The Beginning of the End...

...for my Poinsettia.

I was admiring Wilma sitting on the front porch, watching the world go by, wishing I had her life...


...when, to the left of her, I saw that my beautiful, huge poinsettia had a little visitor. He was such a big, beautiful creature that I didn't have the heart to shoo him away, even though I know he is going to eat every beautiful red leaf off of my poinsettia until there is nothing left but a flowerpot full of twigs. Tis the season.

Eulogy for Freya

When I was 12 years old and in the 6th grade, we lived on a military base - Ft. Rucker, Alabama. My dog, Governer, would follow me to school every day, and they would let him stay. He layed on the floor next to my desk. When we went to lunch, all the kids would save little bits of food for him - especially the pork chop bones - and he would have his own little feast for the rest of the day before we walked home.

He was the first pet I ever really remember losing, and it was the first time I ever really had to deal with death. And, to this day, it is probably still the hardest one.

When I was younger, I always thought that I would be a veterinarian when I grew up. Maybe I should have. But the pain of animals bothered be so much more than the pain of people. Maybe I should have been a doctor. So, after Governor died, I knew I'd never be a vet. I knew I would cry every day that I lost someone's pet, and I couldn't endure that for the rest of my life.

When my sister Hazel lost her dog, Dolph, I called her. She was fine, until I started crying and that got her crying. She would probably have been better off if I had never called her.

And now my friend Anna has lost her dog Freya, and it effects me deeply. Anna has been with Freya since Freya was a pup. Just look at the size of those ears!

When Anna was going through her divorce, she moved in with me for a while, with Freya. Freya was so young and full of energy and almost too much to handle. Anna wondered whether or not she should keep Freya and I told her that Freya would grow up to be a wonderful dog. I loved Freya!

Freya stayed with Anna's ex-husband for a while. But soon Anna found out that Freya was being neglected and was malnourished and would not live long under those conditions. Anna was able to get Freya back and took painstaking effort to nurse her back to health, even though she never fully recovered.

But Freya never lost her spunk! And together, Anna and Freya saw each other through good times and hard times. That makes for a closeness beyond compare.

Freya did grown into her ears, and loved her toys, and had the most happy, deep groan whenever she saw me and I hugged her. She was full of love!!

Dogs have souls and go to Heaven... it must be. I just hope that the cat Heaven is on the other side.

One Step at a Time

The big weekend was finally here!

On Friday, I went to the expo for the Women's Half Marthon to pick up my race package and to scope out the place before going back with Mom on Saturday. By the time we got there on Saturday, it was really croweded!

At the package pickup, we ran into Dawna Stone (the race director) and she was in really great spirits! She was happy to see that Mom and I were walking together and also really happy that I told her I'd be a significant volunteer for her next year.

We also ran into Tim and Lauren at the expo. Lauren had just flown in that morning (just after midnight) and would leave after the race on Sunday. All of us left the expo together and headed to Chattaway for lunch.

On race morning, there was a little chill in the air. I got us parked in the Bayfront Center parking lot - really, really close to the race start. We walked across the street to the Hilton to hang out in the lobby and have access to their bathrooms before the race. But it was kind of cold in the lobby!

Mom warms herself with pillows in the Hilton lobby.

Finally, it was time to head over to the start line.

Mom, Lauren, and me before the start.



In the starting chute.

It took us a little over 2 minutes to reach the starting line after the gun went off.

Just after mile 1 - on our way around The Pier.


Just after Mile 2 at the Mad Dog water station.



Around Mile 5 at the Vinoy Country Club.

Between Mile 8 and 9, going back

through the Mad Dog water station.

At around Mile 10, Mom started having some difficulty. She started leaning to the right and as she tried to straighten up, she would get spasms on the left side of her back. These back issues really gave her increasing problems from Mile 10 through the rest of the race. In addition to the back issues, she has a lot of nausea.

Inside Tropicana Field, unable to

stand up straight!

Inside Tropicana Field.

After we made the final turn on the course to where you could see the finish line, we still had a long, slow way to go to get there. Mom had to stop and bend over and I had to massage her back to try to give her some relief. The spectators could tell that she was having a very difficult time and they were cheering loudly for her to finish. I think that alone got her across the finish line!

The saddest approach to

the finish line!

Where's my medal?

As we made our way to the finish line, I asked a volunteer where the medical tent was and was happy to find that it was right next to the finish line. When they asked if we wanted to go right there, I said "No. We have our priorities. We want our medal first."

They had some Coast Guard guys at the finish line handing out the medals. The guy that gave Mom her medal asked if he could assist her to the medical tent and she said "No.". And I said "I'd lean on that arm if I were you." But she declined anyway and we hobbled over to the medical tent.

There's my medal!

Finally finished!

At the medical tent, they iced her back down until she was finally able to get up and move around. From there, I walked her over to the massage tent where they worked on her for only 10 to 15 minutes and got her as good as new!

Mom, with her new best friend.

It was really amazing how that massage got her to where you'd never know that she was been in such distress. I'll be making an appointment for her to visit Travis before we go to Honolulu!

Later that evening... and one

step closer to the Honolulu Marathon!

Yowsers, Rubbish, and Niggles

Yowsers, Rubbish, and Niggles - these are my words of the week. After spending two weeks with a variety of professional triathletes from the UK, these words are now ingrained in my brain. This week I was managing Julie Dibens, Fraser Cartmell, Joel Jameson, Dann Brook, Tom Room, and Georgie Rutherford, and, occasionally, Georgie's father, and Tom's parents.

Today's WOD was Cindy, max rounds in 20 minutes of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats. I wanted to go harder on the pull-ups since I have been using the blue band all the time. We now have the pink band (1x harder than blue) and the purple band (2x harder than blue). And, I wanted to do ALL of my push-ups on the toes.

Now watch me use all my words in the same sentence...

When Marc said he wanted me to do the pull-ups with the purple band, I yelled "Rubbish" (but I did it anyway), and when the push-ups got to be so hard I yelled "Yowsers", and now I have a niggle in my back. Yowsers! But it's nothing a little vitamin I won't take care of.

Anyway, I got 11 rounds plus 5 pull-ups.

Yesterday was a very busy day. I was up at 5:30am and Dann Brook was out the door at 6:15am. Wallis was taking him to the airport for his flight back to Manchester, England. Then, I got a lot of work done and ran to the grocery store so that I could make Joel and Fraser a good "last meal" before they left. At 3pm we had Filet Mignon, baked sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, spinach salad, and key lime pie!

Then, I took Fraser to the airport while Lisa took Joel to the airport.

I picked Dawn up at 6pm and we went to XFit for the WOD (5k run). I just ran it with her (I pushed her) and finished in 24:27 and I made the top spot on the board (I wasn't even trying). Then we had our weight management meeting at 7pm. Jay reviewed my journal and my only issue is that he wants me to take in protein not only for meals but also for snacks. We'll be monitoring weight and body fat every two weeks. But I did lose one pound this week! Yowsers!

Race Day

Saturday, November 14, 2009

4th Annual 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater

We stayed in our usual place - Golden Villa, on Clearwater Beach. Friday evening, we had our pasta dinner and the hotel owners, Ken & Linda, came out to join us as they do every year.

The athletes with us this year included pro triathletes:
Julie Dibens, England
Fraser Cartmell, Scotland
Joel Jameson, England
Dann Brook, England
Tom Room, England
...and age group athlete Georgie Rutherford who is with British Triathlon. There were a few other athletes staying at our hotel, including Dennis Kennedy from South Africa who was with us last year

It was a lot cooler this year and with the windy conditions, most of us decided to eat our dinners indoors. That was disappointing as it has been so nice to have everyone eating together outdoors in the past.

I have hosted Julie for several years now and was very much aware that she was far more nervous for this race than any race I've seen her prepare for over these years. Mike (her husband) arrived on Friday afternoon from Boulder and that helped calm her nerves a bit, but it just built back up again as the minutes ticked away.

Julie is all smiles as she goes to check her bike into transition.

Dann Brook is heading to bike check in.

Georgie Rutherford looks anxious to go.

A Royal Wheel for the Brit.

Julie had a lot of pressure on her for the race this year. In the past two years, she did the Maui Xterra World Championship (which she won both times) only two weeks before this race and finished fourth in this race both times. In those races, she led the entire way, only to lose in the last part of the run.

This year, there were three weeks between races so she had higher expectations of herself, and thus more pressure. But then the media was talking highly of her potential and basically claiming that she had this one in the bag - even though there were some real contenders, including last years winner. All of this made her very nervous and you could see her retreat into quietness the evening before the race. So much so, that I suggested that she and Mike have their dinners in their room while watching a movie - which they did.

On race morning, we were all up at 4am and shortly after, Julie and Mike headed off to transition where Julie finalized her race day preparation - putting food and nutrition on her bike. When she came back to the hotel, she put on her wetsuit and did a warm-up swim in the small pool before heading off to the swim start.

Tim and I positioned ourselves where we could see the swimmers as they came out of the water and entered transition. She came out with a pack of girls and was the fifth one out of the water, only seconds behind the first place girl, Sarah Groff. But when she came out of transition to start the bike ride, she was in second place, and would be in first place before the first mile of the bike.

Trek made this prototype bike for only five athletes including Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Chris Lieto, and Julie. They even came up with a special slogan just for Julie. The back tire reads "Not a One Trick Pony" - in reference to the fact that she does both Xterra and traditional triathlon.

She looked really good on the run - better than in previous years. I yelled at her as she went by to let her know that 2nd place was no where in site. I think she had a 4.5 minute lead after the first loop of the run.

Fraser was 3rd in the swim and 6th on the bike. But this year brought out the fastest runners in the pro field. Fraser finished 20th overall even though he was 2 minutes faster than last year. The times were so close... if Fraser had been 3 minutes faster, he would have been in 10th place... 6 minutes (and 3 seconds) faster would have put him 5th place...just to show you how close it really was.

Dann is a relatively new pro triathlete and this was his first time to the U.S. Overall he really enjoyed the experience, even if he had a hard time on the last part of the run. He finished 36th overall.

While watching the big screen of Julie on the run, we saw that she was running with another girl. We knew that if another girl caught her, then she would not have enough left to hang on for the win. So it was a surprise when we saw her on the big screen again with no one near her. It turns out that the other girl was an age group triathlete who still had another lap to go.

Julie is all smiles as she runs the finish chute for her first place finish!

That evening, we went to the awards dinner on the beach where everyone got to enjoy the beautiful sunset and enjoy the awards presentation.

Georgie Rutherford took 1st place
in her age group.

The top ten women.

Julie gives her speech.

Tour de Clearwater

Fraser and Julie gave me a HUGE surprise on Wednesday. I thought nothing when more boxes arrived at the house addressed to Julie. But when she told me that these were for me, it really, really surprised me. It was the bike holder attachments for my Thule car racks. Julie and Fraser bought three of them for me!! So now I can put three bikes (and wheels) on top of the car and three more bikes on the rack on the back of the car. Now my car looks like one of those in the Tour de France!

Dann Brook, Julie Dibens, and Fraser Cartmell

loading up the car

We drove to Clearwater on Thursday morning and got settled into our usual spot - Golden Villa. The weather has been really terrible lately with Ida having been here recently. The clouds are lingering as is the strong wind. There is talk that the swim may be moved to the Bay if the Gulf remains as rough as it is.

Everyone was up and out the door around 6:30 this morning for a test swim.

Joel Jameson, Dann Brook, Fraser Cartmell, Julie Dibens

Getting ready for a rough swim.

Sunrise on the beach.

It will be interesting to see what they do with the swim for Saturday's race. Most of the athletes should be able to handle the rough water, but there is talk that the swim may take place on the Intracoastal side in calmer waters. Even if the athletes can handle it, they couldn't have the swim without proper safety support from surf boarders and kayakers.

CrossFit Diet

At 7pm yesterday, 17 of the St. Pete CrossFitters showed up for the first "weight management" meeting. It was really great to see that kind of a turn out by both men and women. This is all being led by Jay (head trainer), Wendy (assistant trainer), and Sam (nutritionist).

This will all take place over the next 12 weeks and we're starting simply and will fine tune as we go along. So the first focus is just two things: 1) write down everything you eat 2) estimate portions. So no calorie counting and no restrictions. We were provided handouts on measuring portions (based on handfuls) and all provided samples of a day from the journal of Jay, Marc (head trainer), Jess (Marc's wife), and Ed (Sam's husband).

Day 1 for me: 130lbs, 24% body fat. My goal over the next 12 weeks will be to lose 10lbs and 4% body fat.

This morning, our WOD was: 4x800m Run with 2 minutes rest in between. Because my foot still hurts and because I would much prefer to run, I opted to row the 800 instead.

My splits were 4:16, 3:59, 3:55, 3:57

I was trying to negative split but just missed it on that last set. Oh well.

So Hurricane Ida was demoted to Tropical Storm Ida and came on shore near Biloxi, AL. We've had lots of cloud cover and a little rain and we're supposed to get a lot of rain tonight with blue skies again tomorrow. It makes for a dreary, lethargic day.

Time to curl up with Wilma and take a nap!

Pain in the, uh, Foot

During the Marine Corps Marathon, I developed a pain on the top of my foot that was totally irritating. Luckily, it didn't hurt when I ran - only when I walked. It has hurt off and on ever since.

This morning, I was at CrossFit where our WOD was:

5 Rounds for Time of:

3 x Snatch at 65# (I did 25#)

15 x Overhead Squat at 65# (I did 25#)

400m run

I had asked DL to take it easy on me with the weight because I didn't get any sleep last night and was really, really tired today. Although the 25# was really too light, it was nice (for a change) to be able to easily get through this WOD and shake out the cobwebs. So I'm warmed up for the rest of the week.

The hardest part was running - because of that pain in my foot. It seemed to warm up and hurt less in rounds 2 and 3 then started hurting again in rounds 4 and 5. But after I finished the WOD I was practically limping... it really hurt to walk!

I tried to think about how I hurt it and it suddenly dawned on me that it was the rope climb from a couple of weeks ago. During the rope climb, I wrap the rope around my right leg and across the top of my right foot, then step on the rope with my left foot... and I step hard, lifting myself up the rope so that I can grab high on the rope, loosen my grip with the feet and regrip higher, stand on the right foot and go again. This was the first time that I made three ascents and I think that was enough to really mess with my right foot.

So, at least now I know the cause - so no more rope climbs until after all of my marathons.

Speaking of marathons, I ordered a bag from a company called Prior Life. They take the banners from the finish chute of a marathon and recycle them into tote bags, messenger bags, wallets, and other cool things. There's no guarantee what the bag will look like since you don't get to decide what section of the banner will be used. But I was so pleased with what I got!!

Front Side

I like the part of the "Semper Fidelis", the wheel chair wheel, and on the right is part of the Iwo Jima memorial. And on the bottom center, if you blow up the picture, you'll see that it is part of a Marine and he's got the finish medals over his wrist (that's the red & yellow strap that holds the medal). While it's blown up, read the tag on the top center.

Back Side

More of the Iwo Jima Memorial in the blue and a bit of a runners bib in the bottom left.

Tuesday was not a fun workout. As a matter of fact, I almost met "Pukie"... the CrossFit mascot, of sorts.

The Tuesday workout was called "Nate". It involved max rounds in 20 minutes of 2 muscle ups, 4 hand stand push-ups and 8 kettlebell swings. I did jumping muscle ups, hspu's on the box (on the toes, hands on floor), and kb swings at 35#. What made this hard was going from the hspu's where your head is below your heart, to the kettlebell swings. That made me so nauseous. I got 14 rounds plus 2 muscle ups, plus 4 hspu's, plus 2 kb swings.

I made up for this misery by cooking a delicious filet mignon dinner for myself, Tim, and Julie. I bought organic steaks and even Tim noticed the difference... far more moist and tender than usual. They were very, very tasty!

Then I went to the airport to pick up Joel Jameson, another athlete coming in for the 70.3 World Championship. Poor guy was really tired from the jet lag as it was 2am his time (back in the U.K.). I got him settled in at Lisa Kaschak's house and I went home to bed... and slept in, so no CrossFit today.

It's been fun having Julie here... she is so easy going. I got these pictures of her "training".

Here she is, hanging around

on my yoga sling...

... and "racing" through the house on Lisa's

beach cruiser, complete with aero helmet.

Tonight, I tried a couple of new recipes out on Tim, Julie, and Joel. The crabmeat stuffed portabello mushrooms were ok. But the Chicken Bulgar Salad was a definite keeper!! Tim was very pleased with this dish. I had never made bulgar before, but it's no different than cooking rice.

Now I'll be up really late tonight as I pick up Dann Brook at Tampa Airport, and his flight doesn't get in until 11:45pm.... Ugh!!

Monday, Monday

Saturday, I met the Tampa Bay Fit group at 6am. Ray Bailey and I showed our Marine Corps Marathon medals to everyone and compared war stories! Then it was time to head out for a 9 mile run. I had no intentions of running 9 miles and planned to jog/walk maybe 2 miles.

The first few steps heading our were really hard, I felt so stiff. So I would jog a few steps, and walk a few steps, and each jog section got to be a little longer, and a little longer. When I turned around on the Pier at mile 1, I ran into Robin Perkins and jogged with her all the way back to North Shore Pool (another mile).

When the rest of the TBF group came through, I jogged back out with them, even picking up the pace on occasion and made it 2 more miles to Nina Street. I turned around and jog/walked back to the start. So, a total of 6 miles for me. Then lots of stretching afterwards.

On Sunday, I was supposed to meet the group for a bike ride, but I didn't sleep well the night before and had a lot of major leg twitches during the night that kept me up. So I opted to sleep in and felt a lot more rested.

Sunday evening, I took a part of a sleeping pill and went to bed early. I woke up this morning feeling really rested.

At CrossFit, our WOD was "Michael", 3 rounds for time of 800m run, 50 GHD back extensions, and 50 GHD situps. The run still started of pretty rough and I was surprised how hard the back extensions and situps were. And it was all the fatigue in my legs!! I finished in 24:36. The last time I did this WOD on 9/11/09, I finished in 20:45 so I was significantly off pace. I'll put that down to post-marathon fatigue and hope that my performance starts to improve.

One other thing, it was a lot cooler this morning, and I forgot to take my inhaler. The cool felt great, but the less than comfortable breathing probably caused my slower performance. Oh well!

No Rest for the Weary

Wednesday night, I did not get ANY sleep at all.

After going to bed and falling asleep, I was awakened by a dying cell phone battery. You know... when your phone does that beeping to let you know the battery is dying. I got up and turned off my Blackberry and went back to bed. Right after I fell back to sleep, I was awaken by that same stinking sound!! I got up and discovered that it wasn't my Blackberry, it was my other phone. I plugged that one in a went back to bed.

It seems that I had just fallen into a deep sleep when Fred was meowing from the bathtub... and he was relentless. I got up and shoed him out of the tub and closed the bathroom door so he couldn't go back in there.

Back to bed I went and fell right back to sleep. Then came a visit from Tensor, the next door neighbors cat. He came up to the pet door - which I had locked, but Fred could see him so there was some major cat growling going on. Back up again. I blocked to door so the cats couldn't see each other any more.

By now, I was wide awake and spent about an hour on the computer before going back to bed... at 3:30am. So when the alarm went off at 4:45, I turned it off, and went right back to sleep.

But, I got up early this morning, even though I was still really tired.

Marc had a surprise for me at CrossFit today. I've been stuck on the blue band for pull-ups, or doing jumping pull-ups. He handed me a red band, about half as wide as the blue one, and I still cranked out 10 straight pull-ups! For the next round, he handed me a purple band, about half as wide as the red one. This time, I did five straight, then 3, then 2. I think these will really help me get to where I can do unassisted pull-ups!

Today's WOD was pure murder - especially after a marathon and walking lunges on Wendesday.

It was:

21 Thrusters

15 ft rope climb, 12 ascents

15 Thrusters

15 ft rope climb, 9 ascents

9 Thrusters

15 ft rope climb, 6 ascents

Marc scaled it for us... a lot.

I did the Thrusters at only 45#. My first attempt at the rope climb was pretty clumsy and I made 2 attempts that didn't get me very far off the ground. Marc loaned me a pair of his army pants but they were so baggy that I couldn't get the rope around my foot - I kept losing it.

And the pants hindered my movement during the Thrusters, but Marc didn't appreciate it when I suggested that they make those things out of spandex!

Marc "pegged" the legs of my pants - getting them all nice and tucked in close. So for my final rounds of the rope climb I was able to make it all the way to the top both times.

He took a picture of me near the top of the rope that I hope will replace this picture he posted on our website, with the caption: "Carolyn makes the rope climb her bitch." I'm only part way off the floor in this picture, even though I did make it higher, but today I made it all the way to the top twice!

The Day After the Day After

Monday (still the day after the Marathon), we went out for dinner to Rio Grande (or something like that). Our adventure start with Sam driving us!

Are you scared yet?

Meredith sharing a little "brotherly love"

over dinner!

And this is what Meredith thought

of dinner... and the sopapillas.

It was a great dinner. I had the skirt steak. I'm not sure what everyone else had but it all looked (and smelled) delicious!

Tuesday morning came way too early. I got to see Sam and Meredith before they left for school, then Hazel took Tim and me to the airport.

Mom & Dad picked us up and we went straight out to lunch. I was a little slow picking out a place but I think we settled on a nice little spot. We went to Savannah's for some southern cooking and we all had Po Boy's (fried oyster for Daddy, shrimp for Momma and me), except for Tim who had the pulled pork sandwich. Mmmm Mmmm good!

Right after Momma and Daddy left, I unpacked a few things and went right out and mowed the grass. Ugh.... but it had to be done.

I got right back to CrossFit this morning with a very slow "Fun 50". Four rounds for time of walking lunges (50 meters) and 50 sit-ups. I felt every bit of the fatigue in my legs during those walking lunges. I finished in 17:23 (to Jordan's 13:57).

The Morning After

What do you do the day after a marathon? Go for a walk, of course!

We got to see Nick, very briefly. We got home from Ft. McNair around 10pm so we got to chat with Nick for about a half an hour before going to bed. Then I got up and had a cup of coffee with him before he headed out the door for his next trip.

Hazel went to CrossFit and the kids went to school. After Hazel got home, Hazel, Tim, and I drove to Great Falls Park.

Me, Dixie and Hazel

This water marks sign has markers for each of the highest point the river has reached during certain years. It's amazing that thawing snow or a good rain can cause the river to overflow the banks and pretty much smother the falls.

Hazel & me picking out the best

route for tubing (yeah, right).

After visiting the falls, we went to lunch at a little Irish Pub in Great Falls. I really loved this little Guinness poem on the wall...

... even more than I enjoyed my Shepherd's Pie. (Hazel & Tim had the fish and chips).

After lunch, we stopped at Trader Joe's. Even though I couldn't pick up more 3 Buck Chuck (can't check it on the flight), I was able to pick up a few goodies to bring home.... unless I eat them first!