Floating Like a Butterfly

Kili - Day 1

2010-06-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, June 5, I bid farewell to my friends at CCS, and headed off for the weeklong challenge of climbing Kilimanjaro.

We did the 7-day Machame route, known to be one of the most scenic routes up the Mountain. Day 1 consisted of hiking from the gate (1950m - 6400ft) to the Machame camp (3000m - 9800ft). Day 1 is through what they call the "cloud forest" where rain, fog, and clouds are the norm amongst the the tall trees.

We started our climb, stopped for a quick lunch 1/2 hour into the hike, and then continued through the jungle. We started the day off in rain gear, but soon found that getting a bit wet was better than overheating in a rain jacket. Highlights of day 1 were seeing w couple waterfalls, and watching Mel get eaten by red ants! :)

Our guides, Antipas and Macho, were great! They encouraged us through our first day. Macho even carried 4 dozen eggs along with him!

By the time we reached Machame camp, it was dark. We signed in, dropped our day packs off in our tents, and ate a candle-lit dinner.** Day 1- in the books!

**Meals were all fantastic! Eggs, crepes, porridge and fruit for breakfast. Soup, chicken, rice, pasta, stewed veggies, fruit, etc for dinner. And tea, coffee, milo, and nido. Yum!

Pre-climb Video

Lunch Video

Climbing Video

First View of Kili

The Real World - Kilimanjaro! (Opening Credits)

2010-06-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

This is the true story... of four (almost) strangers... who agreed to live in a tent...climb Kilimanjaro together and have their lives taped and photographed... to find out what happens... when people stop breathing oxygen... and start getting real loopy...The Real World – KILIMANJARO!

Location: Machame Route, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Dates: June 5-11, 2010

Cast:

Sandra Igel - Sandra is also known as Leonardo, The Angry German, and Sandy Pants. She hails from Deutschland, which is Germany for all of us Anglos. After spending 2 years in Vermont and another 6 in London, Sandy is moving on from her hectic life in hotel operations at the Four Seasons. Career break for Sandy includes The Philippines and Tanzania before moving back to Germany. She earned the name “Angry German” during an incident involving a mosque and a shady tour guide.

Jessica Motyl – That’s me! During this season of The Real World – Kilimanjaro, I was known as Michelangelo, The Raunchy American, and the Pocket Rocket. I was born in the D, but now live in paradise (San Diego). My trip to Tanzania was due to an unplanned career break that turned out for the best! I earned the name “Raunchy American” during the climb. 7 days with no showers and limited oxygen turned my language into that of a truck driver. Who are we kidding; I usually speak like a truck driver! (Sorry Mom)

Rohit Roopchand – Also known as Donatello, The Horny Indian, Roadhead, and Double Ro 7. Some would consider Ro, the lone male of our climbing group (excluding guides, cooks, porters), a brave man for climbing a mountain with 3 women. Those who know better realize that this is actually Ro’s dream come true. Nicknamed ‘The Horny Indian,’ Ro likes the ladies. Born in India, schooled in India, Nigeria, the UK and the US, Ro has been gracing the US of A with is presence for the past 12 years. Despite his multinational upbringing, the Ro Hit Wonder is now the definition of New York City….he was the only one out of the group that brought a mirror!!!

Melissa Sweeney – Melissa goes by the following aliases: Raphael, The Crazy Aussie, Sweens, and Mel. Hailing from Perth, Australia, Mel is a P.E. and health teacher. She is full of hilarious stories, challenging mind teasers, and creative songs – all of which would make some (especially our guides) think she was crazy! She is best known for the jackhammer and her newly penned climbing song. To the tune of “Louie Louie,” – Pole Pole, Oh Oh – Haraka Haraka, Haina Baraka! (Slow Slow, Oh Oh, Hurrying has no blessings).

Supporting Cast:

Hans and Daan – Father and son team from The Netherlands. Daan decided (with a little pressure from Pops) that he wanted to climb Kilimanjaro as his secondary school graduation present. Hans and Daan were also on the 7 day Machame Route

Ash and Ravi - Fellow Wolverines that we met on Day 2. They were doing the 6 day Machame route, so we only hiked with them the first 4 days. Proof that it is a small world…not only were these boys graduates of the greatest University in the world, but Ash grew up in Troy! CRAZY!

Captain America and Doc – I think their names were Cody and Alex, but Captain America and Doc worked for us. These brothers were hiking with Ash and Ravi…and from Arkansas. Enough said. Other than the fact that Mel was in love with Captain America.

Crew:

Guides – Antipas, Macho, and Baraca

Cook - Linus

Porters - There were 11 of them, but the one that really stuck out was Vincent (aka Gorilla, Super Gorilla, Stone Face, Doggy Dog)

Stay tuned for Episode 1 (Day 1) of The Real World – Kilimanjaro!

WEECE

2010-06-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day at WEECE, so I figured this would be a good time to write more about what the organization does, and what we did during our 3 weeks there.

WEECE stands for Women’s Education and Economic Centre. It was started over 10 years ago by a woman named Valeria Mrema (Mama Mrema to us). After a career with the local Catholic Diocese, she decided she wanted to help women in the area to become more independent and self-sufficient. There are 4 parts of WEECE: VICOBA, SACCOS, WEECE School, and the Nganjoni Centre.

VICOBA (Village Community Bank) is a small scale organization that gives microloans to women to start up a small business. It is similar to a very small credit union. Each VICOBA chapter is made up of 30 women, each part of a smaller group of 5. Each person in the group of 5 is responsible for the other, and is held to the debt of each person in the group. This ensures that a majority of the loans are repaid as the 5 women are usually friends before joining VICOBA and want to see each other succeed, as well as maintain good standing within VICOBA. The microloans are usually $50 to $100, and can, I think, go up to $200.

I don’t know much about SACCOS, but there are many throughout Tanzania. These are larger scale credit unions, and once women in VICOBA have a business that is doing well, they can apply to loans through SACCOS.

Nganjoni Centre is a new venture of Mama Mrema’s. Nganjoni is a village over an hour away from Moshi, and Mama, with the help of a group from Germany has built a school there, planted crops for the students, and is now building a health center.

Finally, there is the WEECE School, where I spent my 3 weeks. WEECE provides a 2-year program for young women (and some men) that have not, or do not have the opportunity to attend secondary school. The students are between the ages of 14 and 25, and attend WEECE School to learn computers, English, Math, Social Studies, Sewing, and other items that could be helpful to them in the future.

Right now at WEECE there are 14 students. The first year students are Mary, Noella, Theresia (Teddy), Theodora, Metheline, and Fatuma. The second year students are Aisha, Ellie, Dorothea, Monica, Mussa (our lone boy), Blandina, Neema (Mussa’s Sister), and Jenipher. They are assisted by a small staff. Johanna runs the office, Jenny teaches computers and sewing, Mama Aurelia teaches sewing, Mama Dominica runs the small shop out front, and Baba John Paul teaches English.

We fell in love with all of these women (And Mussa!) during our three weeks with them. It took them a little while to warm up to us, but by our last week, we were like a family.

Each day started out with morning prayers where the girls would sing songs, and pray the Hail Mary and Our Father. The music was beautiful! If you revisit this blog in a couple weeks, I’ll have a link to a video of them singing.

From 8:30 – 10:00 am each day, we worked on computers. This proved to be a challenge as we only had 6 laptops for 14 students. With 2-3 students per laptop, lessons went slowly. Chris, one of my fellow CCS volunteers worked with the 1st year students on Microsoft Publisher. Chris is an artist, so creating brochures and formatting came easy to her. The girls worked on a brochure for the Nganjoni Center during the first 2 weeks.

Marcia (another CCS volunteer) and I worked with the 2nd year students and the WEECE store to teach both the girls and Mama Dominica how to use excel for budgeting, inventory counts, purchases, sales, profits, clothing costs, etc. Since many of these girls may end up having their own small businesses in the future, it was very beneficial to them to learn how to track what the buy and sell . While we had the girls create their own spreadsheets to learn the business topics, I also created an easy to use template that Johanna, Mama Dominica, and the girls can use for the WEECE store.

By our third week, we decided to drop Excel and Publisher as none of the girls really knew how to type. We found some old typewriter booklets that the girls could use for the computer. With more confidence in typing, we felt the girls would be more efficient and confident in using Microsoft Suite products. With only six computers, we developed a staggered schedule in which some girls would sew or work with us on English speaking while the others typed. We made typing fun by holding competitions on speed/errors, and we made speaking English fun by recording a video of each student telling about themselves.

After computer lessons, Mel, an Aussie volunteer who I will be climbing Kili with, led Phys Ed. Type activities. She is a Health/PE teacher back in Australia, so had plenty of fun activities to encourage the girls and Mussa to let loose. Activities included learning songs/dances, and playing tag. By far, the girls’ favorite was the Macarena (see video soon!)

For the remainder of the morning, Chris taught art to the girls. Our thought was to expand the girls’ creativity in order for them to use their new skills to someday make a profit. Chris worked with the girls on drawing and necklace making. The necklaces were super cute, made using braided fabric scraps and a fabric lined bottle cap. These were free to make, so any necklaces sold would be pure profit. During this time, Marcia and I worked with Mama Mrema on emails, and with Johanna and Mama Dominica on business skills.

I feel that our time at WEECE was very well spent, and that we made at least a small impact on all of the girls there. There is so much more I wish I could do for the girls and the organization, but 3 weeks is not much time. Luckily, there is an organization that was started by a former WEECE volunteer called “Friends of WEECE.” The group brings together former volunteers to support WEECE from abroad. More than anything, I hope to somehow stay in touch with the girls. While all of the girls have been given a second chance on education, I think many of them will need the encouragement to continue following their dreams.

Our last day at WEECE was a tough one. So hard to say goodbye to so many wonderful people. To our surprise, Mama Mrema, the staff, and the students threw a going away party for us. We were treated with tea and chipati, kind words, skirts made by Mama Dominica, and a performance of 4 or 5 songs wishing us well. When leaving for the day, we got plenty of hugs, and a few tears. The girls would not even let me walk to the van…they carried me!

I know I have already thanked many of you who are reading this blog, but once again, I am so grateful for both your financial support for this experience as well as your words of encouragement. I never imagined I would have an opportunity to do something like this, and it was more than I thought it could be. THANK YOU!!!

Week 3 at CCS Karanga

2010-06-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

Our time outside of placement was still jam packed moving into Week Three. Here are a couple of highlights of things we got to experience:

Batik Making: Fabric plays a large part of daily life in Moshi and Tanzania as a whole. Women use basic kangas as skirts, wraps, or baby backpacks. Kitenge fabric is sold in many places around town. Once you buy this fabric, you can work with one of the hundreds of sewers/tailors sitting on the streets with their foot powered sewing machines to make dresses, skirts, pants, and handbags. A third type of fabric here is Batik, which is made using plain cloth, wax, and dye.

Most batik consists of repeating patterns, but some batik is more artistic and is used as a wall hanging much like a canvas. At CCS we were given batik lessons by a local artist, and had the opportunity to make our own piece of art. While I realize I have VERY little artistic talent, I found the activity to be a lot of fun, especially when it came to using the dye to create different shades of similar colors. The whole batik process took a long time, but I think all of us were pretty happy with our masterpieces.

Local Dance: On Tuesday night, we were treated to dinner out and a traditional dance show. The dance show consisted of both acrobats and tribal dancers. The acrobats were really cool, although some of the really skinny ones that could fold their bodies in weird ways scared me. The dancers were a lot of fun, and invited us onto the floor to dance with them. The flowing wine, Tusker, and Konyagi helped us to think we were dancing like real Africans. 

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR): On Wednesday we took a trip to the United Nations building in Arusha, where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwandan War Crimes is being held. The ICTR began in 1995 to arrest and complete trials for those involved in the 1994 Genocide. Since 1995, over 80 individuals responsible for decision making in the Genocide have been arrested. This includes former Rwanda Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, the first head of government to ever be convicted of committing war crimes. His sentence of life in prison was the first to be handed down in an international court for the crime of genocide.

Unfortunately, the only court session being held the day we were there was a closed court case (for witness protection). We found out just as we were about to go into the viewing room. We were a bit disappointed, but got to spend the rest of our visit in the ICTR Library as well as with different ICTR officials learning about the International Court. While the local courts In Rwanda are handling many of the smaller cases, and will continue to do so, ICTR plans to close in the next year or two as many of the top leaders of the genocide have been arrested and convicted.

It was a very eye-opening experience. Close to 1 million people were killed in a matter of months. It is amazing how quickly something like this can happen in a third world country. While I try to avoid bringing up politics, the whole experience made me think quite a bit. The UN has spent the past 15 years dealing with the aftermath of this Genocide. Should this have even been necessary? The US knew this was happening, the UN knew this was happening, but neither stepped in to stop it. Is this because Rwanda doesn’t have oil? Was it because the genocide happened with a Democratic administration in office in the US? People in the US say that we’re too smart to let something like the Holocaust happen again, but it happens over and over. Uganda, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda. When and where should the US step in? The UN? Other nations? I don’t have an answer, or even a proper opinion, as the implications of these decisions are huge (can we say Iraq?) How do you place value on human life? Who is responsible for stopping disgusting crimes like these? The ICTR hopes that showing the world that Government leaders and others responsible for genocide will be caught and will be convicted will serve as a deterrent for those thinking of doing something similar in the future. Will it work?

Ok – off my soapbox. While I didn’t get as much free time during my time at CCS as I had previously expected, I really appreciated all of the cultural experiences we were able to take part in. It brought about a great respect and understanding of the Tanzanian and East African people, and made a great impact on my takeaways from this trip.

The Number 16

2010-06-03T06:43:00.000-07:00

While I’ve written quite a bit about my experience at WEECE, most of the crew at CCS is working at pre-schools around the Moshi area and it has been really interesting to hear about their placements. Here are a couple of examples of what my friends are experiencing:

Lu Dao Montessori Pre-School - Derek and Natalie are working at Lu Dao teaching pre-school. One of the things they noticed when they arrived was that the floor was dirty, the tables were dirty, and the kids were dirty….all the time! Derek and Natalie worked with the students and teachers and showed them the importance of cleaning both the school and themselves. They even made up a song that will remind the kids to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after coughing or sneezing. The kids have really caught on, and love washing their hands now!

Bridge Pre-School – Kasey and Amy are at Bridge Pre-school. They are in our van everyday so we see them get dropped off each morning. The best thing to see is when they arrive at the gate, all of the kids arriving at school crowd around them, grabbing their legs and hands, chanting teacha teacha (teacher teacher). Although they get annoyed with it after their day is done, I think it is pretty cute.

Magareza – Brando, Ashley, and Lara are teaching pre-school/kindergarten (ages 3-6) at Magareza. One of the most interesting things about this is that Magareza is a prison across the highway from Karanga, and the students are the children of the prison workers. Some of the prison workers live on the prison grounds, while many commute from other villages.

I’m not sure if all prisons in Tanzania are this way, but many of the prisoners are allowed to walk around the entire prison grounds during the day. Around employees’ houses. Around the school children. All dressed in orange. Most of them are doing work such as landscaping and farming, and most are accompanied by a guard with a gun, but not all.

It’s not unusual for Brando, Ashley, and Lara to be outside with the kids while surrounded by prisoners doing work. Brando mentioned that last week Mama Hilda, the head teacher at the school, was carrying a large ax so she could chop some wood. Brando, being the gentleman that he is (Brando – I get free drinks for saying that, right?) offered to help Mama out. Brando did not have very good wood chopping skills, so one of the nearby prisoners started laughing and offered to help. It took him about five seconds after he handed the prisoner the ax that “Holy Sh*t….I just gave the random prisoner next to me an ax!” I thought that was pretty funny.

The stories about their students keep me entertained. There’s Little Kanye….who looks like a miniature version of the real Kanye. Then there is the boy named ‘God.’ Can you imagine your response if you asked a 4 year old boy what his name was and he replied ‘God?’

Finally, as a whole, for some reason the students at Magereza were never taught the number 16. When they count, they say 14, 15, 17, 18, 19….The past three weeks have been a challenge trying to teach the kids 16. With two days left of placement, about 60% now remember 16.

All of the volunteers at pre-schools/kindergartens have mentioned that although the students can count in English, and say their ABCs in English, they do not know what the letters or numbers look like. They can recite verbally, but they don’t really understand. It would be very interesting to learn more about education methods in Tanzania. We had a guest speaker come in last week to explain the education system (i.e.Primary School, Secondary School), but we didn’t get into methods of teaching. I see some of the same at WEECE. The students and employees can recite quite a bit, but many times they have no idea what they are talking about.

Overall, I think each of us here at CCS will be leaving knowing that we all made a positive impact. Whether it is the one on one attention given to the pre-schoolers to help them learn their letters, or the concept of budgeting and saving that we are giving the girls at WEECE, I hope we made a difference in at least one person’s life.

Moshi Town Weekend

2010-05-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

When I was planning my trip, I was originally thinking about heading to Zanzibar this past weekend for a little fun in the sun. However, after two weeks jam packed with our volunteer placements, cultural activities, and a safari, my body told me that it would be a better idea to stay in town to recover and reenergize instead. Rest also moved up on the priority list when it hit me that I’ll be climbing up Kilimanjaro in just a few short days. So, myself, and everyone else here in the Karanga house, decided to stay at the home base this weekend and enjoy a bit of Moshi Town.

For those who know nothing more about where I am other than somewhere on the African continent, I am in Karanga Village, Moshi Municipality, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. Tanzania is on the east coast of Africa, situated just below Kenya, and just east of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Congo. Moshi is in the Northeast part of the country, at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and only 30 miles or so from the Kenyan border. The Karanga Village (similar to a neighborhood in the States) is about 3 miles outside of the center of town, and our house is about a mile down the very bumpy, muddy, rutted out Karanga dirt road. I don’t think our street has a name. I don’t think any of the streets in Karanga have a name for that matter. People use PO boxes for mail, if they get mail, and each house is on a numbered parcel of land in the Karanga Village, which makes finding places quite a challenge. For example, the way to tell someone how to get here from town, you’d say…Take the Moshi-Arusha Hwy to Margareza (the prison) and turn left. Go down the road past the Amani Centre for Street Children. When you see the store (which is in a mud hut) turn left. We are the white gate on your left.

There are some really nice houses in Karanga, like the one that CCS rents out for the program. There are also many dirt huts throughout the village. All of our immediate neighbors live in small dirt huts, and own cow, pigs, chickens, goats and sheep to help sustain their families. I see many children wearing the same dirty, ripped clothing 2 days in a row. Money is very scarce in these families, and it amazes me how intrigued they are by seeing themselves on my digital camera, or looking at my pictures I brought from home. Over the past 2 weeks, I have met Patric (16 years old), Evon (8 years old), Augustino (7 years old), and Brenda (3 years old). Great kids who love to interact with us Mzungus! They are always so excited to see us!

Anyway, back to the weekend. Friday was a cloudy, dreary day, so most of us laid low at the home base, took naps, and read books in the couple hours before dinner. After dinner, a group of us headed out to The Watering Hole for a couple of beers…and a brownie. Remember how I mentioned that there’s not much in the way of dessert in this area. We girls needed a chocolate and sugar fix!

Saturday started off very slowly. The younger crew at the house was doing a Kilimanjaro Day climb, so the remainder of us slept in, read, did laundry, and chatted until after lunch. The slow morning also gave me time to go on a short run (really short…2 miles…It’s hot, humid, hilly, and muddy here!) As a blonde Mzungu wearing spandex and running deep into the village on my own, I got plenty of interesting looks and laughs. Just the sight of me scared a little 2 year old boy. As I ran past, he turned into his mom’s legs and started screaming and crying. Running white girls are more of an oddity here than I thought!

The highlight of Saturday was our night out to dinner. We headed out to El Rancho, which despite its name is an Indian restaurant, not a Mexican restaurant. Fabulous, cheap Indian food and plenty of drinks to go around. I think I downed a whole bottle of wine that night. When in Africa, right?

Sunday was the highlight of our weekend. 8 of us from the house signed up for a Coffee Tour in Materuni, one of the nearby Chagga mountain villages. Edward from Pristine Adventures picked us up in the ‘Happy People’ daladala to take us into the village. (Sidenote: The daladalas – busses- here all have themes. Ours was ‘Happy People’ and was covered with pictures of Jay-Z and Snoop, and the driver played lots of hip hop music for our journey).

Materuni is a Catholic Chagga village. We learned that each ridge in the area was settled by different missionaries, so the next ridge over was Lutheran, and the ridge next to that was also Catholic. Really interesting! Anyway, when we got to Materuni, we met Oscar, who helps run the coffee farm on his family’s land. Oscar was awesome! And so was his family. We chatted with his Mama and Baba, as well as his nieces and nephews (including one very outgoing ‘Little Obama’). Oscar had so much knowledge about the coffee process, and had us help him make our own batch to drink. While we were able to pick the coffee ‘berries’ off the tree, and get the beans out of them and soak them, we didn’t have the 2 days required for soaking, and the 7 days required for drying. So, similar to the magic we see on cooking shows in the States, Oscar had a dried batch of beans ready for us to process.

Step 1: We used a very large mortar and pestle to pound the dried beans in order to remove the dried shucks. This took at least 20 minutes to do, and was extremely tiring in the hot sun. Luckily there were 8 of us to help and take turns.

Step 2: Oscar built a fire and placed a large pot on top of it. It took about ½ hour to roast the beans. Someone had to constantly stir the beans during this process in order to keep the coffee from burning.

Step 3: We used the mortar and pestle again to grind the beans into a fine powder (think powdered sugar consistency)

Step 4: We boiled water over the fire and added the coffee powder directly to the water, letting it steep for about 2 minutes

Step 5: We poured the coffee/water mixture through a filter into a thermos.

Step 6: We got to drink the coffee! When I first saw the coffee, I was scared. It looked like very muddy water…nothing like my Starbucks coffee. I was afraid of how strong and bitter it would be. 1 sip and I was floored! This was the most AMAZING coffee I had EVER tasted! It was super smooth. Everyone agreed that it was better than anything we had ever tasted. No worries to those back in San Diego. I’m bringing some back with me! 

After coffee and lunch, Oscar and Edward led us on a hike through Materuni to the Mnambe Waterfall. The hike was beautiful, and Oscar taught us how certain plants were used by the Chagga tribe. Yucca is very important in the culture, marking territory, as a peace offering, and showing the direction of beer. We also got to see the leaves they use as natural ‘sandpaper’ and try out the tree branch they used for toothbrushes.

After hiking for an hour, we finally reached the waterfall! While we had been to the Kilasiya Waterfall on Wednesday, this one knocked it out of the park! Mnambe was much taller, and had a larger pool at the bottom that we could actually swim in without worrying about the current. The water was extremely cold, and the force from the waterfall felt like standing in a hurricane, but it was so so beautiful! I have pictures and video, but they will never do Mnambe justice.

We arrived back at home just in time for dinner, and despite the copious amounts of coffee, headed to bed early. Back to placement tomorrow morning! Ahhh…Mondays!

Tanzanian Eats and Drinks

2010-05-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

Many have asked what I have been eating here, and if my stomach is hanging in there with the new foods. My stomach has done surprisingly well! I don’t want to jinx myself, but I have not yet touched my Tums, Immodium, or Cipro! (Yes, I am knocking on wood right now). Here’s a good idea of what we’ve been eating.

Drinks

• Chai tea with ginger

• Fresh fruit juices (mango, passion fruit, etc.)

• Tusker, Kilimanjaro, Safari, and Serengeti Beer

• Banana beer (if you are brave)

• Coffee

• South African Wines

Breakfast

• Chai Tea with ginger. Yum!

• Porridge with Honey

• Fried or hardboiled egg

• Small, but not very sweet doughnuts

• Thin crepe-like pancakes with honey

• Bananas, bananas, bananas (over 120 different species of banana in TZ!)

• Mango

While I’m not a huge breakfast fan back home, breakfast has been my absolute favorite here in TZ!

Lunch/Dinner

• Ugali – corn based mashed potato looking stuff that you can mold into a bowl looking utensil and used to eat meat, veggies, etc

• Rice

• Beans

• Fried chicken parts (wings, legs, etc). Chickens are fresh here, and they fry or cook up everything

• Beef in tomato sauce, beef with bananas, plain beef. Not sirloin, not filet, not ground beef, just meat from a cow

• Cooked Spinach-like green stuff. Sometimes it is spinach, sometimes not. You can’t tell by looking, but some of the “spinach” stuff is better than others.

• Leeks with lemon. Really good!

• Salad with tomatoes, avocado, cucumbers, onions. We have an enormous avocado tree in the back yard, so we almost always have avocado with our meals

• Cooked mixed veggies (carrots, green beans)

• Chipati

• Fruit

The kitchen staff has also tried some Western favorites such as Enchiladas, spaghetti with veggie meatballs, pizza, and veggie burgers. All were pretty good, but definitely not like home. Well, except for the veggie burgers. Best I’ve ever tasted. Need to get the recipe they use for the veggie patties.

Dessert is not a normal thing here in Tanzania. I guess people get their sugar cravings satisfied by fruit alone. I tried that for awhile, but every once in awhile you really need some ice cream. Luckily, there is a ‘supermarket’ about 1.5 miles down the road that sells ice cream cups!

I have only eaten out once since arriving here in TZ. Last night, Ashley, Sara and I decided we were ready for some real pizza. We headed out to the Indoitaliano, the Indian/Italian restaurant in town, for a fun night of food and drink. We had garlic naan as an appetizer, and then each got a small pizza. It was wonderful! Granted, not as good as most that I’ve had in the States, but close enough! We polished off 2 bottles of wine and milkshakes for dessert. Such a great night! The restaurant was completely filled with Mzungus (white people). I guess the Tanzanians don’t really crave Italian like we do.

A little side note: While eating at Indoitaliano, I ran into Mel, the girl I volunteer with at WEECE, who I am also climbing Kilimanjaro with. She was with her hostel group, so I got to meet Rohit again, and meet Sandra for the first time. They are the two rounding out our climbing group. Mel is from Australia, Rohit is from India/UK/now US, and Sandra is from Germany. Should be a really fun experience!

Marangu

2010-05-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

Today was field trip day! Woo Hoo! As nice and necessary it is to spend time with the girls at WEECE, this was a beautiful and educational trip and well worth the day off. It was an action packed day, and we all came back absolutely exhausted.

8:30 am We headed out in the morning, first stopping at a local house to see the process of batik making. The batik maker’s work was beautiful, and I bought 2 of his small pieces. I have a feeling that my spare bedroom is going to be Africa themed when I get back! 

9:30 am After a quick stop for pictures with a baobab tree, we were off to Marangu. Marangu is at the base of Kilimanjaro and serves as one of the village bases for Kilimanjaro climbs (aptly named the Marangu route). It is also home to the Chagga tribe. Similar to the Maasai, the Chagga are cattle herders. However they stay in the mountains, while the Maasai stay in the plains.

10:30 am Our first stop was the blacksmith. We got to observe men making bells, hammers, and Maasai spears. Pretty awesome! I really wanted one of the tall spears, but didn’t think I could fit it in my luggage on the way home, so I had to settle for a smaller one.

11:00 am From the blacksmith, we hiked about 1/4 mile into the bush, and came upon a couple small houses. Here we got a tour of one of the old Chagga caves. These were used over 100 years ago by the Chagga people during the Chagga-Maasai war. Supposedly, as the Maasai came down from Kenya, they discovered the Chagga people, and were furious that they were herding cattle. The Maasai thought that they were the only ones that should be herding cows, so waged war, trying to steal the Chagga cows and women. The caves contained long tunnels and small rooms along the way. The tunnels reached all the way to the river. A man was always guarding the entrance to the tunnel, so if a Maasai tried to come in, he would immediately be killed. In order to keep hidden from other Maasai, the body would not be buried until midnight. The caves were small and low, but really cool! I got really muddy, but it was worth it.

12:00 pm Our next stop was the Chagga market. This was a busy area with fruits, vegetables, fresh meat (cows slain earlier in the morning), live, half dead and just killed chickens, fabric stands, and jewelry stands. We have quite a few chickens in our village in Karanga, but it was really interesting to see the women carrying them around by their legs. After negotiating a stellar price of 10,000 Tsh for a kitenge and a kanga in the market, we were off to lunch and swim at the waterfall!

1:00 pm The Kilasiya Waterfall is 30m high and contains a very strong and constant flow from Kilimanjaro. The name, Kilasiya, actually means ‘without end’ in the Chagga language, referencing the fall’s constant flow of water. Hiking down to the base of the falls was a little more challenging than any of us expected. Since it is the rainy season, the path/steps down the side of the mountain was very muddy and slippery. We were all holding the bamboo railings for dear life as we made the trek down. The waterfall was amazing! It was tall, and skinny, and surrounded by a beautiful jungle. We all put on our bathing suits and played in the water for an hour or so. Tons of fun! The climb up was tougher than the climb down with regards to cardio, but definitely not as scary.

3:30 pm Our next stop was a traditional Chagga hut. By this time, we were pretty overwhelmed with all of the newly learned information about the Chagga tribe, but actually going inside the hut was pretty cool. The hut is round and divided into 2 sections – one half for beds, storage, and the other half for animals. Since cows were a hot commodity, the Chagga kept them in the hut with them to keep them from getting stolen. This hut was MUCH more comfortable than the Chagga cave, and MUCH more comfortable than the Maasai cave. The Chagga have progressed much more than the Maasai, and very few people actually live in the huts anymore, but our guides had fond memories of staying in their grandparents’ huts.

4:30 Beer time! We stopped at a beautiful hotel, the Kilimanjaro Mountain Resort, for a couple drinks to wind down at the end of a long day.

5:30 One last stop before heading back to home base for dinner. We were all interested in trying banana beer, so we stopped in a rural part of the village with a bar (there are bars every couple meters here in TZ). We walked up and inside, and a woman filled a gourd with the contents of a bucket behind the bar. A little sketch, but hey, When in Africa, right? We all tried a little sip. It had some kind of grainy sediment on top, and it was really really bitter. It did not taste like beer at all, but the locals love it! We sat with some old ladies getting their fill after a long day of work, and shared a couple more sips. I’m writing this blog entry 2 days later, and I feel ok. I was pretty sure I’d get some kind of illness from this experience, but so far so good!

This is Africa, Part 2

2010-05-24T06:15:00.000-07:00

Today has been an exhausting day, so I’m reverting back to bullet points to document today’s activities.

At WEECE, we continued working with the girls on business tools and Excel. Today we taught them the importance of doing inventory counts in their store, and actually started our initial inventory count. While the English skills and Excel skills are slow coming, I think the girls are really starting to understand many of these business tools!
Our afternoon activity included listening to a lecture about the education system in Tanzania. Our speaker was awesome! His name was Basil Lema. He is a former teacher turned politician, lobbying for changes in the school system, such as how budget is used as well as changing public primary schools to English language rather than Swahili (Secondary schools and Universities here in TZ only teach in English). He was a really interesting man. He gave us his business cards and personal email. This is one guy I’d definitely like to keep in touch with!
I did my first load of laundry today. By hand. In the hot African sun. I am so happy that we have readily available washing machines back in the States!
I went for my first run since coming to Africa. It was hot, muggy, and miserable…and it felt great! Brando and I ran together down the ~1 mile road to the highway and back. The road is more of a VERY rough trail with rocks, divots, holes, tiny children, sheep, goats, chickens, cars, school kids, and women carrying large loads of food on their heads. I got many weird looks from the villagers….I don’t think they get too many female runners in spandex in these parts. Although I was a bit out of place, I’m hoping I somehow inspired one of the female school children walking down the street. If this Mzungu girl can run with the boys, why can’t I?

I was also thinking today of some other random musings about my experience thus far in Africa.

The children here are fascinated by Mzungu hair! Even the older girls at WEECE always want to touch it.• Mosquito nets are a pain in the butt to tuck into the sides of your bed each night, but they work!

While our home base is in a Village (Karanga), it sounds more like a farm. Right now as I sit in bed getting ready to go to sleep I can hear cows, stray dogs, bush babies, and sheep. In 6 short hours (4am) the roosters will start crowing again.
Everyone, even in Africa, listens to American pop music. We asked our cab driver to play some Tanzanian music, and he turned on American hip hop music and said that was what most people listen to.
Mzungu bathrooms make me so so happy. WEECE, the campsites we stopped at, and many other “public” restrooms only have the dreaded hole in the ground.
You can tell how well off somebody is by looking at their shoes
Tanzania is a very harmonious country. Tribes are friends with other tribes, rich live next to poor, and different religious beliefs are very much tolerated.

Lalafofofo y’all! (Sleep like a log, y’all!)

When Baboons Attack.....

2010-05-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday afternoon, we headed out on our African Safari! Something I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to do! It was amazing!!!

We did our trip through Bushmen Expeditions, and they were great! We had 2 large Land Rovers for the 9 of us from CCS that went on the trip. Our first stop was the Mzunga supermarket in Arusha. The Bushmen guides were providing us with all meals, but gave us the opportunity to by additional snacks (and beer) for the weekend. After stocking up on Kilimanjaro beer, chips, and chocolate, we were headed west!

We made it to Mosquito Village (not the most welcoming name of a village if you ask me) and set up camp. Well, the guides and porters set up camp. We watched. I felt bad not setting up my own tent, but reminded myself that we paid for this! J

On Friday evening, we were able to visit a Maasai Village. Usually the Maasai do not allow group visits or pictures, but this group has started to embrace capitalism! They know if the Mzungas come in, they can sell their jewelry and make money for carbs! (corn, millet, etc). The basic diet of the Maasai is meat, milk, and blood. The ability to buy fruit, vegetables, and grains have helped quite a bit with their health and well being.

The Maasai welcomed us with traditional dancing and singing, and even placed their jewelry on us and pulled us into the group to dance with them. We were given a tour of one of the huts…..well, we walked in and our guide pointed to everything. Each hut is probably 80 sq ft. max. There was a fire pit in the middle, and leather beds on either side of the pit. One bed was for the wife and children, and the other for the husband when he actually stayed in the house. Most of the men have multiple wives. We learned that both women and men are circumcised at age 18 or 19, and that when a woman gives birth, she stays in the hut for 3 months (other than going to the bathroom) and the other women in the tribe wait on her hand and foot. The new baby is welcomed into the tribe after those 3 months with a large celebration. It was pretty amazing to interact with these people that I have such a different culture.

On Saturday, we headed to Lake Manyara for our first day of Safari. Lake Manyara is made up of both forest area as well as large plains around the lake. We drove into the park a couple miles and ran into a bunch of crazy baboons. The baboons spend their day cleaning each other (picking bugs out of fur), and playing with themselves (yes, in that way).

As we moved through the forest, we turned a corner and gasped when we saw a giraffe standing in the middle of the dirt road. This was probably the most exciting part of the safari for me. The first BIG animal. While taking pictures of the giraffe and its family, we heard the trumpeting of an elephant. Another 1/4 mile down the road, we found the elephant with its mate! Loved it!

As we headed through the rest of the park, we saw blue ball monkeys (see picture), zebras, wildebeests, warthogs (Puumba!), vultures, jackals, and hippos.

After the safari, we headed to Ngorogoro Crater. Our plan was to spend the night on the rim of the crater (in the park), and then wake up for an early morning start into the crater. After a 2 hour rainy drive to Ngorogoro, we made a stop at the Conservation Area gates so our guides could get our park permits. The five of us in the car had all been napping and had no desire to head out into the rain at this point, so our driver/guide headed to the office on his own, leaving his window half open. About 5 minutes after he left, Brando saw a baboon heading straight for the car and warned us. He immediately closed his window. Before we could reach the driver’s side window, the baboon had jumped in the car. We all screamed with thoughts of getting our faces torn off and contracting rabies. Brando reopened his window, somehow squeezed through it, and climbed on the roof of the car. Chris and Sara were in the first row of seats and pushed their way through one of the doors. Marcia and I were in the 2nd row of seats, and could not get out of the car before the baboon headed back from the front sheet, so we held our pillows out and got ready to fight with our feet. Luckily the baboon found some cookies in the front seat, and that was enough for him to grab and keep him satisfied, so he headed out the open door. We survived!

This whole incident lasted about 15 seconds, but felt much longer. Our guides rushed back to the car when they heard our screams, and were genuinely worried. Baboons are not nice animals! By that time, we had broken into nervous, hysterical laughter. Welcome to the jungle, right?

We finally made our way to our campsite on the crater rim, where the rain was falling quite steadily. We opted to stay in the car as the porters set up our tents. As the rain slowed, we caught glimpse of an elephant in the brush, about a football field away from where we were parked. ON OUR CAMPSITE! Too cool…but a bit scary too.

Sunday morning started with a 5:30 am rooster crow from Abbas (our guide). We were on the road by 6 to head into the crater. As we headed down, the fog started to clear, and we were treated to an amazing view of the sunrise over the entire crater.

As luck would have it, we ran into one of the big 5 right away (The big 5 are Lions, elephants, cheetahs, leopards, and rhinos). We spotted 2 cheetahs lying on a hill. We waited a bit to see if they would get up and run, but they were enjoying basking in the morning sun a little too much.

As we reached the crater floor, we saw hundreds of wildebeest and zebras scattered about. Deeper into the park, we finally spotted the black rhino. It was a bit of a distance away, but with my good zoom lens, I got a decent picture.

Unfortunately my 2nd camera battery died around this time, so save for a few shots, the rest of the safari was documented by my video camera. Luckily, my CCS friends were able to take some great pictures that I’m sure they will share.

We stopped for breakfast at the hippo pool, and then started our hunt for lions. As we reached another open plain, we saw a couple of safari vehicles stopped ahead. They spotted some lions. We drove up and turned off the car for at least 1/2 hour. There were four lions…a mother and her three almost grown cubs (2 females, 1 male). The four of them formed a line, each about a football field away from the other. Slowly, they would walk, one at a time, towards the safari vehicles on the road. Three of them walked directly past our car, and then sat down less than 10 feet away from us. So cool!

After spending some time with the lions, it was time to head back to the campsite to eat lunch and pack up. We spotted four more lions near a pond as we drove, one of which was an older male with an amazing mane.

As we left the campsite, our elephant friend came back for a few photo ops! Crazy that this thing could have greeted me as I walked out of my tent the night before!

After a quick stop for camel rides, we were on our way back to Moshi. Dirty, tired, but so thrilled about our first safari experience.

The Watering Hole

2010-05-21T06:05:00.002-07:00

By Thursday, we were finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable at WEECE. The girls wait for our arrival to begin morning prayers. They usually start with a song (usually in Swahili). On Thursday they sang ‘How Great Thou Art’ in Swahili….it was beautiful! After the song, they go into the Hail Mary and the Our Father (both in English, which means I can participate). It has been a great way to start off the day. Mama Mrema came in for a couple hours, and since her eyesight is bad due to diabetes and recent surgeries, we took turns helping her with her emails as she cannot easily read the computer screen. She had one more surgery planned for Friday, so while she really wanted to be at work, you could tell that she had other things on her mind.

Day 2 of the Excel lesson with the girls went very well. We taught the girls how to budget and had them build a budgeting tool in Excel. I think most of the girls understood – we asked sawa sawa? (ok ok?) and they said yes. It’s amazing how eager these girls are to learn!!! The idea of saving money is completely foreign to them as most of them come from very poor families. Every shilling is used for food, clothing, shelter, or school….if they are lucky. In many families, the husband/father controls all of the money, and will spend much of it on beer. Unfortunately, this is a big problem in this country. Even the men that work here at CCS admit that most men in the country are lazy. The women do all of the work, and then the men spend the money on frivolous things like banana beer rather than school for their daughters.

Anyway, we told them they would need at least 10,000,000 shillings to buy a car (~$9000 US), and gave that item as a stretch goal to save for. Most of the girls at WEECE either walk a couple miles or take the daladala (bus) to class. It is very doubtful that anybody in their immediate family has a car, so giving them this goal seemed to work well and add a little excitement to the exercise. Combining the clothing sales and production spreadsheets with the budget, the girls were able to determine how many pieces of clothing they would have to make and sell in order to obtain their basic needs, put money into a savings “account,” and buy fabric to make additional clothing. In addition to teaching the girls these skills and showing them how to track this information in Excel, I am making an Excel template for them to use in the future. For each thing we introduce to the group, we try to think of a way to make it sustainable after we leave (Gotta love the Control phase in DMAIC!)

The best part of the week was Mel’s “PE Class.” From 10-10:30 every morning, she leads different games for all of us as a break between classes. On Thursday, we taught the girls the Macarena!!! It was so funny! Luckily, I had my little video camera with me, so was able to get some of the action recorded. When I showed the girls the video a little later, they were so so excited. I’m not sure if any of them had ever seen themselves on video before, so this was a real treat. They want to watch it every day now, so I think I’ll upload it to some of the WEECE computers next week so they can watch it whenever they want. I’m not sure I’ll be able to post the video to my blog from here in Africa, but I will try to post on Facebook this week.

On Thursday night, I finally ventured out to the bar for the first time. 11 out of the 15 of us headed out to The Watering Hole, an expat bar about 2 miles from home base. It was great to finally drink some Tanzanian beer (Tusker). Now that we’re all settling in, I’m sure there will be many more evening trips in the future. So many beers, so little time! :)

T.I.A. - This is Africa

2010-05-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Amongst the English speaking people in Africa, there is a common saying….This Is Africa (or T.I.A.). Everyday we experience something that makes it easy to just smile, nod your head and say “This Is Africa.”

Today was our 2nd day at placement, and 1st day to actually do some work. Mama Mrema was out sick (she is diabetic and recently had eye surgery), which actually made things much easier. I started off the morning by teaching some of the more advanced girls how to use excel. They have used it before, but have only copied tables of data from other documents. They did not really understand what they were doing with the tables.

I worked with them to build a table to determine how much they could profit on sales of the clothing they are sewing in tailoring class. It was VERY tiring work, as their Engilsh is not very good, and nina sema Kiswahili kidogo sana sana sana (I speak Kiswahili very very very little). The girls, however, were very happy with the lesson. I spent the rest of my time there working on excel templates they could use for their individual businesses. They include worksheets to determine the cost to make each piece of clothing, information on the number sold, and how much it was sold for. I also started to put together a budgeting template, as budgeting is a foreign concept for many of these girls. This is Africa.

The afternoon activities included another Swahili class where I learned to say the following:

Jina langu ni Jessica - My name is Jessica

Mimi ni Mmarekani – I am American

Ninatoka California – I come from California

Ninajitolea WEECE - I am volunteering at WEECE

Nina sema Kiswahili kidogo sana – I speak Kiswahili very little

Ninipenta chokoleti – I like Chocolate

The remainder of the afternoon/early evening included a trip to the Macheme area (the Kilimanjaro route I will be climbing) to visit an orphanage. The orphanage is only 4 years old, and I was impressed by the quality of the facilities. We spent a little over an hour playing with the 1-2 year olds, then spent another ½ hour playing with the 2-4 year olds. Such cute little kids! Almost makes me want to pull an Angelina! ;) Just kidding.

On our way home, we almost hit a herd of cattle and goats that were in the middle of the street in the middle of the village we were driving through. Not every day do you see that! This is Africa!

First Day of Placement.....and then some

2010-05-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

We finally had our first day at our placements today. As mentioned before in a previous blog post, I am volunteering at WEECE (Women’s Education and Economic Centre), an organization that trains women in skills they can use to run their own businesses. These women are between the ages of 13 and 23, and do /did not have the money to attend secondary school. The organization also provides microloans to qualified women that are already running a business.

I am volunteering with two other women from my CCS homebase. Marcia (Mar-see-ah) is a 46 year old woman that was born in London and raised in Jamaica. She attended college in London, and has been working as an accountant in the New York City area for the past 10 years. She’s also my roommate here at CCS, and pretty damn cool! Chris is a 59 year old woman from Texas. She is a talented artist who also teaches at a college in the Dallas area. She is a former hippie, pretty liberal, and has been telling funny stories about what happens when the “nudes” come in for her figure drawing classes.

When we arrived at WEECE this morning, we learned that we’d be working with one other volunteer, Melissa, who was there volunteering on her own and staying in a local hostel. She had already been at WEECE for 2 weeks. She is a health/phys ed. Teacher in Perth, Australia. I learned today that she is planning to climb Kilimanjaro starting June 5!!! I FINALLY have a group to climb with!!!

The four of us, so far, seem to make a pretty great team!

The leader of Weece is Mama Valeria Mrema (or just Mama, as all “older” women are called). She is a very strong female who came from a poor family. As a young child, she protested her womanly duties and fought with her mother to play with the boys rather than work in the kitchen. Because of her daily attendance at church, the local Catholic diocese noticed her and provided the funds for her to go to primary school and secondary school. She was able to go on to college, and after working with the diocese for 15 plus years, she left to form WEECE. She is a wonderful woman, but pretty forgetful and disorganized.

The idea of WEECE is fantastic, the organization and execution of the group, however, needs a bit of work. Well, a lot of work. Here’s a list of things the four of us discussed today that could use our help

Education Items:

• The “school” for the girls does not run on any specific schedule (remember when I mentoined Tanzanian time? They’re not really good at using schedules here). More could be accomplished with the girls if time were more structured and used more effectively.

• The computer teacher is not really that skilled on the computer. We will be working with the girls on computer skills, and will work 1 on 1 with the computer teacher to introduce her to new ways to use Word and Excel

• Health Education – When the people at WEECE learned that Melissa was a health teacher, they asked her to teach health classes. In her first class, she first asked the women what they already knew, and what they wanted to know. She was shocked to learn that none of them really knew the basic biology of the body, what things were in the body, and how the body worked. None of them knew how or why they menstruated! We were shocked when we heard this and are very happy that Melissa is teaching this information to the class. In a country with such a high incidence of HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies, this information is a good building block for women to have as they become more independent.

Business Items

• Marketing brochure and website need to be updated. WEECE needs some “branding” to help raise recognition. We hope to work with the team to create a logo we can use on marketing materials.

• Staff education – Work with Jenny and Joanna (local staff) on computer skills (i.e. building letterhead templates in Word

• WRITE DOWN PROCESSES! Much like my former life at GE, many processes used to be what we call “tribal knowledge.” Passed down from one generation to the next. For this organization to become more successful, it needs very clear, transparent information available for how the organization works.

• Help Mama Mrema organize her office/duties/etc.

I’m sure there are many more things I am leaving off, but with just this we have our hands full!

After placement and lunch, a doctor from the public government hospital came by to talk with us about HIV/AIDS within the country. She then took us on a hospital tour. I HAVE NEVER FELT SO LUCKY TO HAVE BEEN BORN IN THE USA!!!

The hospital is made up of a 20 or so small buildings. You use dirt paths or sidewalks to access each of the buildings, each of which is a different department. All buildings had open doors/windows (talk about being unsanitary!) We first went into labor and delivery. Many women live in areas far away from the hospital. Their local clinic doctors send them to the hospital when they are close to giving birth, where they wait until they actually go into labor. There were 10 beds for “pre-labor,” some of which need to be shared by 4 women. Through one curtain was the active labor area, and through the other curtain was the delivery room. Nothing was clean, nothing was sterile. It was hot and crowded.

We visited many other departments – pediatrics, burn area, fracture area (interesting to see people in traction), and the psych ward. We didn’t get to go into the surgical theater, but it was a small building surrounded by windows so you could partially see inside.

I feel VERY fortunate that if I were to get sick or injured in Africa, I’d get to go to the private hospital, St. Josephs. I do not know how much better this hospital is, but I am assured it is a couple steps above the public hospital.

It was DEFINITELY an eye-opening experience, and something I will remember when I get frustrated with the health care system in the US.

The day ended with our first view of “Her Majesty,” Mt. Kilimanjaro. While we have had sunny days, the peak has been covered with clouds since we have been here. I jumped out of my seat in the van yesterday when I finally saw it. Absolutely beautiful! Very high! Absolutely frightening as well…2.5 weeks until I start my climb!

Habari Za Asubuhi?

2010-05-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

Our 2nd full day at the Karanga house has come and gone. Most of us were feeling a bit more ourselves today as we had another full night’s sleep in a bed . This was a good thing as today was very busy as well as mentally challenging.

We started the day off with cultural lessons. These included learning some basic greetings, handshakes, and formalities to use when meeting people in Tanzania. The process of greeting someone is taken very seriously in this country, and can sometimes last more than just a few minutes, with a feeling that the “conversation” is going in circles. Granted, it may feel that way since our Swahili and their English is limited to a few words.

We also learned about Tanzania time vs. Mzungu (foreigner) time. First, there is the difference in how to tell time. For instance, Tanzanians call 7am the 1st hour (after sunrise), 8 am the 2nd hour, and so on. Since we are basically on the equator, the sun rises and sets ~6am/6pm every day, which makes the Tanzanian way of telling time a “little” more accurate. We’ve been waking up at 6am for breakfast and activities everyday, and we are starting to learn that we really don’t need an alarm. At 5am you can hear the Muslim call to prayer. At 6am you can hear the church bells ringing….and then there are the roosters. Lots of roosters! The CCS-Karanga house is about ¾ of a mile down a dirt road, and families all around us have their own small farms with goats, roosters, chickens, lambs, etc. We get a whole chorus of roosters cock-a-doodle-dooing all morning long.

Tanzania time is much like Island time. Unless you specify that something starts at Mzungu time, you could be sitting and waiting for quite a long time. People tend to get delayed (probably due to the extended greetings mentioned above).

Our next activity was a scavenger hunt in order to use our new understanding of Swahili greetings. My team had to turn left out of the CCS gate, find a house on the right hand side of the road, greet the family, and ask to see a few pieces of kanga (decorative cloth used by women for skirts, head wraps, aprons, baby “backpacks”, etc), and write down the words we find on the Kanga. This was a little more difficult than imagined. The family (mostly kids) thought we wanted to buy kanga, so they took us to the corner store (another one of the neighbors living in a mud hut). We found a Kanga, and the words on it.

We got most of our scavenger hunt help from Patric, who is 16, and spoke a decent amount of English. We were also accompanied by Evon, Regina, Augustino, and little Brenda, who is the biggest ham of a 3 year old I have ever seen! I’m sure I’ll be posting plenty of pictures of her over the coming weeks!

It was then time for our first “formal” Swahili lesson. Here’s a sampling of what we learned:

- Hujambo? (How are you?)
- Sijambo (I am fine)
- Habari za asubuhi? (How is the news of the morning? - i.e. How are you?)
- Nzuri (Good)
- Mambo (What’s Up? How are things going? Slang)
- Poa (cool!)
- Teno (Give me 5 – in which you give knuckles to each other)

I still have a ways to go, but at least I don’t look/sound like a complete idiot as I walk down the street anymore.

Our last activity of the day was to meet with our placement directors to discuss our volunteer work (which starts tomorrow morning). Unfortunately, Mama Mwema (the WEECE director) was sick today, so she sent representatives (local volunteers) to come speak with us. It wasn’t a very productive meeting as neither of the other volunteers knew much English, and did not know much about our assignments. Mama Mwema should be there tomorrow to help us out…we hope!

Ok, Tanzania bedtime is finally kicking in. Keep your fingers crossed that the crazy Bush Babies stay quiet tonight!

Half the Sky

2010-05-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

5/16/2010

I have arrived in Tanzania!!! It took 27 hours and stops in Minneapolis and Amsterdam to fly half the sky – from San Diego to Kilimanjaro. It is currently 4:30 pm on Sunday, May 16 in Tanzania, which is 6:30 am in San Diego. Needless to say, I’m a little out of it. Tonight will be an early night for sure!

Surprisingly, my flights were not too bad! Other than the VERY talkative lady on my flight to Minneapolis, I had good seat mates, and good entertainment. I think the personal TVs on flights are the most amazing thing ever….it really makes the time go fast. I was able to watch Invictus, Up in the Air, and Gran Torino…more movies than I have seen in the last 3 months!

I also had the opportunity to read the first half of the book “Half the Sky,” which has really helped to get into the mindset for my placement at WEECE here in Moshi. (Thanks for the recommendation Emily!!!) The book is about “turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide” and tells stories of the horrors experienced by women in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, and how they have overcome. It is stories like these that make me feel so lucky to have been born in the US, and so grateful that I am here in Tanzania where I have the possibility of making a difference in women’s lives.

If you have any free time this spring, please read this book!

Myself and about 10 other volunteers arrived in Tanzania around 8:30 pm on Saturday night, and were greeted by the CCS drivers and our vans to our home base. If you thought Roman cab rides were scary, this was a whole new level. Driving 70+ mph down a narrow 2 lane street in an old van with no seatbelts. The 40 minute drive was very dark appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, however there were hundreds of people walking up and down the streets! They were everywhere! And it was close to 10pm! I can see now how auto accidents are a major cause of fatality here!

We finally made it down the dirt road to our homebase in Karanga Village in Moshi. We were greeted with hugs and kisses from Mama Lilian (our program director), and fresh squeezed mango/passion fruit juice. We went through quick introductions and then made our way to bed. Rest was necessary for the weary!

Today consisted of more introductory activities. We were shown around the homebase (see pics below), filled out our residency permits (as we will be here longer than 2 weeks), and took a quick tour of Moshi town. We stopped by a little artist village to see some of the beautiful canvases and carvings (Mandy and Ben…we need to talk), and then stopped at the central market. Everyone is so friendly! Some people (especially the men as most of them have had secondary education) speak English. For the rest, my favorite phrase was ‘asante hapana’ which is ‘no thank you’ in Swahili. Despite the haggling, the market was pretty amazing. Can’t wait to go back!

We’ve had free time most of this late afternoon as we wait for dinner. Some of us took a walk down the dirt road (3/4 miles?) to the main highway and back. It is amazing how many people live off of this seemingly unpopulated area. So many people walking around, in both leisure clothes as well as some in their Sunday best. We stopped to say hi (habari) to some neighbors that live in mud /wood huts. Kids, at ages of those in the US who watch incessant amounts of TV and play hours of video games, were so excited to meet us, say hi, and shake our hand. With limited means of entertainment, they really look forward to interacting with the Muzungo (foreigners). Hopefully those I meet at my placement tomorrow feel the same way!

Tutaonana baadaye (See you Later!)

My Volunteer Placement - WEECE

2010-05-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Blogging while overlooking the Grand Canyon! Isn't technology great?!?! Anyway, I Wanted to do a quick post on my placement over in Tanzania so you would all have a chance to see what I will be working on over the next 3+ weeks. I am VERY excited for this opportunity!!

Your Volunteer Placement

Community Development - WEECE

Mission and Needs of the Partner Program

To support the marginalized women in Kilimanjaro region to achieve economic stability and gender equality through micro business loans, education, counseling and advocacy. Women Education and Economic Center (WEECE) is a non-profit organization started in 1999 by 3 women from the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. Currently the organization consists of 126 members.

Primary Projects of WEECE

Providing women who are operating existing businesses with financial assistance through micro-loans. This includes the provision of financial and small business education. Businesses include poultry and livestock keeping, tailoring, grocery and clothing shops, restaurants, street vendors and fruit and vegetable sellers.

Counseling and legal advocacy to lead towards gender equality to educate marginalized women in their human and legal rights. (e.g. inheritance rights, business training, advice on personal relationships, domestic violence, etc.)

Associated Activities

Tumaini Women’s Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS)

This is a Kilimanjaro branch of the Tanzanian SACCOS set up by WEECE for its members which aims to provide a vehicle for women to save (which most have never experienced) through the repayment system of the micro-loans

Once a required amount of money has been saved, the women are then eligible to move their account from the local Tumaini SACCOS to the national SACCOS allowing them to borrow larger sums of money

Provision of a network of business women

Monitoring and provision of on-site business consultation

http://www.weece.org/

Volunteer Activities/Duties of Working Toward Women’s Empowerment

Editing and distribution of the WEECE brochure
Identification of where to distribute the WEECE brochure
Marketing and selling of WEECE Cook Book of Tanzanian dishes to raise funds
Working with the chairperson to contact potential local, national and international supporters
Research and identification of potential financial donors (National / International) for WEECE to follow up with
Editing 2005 – 2007 Strategic Business Plan

Other potential volunteer projects to be discussed with the chairperson could include:

Informal marketing sessions with the women via brainstorming in small groups
Informal basic English lessons
Teach basic computer skills particularly Excel
Assist the chairperson with ideas for Women’s Liberation booklet
Future endeavors for eco-tourism and road planning

Goals of the Partner Program

Long-Term
To empower women through participation in economic development and education.

Short-Term
Assist Director with daily office functions of WEECE, help to identify new ways to improve systems.

I've included a few pictures from the WEECE website. Please check out the website when you get a chance to find more information about the organization.

Beauty Parlor Owner with Mama Mrema

Owner of Chicken and Duck Business

Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever - Wildflower 2010

2010-05-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! 2010! It is crazy to think that this year is my 7th season racing triathlons, and my 5th season racing long course. I would've never thought that a little boredom in Ohio would lead to the thought of doing A triathlon, let alone moving to San Diego, meeting some great friends, and completely changing my lifestyle.

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to compete in some amazing races: Free TCSD races, KOZ series races, a half ironman in Baja (my first HIM), scattered half marathons, 10K's, 5K's, O'Side Half Iron (x2), Big Kahuna (x2), and Ironman Arizona. Missing from this list was a little race called Wildflower.

Held the first week of May, Wildflower is considered the "Woodstock of Triathlon." While the Woodstock comparison comes primarily from the fact that most racers camp on-site - the race is still quite a fun party. Unfortunately, for the past few years, Wildflower weekend has corresponded with finals at school. Now with graduation behind me, it was my chance to take a stab at this race.

Stacy Schlocker and I left bright and early Friday morning for the trek up to Lake San Antonio. About 15 miles or so from Paso Robles, the Wildflower race area was a beautiful mix of lakes, hills, vineyards, and of course, fields of wildflowers (sorry allergies)!

TCSD once again showed that they were the best club around, as we were able to turn in our tents the week before so they would be set-up when we arrived. AWESOME! Thanks to the Hays family!

Race Day

9:15 race start time for my wave meant that I got to sleep in until 6. That is unheard of on race day! Awesome! Not so awesome was the sub 40-degree temps outside at 6 in the morning. Did I really have to jump into a lake in 3 hours?

In summary - the race was not my best. Not even close to my best.

The swim was ok. Freshwater and flat. I came out exactly where I thought I would (~46 mins).

The bike is where the real "fun" began! Hills, hills, and more hills. My glutes were cramping and my back was hurting. The ride was not fun, and pretty slow (~3:45...ouch!). I kept on muttering to myself as I went up the hills "Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever. I can do this." That got me through, but barely. In the picture below, I was yelling to Shawn "I hurt! This sucks! Do I really have to run?!?!?" I was NOT looking forward to the half marathon ahead.
The run turned out to be more of a walk. My glutes were tight, and I could not get my heart rate down. Add a bright sunny and warm day, plus hills around every corner, this run was more like a death march. I just couldn't get it together to run more than a quarter mile to half mile at a time. Not fun at all. Even walking hurt! What should've taken me ~2:15 on a good day, took me ~3:00 on this day.

Overall time: ~7:45! Eek. Considering my best half ironman time is 5:49, this was tough to swallow. This race, although half the distance, was harder for me than Ironman Arizona! The race was so painful, that all Saturday night, I was swearing off all long courses. No need to put myself through that pain!

After a good dinner, lots of water, and a night sleeping in my compression tights, I woke up on Sunday morning feeling....pretty good! The pain WAS temporary! By the time Stacy and I reached our breakfast stop in San Luis Obispo on our way home on Sunday morning, she had convinced me to take another stab at the race next year. Am I crazy? A glutton for punishment? Who knows! I think I need to start doing some hill repeats now! :)

Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and Malaria - Oh My!

2010-04-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

Forget the lions and tigers (note: uncapitalized means I am not talking about my Detroit sports teams). The most dangerous creature in Africa is the mosquito! Bacteria in the water are not so nice either.

Here's what it takes to **hopefully** stay healthy in Africa:

Yellow Fever Shot (See pic below)
HepA/HepB Shots (never finished these in college, so got to start all over again)
Vivotif Oral Immunization for Typhoid
Cipro (for a not so happy stomach)
Z-pak (just in case, for flu, cold, sinus infection, etc)
Doxycycline (prophylaxis against malaria)
Diamox (don't have yet, but will probably get for climbing Kilimanjaro. It accelerated acclimitization...just hoping the sulfa allergy won't be bothered by it!)

I'm going to feel like a walking clinic heading into Tanzania, but I think taking these precautions is well worth it.

Countdown: 33 Days!

Fundraising Update - 4/7/2010

2010-04-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

Thank you again to everyone who has donated. So far I have raised $1770 of my $3378 fundraising goal. I have just over one week left (April 15th) to raise the last $1600. Why not use tax day as an opportunity to start building those 2010 deductions? Any additional help would be greatly appreciated. :)

4 Weeks Until Wildflower...

2010-04-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

...and I guess it is time to really start training. This past weekend consisted of a 43 mile ride on the Great Western Loop, and an 11.5 mile run through my neighborhood. While these weren't the crazy distances I trained during Ironman, they were enough to instill confidence in myself that I WILL SURVIVE Wildflower!

The Great Western Loop is in East County and contains 4400-4800 ft of climbing. Fun Stuff!!

Great Western Loop (via Lyons Valley Rd)
Find more Bike Rides in El Cajon, California

What makes it even better is that Jack the Ass lives at the only store along the 43 mile route!

After wearing heels on Saturday night, Sunday's run was a bit of a pain. I somehow squeezed it in before Easter Sunday mass. Yea for me! 2 more big weeks before taper!

My Home in Africa

2010-03-31T15:37:00.000-07:00

While browsing through some of the information Cross-Cultural Solutions has on its site and within the community, I came upon this video. A nice 10 min clip of the house I will be staying in!

Find more videos like this on CCS Community

Fundraising Update - 3/30/2010

2010-03-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to my CCS volunteer program in Tanzania. As of today (3/30/2010) I have raised $1325 of the $3378 required program fee. Awesome!

The remainder of my program fee is due by April 14, and every little bit helps!

Many may be wondering why I have to pay to volunteer. Cross-Cultural Solutions is an International NGO and provides a good summary as to WHY there is a program fee, and WHAT that fee covers. In a nutshell, most of our program fee goes toward our specific volunteer costs (lodging, food, security, transportation with Tanzania, travel medical insurance, program placement, and program instruction). While I could hop on a plane and head to Africa on my own, I would have to find my own safe lodging and food, and security and local transportation would be on my own (and Dad DEFINITELY wouldn't like that). In addition, CCS works hard to find placements that suit our strengths for organizations that have a real need. In my opinion, the fee is well worth the opportunity to make a positive impact on somebody's life.

Africa - Here I Come!

2010-03-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Upon learning I would be laid off this spring, my San Diego girlfriends gave me a few words of sympathy and encouragement....and then immediately asked where I was going to travel to in my time off. The thought of not having a job was still new, and I hadn't thought much of future plans other than editing my resume. The seed, however, was planted, and I knew I had to take advantage of this "time off" to do something I would not normally be able to do during my 15 days of vacation each year.

My initial thought was to go back to Europe and backpack areas I hadn't seen on my last trips - Eastern Europe and Greece. I quickly realized that backpacking and sightseeing by myself sounded pretty boring. After serving food to the homeless one night at Father Joe's, I was reminded just how much I enjoy serving others, and decided that international volunteering would be an amazing experience.

As luck would have it, my co-worker's daughter did something similar in 2008 - volunteering in South Africa through a company called Cross-Cultural Solutions -and she loved it! I looked into the South Africa program, thinking it would be fun to do that, and stay an extra week or two for the World Cup. However, when I looked through the CCS programs again, Tanzania stuck out as something a little more intriguing. A completely different culture with backdrops of the Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, and Zanzibar island. I was sold!

SO...I bit the bullet and signed up. I will be volunteering from May 15 - June 5 in the Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania (in the city of Moshi). I am so looking forward to this experience to meet new people, experience new things, and help others that are less fortunate than myself. Ideally I would like to work on Women's Empowerment projects, educating Women about HIV/AIDS or working with them on sustainable income generating activities. I should find out in a couple weeks what my exact assignment will be, so in the meantime, I am reading all I can about the country...and learning Swahili! This is going to be a great summer! Stay tuned for updates!

Will Work For.....

2010-03-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, the past year and a half has been full of ups and downs, and the past 2 months have been the most tumultuous.

After finishing school in December, my first priority was to buy a condo or house. Prices were low, as were interest rates. I started my search in May of last year, but didn't find anything before school started again, so I put off my search for a bit. As luck would have it, one of the condos I looked at on the first day of my search last year was still on the market and approved for a short sale. I liked this place when I first saw it, but was afraid to jump on something so soon. After seeing many other places over the following 9 months, I felt like it was the right time to put an offer in. 1200 square feet, good location, lots of storage, garage. This would be the perfect place for me! Offer submitted February 5th.

Fast Forward 4 days to February 9th. I arrive at work to see our global manufacturing manager and two new faces in our morning meeting. They didn't waste any time, and cut to the chase. They informed our staff that the Vista plant would be closing this year, and that all manufacturing would be moved to our Minnetonka, MN plant. WHOA!!! How about that for a 180 in my life? I was NOT prepared to hear that at all. Before even calling my family to let them know I would be laid off as of May 7, I called Brian Long (my realtor). Ix-Nay on the Offer!

Surprisingly (to myself), I have taken this change quite well. If I had to get laid off, now is the perfect time. No house, no obligations, brand new shiny MBA, and an itch to do something new anyway.

To say the least, my life has been quite crazy. I am wrapping up things at work, helping with the transfer of product to our sister plant, brushing up my resume, applying for jobs, interviewing for jobs, training for Wildflower. Oh, and I decided to volunteer in Tanzania in May/June! (More on that later).

So...if anyone reading this knows of any jobs in Operations/Supply Chain Management, or can create any jobs in operations/supply chain management...PLEASE let me know. I'm looking to start in mid-late June. Please check out my LinkedIn Page. :)

Long Time No See

2010-03-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I know, I know, it's been a long time since I've been on here. No, I did not literally fall off the face of the earth, nor did I stop racing or training. I just wasn't really inspired to write, and life was passing me by faster than I could've even imagined. The past year and a half has been full of its ups and downs, all of which have made me stronger and given me opportunities I never thought I would have.

I finished my MBA in December, and I thought life would be full of free time this year. I found that I am busier than ever, trying to fit in everything I want to do, and everything I put off for my three years in school. For this reason, I'm changing up this blog a bit. It used to just contain racing and training information, but there's so much more to my life than triathlon. I'll still cover some of my big races, but I'll also add pictures from fun evenings out, as well as new adventures.

Happy Reading!

Ironman Arizona #3 - Race Day!

2008-11-23T15:26:00.000-08:00

Sunday November 23, 2008. This was the day on the calendar that I thought about every single day for 11 months. It was here. I was ready!

Sorry folks....this is a VERY long one! Hell, it was a 13+ hour race for me. A lot can happen (and go through my mind) in 13 hours!

Pre-race Routine
I woke up at 4am to start eating, go to the bathroom, eat some more, go to the bathroom some more. I was able to eat 2 bowls of Kashi Autumn Wheat cereal (500 cals with milk) before my stomach said no mas mi amiga! It doesn't sound like much, but you try forcing food down your throat at 4am on the biggest day of your life....not so easy! I had ideally wanted to get 800-900 calories in before the race, so I brought a PB&Honey sandwich with me to snack on in transition. Never ate it. Oh well.

I arrived at race site around 5:15 am. I dropped off my special needs bags, added a few items to my transition bags, pumped my bike tires, got body marked, and waited 20 minutes for my last pre-race bathroom stop. Really....I don't think race directors will ever figure it out. MORE PORT-O-POTTIES!

Before I knew it, it was time to squeeze into my wetsuit and head to the water. I hugged and kissed my mom and Pat one more time, the girls and I posed for a few pictures, and then made our way over to the Lake.

The Swim (2.4 miles)
The Ironman swim, especially the start, is like no other thing I've ever experienced. Rather than wave starts (like they have at most shorter races), in an Ironman, all 2000+ racers start AT THE SAME TIME. We were all herded out of transition and over the timing chip activation mat like cattle on their way to......well, we'll say eat....or get milked (don't want to make this Ironman thing sound too morbid). At this time I was with all of my TCSD buddies. It was so awesome that we were all going into this together.

At 6:50 am, the pro gun went off. 10 minutes left. Time to jump in the water! Rather than tread water for 10 minutes, Jen, Tina, and I stayed together along the wall of the lake. We listened to the National Anthem, gave eachother a quick, teary hug, and then 7:00 am, the gun went off!

I sat along the wall for 30 seconds or so. I'm not a fast swimmer, so I had no reason to rush into the washing machine of 2200 people around me too soon. I finally saw Don Lopez drift past me, and decided...let's do this...no time like the present. My race has started!

The first 10 minutes of the race were actually pretty humorous. You have 2000 people going from a vertical position in the water to horizontal, and at the same time try to make forward progress at all different paces. Talk about traffic jam! The first 10 minutes were mostly head-above water freestyle, being pulled along by the masses of people. Extra care needed to be taken to avoid getting swam over or clocked in the head. I actually said to someone "Wow, this is much more relaxing than I thought!" All I could do is get pulled along!

My plan was to stay 15-20 m off of the wall, but that didn't work so well. I fairly quickly found myself closer to the buoy line. This turned out to be ok, because I found a pocket 15 minutes into the swim, and held that pocket all the way to the turn around. The turnaround was a lesser version of the start. Everyone was aiming for the same buoy, so it got a little hairy. Someone decided to start swimming on my back, so I started kicking harder to get them off. Next think I heard...cough cough cough. Ooops. I think I kicked them in the gut. Oh well. That's what you get for swimming over people!

The swim went pretty well overall. I never got really tired or tight. I did get hungry though shortly after the turnaround. Then I started smelling something like raw sewage, and my hunger vanished. On the run I later found out it wasn't really raw sewage, just a horse farm on the side of the lake. My hunger came back 200 m or so past the farm. The main thing I remember from the 2nd half of the swim was that the damn Mill Ave bridge seemed like it kept moving further away. I know I was making forward progress because I was passing buoys, but that bridge took FOREVER to reach.

I finally made my turn to the swim exit. Woo hoo! 1 down, 2 to go! Since Tempe Town Lake is a man made reservoir type thing, there was no beach to run up on. You swam to a set of stairs and someone helped to pull you out of the water and onto the stairs. I was prepared to be a little disoriented coming out of the water (swimming horizontally for 1.5 hours a bit oxygen deprived and then standing up and running can make you quite dizzy), but it was a little crazier than I thought. Climbing those stairs was tough. I made it up and over the timing mat.

Swim Time- 1:31:40 (2:24/100m pace)

Transition 1
Transition in an Ironman is slightly different than other races. First, there's the strippers (wetsuit strippers y'all....Get your mind out of the gutter!). Since wetsuits aren't always the easiest to get off, it was nice to have somebody push me to the ground and pull it off of me.

Next stop was a grassy field where our T1 bags were stored. I called out my number, and next thing you know, my bag was in my hand. I ran in to the change tent, which was quite a zoo, and found a seat. I decided to change into bike shorts rather than suffer in tri shorts for 112 miles. One extra minute in T1 would save me hours of discomfort on the bike. I was still a bit disoriented from the swim, and my hands and feet were pretty frozen, so I fell flat on my ass changing into my shorts. Oops. Just another moment to laugh about in a long day.

At first I was hoping that one of the volunteers would help me get my helmet, shoes, socks, and arm warmers on, but they were all pretty busy. Many people came out of the water shivering uncontrollably, so most of the volunteers were helping them get warm. I think they could tell I could handle myself. The volunteers did come in handy leaving the tent though. I had 4 "sunscreen appliers" attack me all at once. I was prepared for the afternoon in the Arizona sun. I grabbed my bike and was on my way.

T1 Time - 9:28

The Bike (112 miles)
The bike course was 3 loops. Mentally, I broke this up into six 19ish mile sections. The course went Northeast of Tempe onto a road nicknamed The Beeline, through an Indian reservation, and back.

On the "out" sections, the first 10 miles was fairly flat, and the last 9 miles had a gradual incline of ~400 ft. This is nothing for those of us in Southern California that are used to climbing. It was, however noticeable that it was NOT flat. The good thing about this is that we had a slight descent for part of the way back! On my 6 mental segments, I'd look forward to getting to the turnarounds. On the "out" turnaround, I was excited because I had a descent (and a tailwind) coming up. On the "back" turnaround, I was excited because we turned around at transition and I could soak in the love of the crowd and see Pat and my Mom cheering me on.

Loop 1 Highlights

Seeing Pat and My mom heading out of T1

Mile 5- Passed the "country" aid station and saw one of the volunteers handing out water in a Speedo. Little things like that just put a smile on your face during such a tough day.
Mile 13 - Peed on my bike for the very first time. Yes, you may think this is disgusting, and it kinda is, but it saves you lots of time from having to stop. I would pee probably 7 more times on my bike and then rinse myself with water. My friend Tina stopped at the port-o-potty 6 times on the bike course, averaging 3 minutes each stop. If I stopped each time I had to go, thats 24 minutes I would have lost!

Mile 15 - I feel like I am going slow. What does my bike computer say? Is that 11 mph? Ugh! Luckily everyone else around me was struggling as well. We were heading up a slight hill and into the wind. Yuck!

Mile 19 - hit the turnaround for the first time. Averaged 25-27 miles an hour for the next 8 miles. Woo Hoo!

Mile 23 - GOT STUNG BY A BEE! Little B*tch! Got stung right in the chin. I pulled the stinger out and prayed for the next 10 miles or so that I wasn't allergic (I can't remember the last time I got stung). No swelling...breathing ok, I think I'll be fine!

Mile 37 - Done with loop 1. Saw Pat and Mom at the TCSD booth. Heard Mike Reilly call my name.

Loop 2 & 3 Highlights

When I hit loop 2, everything started blurring together. Sorry, no breakdown on miles on loops 2 and 3. Here's what I do remember:

Was able to maintain 13-14 miles/hour on the 2nd loop in the section I was riding at 11 mph on the first loop. Hmm...winds must be dying down. Unfortunately this meant that I had less help on the way back to town.

How easy it was to stop for my Special Needs bag. This was the only time I clipped out of my pedals durin gthe entire 112 miles, and it was only for 30 seconds. One of the volunteers brought my bag right to me, opened it up, and gave me what I asked for. I took my 2nd nutrition bottle (650 cals of Carbo-pro/Motor Tab mix), and completely forgot to take my extra Gu's. Oh well. I had more cals in my bento box, or could stop at an aid station if needed.
Passing the "country" aid station about 8 miles from the end of loop 2. "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" was playing. Hearing that made me Soooo happy!

Was able to maintain 15-16 mph on the out section of loop 3. Crap! The winds changed direction! Slight headwind on the way back. Now averaging 18 mph rather than 25 mph. Booooo!!!!

Overall, I was pleased with my bike. I finished where I thought I would. I had very minor stomach issues on the bike which were solved by peeing, eating, drinking, or taking salt. My shoulders and neck got tight the last loop, so I spent more time out of aero than I wanted to. I also had a bit of soreness in the saddle area, but that can be expected after 112 miles of sitting on a tiny seat.

Overall, I took in ~1300 calories of carbopro/motor tab mix (2 bottles), 300 calories of gu, 5 bottles of water, and 12 salt tabs. I was very happy with this nutrition.....on the bike.

The last 2 miles of the bike was great. I was soooo excited to be done! I rode through the chute back to transition (of course Pat was there cheering me on), and headed to T2.

Bike Time - 6:31:02 (17.19 mph pace)

Transition 2

T2 was pretty quick. I crossed the dismount line, unclipped (FINALLY) out of my bike pedals, and handed my bike to one of the volunteers (another perk of Ironman...you don't have to rerack your own bike!). I was off to pick up my T2 bag and hit the change tent.

Oooh. Ahh. Ooo. Brick legs like no other running to the transition bags. I guess I looked good though because volunteers were cheering me on saying "wow, look at her go" as I passed a few boys (in pure Jen N. fashion of course!) I made a quick stop in the tent to change into my run shorts (Thanks so much to the volunteer that helped me....I know my shorts smelled!) I got lathered up in sunscreen again. It was time to run!

T2 Time - 3:16

The Run (26.2 miles)

Like the bike, the run was 3 loops. Each loop was actually like a figure 8, so you got to run by transition area 2 times in every 9-ish mile segment. This, I have to say, was AWESOME! I got to see Pat, my mom, and the rest of the TCSD crew 6 times! The rest of the run was not so awesome....

My body decided it couldn't run and digest food at the same time. Blood flow could be used for the legs, or for the stomach, but not both. This sucked, because when my stomach felt good, I could've held a 10 minute pace easy. The legs felt great! Alas, I needed SOME calories, and even taking in a little bit would cause problems for my stomach. It would just sit there. UGH! It was so frustrating.

So, the run went something like this: run a bit, walk aid stations, take in small amount of food (coke, cookie, grapes, water, ice), walk a bit to let food digest, run a bit, walk up hill, run down hill, repeat. Unfortunately there were a couple moments on flat road with now aid stations where I had to walk as well. Boo Stomach!!!! The whole run went this way! I was cursing my stomach almost the whole time!

Other than stomach issues, much of the run was a blur Here's the details I DO remember:

I started the run and immediately saw Pat. Great inspiration! I smiled for the camera and made my way down the lake path.
Hit mile one and saw Mary's coach. He commented on how good my leg turnover looked. I agreed!
Passed Mary's coach and realized...uh oh, heart rate too high, stomach not happy, red alert red alert, need to walk NOW!
Got passed by Jen...she was on her 2nd loop looking GREAT!
Mile 4- best mile at 9:58 pace. Hit the mid-part of the figure 8. Saw Pat and Mom, ran under the bridge and saw the AWESOME TCSD crew!
Miles 5-9 - fairly good (according to my Garmin. I really don't remember)
Mile 10 - Decided to let myself walk all aid stations and the 2 hills on the north side of the lake. Saw Lorenzo getting off the massage table at one of the aid stations and walked with him for a minute.
Mile 13 - half way there. Feeling like crap. Ran into Mary. We ran together for a bit. This made me feel better. She was on her last loop...almost there!

Miles 19-20 - According to my Garmin, I did hit the wall. 13:26 pace and 13:54 pace. My worst miles of the day.

Miles 21-25.5 Pure survival. Glutes, hamstrings, quads, knees all bothering me now. Could've pushed through that pain. Still couldn't push through unhappy stomach issues. Met a girl named Jill from Sherman Oaks. We pushed eachother for a bit. This was great!

0.5 miles left. Started picking up the pace! I was almost there. All smiles now. All pain is miraculously gone!
0.3 miles left. Saw Pat and smiled for the camera (he then booked it to the finishline)

0.15 miles left. Reached the fork in the road and took a left for the finishline

0.1 mile left. Hit a dark, quiet part of a parking lot before making the turn to the finisher's chute. I had about 15 seconds where I was pretty much alone with my thoughts. Started getting a bit emotional and teary. This was really happening. In less than a minute, I'd be an Ironman.

Last 20 yards. Just Awesome. No words to describe. The crowd, the lights, the finishline. I put my arms arms up and smiled, smiled, smiled!

Jessica Motyl - You are an Ironman!

Well, I didn't really hear Mike Reilly announce me, but Pat says he did. I made it, I was an Ironman.

Run Time- 5:03:07 (11:34 pace)

Finish Time - 13:18:33

1350/2180 overall

29/50 W25-29

Post Race

Got caught by the finish line "catchers." They were great. They gave me my medal, shirt, hat, burrito blanket and took me to get my picture taken. They WOULD NOT let me go until I could convince them that I wasn't going to collapse. I'm glad they are there, but after awhile I was like, I swear! I'm ok! Fortunately, I found my Friend Marty at the finish exit and they released me to him. Unfortunately, Marty was as bad as the catchers. He WOULD NOT let go of me until we could find Pat and my mom. We spotted them pretty quickly, and I hobbled over to them for some big hugs and kisses!

I stuck around the finishline for about an hour. Took lots of pictures, ate some pizza, chatted with my friends and my coach, watched Tina finish, shared another teary hug with Tina and Jen. I finally decided it was time to call it a night (plus, we had to get Pat to the airport). Today was a great day, and I'll never forget it!

I'm sure I'll have a reflective "post-ironman" post in the next couple weeks, but before that I really want to make sure I thank my mom and Pat for supporting me all day long in the Arizona sun. It meant so much to me to have both of you out there. Big thanks also go out to the IMAZ volunteers...you were all amazing, my coach Mike, the TCSD support group, and my girls. I couldn't get to the finishline without you.

Sooo.....you may be asking, will I do another? The answer is yes. Not in 2009 (I have a MBA to finish) 2010? Maybe. I can't wait to do another. Call me crazy, but it was an awesome experience, and I can't wait to have another go at it.

Detailed Race Results:

Ironman Arizona #2 - Pre-Race (Tempe)

2008-11-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

Ironman Weekend started on Thursday. I picked my mom up from the airport and drove directly to Arizona (Thanks mom for traveling all day for me!) We arrived (fairly exhausted) around 9:30 pm, unpacked the car, and went to bed. I had 3 long days ahead of me!

Friday

My crazy week took more out of me than I thought. Getting up at 6:30 am was tough. Granted it was really like 5:30 am for my body since Arizona is an hour ahead of San Diego, but still...I couldn't believe it was that hard to get out of bed!

I went down to the lobby for breakfast, and had my first experience of the Ironman "buzz." 7am and the breakfast area was packed with fellow triathletes! Triathletes are pretty easy to spot. They were all in athletic warm-up gear....oh and the guys were all skinnier than me with smoother legs. :) The Brazilian Mafia was staying at my hotel. There were like 20 of them! There's something about triathletes with accents (Brazilian, European, Australian...all of them). They just sound fast! I'm sure they all kicked my butt on race day. Oh well.

My mom and I drove down to the expo area/transition so I could meet the girls for our morning swim in Tempe Town lake. Friday's schedule called for a 20 minute swim, and 2 mile run. Just enough to get used to the water and to keep the legs warm. As soon as I saw the girls, any nerves I had just vanished. We were in this thing together. Everything would be ok on Sunday.

I was very happy to have gotten a swim in. I hadn't been in open water since late September, and forgot what 63 degree water felt like. Quite a cold shock at first, but actually a good race water temperature for me. Once the water gets near 70, I start overheating in my wetsuit. This was perfect wetsuit/double cap water.

I ran with Tina, Elaine, Mary and Jen after the swim. Despite our frozen feet, for some reason we started running a 7:45 pace. What?!?!? And it felt easy! Must have been the adrenaline from actually running on the race course. I tried my best to slow things down. This would not be even near my Ironman race pace!

The rest of the day consisted of:

Registration

Lunch

Shopping at the Expo (where I let my mom know that the Zoot recovery tights would be a GREAT Christmas present....Thanks Mom!)

Driving the course

Dinner at Ra (Honestly, Sushi may be better for triathletes than pasta)

Pre-race meeting

Bed (SOOO tired at 9:00 pm. I thought I was supposed to relax the days before an Ironman...Friday was NOT relaxing!)

Saturday

Saturday was another early morning. I met up with Coach Mike at 8am to go over swim strategy. His advice was sight off the wall and keep a constant distance from it (15-20 m or so). Jen, Elaine, Tina and I then did a 30 minute easy ride on the bike course before getting our bikes and gear ready to turn in.

(Side note: My mom was a fantastic Sherpa this weekend! Not only carrying my stuff, but making Target and grocery store runs while I got other things done. Thanks Mom!)

At 12:30 pm we got to pick Pat up from the airport! Yippee! Pat was awesome, and was able to come in for 36 hours to watch me race. It really wouldn't have been the same without him there. I was so happy he was in Tempe to share this experience with me. We spent most of Saturday afternoon relaxing (watching Wall-E on Pat's computer) and eating.

For dinner, we made another trip to Ra for Sushi. I was originally thinking pasta as that is usually my carboload dinner, but the sushi from the night before worked really well. Most importantly, it didn't sit like a rock in my stomach like a big pasta meal sometimes does. Plus, sushi does have all of the important nutrients we needed: Carbs = rice, Protein = tuna, edamamae, Salt = miso soup, soy sauce. I think I may have found a new pre-race meal!

So, I made it! Less than 12 hours until the gun goes off. Was I really doing this? Yes I was! I was ready!

Ironman Arizona #1 - Pre-Race (San Diego)

2008-11-22T16:37:00.000-08:00

Ok folks! This is going to be a long one. A long SERIES of posts actually. So much went into this race (phyically = 6 months, mentally = 11 months), that one report just can't do this experience justice.

Throughout my posts, you'll start to see a theme....my girls. Honestly, I don't think this race would've been possible without them. Jen, Tina, Elaine (B&G), Mary, Mer, Juls, Joanne, Stacy, and Angie. Not everyone did the race, but all were there throughout the entire journey, and I'm so grateful for that. I signed up for the race because of them (Peer pressure = Jen saying "Do it now, because in 2010 you may be married and knocked up!"). I got through my long rides because of them (6 hours on a bike each Saturday will make you like family). We motivated each other and consumed LOTS of food together (Coke, carbo-pro, Sunchips, Pizza Port, Gu, Pierogis, Fondue, Gatorade, Steak, Frozen Yogurt, Sushi, Crab Legs....ok, I think I'll stop now). We went through this journey together, and even though triathlon is an individual sport, we were a team.

Pat and my family also made this journey possible. Pat and my mom both gave me the encouragement to sign up (STILL working on my Dad, he STILL thinks I'm crazy! :). Thanks especially to Pat for being so patient with me through my training. Since he was on the east coast for the past 4 months, we didn't get to see each other very often....yet, when we did, he completely supported me and the workouts I needed to get in. And since most of our commuication was via phone, he got to listen to endless babbling about my workouts. He never once complained. I am SO SO SO lucky to have a man in my life that supports me the way he does, and shares in a passion for triathlon and staying active and healthy. Thanks Pat! :)

Ok, back to pre-race. Where shall I begin......

T minus 8 Days - Saturday 11/15
Had my last "long" ride with the girls. My workout was to do 30 miles, with the middle 10 miles hard. Most of the other girls had 30 miles as well, so we decided that 2 loops on the Silver Strand in Coronado would do the trick. 1 hour and 45 minutes later, our last long ride was done. Although this was less than a third of the distance of many of our long rides, it was still a thrill to be done. I would find that throughout the week, I hit what I felt were all monumental moments in my training. The last long ride, the last long run, the last pool swim in San Diego, the last pre-race 5am run, the last trainer ride (FYI...the trainer WILL NOT be used for a long long time....spin class or outside until at least mid-January!)

Post-ride, the girls and I stopped at a Coronado cafe for a 2 hour breakfast. See below. Such good times!

T minus 6 Days - Monday 11/17
It's Ironman week! And of course more stressful than I ever imagined. After an unfortunate incident at the lube shop, my transmission pump on my car needed to be replaced. Great! Started stressing big time. A $1600 car repair bill plus hotel, food, gear later in the week in Tempe! Not what I need just before the holidays. Luckily, my car was fixed quickly, and this little debacle kept my mind off of the upcoming race.

T minus 4 Days - Wednesday 11/19
Car is fixed, I'm over the money thing. Now I'm stressing about the race. Am I really going to do this thing? There are moments when I feel nauseous and light-headed. Am I really going to do this thing? It's hard for me to eat...nothing sounds appetizing. Lots of Emergen-C so I don't get sick. Am I really going to do this thing?

T minus 3 Days - Thursday 11/20
Last day of work. I came to the conclusion that I AM going to do this thing. What WAS nerves, turned into pure excitement and emotion. I got teary eyed every time a co-worker wished me luck. Something big was going to happen on Sunday. One of my co-workers is a Deacon at one of the local Catholic churches, and he blessed me just before I headed out the door. Really Awesome! I busted out of work at 1:30 to pick my mom up from the airport and head to Tempe....Ironman weekend was here! :)

2 Weeks....

2008-11-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm almost there. 2 weeks and counting.

I know I haven't posted in eons, but honestly, I've just been WAY too exhausted. Between work, school, and training, I have nothing left to be creative on my computer in the evenings. Now that it is taper time, and I only had a 65 mile ride this morning, I figured I could give it a shot. So, here's an update on how things have been going the past couple months!

**Note, I've posted random pictures of the few fun things I've done in the past couple months to show that I kind of (used very loosely) have a life outside of work, eat, train, school, sleep. :) **

Training

Training has actually gone quite well for me these past two months. My weekly schedule has been something like this:

Monday: 4 mile run am, ~2500 yd swim pm

Tuesday: Track workout with my coach, Mike Plumb. 2 mile warm-up, 3 mile main set, 1/2 mile cool down

Wednesday: ~2500 yd swim

Thursday: 4 mile run am, 1+ hour Trainer ride pm

Friday: 4 mile run am, Long swim (3000-4400 yds) pm

Saturday: Long ride, brick run

Sunday: Long run

Since I "officially" started my Ironman training plan with Mike on the day after Memorial Day, I have logged 166,000 yds swimming (94 miles), 1631 miles on the bike, and 616 running miles.

Epic Workouts

Throughout the past months, I have had what I would consider, some epic workouts. The first was 2 weeks after Big Kahuna. Mike's schedule for my Saturday was:

1 hour swim
100 mile bike
1 hour run

Let me just tell you, I was scared sh*tless for this one! Luckily, my good friend Elaine is also using Mike as a coach, and she had the same workout. We started at 7am in La Jolla Cove. Our ride took us from La Jolla, up to San Clemente (yes, that's Orange County folks!), and then back to La Jolla. We arrived back to our cars just before 4pm....102 bike miles later. I ended up cutting the run a little short (30 mins rather than 1 hour) because it was getting late....and I had places to go! I somehow managed to make it to a bachelorette party at 7pm that night (looking cute, I might add...that's been a tough one these days!) My scheduled run for the next day was 10 miles. For a long run, that's pretty short, but let's just say that after that epic Saturday, the run was not fun!

Another "epic" workout included a 100 mile ride/6 mile run brick. For this workout, we had a pretty big group. We had a headwind for the last 15 miles heading North into San Clemente, but had a WONDERFUL tailwind the entire 50 miles back to Fiesta Island. The brick run was tough as it was pretty warm out, but I managed to run the 6 miles at just over a 9 minute pace (Thanks Elaine for being my carrot)! Again, my 12 mile run the next day was probably my toughest mental challenge workout during training.

My final big weekend was last weekend. Saturday was an 80/4 brick, and Sunday was a 16 mile run. The brick went well, and Elaine...the crazy runner she is off the bike, helped us push the pace on the run. For Sunday's run, I headed to Mission Bay, and the Mission Beach boarwalk. At about 13 miles, I ran into Tina. She decided to turn around and run with me. Five minutes later, we ran into Mary, and she decided to join us as well. I ended up adding a little on to my run with the girls, and got back to my car at 18.6 miles. Having never run 20 miles before, I decided....what the hell? I finished the run in 3:03:30, a 9:11 pace. I was super excited. The hard training was done.....next epic day...Ironman!

Friends and Support

All of this training would never have been possible without my girls. Elaine, Tina, Joanne, Mary, Elaine G., Jen, Mer, Juls, Stacy. Long rides, emotional support, and post-ride food friends. They've been there for all of it.

Pat has also been my rock through training. He listens to my long, boring stories about each workout, and provides motivation, strength and confidence for the workouts that make me anxious. On my first epic workout day, I was at mile 80 on my ride, with Torrey still to climb at mile 95. I was so tired! And then I got a text from Pat, simply saying "You're doing great." That was all I needed to kick it into high gear and finish my workout. Thanks Pat, I love you!

So...

Here I am! 2 weeks from now, I will be embarking on the greatest physical challenge I have ever put my body through. Although I have moments of nervousness, I know I am ready. I've put in the hard work, and now I'm ready to roll!

Big Kahuna Half Ironman - 2008

2008-09-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

Big Kahuna, by far, has to be one of my favorite races. This year didn't disappoint!

Juls and I started our road trip at 5am on Saturday morning. We were able to fit 2 girls, 2 bikes, and gear into a Ford Focus. We rock! The ride was pretty uneventful. Driving up The 5 through the Central Valley is really not exciting. Luckily we had my "Pat-loaded" iPod, and were able to keep occupied by listening to This American Life and some good tunes.

We arrived in Santa Cruz around 1pm, dropped our stuff off at the house we were renting, and headed to the expo. After a quick ride and run, it was back to the house for a little relaxation before dinner. Fortunately, Marianne's Ice Cream was on the way home, so I made Juls stop. It's only the best ice cream in the world :)

We shared a nice big house (5 bedrooms!) with Tina, Stacy S., Joanne, Darrell and Don. Lucky for us, the boys are stellar chefs. Saturday night was Darrell's turn. He made this great chicken pasta salad, as well as a Tomato and Basil salad. And then we had homemade cobbler for dessert! Thank's Darrell, you rock! :)

Race day started early. Last year was cloudy in the morning, which was nice. The clouds stuck around until a couple miles into my run. No such luck this year. Not a cloud in the sky. Luckily the temperature had dropped from the day before (it was 80 when we arrived in SC on Saturday), so the day wouldn't be too bad.

Swim

The water was at least 60 degrees this year (maybe 62?), which was nice. It felt really cold warming up, but once the gun went off, I was no longer even close to cold. The swim was fairly uneventful. I felt much better in the water for this race than I did on my Oceanside swim earlier this year. The swim still seemed really long. When I got out of the water, and saw the time on my watch, I was satisfied. I was 5 minutes slower than last year, but thought the course was really short last year as well. I came out in my expected 1.2 mile swim time.

Bike

We started the bike and headed directly into the wind for the first half of the out and back course. We had wind, and fog, lots of fog. It was crazy to see it move in over the coast. It was so thick that I was dripping water from my bike and body, and had to take my sunglasses off for most of my ride to see. It was nice though, because it kept things really cool. I reached the turn-around around 1:40. I knew that with out a very strong tailwind, there was no way I'd beat last year's time of 2:55. The trip back to town was a bit painful for me. My back and neck got sooo tight. I'll need to spend a lot of time in aero for the next couple weeks getting ready for IMAZ. I finished the bike and was excited to run.

Run

I was really excited for the run. This is what I had been working on most in my training, and I knew I could easily demolish my 2:10 time from last year. I hit the turn around at exactly 1 hour. If I ran hard, I could beat 2 hours. I was on track, but then I got a bit confused. My Garmin had been pretty dead on for most of the run, but then I didn't hit the mile 8 marker until mile 8.3 or so on my Garmin. Maybe I wouldn't make it in under 2. I tried so hard to both finish the run in sub-2 and the race in sub-6, but I just missed.

All in all, I was pleased with my race. My nutrition worked well, and my run really did get better.

My splits were as follows:

Swim: 42:58

T1: 5:06

Bike: 3:09:06

T2: 1:33

Run: 2:03:20 (Garmin read 13.4 miles)

Total: 6:02:04

Slower than last year, but everyone was slower than last year, so I was ok with it.

Recovery consisted of another great meal cooked by the boys! Thanks Don and Darrell! I'm looking forward to another great Big Kahuna weekend with you guys next year!

AFC Half Marathon

2008-08-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

Playing Catch-up on blog posts. I did the AFC half marathon in mid-August for the 3rd year in a row. For some reason, for the past two years, I really couldn't get a hold of this race, running it in 1:55 and change in 2006, and 1:56 and change in 2007 (it was really hot out). With the August heat (yes, I've become a wimp in San Diego, and anything over 70 degrees for a run is hot), and the 1.5 mile hill at mile 11.5, I never thought beating 1:50 in this race was possible for me.

I guess Mike's training plan for me has done me well. I finished the race in 1:49 Flat! :) That's an 8:19 pace! Not my half marathon PR, but pretty close. For the weeks leading up to the race, Mike had me running 30+ miles/week. For someone that has averaged 15-20 miles/week for the past couple years, this was quite a jump. I was running Monday night, Tuesday Morning, Tuesday night (track practice), Thursday morning, Friday morning, and Sunday (long run). Pretty crazy! I made it through, and was feeling good leading up to this race. This was my first time doing this race with my Garmin, and it worked well. My goal was to run a 8:30 pace. If I could maintain that, I could easily beat my time from last year. I found that for most of the race, I could easily maintain a 8:15 pace, so I decided to go with it. The climb up A and 6th streets slowed me down a bit, but as soon as I reached the top of the hill, I pushed the pace to the finish. I knew if I pushed it, I'd have no problem beating the 1:50 mark. I was thrilled to see my final time of 1:49. :)

Ironman Arizona Training Begins.....I now have a coach!

2008-05-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

As of May 27, I am officially training for my first Ironman. Less than 6 months until the big day. I have found that to maintain my busy lifestyle, there are things I need to outsource....my cooking (I eat out most evenings of the week), and my cleaning (I wish...I just don't clean). To make things even easier for myself, I have decided to outsource my training plan and work with a coach for IMAZ.

I met Mike Plumb, my coach, shortly after moving to San Diego. He's a top-age grouper, mad cyclist (so, so, so fast), and experienced coach. My friend Jen has been working with him for the past six months, and I saw the crazy improvments she has made, so I figured this could be a great thing for me as well. Plus, this will keep me from second-guessing my own training strategy. I'm looking forward to this journey. Here's a peek at my first week's schedule....

Tuesday: 4 mile run

Wednesday: AM: Swim (2500 yds), PM: 20 mile bike

Thursday: 4 mile am run

Friday: AM pool swim or PM cove swim (I did both...2000 yds in am, 800 yds in pm)

Saturday: 45 mile bike

Sunday: 10 mile run

The first 6 weeks will be tough, because I have class two nights a week. Come July, I have 8 weeks off of school, and then when I start back in the fall, I'll only have one night a week. By then, I should be used to the early AMs. 4:45 is VERY early, but I've learned that I don't need to stay up to 11 pm every night playing on Facebook or watching mindless TV. Bedtime is 9:30/10:00 from now on.

More updates to come...

The TCSD Saturday Morning Ride

2008-05-01T21:42:00.001-07:00

For the past three years, most of my Saturday mornings start bright and early at the Del Mar Starbucks for the infamous TCSD Saturday Morning Ride. Depending on the time of year, and what I'm racing for, and the weather (we don't really like the rain here in San Diego) this ride has several options:

Del Mar Starbucks to Carlsbad Starbucks and back - 30 miles
Del Mar Starbucks to Oceanside Harbor and back- 40 miles
Del Mar Starbucks to (or past) Las Pulgas gate (through Camp Pendleton) and back - 60-80 miles
Sometimes we even ride an inland hilly loop (Del Dios, Harmony Grove, Elfin Forest, San Elijo, La Costa, and back (well, really a loop) - 47 miles

As painful as this ride can be (especially when we do 70 miles + hills), this is a high point in my week. I know I'll be with friends and have good conversation, the coastal views will be stunning, and Starbucks will be waiting for me at the finish. :)

Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

2008-04-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was TCSD Softball day. Softball?!?!? Yes, you read that correctly. On Sunday afternoon, a bunch of us tri-geeks tried our hands at a team sport.

This was pretty exciting for me because:

1) We were playing at the park across the street from my condo complex...There are never any workouts in my neck of the woods!!!

2) I've been wanting to play softball since my glory days in high school

I learned:

1) Don't forget to put on sunblock

2) It may not be the best idea to do a 9 mile run in the canyons just prior to the game

3) I'm not in high school anymore! I used some muscles I forgot I had! I'm paying for it today.....

4) I'm afraid of the ball (It's amazing how easily you lose that confidence in going for grounders)

5) I no longer have depth perception....where the hell is that ball going?

6) A trip to the batting cages would be good (see below). Am I bunting, or am I hacking away at something? Neither! Maybe I should stick to triathlon! :)

Reality Check - 2008 Ironman CA 70.3

2008-03-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Well, for better or for worse, the 2008 race season is now in full swing. Yesterday marked the start of what is probably going to be a long year.

Going in to this race, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I had put in the same amount of training as I had for the same race last year, but for some reason, I did not feel as ready. In the past couple months, my already lacking swim form had deteriorated. My bike felt fine, but my feet had been bothering me on the run since my foot sprain in October. Plus, school has been kicking my A$$, so quality training was really difficult thing to achieve. So, with that being said, I went into this race expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.

The worst didn't happen, but this was definitely not my best race.

Pre-race

I felt really relaxed on race morning. My stomach felt fine, with no real butterflies. I only had to go to the bathroom once at the race site (compared to 3 times last year). I chatted with Bethany and Caroline in transition, and before I knew it, we were in the water.

Swim

The water felt surprisingly warm this year. That was probably the only good thing about this leg. Like I mentioned before, my swim form has been TERRIBLE lately....and that made me feel TERRIBLE in this race. I could not for the life of me find my rhythm. I felt extremely awkward in the water, and I was exhausted by the turnaround. I saw bright green caps, light blue caps, and red caps pass me. Then I saw dark green caps pass me. Oh, this was bad. People that started 16 minutes after me were passing me! Absolutely deflating! This is where the "reality check" started to come in to play. 1.2 miles....I swim that distance all the time with no problem in the pool. This was hurting though. I kept on thinking about how much work I'm going to have to do to be ready for 2.4 miles at IMAZ in November. Masters Swim and private lessons....I definitely need to do something!

Other than the 1/4 mile run through transition, T1 was pretty fast. Momo was volunteering, and was situated near my rack when I arrived. It was good to see a friendly face after such a horrible swim! I do, however, want to apologize to Momo for being such a "Debbie Downer." I spent most of my time in T1 complaining to her about my bad swim. Next time, I promise I'll be more positive! :) I saw plenty of other TCSDers volunteering in transition as well....Brian Long, James D, and Kevin K just to name a few. Thanks guys!

Bike

The bike is usually the easy portion of a tri for me. Not this time. My legs that seemed super-fresh on my little 10-mile bike check on Thursday were nowhere to be found! Just disappeared. Even with the tailwinds on the first 20 miles! I found myself a little off pace after those first 20 miles, and then it was time to head inland an into the miles. There are a couple of good climbs on the back side of Pendleton, however only one of them is worth any worry. I made it up that one, slow, but I made it up (many people walk their bikes at this point because the climb is so steep). That's where the fun began. This race is usually known for headwinds heading west back to transition for the last 10 miles. For some reason, I was feeling headwinds heading SOUTH through the hills. This wasn't good. Miles 30-45 were painful! When I reached the last stretch, there was NOTHING left in the tank. This is where the "reality check" came in again. I need to spend a lot more time on the bike before IMAZ!!!!

T2 was quick, but I saw Farah and James D as I was running in with my bike. Again, it was great to see so many friends.

Run

For some reason, the run was the easiest part of the journey for this race this year. Of course it was painful, but I was easily able to just get in the "zone" and get it done. It helped that I got to see friends running by on the 2 loop out and back course. Plus, there was "The Love Stop," the TCSD aid station that I got to run past 4 times, and get words of encouragement from Pat, Courtney, Darrell and a bunch of others. Again, I was pretty deflated coming off of the bike, but was able to put on a smile for Pat and the camera....

This picture (3 seconds later) shows how I really felt though.The run did get better as time went on. My feet were numb for the first half, but I felt great for the last loop!

So, this was not my best race. But I took a lot away from it.

I have A LOT of work to do before IMAZ
My carbopro/motortab mix is Wonderful! (plus a red potato)
You can't get a PR in every race
When a race is not going your way, try to put on a smile and have fun. We do this for fun, right?

The Breakdown:

Overall time: 6:26:32 (33 minutes SLOWER than last year)
Swim: 48:16
T1: 4:14
Bike: 3:24:18
T2: 2:19
Run: 2:07:27

February TCSD Race (aka The 9th Circle of Hell)

2008-02-16T20:22:00.000-08:00

Days like today remind me how crazy (and sometimes stupid) I really am. I'm a sucker for competition. That is the only way I can explain it. It's February, and even though it's San Diego....It's COLD! Many mornings are in the low 40s, the water is in the low 50s. The flu has been going around, and I am traveling later this week to ice cold Minneapolis. In addition, it rained like crazy on Thursday, causing nasty runoff into Mission Bay......and.... it is jellyfish season!

Despite all of this, I took the plunge.

The race consisted of a 2 loop, 800 m swim, a 12.5 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. After putting on my wetsuit, I walked down to the water. The sand was wet and COLD! I can't even put into words how cold my feet were. Pure pain! Paul, Elizabeth, and JT were sitting on the sand with their feet up in the air because it was too cold for them. Usually when the sand is this cold, the water feels warmer. Not today. The water was just as cold. The gun went off and we all jumped in. As soon as my face hit the water, I was again in pure pain. After swimming about 50 m, I decided I was done. My whole body hurt from the cold, and I was hyperventilating a bit. I started swimming towards shore, and then saw Leann swimming behind me. She couldn't even put her face in the water. She talked me into sticking with it....we could do it together. That was the extra push that I needed. I decided to go for it. The first loop of the swim was marked by hitting warm spots (relatively warm spots), and really really cold spots that caused my whole body to tingle with pain. There was also a jellyfish or 200 that I had to swim through. Usually this grosses me out, but I was so cold, I didn't even care. The 2nd loop was more of the same, except we had finally scared the jellyfish out of the way.

T1 came, and was SLOW. 3 minutes or so. I took my time. I couldn't really move my hands or feet, so putting on my socks and long sleeve jersey were quite the challenge. Oh well, being warm was more important to me at that time than being fast.

The bike was 5 small loops around Fiesta Island for 12.5 total miles. It was a good speed workout other than the fact that my feet were like blocks of ice. Most of my thoughts on the bike were about how much the run was going to hurt with my frozen feet.

The run was short. It was a very bizarre feeling to start my run on complete ice blocks. My feet finally thawed at 1.5 miles, so the last half mile I finally felt pretty good, and actually a little WARM! Pat had finished the race about 10 minutes before me, so he ran back and ran the last 1/4 mile with me to the finish.

I finished to find out that 3 of the top men (Paul, Eric, and Dean) had all dropped out of the race during the first 100 m of the swim because they were too cold. Even though I did not win, that definitely made me feel like a champ. :)

STATS:

18:55 Swim

3:31 T1

40:27 Bike

1:10 T2

15:49 Run

Total = 1:19:54 (1:19:49 TCSD Time)

A Little Crosstraining - Skiing in SoCal

2008-01-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

One of the bad things that has come out of this whole triathlon thing is my obsession with getting my workouts in...especially my long ones.....on the weekends. It's sad, but I have been known to pass up a lot of fun opportunities to get a long ride or long run in on a Saturday or Sunday. I decided to put a stop to this for one day. My friend Ryan was celebrating his Golden Birthday (27 on the 27th) and wanted to spend the day in the SoCal Mountains. Pat and I decided it would be fun, so figured why not!

We spent the day at Big Bear with Ryan and Erin. I had not skiied in 5 years, so it took a little time to get my confidence back (which for some reason as the years go by gets smaller and smaller....further to fall?) My calf muscles were wrecked for 2 days after, but the sunny, then stormy day, the company, and the crazy ride home made the trek well worth it.

Carlsbad Half Marathon - A PR? No Way

2008-01-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

For the 2nd Year in a row, the Carlsbad Half Marathon has been my first race of the year. It's a great race to get geared up for the rest of the season. For the second year in a row, the weather has been PERFECT! Mid- 50s and sunny at race start, low 60s by race finish. Plus, the run is almost entirely along the coast, so the views can't be beat.

Pat and I have been doing our long runs together for the past couple months....usually at Penasquitos Canyon if he has his say. Since my return to running after my foot sprain last fall, my run has really felt terrible. My foot (at least where the sprain was) feels fine, but my arches have hurt, my heals have hurt, my shins have hurt, and I've generally just felt much slower. I think it may be a shoe problem. I would mention that my run "sucked" to Pat on almost all of our runs, but he assured me that I'd still do great in the race. I wasn't so sure....

Race day came, and Pat was right. I did much better than I thought I could. I started off with the 1:50 pace group, but felt really good at the beginning, so I left them around Mile 1.5. With my new Garmin, I could see exactly what pace I was running at all times. Mind over matter, I decided to try run a sub-8:00 pace on the flats. I did pretty well, although had a hard time keeping this up the last 3 miles. By mile 10, I knew I'd be cutting it close if I wanted to PR. So I just pushed as hard as I could.

I came in at 1:47:25, beating my PR by 39 seconds!

Here are the stats....

Total time: 1:47:25

Pace: 8:12

Place: 48/726 (W25-29), 947/6343 (Overall)

Negative Splits!!! Pace after 6.6 miles = 8:18, Final Pace = 8:12....WooHoo!

Recovery consisted of a little bar time with TCSD (and unfortunately watching the Chargers and Packers both lose). Luckily, Scott Richardson was there with his massage table for a little 3rd quarter rejuvination of the legs :)

2007 In Review

2008-01-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, it has been a long time since I have updated this. I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to Ryan Denner for keeping on me to update this thing. Before I start into 2008, I'd like to do a quick review of 2007.

Last year, I did 19 races. Breaking this down a little more.....

4 Club Races (Sprint Tris)
3 Club Aquathlons
3 Sprint Tris (1 DNF)
2 International/Olympic Tris
2 Half Marathons
2 Half Ironmans
1 Cycling Race
1 10K Running Race
1 Boot Camp Challenge (5k Obstacle course)

Some highlights from this year include:

My First DNF - well, not really a highlight, but a good learning experience. I need to practice in big surf and strong current....or.....I need to know when to give up. Most importantly, I learned that DNFing is not the end of the world. Life goes on.

2 sub-6 hour half ironmans
An awesome PR at Carlsbad Half Marathon (1:48:04). I was thrilled!

My first cycling race.....geez there's some crazy fast women out there. Fun race that KILLED my legs!

Finishing in 3rd place at the Boot Camp Challenge. I even have my Drill Instructor Trophy on my desk at work!

Total Mileage Put in during 2007:

Swimming: 198,450 yds = 113 miles (Average 3816 yds/week)
Biking: 2831.5 Miles (Average 54 miles/week)
Running: 764 Miles (Average 15 miles/week)

Other than my running, unfortunately, all of my mileage decreased from my 2006 mileage. I'll blame business school! :)

In Store for 2008:

Carlsbad Half Marathon
Bulldog Bike Race
California 70.3
Ironman Arizona (Nov.)

Those are the definites so far. There will be more to come. I'll probably do a little less racing, and a lot more training in preparation for Arizona. Should be an interesting year!

Stay Tuned.....

The Price of Ironman

2007-12-07T10:28:00.000-08:00

In the past 2 weeks, quite a few emails have been going around the TCSD yahoo group about the price to do an Ironman (now $500!). Yes, that is quite a bit of money, but here are my thoughts on it....

$500 is not just the pricetag for 1 day of racing. I will start training for IMAZ in June or July. I will spend hundreds of hours with my friends riding up the coast (or in circles on Fiesta Island). I will cry with them when in pain, and celebrate with them when we've completed a tough workout. For 6 months, the group of us will eat, sleep and breath swimming, biking and running. We will experience things in those 6 months, both personally, and as a group, that will teach us more about ourselves than we ever thought we could learn. All of this will lead to, what in my mind, will be one of the happiest moments in my life...Mike Reilly saying that I am an Ironman on November 23. The fact that I am 11.5 months away from raceday, and that thought gives me shivers....I think that's worth $500.

Here's another good point on Ironman costs from Bob Babbitt....great read.

Dear Tri Clubbers………..

If it’s okay, I would like to add my voice to the Ironman conversation. I have heard the Ironman bashing over the years for everything from high entry fees to the lack of elite and age group race coverage on the TV show to the fact that each year a celebrity is placed into the event and did not have to qualify like the rest of us.

As someone who has been rather intimately involved in the multisport world since 1980, I feel that what Ironman brings to the table is constantly overlooked:

How many of the people out there first heard about the sport of triathlon when they saw the Ironman coverage on television? Get those hands up high. The coverage from Kona was exciting and incredibly well produced, the scenery was amazing and who doesn’t get excited hearing Phil Liggett or Al Trautwig wax poetic about the desolation of the lava fields? Hell, Liggett can order lunch and I’d get excited. I get chills thinking about some of the classic coverage right now. The fact that we all met amputee Jim MacLaren, father of the century Dick Hoyt, everyone’s hero Jon “Blazeman” Blais and amputee Sarah Reinertsen through those shows told us that anyone and everyone could accomplish this amazing feat. All it took was guts and will and a never say die attitude.

We then pushed away from our large everything pizza with extra cheese, somehow got ourselves out of the recliner and vowed to try one of those tri-ath-alon things one of these days.

We did and it changed our lives forever. We made new friends, changed the way we looked and felt about ourselves and became better parents, employers, employees and people.

We learned from that show that all anyone with a disability wants is a chance and an equal playing field. Ironman-and the triathlon lifestyle-makes that available to each and every one of us not matter what our limitations 365 days a year.

The Ironman has been producing GREAT television since the mid 1980’s. And you know what? They PAY a ridiculous amount for that television. And in my mind, the Ironman has been paying for all of the public relations for the sport of triathlon right from the beginning. They win Emmy awards for that television coverage and the athletes who are showcased on that show become stars.

Even though you are now a seasoned triathlete and have placed in your division a time or two, you know that that show was the reason you became a triathlete to begin with. So where do you place value when it comes to an event that believes enough in us to fund the PR to grow not just the Ironman, but the entire sport?

When people are chosen as Kona lottery winners, the Ironman creates and funds a PR campaign around at least 30 of those athletes and surprises the winners at home or at work with a local TV media member. Most of these folks break down when they find out they have been selected to be in the Super Bowl of Triathlon and for many it is a highlight of their life. I’m not quite sure if they break down because they are so happy they have been selected, or because they are scared crapless and know the how tough that day is going to be. The PR machine is there at the race in Kona as well. They identify athletes from different markets, get on- camera interviews before and after the race with each of these folks, film the local hero swimming, cycling, running and finishing and put all of that up on the satellite so that their local station can look like they actually took the time and effort to film their guy or gal and put them on TV. Nope, Ironman funds all of that, which again drives new people to our sport.

Without the Ironman TV coverage, I don’t think triathlon makes it into the Olympics in 2000. Ironman licensed events in Japan and Germany and New Zealand and Australia provided the impetus for the creation of short course events around the world. It was only then that triathlon was able to become part of the Olympic family. Triathlon was actually the first event of the Sydney Games and the producer of that coverage, Lisa Lax, had been the producer of the Ironman for many years for NBC. Lisa and NBC loved the Ironman, loved triathlon and pushed for that event to kickoff their coverage, which was exceptional. If the name Lisa Lax is familiar, it’s because a few years later Lisa and her twin sister Nancy created the amazing documentary Emmanuel’s Gift and told the story about a young man from Ghana who was motivated to ask CAF for a bike because he was inspired by a former Ironman by the name of Jim MacLaren.

Ironman probably doesn’t do a good enough job blowing their own horn about everything they do for the sport of triathlon. I know that completing the Ironman for the first time in 1980 changed me forever and whatever the cost is for entry into this incredibly exclusive club is minor compared to what we all get for being a member in good standing of this amazing fraternity and sorority.

It’s easy to look at someone else’s business and feel they make too much money and critique how they do their job. Do you really know what Ironman pays for insurance in this incredibly litigious world? Public relations? Their NBC television show? How much work do they do in Tempe or Panama City or Madison to become part of the community, to get kids into fitness, to promote the sport of triathlon to people who never heard of it before?

When people call our office and tell me they want to put on an event of any sort as a fundraiser for their charity, I always recommend that they look towards doing a car wash or a bake sale instead.
I say to them, “Do you really want to wake up on race day and know that you are personally responsible for the safety of 2,000 or more people?”

At that point selling pound cake sounds pretty good to them.

That is the burden all of our race directors must bare and it is a heavy one.

When you think about the Ironman, think beyond the events. Think about the joy that Ironman and triathlon has brought to your life and what the Ironman has done to provide a level playing field for wheelchair bound athletes, blind athletes and amputee athletes. At one time wheelchair athletes were told they could never complete the Ironman within the existing time cutoffs, especially the bike cutoff. John MacLean missed the bike cutoff two years in a row and made it on his third attempt. Then, Carlos Moleda went 10:55, not only making the cutoff times without a problem, but going faster than the able bodied athletes who won the Ironman had gone back in 1978 and 1979. That is called changing perceptions of what someone with a disability can accomplish.

The sport of mountain biking was hot in the 1990’s as was adventure racing. Both sports are nowhere near as big as they were back then. The fact that the sport of triathlon is still thriving after all these years has a ton to do with the constant investment made by the Ironman.

Ironman also has supported CAF to the nth degree right from our beginning with entries into a number of the events. The Kona spots have helped to raise over $1,000,000 for CAF.

I, for one, am eternally grateful for everything that Ironman brings to our world.

Sorry to go on for so long!

Bob Babbitt
Co-founder Competitor Magazine
Co-founder Challenged Athletes Foundation

Someone....Please check my sanity!

2007-11-29T15:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I did it, I took the plunge. On November 23, 2008, I will be competing in my first full Ironman race. Should be a fun year! :)

TCSD Desert Camp - Borrego-a-go-go

2007-10-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Twice a year (January and October), the TCSD crew heads out to the Anza-Borrego desert for a weekend of camping, eating, relaxing, biking, and marshmallow fights.

Pat and I headed to camp on Friday evening, set up our tents, chatted around the campfire a bit, and then headed to bed.

On Saturday morning, we got our bike gear together, and got fueled up for a 60 mile ride out to the Salton Sea and back. I had never done this ride, so I really didn't know what to expect. I do recall Brian Long warning us about the wind on the way back....but for some stupid reason I decided to ignore his comment. 60 miles. I can do this in my sleep....

The ride out to the Salton Sea was HOT! In the first 5 miles I had my doubts, but then kept pushing on. The ride is through the desert, and although pretty barren of civilization, it is actually quite beautiful with the mountains in the background, and the canyons along the road. When you think desert, you think flat.....not in this desert. There were actually quite a few rollers! The ride out was actually not that bad once the winds started helping us along. At one point, I actually rode for 5 miles straight at 30+ mph. The entire time I was thinking that the ride back was going to really suck.

We made it down to Salton City, refueled on water, and then started heading back to camp. Wow! What a difference! The wind was coming out of the west at what had to be 20+ mph. And it was a hot wind. It was about 100 degrees out and so riding into the desert wind felt like riding into a hot hair dryer. It was MISERABLE! With about 20 miles left, I started hurting pretty bad. My heart rate was escalated because of the heat, and although I could've dumped an entire water bottle over my head to stay cool, I knew I had to conserve every drop b/c 20 miles is a long way. With about 8 miles left, I saw my friend Kevin driving SAG. I stopped, and said take my bike, I'm done. I'm not one to give up, but I know when my body has had too much. I was done! We kept driving towards the Salton Sea to see if any others needed to be picked up. The carnage was pretty unbelievable. Along with another SAG wagon, we picked up about 8 others and then headed back to Borrego.

Once I was showered and fed, life was good again. Lots of good meat and beer, and even our own version of ER to end the night....no worries, he was ok after a couple stitches.

MCRD Boot Camp Challenge

2007-10-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here in San Diego, we are lucky to be surrounded by quite a few military bases. Camp Pendleton to the North, 32nd St. Navy Base to the South, MCAS, Point Loma (where Pat works), NAB Coronado, North Island...just to name a few. MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot...one of 2 in the country I think) is located here as well. From San Diego's airport, you can see the recruits marching and proving themselves on the obstacle course. One day a year, they open the obstacle course up to the public for the Boot Camp Challenge.

I have to say, when not out fighting for our country, the Marine Corps puts on some damn fine races. I have done both the Bulldog Bike Race and the Olympic Distance Tri up at Camp Pendleton and have always been super-satisfied with the venue and support (not to mention the cool t-shirts). When a couple of friends asked me to join their team for the Boot Camp Challenge, I figured...why not?

So, here's a little summary of my experience

Drove to MCRD in the am (AWESOME that it's only 1 mile from Pat's house)
Explored the expo (good expo, 2 beer companies)
Met up w/ my team (Run DMC) Court and Farah, and met my other 2 team members Kelly and Karla. Put on our cute tank tops that Farah and Court made
Got our pic taken by a tank w/ a hot 18 year-old Marine

Stretched/enjoyed the sunny day
Listened to a Marine Corps jazz band play at the start line to pump us up
Started the 3 mile obstacle course (jumped over hay bales, climed over log posts and made 8 ft. jumps, dropped and gave 10...twice. squatted through tunnels, etc.)
Finished race, felt pretty good (as an endurance athlete, 3 miles actually feels a little short now) Time = 30:50
Started driving home, then got a call from Courtney saying that our team had won 3rd place. Out of 16 teams! WHOA! Didn't expect that! Go Us! Check out the trophy we won (coming soon)!

All in all, fun day, fun race. Will hopefully do it again.

Mission Bay Triathlon - 2007

2007-09-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Ahh...Mission Bay. Where it all began. The first triathlon ever was held here! My first triathlon ever was here! (well, kinda...I did a club race the week before as my first). This race will always hold a sentimental place in my heart, despite the mucky MB waters. This was my 4th year in a row doing this race. I've definitely come a long way since the fall of 2004!

Pre-race

Pretty normal except for the fact that Pat set his alarm to NPR, and at 4:30 am, NPR had nothing airing. Blank. That means no noise when the alarm goes off. For some reason, I got up and looked at the clock. 4:45! Oh Sh*t! Not too bad. We rushed out of bed, dressed, and headed out the door.

Swim

Supposedly there was a favorable current. I felt it at the start as it was pushing us past the start buoys. I swear it ended just after those buoys. I felt like I was swimming through mud the rest of the distance. I just couldn't get into my groove. One of these days I really need to get into a masters program....

Pretty quick. I'd say about 40% of the bikes in my wave were gone when I got out of the water.

Bike

The bike course takes you out of ski beach, into the Sea World parking lot (lots of sharp turns), back out onto Sea World Drive and onto Fiesta Island for a loop before heading back. Since they paved the big loop on the island earlier this year, the race took advantage of it, making the bike course almost 2 miles longer. Advantage: ME! This is the only part of triathlon (other than transitions) where I can hold my own. The longer the better! I passed a couple of girls in my wave within the first mile, and then a couple more on the island. And then I started passing the boys. That was fun! I felt good on the bike. There were a couple portions where the wind held be back to 18/19 mph, but for the most part I was riding around 20 or 21 mph. For about a half a minute on the west side of the island, I thought I had a flat. Something just didn't seem right. Wheel looked ok though, so I powered on (I found out later at home that my tire really was flat...must have been a slow leak).

A couple of the 25-29 year old boys passed me on the bike (they started 5 mins behind). One guy passed me as I rode through Sea World the first time (must have been a wicked fast swimmer), a couple passed me on the island, and then 4 more passed me on the return trip through Sea World. Unfortunately they passed me just as we were heading into some water hazards (puddles). I was sprayed w/ muddy, dirty water and was speckled for the rest of the race. Oh well, you don't win races on looks.

Quick again. There were very few bikes on their racks when I returned. I love that.

Run

Usually this is where I get passed by half of the people I passed on the bike. For some reason, that didn't happen too much today. I started off strong, and ran my first mile in 7:30. 7:30!??!?! Wait...there's no way in hell I ran my first mile off the bike in 7:30. Concensus is that the mile marker was placed incorrectly. I hit Mile 2 at 16:30, so my 1 mile of elation on how I had suddenly become a fast runner, evaporated pretty quickly. From what I can remember, only 3 or 4 people in my age group passed me on the run. I had passed Michelle Panik on the bike, and she passed me again at mile 1.5. Not too shabby. Clay, who started 10 minutes behind me, passed me at about the same time. I was able to hold off Pat (who started 5 minutes behind me) for another 2 minutes, and then he blew past me. I never saw Becky. She was ahead of me the entire time. How's that for some Ironman recovery? I was able to finish strong, and feel good at the end of the race. Sprints are great....my stomach can usually be ready for beer within 10 minutes :)

Post Race

My wave was the third to go off. That meant I finished early and was able to make it to the beer garden by 8:30 am. Nothing like Mich Ultra for breakfast! :) It was a beautiful sunny San Diego morning. Couldn't ask for anything better. By 10:30 am, I was pretty buzzed. Pat and I were able to check another "Thing We want to do" off our list when we joined Paul, Erik, and Clay for breakfast at the Museum Cafe in La Jolla. I had the Asparagus Scramble. Yum!

Results (from my watch since Koz only does 3 splits)

Swim (500m)--10:24 (ugh)

T1--2:15

Bike(10.4 miles?)--31:21

T2 --1:12

Run(3.1 miles)--25:23 (ugh)

Total: 1:10:35

16/119 W25-29

TCSD September Club Race

2007-09-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

Why I decided to do a race just 6 days after a half ironman is beyond me. I could've used a nice day to sleep in, but nah.....that's no fun!

Anyway, after a summer of "paid-for" races conflicting with club races, I finally had my chance to race on Coronado for the first time this year. Just a nice little sprint....

800 m swim (heard it was more like 1000) ----17:41

T1 ----1:55

15 mile bike ----46:43

T2 ----0:59

3.2 mile run ----25:23

Total: 1:33:51

After a quick bite to eat (Thanks again Denise), I headed home, showered, and got ready for another Tri Club Event....The Don Lopez BBQ! As a Michigan MBA, he didn't disappoint...a TV was set up for me on the bar :) Michigan beat Notre Dame 38-0. Go Blue!

Mmmmm.....some of Don's famous meat. This stuff rocks!!!

My Big Kahuna Story....

2007-09-09T22:30:00.000-07:00

....Otherwise known as "How I easily succumbed to peer pressure."

It's September. I'm tired. My body is tired. I've been training hard since last December. Work is busy. School just started. I had every reason in the world not to do this race. But... it was on my original race schedule for the year, I was planning on heading to Nor Cal for Pat's race anyway, AND half of the Bellas were already signed up. Even Juls! So, after a little push from the girls, I gave in. I signed up for another half ironman.

My race weekend began soon after Pat crossed the finish line at Pac Grove. Since Pat had TNT celebrations to attend to on Saturday evening, my friend Erik came down from Santa Cruz to pick me (and my bike) up. We headed straight for the (very small) expo and picked up our packets. After a nice big burger and fry lunch with the girls, we settled into our cute little rental beach bungalow. Before long, it was time to carbo-load with the rest of the TCSD crew at an Italian restaurant downtown. We had a couple hours of good food, good laughs, and good entertainment (at one point in the evening, the lights were dimmed, and all of the waiters and cooks put on a little song and dance show). Then it was back to the bungalow to get ready for the day ahead!

Race Day

Pre-race

Since our beach bungalow was only 1.5 miles from the race start, the 7 of us (Me, Court, Erik, Tina, Elaine, Shannon, Stephen) were able to bike down to transition. It was so nice to not have to load up a car, leave early, etc. A 5 minute trip, and we were there.

Transition area was a bit like Baja. No assigned racks, a little chaotic, but not too bad. This meant I got to rack with all of my friends, so that was fun. I got body marked, made my bathroom trip, drank some gatorade, and went on a 1/2 mile warmup run. Everything felt in check.

Swim

One great thing about this race is that my wave was for 34 and under Women. This meant that I got to start with just about all of my bellas. The gun went off, and we were running into the water. I couldn't have asked for a better swim course or conditions. The water was calm, and the sky was very overcast, which made for easy swimming and sighting. The swim was basically around the Santa Cruz pier. If you went off course on the swim, you were a dumb*ss. The pier is huge, you can't miss it! In addition, the buoys that we had to swim around were bright orange, and really stuck out in the gray water and sky. The water was a tad bit cold (around 60 degrees), so once I got over the initial brain freeze, I had to make sure to continue to wiggle my fingers and toes to keep them from freezing up. It really wasn't too bad though. The water in my wetsuit warmed up fairly quickly, so for the most part, I was really comfortable. I ran out of the water and shocked myself with a 37 minute and change swim! That is 5 minutes faster than my other HIM swims. This race may not turn out so bad afterall (I later learned that the swim course may have been a little short...oh well).

T1 was long, probably 3/8 of a mile. I ran up the beach and to the boardwalk, where out of the sand I was able to easily take off my wetsuit. I then got to run across the street, over some train tracks, past a skateboard park and some restaurants into T1. T1 was pretty standard, although since the weather was a bit chilly (low 60's), and it was a longer race, I had to spend an extra few seconds putting on my arm warmers and gloves.

Bike

This bike course was FANTASTIC! Once again, the weather was great (cloudy and low to mid 60s) which made riding the course even better. Compared to Oceanside and Baja, there was much less climbing, so that was a nice relief. There were quite a few rollers though, which added a little challenge. The bike course weaved through some Santa Cruz neighborhoods before heading out onto Highway 1. Most of the course was right on the coast and absolutely beautiful. Since it was an out and back course, I could see how all of my friends/competition were doing. I saw Michellie Jones heading back to transition when I was at mile 19, which meant she was 18 miles ahead of me. Damn! Crazy fast! My friend Tina passed me around mile 20, and then Elaine passed me at mile 21. Within 2 miles of the turnaround, I was able to see Mer, Juls, and Shannon on their way back as well. I passed Elaine around mile 30, but never caught the others. Around mile 40, I hit a nice descent and my bike computer read 38 mph....and then 0 mph. Crap...my bike computer crapped out. This sucks. I had to ride the rest of the course blind (not knowing my speed or how many miles were left). Oh well, there was nothing I could do about it. I finally reached transition and saw Pat there (in a Michigan t-shirt, nonetheless) cheering me on. That put a smile on my face. :)

Nice, short, mindless as always.

Run

I hit the timing mats out of T2 and saw that my watch read 3:39. If I could do a 2 hour 1/2 marathon, I could do a sub-5:40 race. I was pumped. And then I started running....

Pat cheered me up the first hill, and then it was time to get my mind in gear to finish this race. The crazy thing about this distance is that when you get off the bike, you are completely exhausted. In every HIM, I think to myself that there is no way that I can run 13 miles. Then you realize that you already have 2 events down, so you have to finish. Somehow mind overtakes matter.

The run started on the sidewalk along the coast, then headed into the neighborhoods, and then back onto a running path through some farms and seaside bluffs. Miles 5-8 or so (including the tiki turnaround) were on a dirt path along the water. It kind of reminded me of running at Torrey, except without the steep hills.

Around Mile 1.5, I caught Tina in my sight. It took me a good half mile to catch her and pass her. She was looking strong and in good spirits. As I was heading up to the turnaround, I saw Juls, Shannon, and Mer all within a couple minutes. They were a good couple miles ahead of me. Shortly after the turnaround, Elaine passed me, holding a really nice pace. I also saw Steve K. and Tina who were just a few minutes behind me.

I realized towards the end of the run that I'm getting better at dialing in my nutrition. I had 2 bottles of Carbopro 1200 mixed with gatorade on the bike (800 calories total), and no solid food. Although my stomach was a little nauseous during the run, keeping me from running the pace that I really wanted, I never came close to bonking. That was great! Recalling my last 4 miles at Oceanside where I was nauseous, bonking, and in pain, this run was a piece of cake.

With about 3/4 of a mile left, I caught up with Elaine again. I said something to her about how much she was kicking ass, especially since she didn't do much training, and then all of a sudden she took off. I must have been a good motivator. I couldn't keep that pace. She would finish 35 seconds ahead of me.

The last half mile of this run is beautiful, but absolute torture. You drop down to the beach, and have to run through the sand, under the pier, and down the beach (in the sand) up to the boardwalk area to the finish line. Running in soft sand after close to 6 hours of racing hurts. Pat found me with about 1/8th of a mile left and ran with me for 30 seconds or so. He was talking, but I wasn't much of a conversationalist at that point. JUST...NEED....TO...FINISH....

Well, I did. And in PR time as well! :) I wasn't incredibly happy with my run time, but I went as hard as I could (at least without puking). All in all, a great day, a great race, great weather, and a great course. I'd love to do this one again.

Here's the numbers

Swim (1.2 miles) - 37:30 (1:56 /100m)

T1 - 5:31

Bike (56 miles) - 2:55:32 (19.1 mph)

T2 - 1:06

Run - (13.1 miles) - 2:09:39 (9:54/mile)

Total - 5:49:19

24/66 Women 25-29

Pic below is of some great race recovery....This stuff was great!!

August 2007 Aquathlon - Flat and Fast!

2007-08-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day for a race! Sunny, low surf, and Very low tide (probably the lowest I have seen). Some of the fastest people in San Diego signed up for this race. I set up transition next to Jim Vance, and chatted with Kate Major after a warm-up swim. The UCSD team and some crazy dudes from Brazil also competed. 2004 and 2006 Ironman World Champion, Norman Stadler, was also present, though he didn't race.

With the great swim conditions, and the flat run, and the crazy competition, I turned out my best Aquathlon time to date.

Swim (1000 m): 15:27

T1: 0:42

Run (3 miles): 24:08

Total Time: 40:17

As always, there was some great food afterwards....including Strawberry Shortcakes a la Elizabeth D. Yummy!

America's Finest City (AFC) Half Marathon - 2007

2007-08-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

This Race was HOT! And I don't mean Paris Hilton Hot, it was hot HOT! Ok, I guess I should stop complaining. I live in San Diego, where I'm used to running in 60 degree weather under cloud cover. This year's AFC fell during one of the hottest weeks of the year. 70, sunny, and humid at race start...maybe 75. Good thing I don't live in the southeast (or even the midwest) where summer mornings can be outright miserable.

The morning started out at Pat's house. He only lives a couple miles away from Balboa Park (race finish/parking) so staying with him earned me an extra 20 minutes of sleep-in time. Pat and I parked at the zoo and then boarded the bus to Cabrillo National Monument for the start of the point to point course. We both stretched, went to the bathroom, stretched again....you know the drill.

Before the start, we ran into Jen Yake and Tim Neuschwander (as well as a couple other friends). Jen and I ran the entire race together last year, so we decided to start out the same this year. We started out at a nice pace (8:15 or so) for the first couple miles. My body was feeling ok, especially with the downhill portions. I stayed with Jen for the first 6 miles, and then I knew there was no way I could hold her pace for the rest of the race. Oh well. Miles 6-10 take you onto Harbor Island, and then along the Embarcadero. The crappy thing about this is that you're heading directly into the sun for most of this. It was HOT! At most aid stations, I sipped some water, and then poured 1 or 2 cups over my head. It was good to keep the head and body cool.

Around mile 9, my friend Eric caught up with me. We ran about 2 miles together and then reached the final hill of the course....where he dropped me pretty solidly. I had forgotten how painful the end of this race is....mile 11 -12.5, when you are completely depleted, are basically all uphill. Yuck. See the race profile below....

I finished the race in 1:55:57 which is a 8:51 pace. I was about a minute slower than last year, but was ok with that. With the heat, and a half ironman coming up, I had no need to push it too hard.

After a great big breakfast, I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking beers on the beach w/Pat and my brother, Ben, who was in town visiting. Now that's some nice recovery!

Up North Michigan (Elk Rapids)

2007-07-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

July 17 - 21, 2007

After a 6 year absence, I had the opportunity to go Up North with my family this year. My family spends 1-2 weeks every year at a cottage in Elk Rapids, MI. This was my most favorite place in the world growing up, and after spending some time there again this year, I think it still is.

The cottages are small and rustic. Thin walls, shower curtains for bedroom doors, well water, and no hot water or shower inside the cottage (one community one to share). The air and water are super clean and fresh, and town still only has one stop light. This is one of the most relaxing places on earth. A perfect chance to read a book, lay out in the sun, drink some Bell's Oberon, swim, and roast marshmallows.

Of course, going on vacation did not mean vacation from training. Pat and I brought our wetsuits and did a couple swims in beautiful Elk Lake. We also did a 10 mile run outside of town and got caught in a Thunderstorm. I loved it! I hadn't seen rain in over 6 months, so a nice thundershower felt great on my body!

Camp Pendleton Olympic Distance Triathlon...and "Ode to Denner"

2007-07-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

July 14, 2007

For some crazy reason, the San Diego area only has one official olympic distance race that I know of, and Camp Pendleton is it. I did this race last year to see how I'd do at this distance. Once you've done a race one year, you have to do it the next, and the next, and the next to see if you can improve upon your times.

So...that brings us to this year's race. After last year, I was praying for a cool day with lots of clouds. For some reason, it can get really hot on that run, even though you're so close to the water. Mother Nature was nice to us, and kept the temperatures reasonable and a few spotty clouds in the air.

Highlights of this race included: racing with Pat (this was only the 3rd race that we have done together...it's really cool to have this shared experience), seeing my long lost friend Nick Abramson (he got engaged and decided to fall off the face of the earth), and racing on a Marine base with lots of hot 18 year old boys yelling "Good Job Ma'am." Yes, pretty cool.

Swim

For some reason, even though this swim is only a 1500 m swim, it seems SUPER long. I'm not a fast swimmer, so there was nothing exciting about this leg of the race. I swam, felt ok, and got out of the water in an expected amount of time.

T1 in this race is long. There is about a 1/8 mile run through the soft sand, and then another 1/8 or so of a mile through transition. pretty tiring! I decided that this year I'd take off my wetsuit as soon as I exited the water to make that run a little easier. Good move!

Bike

The bike is my favorite segment of the race for most races. I ride through Pendleton all the time, so I knew exactly what to expect on this course...a few small rollers, maybe a little wind, nothing to be worried about. The ride went fairly smooth until I reached the last aid station. A couple of the Marines asked if I wanted some water, and I yelled, "pour it on me." Well, they took "pour" as "throw" and threw a cup of water directly into my face. I was blinded and water pushed all the way into my sinues! Ow! It's amazing that I didn't fall off my bike. Luckily, I was able to recover quickly and get a good laugh out of it.

Don't remember it

Run

The run, although not as bad as last year, was still pretty hot. At this distance, this is the discipline that I need to work on most. My running sucks, and breaking 55 minutes is damn near impossible. I can run a 48 minute 10 in a road race, but have a very hard time doing anything other than 55 minutes in a tri. Just another thing to add to the list.

Finish

Pat's wave started about 1/2 hour before mine, and he finished almost 1/2 hour faster than I did, so by the time I crossed the finish line, he had had an hour to get hydrated, cooled down, and ready to cheer me on. It was fun to see him get a little crazy as I ran down the finish chute. We watched a few other friends finish and then headed to Pizza Port for some well deserved chow! Yummy!

Times

My Watch: (2:53:13)

Swim (1500 m): 32:09

T1: 5:29

Bike (40km): 1:18:00

T2: 1:13

Run (10km): 55:59

Official Time: 2:53:13

Swim + T1 : 35:24

Bike + T1/T2: 1:21:55

Run: 55:54

Scripps Ranch Old Pros 4th of July 10k Run

2007-07-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

July 4, 2007

While most people use a holiday to sleep in and relax, triathletes see it as a day with extra training time. The 4th of July is no different. With quite a few options (Coronado 15k, Fiesta Island Time Trial, La Jolla cove swim), I chose the local Scripps Ranch Old Pros 10k run. Pat was already doing it with TNT, and it was only a 5 minute drive from my house, so I figured, why not? Plus, this FINALLY gave me the opportunity to wear the $1 American Flag running shorts that Nikki and I bought at Road Runner 2 years ago.

As with every race, I want a PR. This one was no different. My best 10k time to date was on Thanksgiving (49:17). I wasn't sure if I could beat this though. I wasn't really feeling it. My feet and lower legs had been bothering me (need new shoes), but I figured I'd just give it my best and see how things went.

For the first 2 miles, I felt pretty miserable. I had run close to a mile for warm-up, but the combination of the morning heat and trying to get my heart-rate into gear wreaked a little havoc. I finally fell into stride after mile 2. At this point, I started picking off the women, and then some men. My 5k split was ~24:28, which is pretty close to my best 5k time last year. If I could keep this up, I could PR. I started slowing down at mile 4, and kept the same pace until the last half mile. At this point, the race was all downhill (for real downhill, not in the literary sense), so I was able to push the pace a bit.

Final Time: 48:59 (PR)

Pace: 7:53

Place: 7/70 (W25-29)

After the race, Pat and I opted to skip the beer garden knowing that PB festivities were beginning soon. Starbucks was calling, and there was one just up the hill from the race finish....Perfect!

Now, if only I could run this pace in a Tri. We'll see next week!

San Diego International Triathlon - 2007

2007-07-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

June 24, 2007

Stealing from Pat's blog...

We woke up to a beautiful June Gloom day. As the summer starts to heat up, triathletes are some of the crazy people that actually enjoy the cloudy mornings. Hopefully the clouds would hang out for a couple hours.

This was my third year doing this race, so there were really no surprises heading into the day. This is a great race, as many of the local San Diego triathletes come out (Tri club members and pros...i.e. Michellie Jones). It was great to see many of my friends as I set up transition.

The only difference in this race were the heavy hearts many of us had from losing our club president and friend, Jim McCann, earlier in the week. To show our appreciation to a man that meant so much to our sport here in San Diego, we wore specially made bracelets and wrote messages on our bodies.

As I said, no surprises in the race course. The swim is flat, the bike is hilly, and then the run is flat. A good course for me! I was able to take ~1 minute off my swim over last year, ~6 minutes off my bike, and about a minute off my run. I beat my overall time from last year by about 9 minutes, so I was pretty happy.

Swim (1000 m): 19:16

T1: 2:45

Bike (30 k): 56:21

T2: 2:24

Run (10 k): 55:37

Total: 2:16:23

Aiming for a sub-2:10 race next year! :)

Thanks Jim....

2007-06-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

I lost a friend this week. Jim McCann, President of the Triathlon Club of San Diego (TCSD) passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday.

I don't remember exactly when I met Jim, but it was probably sometime in late 2004, early 2005 when I was becoming more active in TCSD. I recall how he remembered my name right off the bat, and as a new transplant to San Diego, made me feel welcome and important in this huge group of people.

A few things that I'll always remember about Jim...

He took the time to get to know everyone he met on a personal level. He knew that since I was a Michigan alum, there would be nobody better to sell me my new bike than Mike Drury (a frickin' Buckeye)...yes he had a good sense of humor like that.

Other than running TCSD and his wetsuit rental business, he really could've capitalized on his "matchmaking" services if he wanted to. He was always looking out for new or single members in the club and trying to set them up with other new or single members. It wasn't random though, he really went to great thought about who he set people up with. At every event, he was always introducing people to eachother whether for dates or for friendship.

Jim was great at getting people to "volunteer" for things. I don't know how he did it so easily, but one day you're talking to Jim, the next day you're coordinating a big TCSD event, or running his wetsuit booth. I was actually telling him last week that I needed to take lessons from him! His influencing skills could get me far in the Corporate world.

Speaking of the corporate world, Jim was all about starting your own business. I can't even count how many silly conversations we had that included him telling me to leave the Corporate lifestyle (i.e. stop traveling to Bakersfield!!!) and come up with a marketable idea so I could work for myself.

Jim was an extremely giving person. Whether it was giving advice on triathlon stuff, giving you contacts to help you get to the next step on your endeavors, or giving you a discount on a wetsuit, giving to others made Jim happy.

This past Saturday night, Jim and his wife Dee Dee invited the entire Tri Club to their house for a bbq (yes, all 1700 people). Yes, crazy!!! Luckily for their neighbors, not all 1700 showed up, but I was one of the lucky ones that did. I'm not a very philosophical person (I'm not even sure if I spelled that right), and unless it includes numbers (you know, the engineer thing), I don't really try to overanalyze things either, but in retrospect, you almost have to think that that gathering happened for a reason. He had one last opportunity to spend time with so many people that he cared about and that cared about him.

That night, Jim gave me a tour of their house and we ended up on their rooftop balcony overlooking the coast, their pool, and the party below. I joked that if I lived there, I would be naked the entire time because of the secluded nature of their yard (No hideous bike short tan lines!). We also chatted about how awesome it was to get a group of people together like this for food and fun. That was Jim. You could talk to him about everything and anything, but mostly it was about enjoying life and living life to its fullest....which he did.

So, back to the title of this blog. I want to thank Jim.

Thanks for making a midwesterner feel at home out here in California. Thank you for inspiring so many of us to do things we never thought we could, and encouraging us to embrace this "triathlon" lifestyle. And thank you for building and being part of this family we call TCSD.

We'll miss you...

A couple of articles on Jim's life:

Triathlete Magazine

Competitor Magazine

June 2007 Aquathlon

2007-06-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

June 7, 2007

Time for the second aquathlon of the TCSD Summer Aquathlon Series. Same place (La Jolla Shores), same distance (1000 m ocean swim, 3 mile beach run). Today the sun was out, and the tide was low(er). Great conditions for a race.

Results:

***According to my watch. May be updated once offical results are posted.

Swim: 17:38

T1: 0:38

Run: 24:37

Total: 42:53

Encinitas - The Race That Wasn't

2007-06-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

May 20, 2007

A day that will go down in infamy....for me at least.

The Encinitas Triathlon is fairly new in town, only 2 years running (however I think it was re-incarnated from a race held years ago). I didn't have a chance to do it last year as I was competing in a half ironman down in Baja that weekend, so I was chompin' at the bit to do it this year. The race was a 750 m swim, a 20k bike, and a 5 k run. Pretty easy distances. Another exciting thing about this race is that my boyfriend Pat's wave was to start 4 minutes after mine, which makes for an "almost" equalizer. He would've probably passed me and kicked my butt early in the run.

Anyway, back to the race....

Swim

This is where it starts and ends. The swim was a square course from the beach: head out from the beach to the first buoy, turn right and head north, turn right and head back to the beach. My wave was the third to go, after the Pros and the 24 and under men. The pros started 10 minutes or so before my wave. We could tell right away, even from the race's top swimmers, that the swim was not going to be easy. Big waves, big current. Before the 2nd wave went off, Greg Welch and Paula Newby-Fraser were telling us to aim north as the current was pulling south.

Well, my wave and I headed north. I guess just not far enough north. After 7 minutes, I was only half-way to the first buoy and in the thick of the waves and the current. A large wave came and took about 10 of us 50 m towards shore, and the current carried us about 100 m south of the buoy. Oh, this was going to be fun. Some people were calling it quits at this point. I found another woman in my wave and said, "Let's Do This!" That lasted about 30 seconds before I realized that I was never going to be able to swim against the current. I headed back to shore, and then ran north along the beach with a couple others from my wave to re-enter the swim course again. At this point, more than 10 minutes had passed. I decided to go for it again. Unfortunately, when I got out there, it was more of the same, and my body was already exhausted from fighting the waves before. I did what I never thought I would do. I called it quits, my first DNF. :( I decided to hop on my bike because I still wanted to get a workout in. I did the 12 mile race course and then headed back to the race finish to watch Pat finish (he had a great race and a stellar run by the way, even after the tough swim).

So, lessons learned.

1. I need to take some open water swim lessons and learn how to handle large surf.
2. A DNF is not the end of the world. Yes, I was sad not to finish, but I knew I gave it my all. An experience like this just makes me more determined to kick that race's ass next year.

Here are some pictures that a friend took on race day...

May 2007 Tri Club Aquathlon

2007-06-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

May 17, 2007

One of the great benefits of being a member of TCSD are the free races. Each summer, the tri club hosts a series of 6 Aquathlons (1000 m swim, 3 mile run) at La Jolla shores. Over the past couple years, my bike has become my strong point in triathlon, so I get to use these races as an opportunity to get completely demolished by the 150+ strong field. Since I'm a "glass half full" type of girl, I guess I should look at it as an opportunity to make my swim and my run stronger.

The highlights of these races are

1. 150 + people starting the swim in front of the Marine Room (really nice restaurant). It's pretty funny to see the faces of vacationers and San Diego's elite as we run into the water. WTF?!?!?

2. The food after the race. Pretty amazing. Pizza, pasta, and Elizabeth Daubner's amazing desserts.

This month's race went well for the first race of the year. The run was a bit tough, as it was high tide and we had to run through sandy water up against the sea wall. Great workout for the calf muscles!

May 2007 Aquathlon Results:

Swim: 18:03

T1: 0:47

Run: 25:58

Total 44:48

Spring Sprint Triathlon 2007

2007-06-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

May 6, 2007

This was my 3rd year doing the Spring Sprint Triathlon. It consists of a 1/4 mile swim, 9 mile bike, and a 3 mile run. It's a short and fun race, but still difficult because you are in sprint mode the entire time.

It was fun to once again be competing against some of my friends. Its great how we make each other push harder in a race. In this case, my biggest rival was Becky Sandbeck. She got out of the water before I did (not surprising, she swims for her job training Shamu....really, she trains Shamu!). I passed her on the 2nd loop of the bike, and then she passed me at the 1/2 mile mark on the run....and then finished 2 minutes ahead of me. Looks like I need to work on my run!

It turned out to be a great race though. I continue to improve my time year over year. Here's how things turned out:

Swim: 9:01

T1: 2:00

Bike: 26:58

T2: 1:00

Run: 24:16

Total: 1:03:15

8/44 (W25-29)

Ironman California 70.3 - 2007

2007-05-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

March 31, 2007

Well, I'm pretty lousy at this blogging thing. It is currently May 1, and I am writing about a race that I completed over a month ago. Oh well.

I'm using this blog more for me, so I can remember what races I did, how I felt, and what my times were. If other people care to read, then go for it. Anyway, here goes with the race report (from what I remember 1 month later).....

Pre-race
Got to Oceanside somewhere around 5am. Parking wasn't bad, but it was about a mile from transition. Luckily we all had our bikes to ride. It was really bizarre to see so many people riding their bikes in pitch black. It was also pretty crazy to hear how quiet it was.....everyone thinking about the long day ahead.

I made my way into transition and racked my bike. After a few minutes, my fellow bellas...Julia and Jen Y. showed up and racked near me. It was great to have friends nearby to calm my pre-race nerves.

After body-marking and a couple of bathroom trips, it was time to make our way to the swim corral. While we were walking, Andy Potts (pro triathlete and Michigan Grad) was just making his way out of the water. He was a full 2 or 3 minutes ahead of the rest of the pro males. Absolultely amazing. Something about those Michigan grads! :)

Swim
(1.2 Miles - 42:14)
The swim is by far my weakest link in triathlon. One of these days I'll join a Master's program and get faster. The water was cold to begin with (as expected). I think someone said it was 59 degrees. Better than the 55 degree water I heard about last year. For such a long swim, it turned out to be pretty brutal. With waves going off every 3-4 minutes, I was swimming over, getting kicked by , and running into people for almost the entire time. It seemed like I was always in the pack. After the turn-around, things opened up a bit. This was primarily due to the fact that we were swimming directly into the sun and nobody could see the buoys or the person in front of them. Good times. I made it out of the water, and heard the announcer say my name. Pretty cool feature for these big races....sophisticated timing chips! Off to T1!

T1
(4:23)

T1 started with a long (1/8 mile at least) run to the back of transition, and then back to my rack. My feet were pretty frozen, so it really hurt to run. I saw my friend's Brian and Mary while I was running. It's great to have such a large race in your home-area. Lots of people to cheer for you! I made it back to my bike and started taking off my wetsuit. One of the volunteers offered to help. I'll know better next time. instead of pulling from the top, she bunched most of my wetsuit onto my calf. Ahhhhh! Painful calf cramp! That sucked! I massaged it for a couple seconds, and then got my bike and took off .

Bike
(56 miles - 3:02:54)
Other than my calf cramp, I went into my bike feeling pretty good. I opted to leave my armwarmers behind, and am glad I did. The sun warmed me up pretty quickly. I knew the first 25 miles of this course like the back of my hand, fairly flat and fast. I had to concentrate on pacing myself. At about mile 4, I passed my friend Helena. My predictions were right. Her wave started 8 minutes after mine, but I knew she would beat me out of the water. Super fast swimmer! I think she beat my swim time by about 9 minutes. I have a little bit of an edge on her on the bike, so I was able to catch up to her. I knew that would all end on the run though. It is so great to have competitive friends that make you better!!! One day I will beat you Helena, one day!! :)

I did get to see some other friends on the bike as well. I saw Julia on the out and back portion on Las Pulgas (she was a few minutes behind me), and then again at mile 30 when she passed me. I saw Raja, and then Stacy around mile 20 when they passed me. They started 8 minutes behind me as well. They are both super strong on the bike, so I expected them to pass me as well.

At mile 30, phase 2 of the bike started...Hills! The back side of Pendleton was something I hadn't seen before (closed off to Civilians), so I didn't really know what to expect for the hills. Jim Vance had mentioned that the first hill was a short version of the inside of Torrey. B.S.!!!! Sure, it was short, but steep as hell! I saw a few people walking their bikes at this point. I'm happy I did do all of those Torrey repeats. My legs were strong enough to get through. The other 2 hills were really no big deal (especially compared to Baja last year).

The final 10 miles were flat with a little bit of a headwind. At this point, I knew that if I could maintain a 20 mph pace, I could beat 3 hours. It would be close. With about 6 miles left, I knew I'd just miss my target. I had been dropping to 18-19, and didn't want to kill my legs to stay at 20 before the run. I was still happy with my time though. I was hoping to beat 3:15 and I beat that by almost 13 minutes.

Nutrition on the bike went well....accelerade (yuck), gatorade am, gatorade endurance, clif mojo bar, power bar, clif shot bloks, jelly belly sports beans. In all, I think I got about 700-750 calories in me. Next time I'll know to get a few more (see run section).

T2
1:51
Quick and easy, nothing to tell here

Run
(13.1 miles - 2:01:43)

Ahhh, the run. The final leg. The good thing about the run is that you can walk it if you really need to. Of course I was hell bent not to walk. The run started off good...I felt really strong. I saw my friend Jen on the sidlines, and my friend Paul taking pictures. So nice having friends there to cheer you on. After about 3/4 of a mile, I caught up to Julia, ran with her for a couple minutes, and then took off. By the time my run started (around 11:30 am) the sun was really starting to beat down. It was probably only 70 degrees at the most, but when you're running, it feels like a whole lot more. At every aid station, they had sponges soaked in ice cold water. This was great! I'd grab 2 and put them under my shoulder straps of my tri-suit. Whenever I was feeling too warm, I'd just squeeze! :)

The run was 2 loops along the coast in Oceanside. Once again, familiar territory. When I lived in Oceanside, I ran here a couple times a week. With a 2 loop run, you get to pass your friends a couple of times. I couldn't let any of them see me walk! So I kept running. I felt pretty good on the first loop. The second loop was a different story. I really didn't want to eat anything on the run, so I mixed it up with liquids at each aid station (water, gatorade, coke). By mile 9, I was hurting. My hip flexors hurt, and I was starting to bonk. I was so out of it at that point that I didn't even think of eating. Plus, my stomach was a mess, so eating may not have been a good idea anyway. I'd have to say, the last 4 miles of that race were the most painful miles I have ever run. I just kept at it though, one foot after the other. I know I can break 6 hours. Just make it to the finish line! With about 1/4 of a mile left, I could see the finish line and hear the announcer. I was almost there and I started sprinting (or at least what felt like a sprint). I did it! :) 5:53:03!!!!! (The time shown to the right was the time from the first wave start - 49 minutes before my wave)

Post Race

Upon crossing the finish-line, I picked up my finishers t-shirt, medal, and hat, and then saw my friend Darrell. Darrell is a guy I ride with on Saturday mornings, and he was volunteering at the race. He came right over to me in the finisher's shoot, made sure I could walk and gave me a great big hug. I started bawling. I sooo wanted to break 6 hours, and I did it pretty soundly. It was so great to have a friend there to celebrate with me.

After chatting with Darrell for a bit, I headed straight for the food tent and scarfed down 2 slices of pizza and a coke, and headed back to transition to share war stories with my friends.

What a super day! :)

I hate writing....why am I blogging?

2007-04-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Well, as much as I hate writing, I figured this was the best way to keep track of my races for myself, as well as post fun race reports and pictures for friends and family to see. So here goes....