Back to the dirt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love trail running, need I say more?!

What now?

"What now?" some of you might ask. Well, I'd like to do a few more posts: thanking people, how the fund raising turned out, discussing Addison's disease (signs and symptoms, grass roots information sharing and what to do in an emerency), setting goals, answer some questions, meds for endurance events and letting you know my future plans (races, goals and immediate future plans). I'll try to tackle each issue in a separate post.

Miscellaneous pictures. Below is a car we saw in Reno, Nevada. Click on the picture if you want to see it up close.


The sun rising over the Nevada desert on Monday morning as we were driving home.

Vineman 2007 Race Report

OK folks, here's the race report with pictures and video. If it's too boring, skip the reading and watch the videos (0r not!). Enjoy!

Race day started at 4:30 am, we had to eat and then drive 3o minutes to the race start from our motel. We arrived at the beach in just enough time to park, use the rest room, get marked with my race numbers and quickly meet the NorCal ladies that showed up and volunteered. Thanks to all of the NorCal ladies for showing up and volunteering for the race!!

Trice writing my race number on me



Me showing Trice my bad iron-on on my wet suit



A bag of presents from Trice

Right after meeting, greeting and receiving presents, I racked up my bike and my gear. The race started at 6:55 am for me in the Russian River. The water was 75 degrees and had no detectable current. The water was warmer than the air so it wasn't hard for me to hop in and await the starting horn. The horn went off and this is what it looked like. It wasn't scary at all. The mist on the river was beautiful!!

Running out of the river after a 2.4 mile swim to the transition area. I'm smiling because I don't have to drive over to Jackson, Wyoming to swim in the pool anymore unless I really want to.

Stripping down in the transition area. Getting ready for a 112 mile bike ride. I actually got naked in the transition area. My husband says I'm the only person who took off all of my clothes!!

The bike ride was beautiful and the terrain was much more challenging than I had expected. It was so fun to ride through so many vineyards. I was thinking of it as a very fast, supported bike tour. The low altitude definitely worked to my advantage, I felt good when I was riding.

I'm the one in hot pink. This was the start of the bike leg.

My awesome husband, who was also my support crew for the last 9 months, strategically placed this NADF banner where the bike riders came in for their rides and the runners came in for each lap! Awesome banner placement Paul!! All of the triathletes passed this banner 7 times.

The run was nice and went through a neighborhood. It was a 4.35 mile out and back loop that we did 3 times. Each time we turned around, near the NADF banner, we got a glow in the dark bracelet. I love glow in the dark stuff so getting 2 bracelets made me super happy.

End of lap one of the run, start of lap 2

End of lap two of the run, start of the third and final lap

The video of my finish is in a post below. Paul was waiting for me and cheering for me at the finish. I was hoping for a little bit more of a turn out from the NADF ladies. :( Steph, I know you tried, thank you.

My final time was 13:16:51. I'm definitely happy with it! I think proper medication (Hydrocortisone, florinef), hydration, eating and enough sodium during the race was very important and contributed to my success.

I was very sore on Sunday. Getting out of the car for breaks during our 10 hour driving stint yesterday was pretty painful! Today, Monday, I'm sore but not terribly so. I feel like this means I've done my training well (or I didn't try hard enough during the race!!!).

Exciting things that happened!

Some of you may or may not know, Paul and I are big Ultimate Fighting fans. As I was running I saw one of the fighters we watch on TV. He was kicking my butt. The guy fights for a living, what do you expect? His name is Nick Diaz.

Another cool thing that happened was that a guy asked Paul to take a picture of him on the morning of the race with his significant other. This guy looked familiar to me but I was nervous about the start of the race and I did not say anything. I saw him at the end of the third run lap too. Suddenly, I realized I knew who he was and I said, "Is your name Jimmy?" He looked surprised and said, "Yeah!" It turns out that he and I had corresponded via email last fall because of his awesome, inspirational website: ATC 100 I guess I recognized him from looking at his website. He has a very charismatic spirit (don't make fun of me for saying this you guys, I know I don't usually say stuff like this but it's true!!) . I went to shake his hand and he gave my stinky body a big, welcoming hug. It's always fun to meet people in person that you've corresponded with online, especially when they motivate you to do more and go farther.

QUESTIONS??
If you've got questions for me about the tri that I did not answer above, please make a comment and I'll answer it for you. :)

Preparations

From left to right: Tracy, Stephanie, Dusty, Virginia, Trice and Kathy at the start of the Vineman Johnson's Beach.














My attempt at putting iron-ons on neoprene! You can still read the www.nadf.us








Funny tattoo (thanks Sheree!) a play on the Rod of Asclepius symbol.



"Born to Ride"

Dusty's Finish

I finished!!!

Hi everyone!

I finished with a time of 13 hours, 16 minutes and 51 seconds. I placed 6th in my age group out of 16 and 126th of 256 overall finishers (men and women). 21st out of all the women (I don't know how many women there were though.

This link will take you to the time breakdowns. Click on Full Vineman, August 4, 2007.
You'll need to put my bib number in #317.

Much more coming up. I've got to get some pictures resized and upload some video.

Thanks so much to everyone for all of the support!!!!