Par for the course......

Pretty par for the course these days that I am overwhelmed and WAYYYY behind on blog reading.

As in 1000+ unread blogs....so many that google has stopped counting.

My sincere apolgoies for falling off the face of the earth.

I haven't been doing much EXCEPT working the REAL job, working the LTF gig, and planning the RIDE 4 Jess on October 9.

Very excited to annouce that we have a sponsor for the event:

Nutrition Addiction: There mission is to bring good nutrition to community members and to provide the valuable service of informing people about the importance of good nutrition and regular exercise to achieve optimum health.
There GOAL: To fill the gap between the desire and the action, giving members the tools to help those that want to make a change for a healthier lifestyle. Providing solutions, motivation, education and a friendly atmosphere where they feel valued and supported with like minded individuals.


We will be starting and ending the ride from their location in Grapevine - all proceeds from smoothie sales that day will be directly donated to the National Brain Tumor Society.  Along with that they will post up an aid station around mile 6.5 of the first loop, mile 19.5 of the second loop and mile 32.5 of the third loop which will serve the HerbaLife Prolong Product mixed with water.

Prolong is a dual-source blend of maltodextrin and low glycemic fructose facilitates carbohydrate utilization with a 12:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio with ultrapure whey protein isolate that helps reduce muscle breakdown during exercise.  Bioavailable electrolytes help maintain a cellular environment for proper muscle contraction and B Vitamins support carbohydrate metabolism.  Provides 500% daily value of Vitamin C to scavenge cell-damaging free radicals.

In layman's terms....the stuff is delicious.

So that's where I am right now with THAT!  I am very excited that this has taken on a life of it's own and we are a little over a month away from actually hosting the ride.

Don't forget you can participate virtually - just make a donation to my fundraising page (ANY AMOUNT IS APPRECIATED) and let me know you are participating either by commenting or emailing me at
allie0622{at}yahoo{dot}com.

If you are going to actually be able to BE THERE on October 9 - let me know that too.... email or comment!

We will  have donation tables set up for credit card donations the day of the ride!  Donations will be accepted through November 5!

Happy Monday Y'all!

New Format for the Ride For Jess

Due to previous commitments with Life Time Fitness Cycle Club; I'm going to be unable to do the 12 hour bike ride on October 8.

I didn't realize when I picked the date that I was going to 1) be hired at LTF as the coordinator (it was still up in the air) and 2) have a mandatory expo that day.

So here are the new details

When:  Sunday, October 9, 2011
Where: White Rock Lake
Why:    To Raise Money for the Brain Tumor Foundation Dallas/Fort Worth Walk on November 5

The Nitty Gritty:

Anyone is welcome to ride, run, walk, jog, skip, scooter, segway, skate around the lake.

All I ask is that if you are going to come out and participate you make a DONATION to my FUNDRAISING PAGE (any denomination is appreciated!) and either comment here that you are going to participate or email me and let me know.

Take 1/2, 1, 2 or even loops around the lake whatever works for you!  I will try and have ride leaders for 1 loop, 2 loops or 3 loops.

Runners - feel free to come out for your long training day.

Also - if you can participate virtually that would be awesome as well!  Just a make a donation and let me know that you are going to participate!

Hoping to have a few sponsors that will provide some giveaways on race day.

I hope to have your support if you live here in the area and very much hope that you are able to participate!!!!!!

The BIG announcement

It's a BIG announcement; but without many details - it's still in the infancy stages...


So many are familiar with the great EMZ, you read her, you love her (instantly) and you want her to be your running buddy, best friend, champion, and second mom (what a lucky little girl peanut is).

She is awe-inspiring, has the best abs known to man, the greatest belt buckle ever created, and a compassionate heart.

She has inspired me through her blog posts for quite sometime now, her shoe collection is unreal.... and she got me thinking. 

Like.freaking.thinking

I was standing over a pot of spaghetti one night thinking about Jess, EMZ, Sojourner and the Brain Tumor Walk - how can I MAKE a difference THIS YEAR (remember here?)

and then it hit me......

By.riding.my.freaking.bike.

A 12 hour bike ride for Jess.

EMZ ran for Sojourner - I will ride for Jess (and all other BT patients, families, survivors, friends, caregivers, researchers, etc)

So ... here it is...

When: October 8, 2011

Where: To be determined...

Why: Ride to fight Brain Tumors 2011

How can you help: GO HERE and donate to my fundraising page

More details to come…. Trust me lots more details….

Oh yes, I’ll be back with an update about where I’ve been lately; after I read my 847 unread blog posts in my google reader…… YIKES!!!!

47 days until Maui……. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

75 days until the 12 hour ride for Jess

If I could make the sound of a bugle call into words that would be the title of this post......

I will have to finish up on my post(s) about my week of vegetarianism later…. Because this is just too freaking fantastic to wait….

It was scheduled to be a “normal” weekend for us, dinner on Friday with an out of town friend, training, baseball, a little lounging, a birthday for Bill’s niece, and celebrating Father’s Day with Bill’s dad.  Busy but typical.  I had a scheduled hair appointment for 9am Saturday morning.  I love going to get my hair did.  It is probably one of my most favorite things to do.  I woke up early on Saturday; refreshed and ready to start the day.  I hopped in the shower, piddled around, got dressed and picked up my friend Laura (who’s in from out of town) and we went to Starbuck’s.  She went with me to get my hair done.

Our plan for after my appointment was to head back to my house, meet up with Karen and her boyfriend, Randy, grab Bill (after his baseball game) and head to lunch before we spent the day getting’ mani/pedi’s and just having a fun girls day.  Laura had never been to the house since I relocated to Bill’s abode so we were going to meet there.

We pulled down my street and up to the house…. I saw my mom’s car in my driveway.  I was very confused; but thought maybe she stopped by b/c she was in the neighborhood or something.  Laura walked in before me as I stepped through my front door I heard “SURPRISE!!!” and about 25 people were standing in my living room!

I had zero idea of what was happening.  

Then I started looking around and saw the 30^th bday decorations, the premade drinks that Bill made; the Happy Birthday plates, cake, and napkins.  It sunk in…. **Yes it took me a while to figure out that this was for me! **

Bill had Cayla hand me a gift wrapped box…. I opened it and inside was a new dress and a HUGE FLOPPY HAT!!! It was so cute…. Then he told me that in about an hour a party bus was picking all of us up and taking us to the horse races.  

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!

I was stoked!  I ran upstairs and changed into my new outfit as fast as humanly possible.

When I came down; people kept showing up – and I was definitely brought to tears at one point for how thankful I was and how loved I felt.  I have never been short on words; but all I could say over and over was THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

The party bus arrived and we were off to the races…..

We arrived at the track and I saw this……

And this…..

And then this when we walked into our air conditioned semi-private room (complete with all you can eat buffet….boo ya! And private bar!)

The ponies raced, we laughed, drank, won some, lost some –but it was an epic way to spend celebrating my impending birthday!  I cannot believe Bill went through all this trouble for my birthday.  I know it must have taken him weeks of planning, secret keeping, and all around sneaky-ness and I was nothing but SURPRISED!!!!  

I thought I would share some pics with you…. HOW FUN IS THIS!!!!!?????!!!!!!!!!!



On the party bus!

Little Stinker Laura told me she was in town for her own going away party!

 

Cayla and Amber - best secret keepers ever!
Amber hadn't spoken to me all week b/c she was afraid she would give it away!
Cayla - talked to me everyday and didn't once give me a CLUE that this was happening!




GIRLS!!!



Cayla and me in our Derby hats!




Cousin Sheri, Me and my mom

  

Guy's Wife Stephanie couldn't be there so he pretended to pose with her!



Best boyfriend ever.......

 

Loved his hat!



Even Dave-o loved my hat!

 

Paul (bill's brother) and Alaina - Paul had lasik on Friday and STILL CAME! (hence the weird goggles)

 

Jonas and Cayla




Newly engaged TIm and Claudia!



I had to get one of our new outfits... Bill went all out - ordered his pants at vintagethreads.com, bought the horse shirt and the gambler Fedora hat... all for my Derby themed 30th bday party!



The tickets even had my freakin' name on them!



Precious Della - 22 weeks pregnant!



John, Amber, me and Bill!  LOVE THEM!

 



Bill and Jonas sharing a moment; I mean margarita




Me and Cay

I am so thankful to have so many wonderful friends and family to celebrate turning 30 with.  Wednesday's the big day - for now I'm going to enjoy the last 48 hours of being in my 20's... **Tear**

Ochsner Ironman New Orleans 70.3 Race Report

It’s now taken me over a WEEK to sit down and write my race report… I’ve been thinking about it – I mean obsessing about it.  I will start with two disclaimers:

1.  this is really long

2.  this has a TON of pictures

How am I going to put all of the emotions into words???  And find time to do it…

I’ve said it on here before that work has been busy lately; so busy in fact I still have 468 unread blogs in my google reader…. So sorry about that…. I promise I’ll get through them, and hope to comment too.

I thought I would break my race report up into sections…..

Thursday – April 14

I had a crazy day at work, I was hoping to get out early, around 2pm, but that didn’t happen.  I ended up leaving at 4:45pm.  I got home; we loaded up and hit the road.  By the time we got out of Dallas we had an 8 hour drive ahead of us.  That’s.a.long.time.

We stopped in Shreveport, about 3 hours outside of Dallas, and had dinner.  Other than that the drive was pretty uneventful – we made it into NOLA around 2:00am… crawled into bed and slept – until 10am J

Friday – April 15

Bill and I got up and ate breakfast at Café Du Monde.  A MUST if you are in New Orleans.  We walked around the French Quarter and took in all NOLA had to offer.  Bill had never been so I wanted to make sure we did all the walking and exploring on Friday so I could rest up on Saturday in preparation for the race on Sunday.

After we explored around town (sans camera due to dead battery … grrrr!) we headed to packet pick up and the expo.

Packet Pick Up

Packet pick up was very well organized.  You had a series of stations that they sent you to – starting with waivers, then pick up packet, then chip check in, t-shirts then bag pick up.  After all of that – it led you straight into IRONMAN village (expo).



Signing my life away







I was surprised that IRONMAN village was so small.  But I did get a sweet deal on a $10 polo shirt J

After packet pick up (and a 15 minute session with the Recovery Pump) Bill and I headed back to the hotel to rest up and then out for a nice dinner.

I really, really, really want one of these....

Bill was so sweet to take me to a wonderful dinner at Bourbon House.  The redfish on a half shell was UNBELIEVABLE!  (And the bourbon milk punch was even better)

We finished off dinner with a homemade chocolate chip bread pudding.  To.Die.For.



The best after dinner drink ever....



We sat and listened to a jazz band play on a patio...

 Saturday –  April 16

Amber flew in at 9:40 on Saturday morning so we went to the airport and picked her up.  We promptly headed to Café Du Monde for the second straight day for Café Au Lait and Beignets.  Saturday morning at Café Du Monde is terrible….the lines are outrageous.  Even the back side to-go line…. Lucky for me I found a rogue waiter.  We placed our order; paid him cash and were G-T-G (good to go).







He was sassin' me



We walked to Bourbon Street (Amber has never been to NOLA) and took in all of the nastiness that is Bourbon.  Amber and Bill rode a bull….. We took crazy pictures and enjoyed the beautiful day.  We stopped for Alligator and Gumbo for lunch. 

We do what we are told....

This picture = a huge bruise on my leg





Alligator and Gumbo

After lunch it was time for bike-check in.  This is when the reality of what I had signed up for set in.  We arrived at transition and saw the blow up bike in/run out tunnels were set up….the racks and signs were up…bike support was there…. It was REAL…and SCARY.





Checkin' in the bike



I checked my bike in and we headed out back to the hotel for an Athlete’s briefing.



The Athlete’s briefing was basically a verbal version of the athlete’s guide I had studied front to back about a billion times.  But it was nice b/c the swim course had changed and they went over that to make sure we were aware.  The water was wet suit legal so score on that too!




Overlooking the swim area





That's my transition rack!






















During this time, Bill and Amber were scoping out places for dinner…. When I was finished at the briefing I met up with them and we headed to dinner at Pie; an awesome little Italian place across from our hotel in the warehouse district.  It was a super cool building with exposed brick walls and fun music.  The bruschetta was amazing…..the tiramisu – not so much.


 

Carbo loading



We walked across the street to the hotel, grabbed the car and I dropped Amber and Bill off at Bourbon street.  After they were safely on their way to debauchery I settled in for a little rest and relaxation.  Immediately – I took a hot bath and soaked my nerves away in the tub.  I laid out all of my gear – re packed it and checked my list (about 4 times)

As I soaked in the hotel tub...Bill was soaking a bird bath..

I hopped on twitter and found out from another athlete that was racing NOLA70.3 that a plane crashed on the bike course.  Omen #1 that maybe NOLA70.3 wasn’t going to be all that I expected.

I turned on the local news to see the story about the small single engine plane that decided to land at one of the intersections of the bike course…..hope that doesn’t make us bottleneck tomorrow…oh yea, I also hope that everyone was OK.

*the pilot walked away just fine FYI

My mom was schedule to get in around 9:30 so I expected her back at the hotel around 10pm.  I fell asleep but woke up when she got there… I was happy she made it – rolled over and headed back to sleep for sweet triathlon dreams.

Sunday – April 17

PRE RACE:

4:00am my alarm went off.  I jumped out of bed – rested and feel great.  I was excited…pumped up – ready to go!

I checked the weather on the ipad – 7mph winds – awesome J Flat water – no wind on the bike – I was ready to rock.

I ate my granola bar, drank a bottle of water and half of a Gatorade by 4:30am. I knew I needed to eat 3 hours prior to race time…I was scheduled for 7:31am start…perfect!  I woke up everyone, they got ready and we were out the door by 5:15am.

Transition area

It was about a 15-20minute drive from the hotel to the race start.  I was nervous the whole way.  We arrived at the site – traffic/parking was so organized it was ridiculous. We parked easy and headed to transition to get set up.

On our way in – I heard the news.  NO SWIM.  I’m not going to lie – I was excited at first.  The swim is what makes me puke…the swim is what scares me the most, the swim is what I have been dreading for 29 weeks.  Then it hit me…no swim=no 70.3  The winds were sustained on the water at 25-30mph and gusting 40+ mph.  They would not even deploy the kayaks to drop the buoys the winds were so bad.  The race officials deemed it “unsafe conditions” and the swim was thus cancelled.

Amber pumping herself up!

I was really discouraged. I texted Jason and told him the swim had been cancelled…he responded back “You can’t control it, don’t get flustered – Do your best on the bike and run. Focus on that.”

By this time word had come down that the bike was going to be a time trial start and I was severely disappointed.

The swim is where all the competitive juices get flowing – sure you get kicked, hit, your goggles may come off, your heart rate soars, but it’s the start of the RACE! It what makes you feel like you are RACING….. it is where your mind is going in 90 different directions and although mileage wise, it is the shortest part of the race – for me, it’s the longest…it feels like it will never end – BUT it’s where can feel the race atmosphere and inevitably gets you in the right mind set for the next 6+ hours.

I felt sad and cheated and was upset that I wasn’t going to feel ALL of that….



SWIM:

Non- existent

BIKE:

I ended up starting about an hour and half late…so now my nutrition routine was off.  I ate a honey stinger waffle while waiting to go off on the time trial bike start.  I was hoping it would hold me over until I could get into my nutrition on the bike.

A time trial bike start is where you start with 3 or 4 other people about 10 seconds in between each group.  Almost like a road rally type feel.  B.O.R.I.N.G.

I was already in the mind set that this was a long workout day and not a race.  Probably not the best mind set but it is what is.

We lined up “conga” line style on our way to start…before I knew it I was off….

We exited out of the chute to the right and went out 5 miles did a turn around and headed back towards transition.  On the way out I was averaging 21+ mph.  (Thank you tail wind) on the way end it was closer to 14mph (I hate you head wind).  After we crossed back through transition I sat in for another 46 miles of biking around New Orleans.

We went out about 5 miles on high way – crossed over two draw bridges and then made a left hand turn on to country type road where we straight away for 13 miles to the ½ way turnaround point. 

After you turned at mile 28 we went up another 5 miles or so to another country road took a right hand turn and headed down there for about 8 miles to another turn around point and then we were home free back to the highway and to transition.

The entire bike race had more drafting than I ever thought would be allowed and I only saw one race official the entire time.  I did not draft (although tempted with the winds).  My nutrition was spot on during the race.  I was consuming about 80 calories every 30 minutes and drinking either water or Gatorade every 15 minutes.  I never felt hungry or thirsty and knew the entire time I was going to be prepared for the run.  That was a good feeling.

All the way from mile 29, home to mile 53 I was jockeying position with Jorge.  Jorge was singing on his bike the whole time I was around him.  It was in Spanish so I have no idea what he was singing – but he helped me pass the time and the miles.  Jorge was on a mountain bike and looked as if he was just out for a Sunday ride……. I would pass him, he would pass me and we did this dance all the way to mile 53 when I pulled away and pushed it home to transition.

Mile 53 – I immediately wanted off my bike. 

I tried something new on race day….I know they say never do this – but I thought what the hell….

I slipped my feet out of my bike shoes before I dismounted and ran in my socks through transition.  I’ve always been scared to do this for fear of crashing my bike – but it was a great decision – running in bike shoes is never fun.  However, transition was in a HUGE grass field so I had a few stickers to pick out of my socks before putting on my running shoes.

RUN:

The run *dare I say* was not as difficult as I expected it to be.  This could be because of my nutrition plan on the bike, it could be the level of fitness I am at (that I didn’t realize) or it could be that I just generally was EXCITED to get off my bike and run!

I headed out of transition and saw my family sitting on the curb….I had a HUGE smile – I was so happy to see them; and headed out for 13.1 miles of fun!  I told them “I’ll meet you in 13.1 miles for a hurricane”

I ran my first mile in 8:50.  WOWZA – I’m not that fast – my legs felt like jello and I wish I had that pace in me for an entire half marathon.  But that is my pipe dream!

At mile 1 – and the first aid station – all of my proper hydration hit me.  I had to pee.  It was the most glorious 30 seconds of my life.

I hit the aid station, a little water and an orange slice and was off.  I ran the first 2 miles pretty steady and then decided it was time to deploy my run/walk strategy.  I had planned on running 8 minutes walking 2 minutes to get through the distance but I ended up having to change it up.  We ran through 2 different parks…. Each had light poles about equal distance apart for a good portion of the race.  I would run the distance of 3 light poles and then walk the distance of 1.  I did this until mile 10 when we turned to head into the French Quarter.

Mile 10 I started running distance between streets….run from one street to the next, walk the next so on and so forth.

At mile marker 11 – I flipped.  I flipped shit…..I just about finished NOLA70.3 in jail…and not b/c I was a drunk idiot like Nicolas Cage.

I hit mile marker 11 and was ecstatic to be so close to the finish; when this douche bag police officer tried to make me stop.  Here was our conversation (to the best of my recollection)

DBPO(Douche Bag Police Officer): Ma’am hold up!

Me: Excuse me?

DBPO: I said Hold Up!!! We have a parade coming

Me: You have GOT to be shitting me – I’m on mile 12 of a freaking 70.3 mile race and you are telling me to hold up?

DBPO: Ma’am you are going to have to wait until the parade is over…

Me: Sire you are crazy……– *sprinting through the intersection and on to Esplanade *

*Enter Lori*

Lori: Was he serious?

Me: I hope he isn’t yelling at us…

Lori: He can’t catch us….lets go!

Lori ended up being my angel that day. I swear had it not been for her I would have continued my walk/run routine until people could actually see me on Decatur Street.Lori encouraged me to finish out STRONG and PROUD – we finished in the finishers shoot at 9:30/mile for the last mile. 

Lori disappeared….. I can’t find her on the competitor list either….maybe she really was my angel…Who knows…..

As I crossed the finish line it was probably the most amazing moment of my life….honestly.  (Short of never being married or having babies) – I sobbed, I stretched, I had a jungle juice and then I iced bathed…..

ICE BATH

After the race we met up with my cousin and his wife for a hamburger at Port Of Call.  It was great seeing them and catching up!

It was an amazing experience, even without the swim, and I look forward to my next race.  Now it’s time to sit back and plan out my summer race schedule……But first…. Work calls..boo!

GRATUITOUS PHOTOS: (b/c some are really cute)

Bill, Mom and Amber - Gambling while I was racing!

Oh yes and drinking!

Finishing in the french quarter

My mommy!

My love!

My bestie!

This one was for Cayla since she couldn't be there!  HULA HOOP!

Finisher!

She attacked me - b/c she was the coolest girl on the street that day!

Mom and Amber dancin'

Nothing like a little stretch with a Jungle Juice!

The night after the race - I couldn't wait for a HAND GRENADE!

official finisher pic!