Color Run Giveaway!

I have been given the opportunity to give away two entries to The Color Run!  The Color Run is described as the happiest 5K on the planet, where you start out wearing all white and end up a rainbow of colors. 

Almost like Rainbow Bright threw up on you.  Only in a good way.

The Color Run is for everyone--serious runners who want a day of fun or beginning runners who want to try out a run without the stress of being timed.  You can run with your family, friends, co-workers!  You can run as a color team or as an individual.  Anyone who wants to have fun can do this run.

These entries are good for any location of The Color Run that is not already sold out.  You can check the locations available here.  Locations sell out quickly, so if you win or if you want to sign up, then do so quickly to save your spot.

If you don't win the giveaway, you can still sign up for The Color Run with the discount code below.
And if you register with a team, you automatically get $5 off so with the promo code, the total discount would be $10!

Because the sites do tend to sell out quickly, I'll run this giveaway pretty quickly as well.  Enter below through rafflecopter.  Giveaway ends 8/7 and I'll announce the winner that weekend when I get back from vacation.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lobster Roll 5K Recap

On Saturday my older daughter and I ran the Lobster Roll 5K held in our hometown.  This is a local race in it's fourth year and I've ran in all of them thus far, so even though I haven't really felt like doing any races, I wasn't going to miss this one.  I have a streak going!

It's a small local race that raises money for a community track.  I was looking at the plans and noticed that there was a soccer field in the middle of the track, but nothing mentioned about a field hockey field.  Ummm, excuse me?  We also have a field hockey team here people.  I'll go ahead and assume that they meant to put field hockey/soccer field since the space could be used for both.  Or maybe they are keeping the field hockey field in the same spot that it is now.  Whatever.  My kids will likely be graduated by the time they have enough money for this field anyway.

So about 200 people showed up for the race.  It was a perfect day, around 65 and sunny.  There was some humidity but the race was scheduled to start at 8:00 a.m. so that was early enough that the sun wouldn't be too strong then. 

Once again, I had no expectations for this race.  My legs had been sore and tired all week and on Friday I had swam my 2000 yds for the first time in 2 weeks.  Which, by the way, almost did me in on my first 250 set.  Two weeks without swimming and I swear to god I felt like I was learning all over again.  Cough, gag, sputter.  Anyhoo, off track a bit here.  (pun kinda intended)

The race started out and it seemed like I was stuck behind a bunch of slower runners/walkers.  Annoying.   So I did a little sprint to get some space.  Mile 1 7:31.  Not bad.  Mile 2 15:40.  Still pretty good.  The last mile my legs were so sore and tired and there's a little bit of an incline to run up and the girl in front of me stopped to walk so I did too.  WTF.  Seriously?  Walking in a 5k? 

Hangs head in shame.

I walked my lazy ass up that incline (not quite a hill) and then the policeman was stopping traffic at the intersection at the top.  I was damn sure not going to walk through the intersection, so I started running again.  Down the other side of the incline, thankfully.

I probably had about a 1/2 mile to go to the finish and I could hear squeaking coming up behind me.  Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.  Very rhythmically, and it was driving me crazy.  Like what the frig has he got on for sneakers that are squeaking like that.  Then I hear, "What a great handicap!".  I had to turn around.

It's a guy pushing a freaking double stroller.  wtf.  I mutter to myself "great, I'm getting passed by the stroller" and I must have said it pretty loudly because all the spectators laughed.  Nice.  Seriously, guy.  Nice job kicking my ass with the double stroller.  I was a little happier that it wasn't a woman pushing it.  Then I would have been shamed twice in 5 minutes.  Walking and being passed by a woman with a double stroller. 

I finally finished this stupid race in 25:39.  My legs were like spaghetti.  What is up with that?  For a 5k? 

My kiddo finished in 29:46.  Not her best race either.  We were both kinda bummed. 

Then the results were posted and I was second in my age group!  What?  All the fast woman must have stayed home.

But wait!  There's more.  The one woman in my age group who beat me, won third woman overall and was taken out of the age group awards, so I was called up as the winner of my age group!  Ha!  With a time of 25:39.  That's funny stuff right there. 

I got a cool buoy trophy, which I love. 

I do not have pictures of anything since I'm about as good at blogging as I am at running.

My legs are still sore, two days later, so I guess I must have tried hard?  I don't know.  I don't think I've ever been sore after a 5k except maybe my very first one.  Maybe left over from the 50 mile bike ride last Sunday?  I don't know.

Anyway, thanks to 3 friends from home who didn't race--Doreen, Stacy and Karen--I was able to snag a first place age group win.  I hope you won at whatever other race you were racing in. 

Maine Lobster Ride--50 Mile Group Bike Ride

Yesterday was the Maine Lobster Ride which is a large group ride along Maine's coast with distances ranging from 15 miles up to a century.   My friend and I had registered for the 50 miles.  I thought if I were going to tackle 70.3, I probably ought to ride 50 miles at some point.  So this was the event.

It is put on by the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and this ride was recognized by Bicycling Magazine as one of the top 10 centuries in the country!  Right here in Maine!  Bonus for me, it was only an hour from my house. 

The weather was *perfect*.  I mean perfect.  The humidity had finally broken and it was a lovely 58* when I woke up.  Cool and clear. 

I left my house at 6 a.m. for the hour drive up.  It took even less time than that because there was literally, no traffic at that hour.  So I arrived super early (which I like) and had plenty of time to check in and grab some breakfast.  They had donuts and bagels for the riders as you checked in, which was great since I hadn't eaten anything yet and knew I would need something before 50 miles. 

I checked in and got my bib and map and instead of t-shirts, they give out socks.  Which happened to match perfectly with my Tough Chik kit. 

fancy purple kit

matching purple lobster socks!  Not many people can say that they have purple lobster socks.

Of course, I put them on immediately.  How could I not?

My friend arrived and we got her all checked in and then it was almost time to start.  I wish I had thought to get a picture of the people lined up for the 50 miler.  There were so many.  I had never been to a group ride before so I had nothing to compare it to.  The 100, 80 and northern route 50 milers had already gone, so this group was just southern route 50 milers.  It had to be around 200? bikers?  So many.

I never saw so much spandex in my life.  Some of it good and some of it bad.

A shorter, older man with a large belly was getting ready and he was wearing one of those unitard biking things.  You know, the ones that look like a wrestling uniform?

Yes.  Those shorts.

Not a good look.  Hairy chest and all.  Seriously man, put your bike shirt ON please.  There are children here.

ready to ride!

Anyway, the ride started a little later than it was supposed to and it was slow at first with all the bikers.  We had a police escort for the first mile or two at 12 mph, so that was hard to pedal that slow with so many bikes around.  It finally loosened up around mile 6 and we could ride pretty comfortably that way.

It wasn't a timed race and I was riding with my friend, but it was still pretty hard to not want to ride as fast as possible and try to get ahead of people in front of you.  I would race up hills to challenge myself (and beat people) and then take it easier on the flats and chat with Bobbi.

There were two scheduled rest stops along the way and of course, they were scenic.  I didn't get a picture at the first stop, but we had another rider take a photo for us at the second stop.  He seemed like photography was his real-life job and if it wasn't, it should be.  He took great care to get that lighthouse centered between us.

Maine is so ugly.  Don't waste your time coming here.

The rest stops were well stocked with snacks and drinks.  They had water to fill your bottles with and you could add powdered gatorade if you wanted.  The first stop had nutella and bananas on graham crackers (YUM), granola bars, plain bananas and cheese cubes.  The second stop had the above stuff but also M&M's!!!  I was psyched.

The first two legs of the ride were about 13.3 miles each and the last was around 23.5.  I thought the last leg would seem like forever, but it really didn't seem any longer than the first two.  The road itself was great for the majority of the ride.  The pavement was even and there weren't a lot of spots where there were cracks or danger areas.  If there were, they were well marked with warning paint.  The last 4-5 miles of the loop the right side of the road was horrible.  You could tell that was where the frost heaves occur in the winter because there were so many cracks and the pavement was all uneven.  That was my only (kinda) complaint.

My bike started making a weird ticking noise right from the get go that had me a little worried.  I had noticed it on another ride, but not on my most recent one so I never brought it in to be checked.  It started making it when the chain was on the large gear in the front (the one I used the most), but would go away when I needed to shift down to go up a hill.  By the end of the ride it was clicking in every gear and I kept thinking that something was going to just fall off.  But it never did.  I'll be heading to the bike shop this weekend to see what that was all about.

The ride took us about 3 hours and 45 minutes including the time spent at the rest stops.  We spent about 10 minutes at the first and 15-20 at the second.  Overall, not too bad for our first 50 miler.

I personally felt *awesome* on this ride.  My legs were strong and I could have ridden much faster and harder if it were that kind of race.  My only pains were some upper back/lower neck pain after the 40 mile mark.  I'm definitely going to get my handlebars raised a little.  I didn't need to rest at the rest stops and when I was done, my legs could have ridden another 20 miles without problem.  In fact, I almost went out for a run after because I've never done a brick workout and my legs felt fabulous.

But then I saw the lobster rolls.

happy dude passing out the large lobster rolls

photo courtesy of Bike Coalition of Maine

So I ate instead.

The after-ride lunch was part of your registration fee, you just had to get a ticket by showing your bib.  The food was really great and plentiful.  There was cole slaw, cookies, watermelon, and of course, lobster rolls. (For you weirdos that don't like lobster, there were wraps.)

So in summary:

The Good:
Great meal, great ride, great weather.  Just great.  All of it.  The people were so nice everywhere you went.  I do believe that bikers are just as nice as runners.  People called out "on your left", "car back" and would also point out potential danger spots as they were riding in front of you.  The motorists were either really nice, used to bikers or were well aware of the event because they were very courteous as well, giving plenty of room when passing and being patient about passing when it wasn't safe.

The event was well organized, with plenty of parking and people to help you park properly.  There were plenty of volunteers to keep all lines short and moving.  I loved the socks and loved that they match my kit. There was also support at the rest stops and volunteers driving the course to see if anyone needed help or a ride back.  That was comforting when my bike starting clicking.

The food was great and there was plenty of it.  If you were hungry it was your own fault.  They had breakfast, snacks and lunch covered and all of it was good.  The drinks were cold and plentiful and there were also plenty of bathrooms for those who needed them.  

The Bad:
I have no complaints about this event at all.  It really was that good.  I didn't love the crappy-ish road the last 4 miles of the ride, but that is no fault of the race coordinators.  We can thank good ole Mother Nature for that.

My bike clicking and making weird noises was the only thing that was kinda bad.  It didn't prevent me from shifting or riding and nothing broke but I was a little worried about breaking down.


This triathlete/runner has maybe found a new love.  Biking is awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed myself yesterday.  I highly recommend this ride to anyone who enjoys biking or wants to try a group ride.

Is calling it quits quitting?

So maybe you've been able to tell by my lack of posts that my racing mojo is seriously lacking.  I am just not feeling it this season. 

I'm still exercising and training, but I've gotten to the point where I just don't care about racing. 

Local yokel race in town down the road?  I'm in.

Larger race an hour away where I have to get up at 5:00, possibly encounter traffic on the way home, and likely die of heat exhaustion due to the asinine humidity levels?  Bleh.  Not so much. 

Which presents a problem of sorts.

I have this little race on my schedule just about 6 (7?) weeks away that I keep pushing away to the back of my mind.  The Rev 3 70.3 in Old Orchard Beach. 

70.3.  That means seventy MILES of racing. All in one day.  Back to back.

I can do 1.2 miles of swimming.  No big deal.  I do it weekly.

I can do 56 miles on the bike.  Yes I can.  I might even do it at a 17 mph pace.  That is possible. 

But then the 13.1 mile run.  This is what hangs over my head. 


13.1 MILES of RUNNING.  AFTER 56 MILES of biking. 

This is where I lose it.  My longest run to this year was 10 miles.  Back in February.  And that was not pretty my friends.  Read all about it here if you wish.

I like running.  I really do.  But my running seems to be around 4-6 miles and that's it.  But I like that.  5 miles is my thing.  I can bang out 5 miles like a boss.  A not-very-fast-boss, but a boss nonetheless. 

I know I can run 13.1 miles.  I have done it before.  But guess what?  I really don't want to. 

I just don't want to.

Right now I feel my time is better spent being with my family, sleeping, biking, swimming with the kids (in the ocean, not the pool), at the beach or playing field hockey. 

I feel guilty for not training better for this race.  I feel guilty for not at least trying to get a 10 miler in.  Or a brick workout. 

I feel like I'm failing.  I feel like the natural progression of things here is to do a sprint tri, then an Olympic tri and then the 70.3 and eventually the 140.6.  I read blogs of people doing all these fantastic things and it makes me feel like that's what I should be doing.  Because in the running/tri blogging world, exercising 4 hours a day is pretty darn normal. 

In my real life, it is not.  Here's my typical day:

6:30 a.m. wake up and get ready for work
8:00 a.m.-11:30 to 12ish  see patients for eye exams
11:30-12:50 exercise--either run 4 miles, bike 15 or spin at the Y, with time for a quick shower
1:00-4:30ish see more patients
4:45 p.m. drive to watch kids karate/jiu-jitsu (yes, every night of the week)
6:30 or 7:00 p.m. depending on when karate ends--arrive home to make and eat dinner
7:30 p.m. feed kids and do dishes
8:30 p.m. try to tidy up house/do laundry/take a shower
9:00 p.m. begin the process of putting kids to bed
10:00 p.m. play on FB for a little bit
10:30 p.m. try to fall asleep
12:00 a.m. wake up due to snoring and move to another room to sleep

I suppose there is time at 5 or 5:30 to get up and do something, but honestly, my body and mind are so tired I just cannot get up then.  I can't and I don't want to.  And I really don't want to end up feeling guilty about not getting up then.  I don't have the luxury of an afternoon nap and it's almost impossible for me to get to bed before 10.  Something would have to give to put more exercise in that schedule.  Either kid time, work time or sleep time.  I can do that 1 or 2 nights a week, but not more. 

I don't get paid to do this triathlon stuff.  No one even cares if I do it or not.  I don't have a running partner who relies on me, I don't belong to a tri group pushes you to keep going and no one in the family runs or bikes with me.  In fact, I think everyone would be much happier if I didn't do this stuff. 

But I do like to do this stuff.  And it keeps me happy and healthy. 

60 to 90 minutes of exercise daily is what I can do right now.  That's it.  And I'm not going to make myself crazy trying to do more. 

Either that will be good enough for the 70.3 or it won't.  I'll see when the time comes.  Either I'll suck it up and do the damn race in 6+ hours or swipe the pussy card and drop back down to the oly and be done with it in 3+ hours. 

After this summer, I'm going to plan to do NONE OF THE RACES and just sign up as the time comes.  No more early sign up to get me trapped into something I'm not really feeling like I want to do.  Maybe a 70.3 is in my cards and maybe it is not.   

Either way, that's ok. 

how to save on your water bill

Step 1:  Move to Maine where it rains all the time.  Your well will be full and you'll never have another water bill again.

Step 2:  Head out for your run at lunch only to have it begin raining.  What a surprise!  not.

wet, white t-shirt is not a good look for me

Exercise AND shower accomplished at the same time.  Win.

Step 3:  Wring out soaking wet running clothes and hang up to dry.  No need to wash since they are rain soaked already.

You are welcome.

This message brought to you by a disgruntled Mainer who is f**king sick of the rain.

The Weekend in Bullet Points

~My phone died on 4th of July.  Talk about a PIA.  I stuffed it in my cycling jersey to map my ride and when I got home the screen was a bunch of blue lines.  I thought maybe my sweat had messed it up so I stuck it in rice.  I sweat, but not like a ton of sweat, especially on my back where the pocket was so this was a long shot.  Of course, it didn't work. 

You cannot even begin to imagine how annoying it is to not have a phone.  Well, actually, the phone part I missed the least.  It's the camera, fb updates, text messages and instant internet access that I really missed.  How pathetic I have become. 

I had so many opportunities for awesome instagram photos that I missed.  Again pathetic.  More on that later.

Long story short, I opted stay with US Cellular (because they were going to send me a free phone and not charge me disconnect fees) rather than switch to Verizon and get iPhones.  She tells me US Cellular is getting iPhones later in the year, but I think she was just blowing smoke up my ass to keep me with them.  Whatever.  I got a free phone heading my way.

~Not only did my phone die, but our septic pump died as well.  On the 4th of July.  Excellent.  For those of you in cities and on town septic and have no idea what I'm talking about, in Maine most everyone has their own septic system with a leachfield. The poo and pee goes into this big tank underground and eventually the liquid part of the stuff rises up and this pump pumps it out through this elaborate sand and rock pile buried under your lawn.  When the pump goes, that can be bad news because that pee and poo gets all backed up.  I had no idea, but we have an alarm that tells us when the pump isn't working properly.  Thank you very much.  And thank you again that I'm married to a plumber so he 'fixed' it with a temporary pump until today or tomorrow when we get our new pump.  Good times.  Good times.  No pictures because phone is broken..

~Beach, sunburn, more beach, more sunburn, boat, more sun and beach again.  Hello summer!  Where have you been?  Glad you could finally make it.   Again, no pics because phone is broken.

~You would not believe the sight we saw in the truck stop/restaurant yesterday on my way home from dropping my Princess off to spend a week at camp with my mother.  Once again, why the frig is my phone broken.  Since googling to find a similar picture gave me not the kind of pictures I was looking for...eeek... I will just describe what we saw. 

Picture a 50ish yo old woman not in the best shape, wearing a tiny string bikini, with a sheer veil-like material skirt.  Rear view showed us it was a thong.  And this was at a truck stop in the middle of middle Maine, no beach in sight.  Oy. 

~5 mile run one day. 23 mile bike another day.  2000 yd swim on yet another day.  A good exercise weekend all in all. 

~Took advantage of InkNBurn's sale over the weekend and purchased some new running gear!  I cannot wait until it gets here!  So so so so cute. 

How was your weekend?  Anything break at your house?

June Review

Time to recap what I've been doing for the past month.  The weather continues to be the same: cold, miserable and wet.  I swear, June is the most depressing month of the whole year here in Maine.  You are so wanting it to be summer, but yet, Mother Nature says 'screw you' and gives you more shitty spring weather.  Is it too much to ask to have sun in July?  And have it be warmer than 58*?  ugh.

Me when I look at the weather report.

Despite the crappy weather, I have still be able to get some shit done.  I think I've done pretty darn good, well, for me anyway.

Run
45.71 miles.  Why the heck don't I take a look at the totals before the end of the month?  Seriously.  One stupid 5 mile run and I would have reached the 50 mark.  Better than the last two months though.

Bike
297 minutes most of which actually on a bike!  Way better than last month and even better than April.  Getting 50 minutes on the bike outside is so much nicer than 50 minutes on the spin bike.  I can hardly even stand to watch the clock for 30 minutes... but 50 outside really just flies by.  I feel like I'm getting pretty strong on the bike now.  I'm not worried about that portion of the 70.3 coming up.  I know I can do it.  The trick will be to have something left for the run after....  I've got to plan a few bricks.  Maybe I should get on that since this 70.3 thing is really not that far away.  7? 8 weeks?

Swim
7500 yds.  Same as May.  Pretty consistent with the 2000 yds/week schedule.  I just don't have the discipline to get my ass out of bed in the am for extra swims.  I don't.  Weekly will just have be good enough.

Weights
35 minutes.  Pretty slacking with this mostly because I'm not going to the Y anymore to workout.  I run or bike outside (even among the raindrops) so I'm not around the weight room anymore.  I do manage to get some push ups in here and there at home but not like I should.

Music I Love:
Nothing really new to love this month.  I forgot to mention Avril's new one Never Growing Up last month.  How can you not love a song that you can sing the word f**k in?  Loudly.  Like it's your anthem.  Except it's not because you are the most grown up person you know.  But you can pretend.

Things I Love
Loving my bike and riding it everywhere right now.  Loving cherries that have just become somewhat affordable at the grocery store.  Loving that we are 2 weeks away from needing any and all car seat/booster seats.  Manimal turns 8 here shortly and that's the age where you don't need a booster seat anymore.  Woo! 13 years of having some sort of car/booster seat of some kind in my car and we are soon to be done with it! I have two to give away if anyone wants them.

Things I Hate
I am hating going to the grocery store during my lunch hour to find a million summer folks clogging up all the parking spaces, aisles and check out lines.  God damn, I just want my chicken and cookies!  Get the fuck out of the way.  Go home.  No, don't go home.  Please spend all your money here and then go home.  Living in a tourist town is always a PIA in the summer.  #truth

The traffic.  ugh the traffic.  Shoot me now with all the god damn traffic.  And when I say traffic, I mean traffic backed up 4 freakin' miles on a two lane stupid road that there's no way to get around it to get home kind of traffic.  Again.  Summer people.

Because of this stupid place, and this stupid line, we get this stupid traffic.

All summer long.  Red's is on the other side of this bridge on the right.  This is what I have to deal with anytime I want to go anywhere during the summer.  From Friday 2 p.m. ish to Sunday 3 p.m. ish you wait to get over this damn bridge.  Either way.

People!  The lobster rolls are just ok.  They aren't anything fantastic.

Races:  
none but I do have a 50 mile bike ride coming up in a couple of weeks.  That will be my first organized group ride that I have been on.  Please let it be nice out.  No rain.

How was your month?  Do you have to deal with summer people?