress, a way to help cope with it, not another added stress." Bob Glover
At the start of the new year, I was determined to get back to a scheduled plan for training and ramp up enough for the 1/2 marathon I had at the end of the month. My knee had other plans. Sometimes it would hurt while running and sometimes it would only hurt the next day. I'd take some time off and it would feel better and then I'd run and it would hurt again.
So I went in to the 3M Half Marathon with my "long" run being only a little over 5 miles and knowing that I wouldn't PR. I had put kinesio tape on the knee to help stabilize it. Race morning was a little warm and with the threat of rain, a little humid. They announced at the start that the temp was 73 degrees. I was in shorts and a tank.
I started off and felt pretty good. I was doing about 9:30 per mile. I knew I could hold that for a while, but probably not for the whole race based on the amount of running I had been doing. And about 5 miles is where I could tell my conditioning was not where it needed to be.
About mile 7 I had to stop and walk for just a minute and give the knee a break. I walked through the aid station making sure I took in plenty of hydration and then was back on my way. About mile 10 I ran as far as I could and then would walk for a minute. I was ready to be done. As I got closer to the finish, I tried to keep running but had to walk yet again right before the finish. Then I ran on in crossing in just under 2:10. Official time was 2:09:52. You do the best you can on any given day and can't ask for more, so I'll take it.
I decided it was time to get the knee checked out and went to see an orthopedic doctor this week. He did x-rays and said no fracture. He twisted the knee several ways and put pressure where it would indicate a meniscus issue and didn't think that was it at all. He thinks it is a muscular issue and prescribed an anti-inflamatory. If it's not better in 2-4 weeks I need to go back and he will probably do an MRI.
My daughter also has an injury right now. Her thumb got jammed at volleyball practice and we thought it might be fractured. X-rays revealed no fracture, but the doctor said it is sprained and put her in a brace.
My son has been sick with strep throat and missed 4 days of school this week. Just when we thought he would go back on Friday, we get freak weather for here and he missed Friday due to an ice/snow day. It's nothing like what other parts of the country got, but with ice on the streets, our city shuts down. The kids did not complain.
I am officially registered for the Chicago marathon and I can say that with the cold weather we've had, I am hoping the winter does not come early to Chicago.
At the start of the new year, I was determined to get back to a scheduled plan for training and ramp up enough for the 1/2 marathon I had at the end of the month. My knee had other plans. Sometimes it would hurt while running and sometimes it would only hurt the next day. I'd take some time off and it would feel better and then I'd run and it would hurt again.
So I went in to the 3M Half Marathon with my "long" run being only a little over 5 miles and knowing that I wouldn't PR. I had put kinesio tape on the knee to help stabilize it. Race morning was a little warm and with the threat of rain, a little humid. They announced at the start that the temp was 73 degrees. I was in shorts and a tank.
I started off and felt pretty good. I was doing about 9:30 per mile. I knew I could hold that for a while, but probably not for the whole race based on the amount of running I had been doing. And about 5 miles is where I could tell my conditioning was not where it needed to be.
About mile 7 I had to stop and walk for just a minute and give the knee a break. I walked through the aid station making sure I took in plenty of hydration and then was back on my way. About mile 10 I ran as far as I could and then would walk for a minute. I was ready to be done. As I got closer to the finish, I tried to keep running but had to walk yet again right before the finish. Then I ran on in crossing in just under 2:10. Official time was 2:09:52. You do the best you can on any given day and can't ask for more, so I'll take it.
I decided it was time to get the knee checked out and went to see an orthopedic doctor this week. He did x-rays and said no fracture. He twisted the knee several ways and put pressure where it would indicate a meniscus issue and didn't think that was it at all. He thinks it is a muscular issue and prescribed an anti-inflamatory. If it's not better in 2-4 weeks I need to go back and he will probably do an MRI.
My daughter also has an injury right now. Her thumb got jammed at volleyball practice and we thought it might be fractured. X-rays revealed no fracture, but the doctor said it is sprained and put her in a brace.
My son has been sick with strep throat and missed 4 days of school this week. Just when we thought he would go back on Friday, we get freak weather for here and he missed Friday due to an ice/snow day. It's nothing like what other parts of the country got, but with ice on the streets, our city shuts down. The kids did not complain.
I am officially registered for the Chicago marathon and I can say that with the cold weather we've had, I am hoping the winter does not come early to Chicago.
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