Sarah Barber: 2018 Ironman St. George 70.3
Our teammate and fearless track star offers a glimpse at the Half Ironman experience: Anyone considering a half-ironman triathlon should be forewarned: the race is a logistical nightmare in every way. In other words, the training is the easy part. I was reminded of this fact the day before the 2018 Ironman St. George 70.3. The point-to-point course design meant that most of Friday was consumed with gear drops and familiarization at two different transition zones miles and miles apart. However, I somehow managed to get everything done without completely exhausting myself. Race morning arrived without any fanfare, and my headspace was good. Unfortunately, things went south immediately after the shuttle bus dumped me and a bunch of nerved-up triathletes at the shore of Sand Hollow Reservoir. I went straight into T1 to visit my bike, which had spent the night there without me, as my first priority was to air up the tires. The valve extender on my deep-dish carbon wheels had never been finicky in the past, but for whatever reason, I could not get the valve open enough to add air—or let air out, for that matter. One of my favorite bike experts (and owner of Tri Town Boise) was on scene to assist, but he was as frustrated as I was. Brainstorming solutions had me running back and forth to tech support, borrowing a different pump, then Bogarting a spare tube. At some point, we learned that my wheel wasn’t a clincher after all, but a tubular, and therefore impossible to replace on the spot. For a moment, it appeared that I might not even be able to participate in the race, which would have felt almost tragic after devoting the last few months of my life to preparing for it. Good friend and local pro, Erin Green, pointed me toward a woman named Paula, the pro athlete liaison, for emergency assistance. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t know until days later that “Paula” was Paula Newby-Fraser, a well-known and highly successful professional triathlete in her day. Anyway, she helped me find a wheel to borrow—a random road bike wheel with a rotor for disc brakes. By some miracle, it fit on my bike without any issue and worked fine with my traditional caliper brakes. My first crisis was averted with 15 minutes till the start of the race.. During the entire 45 minutes I had spent running all over T1, my second poop of the morning was getting overcooked. In other words, I had to drop a deuce like nobody’s business, and at this point the Porta-Potty lines seemed to go on for miles. Nonetheless, I took a place at the end of the nearest line and spent my wait time peeling on my wetsuit, inch by inch. I landed on a toilet with less than 10 minutes remaining before the start of the race, and was instantly relieved. Until I discovered that there was no toilet paper. Rummaging through my plastic sack of warm-up clothing, I thoughtfully considered each item. Lululemmon pants? NO way! UpCycle hoodie? Shoot, I really liked that thing… And then I found it: a black wool hat with the word “BACARDI” in bold white caps on the front. It seemed a fitting end for a freebie I’d picked up at an event in Las Vegas years ago. And then, to the shore of Sand Hollow Reservoir I went. I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was to be able to do this race, despite the issues that had cropped up to sabotage me this morning. The...
Read MoreHeart & Sole: Survivor’s Perspective on SCAD
Cynthia Mauzerall was planing to race the USATF Cross Country Championships with the Boise Betties’ masters team. Just a month before the race, she suffered a heart attack. It was an incredibly scary time for our team. Here Cynthia shares her perspective on the events immediately following the event. When I woke up, I saw faces staring at me-friendly, helpful, concerned, surprised. Family members were tearing up and I had no idea why. The only words I could think to say were, “hi” and “what am I doing here?” My husband was told he would be sharing the details with me over and over again until my memory got stronger. When I was informed that I had suffered a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD), I wasn’t sure how to wrap my arms around that. Frankly, I thought maybe they made a mistake. I asked myself, “Are they overreacting?” The look on the faces of the team of doctors suggested it was true. Amongst this team of white lab coats was one of my best friends since age 15. Certainly she will tell me what’s what. Dr. Jen (formally known as Dr. Jennifer Anderson) was calm and composed and yet seemed to empathize with how odd all this was to me. She likely knew I had to grasp that this was serious enough that I would not be heading out the door for a run any time soon. Once the doctors left the room, I searched for evidence. What are all these tubes, catheters, and scars? Family explained that a stent was placed over the dissected artery. I began to feel pain in my chest and ribs. They told me that was CPR that was conducted by 2 everyday heroes at the gym- a retired paramedic and a physical therapist. Slowly I ventured out of detective mode into one of Gratitude. I was grateful for Family and for amazing medical team that despite their current unassuming demeanor had to respond at lightning speed with limited information when I arrived at the ER. I was grateful for those who stepped up and did CPR knowing that it might not make a difference. The theme of gratitude has been on my mind continually- much because my story was filled with events that now seem rather miraculous. However, I am also grateful for mindfulness and science. Dr. Jen and her team keep abreast of advancements and case studies in Cardiology. In fact, Dr. Jen has been known to stash The New England Journal of Medicine in her bathroom for “easy reading”. A new gratefulness has emerged for curiosity and mindfulness. Dr. Jen has reiterated that we are experts on what are bodies are communicating to us. We need to listen, to be curious, to ask questions. I had ben slowing down substantially on my runs and workouts but felt foolish mentioning it to anyone. I felt lucky to be as active as I am at 42. I could have simply said, “Maybe this is nothing, but….” We don’t have to be MDs to be mindful of our bodies, and what they communicate to us. There are folks out there like Dr. Jen whose passion is to understand what the symptoms mean, we just have to vocalize those...
Read MoreIronman 70.3 in St. George
The stories are coming, but the photos are here. Barkley got after her first Ironman in style, despite an epic flat and desert heat. ...
Read MoreGive the Running Skirt a Try!
Enjoy this guest blog from Boise Bettie founding member, Maria Morgan. She wanted to try something new, but was smart to try the change before race day. Her trial and error is comically real and will probably bring to tears as I was, in laughing so hard as she relayed the story. Read on for a good laugh, because really, we’ve all been there! Many of the Betties trained for the 2015 Race to Robie Creek half marathon, where this year’s theme was the Running of the Bulls. Because so many Betties were training for the race (about 15 members), my teammate Samia thought we should get outfits to go with the theme- she loves the Robie themes! Emily teamed us up with Lululemon and we were outfitted with Run: Swiftly Tech Tank in white- with the Boise Betties and Bandanna Running logos, of course- and white Pace Rival running skirts. I had never worn a running skirt before, nor did I have any desire to do so. I do not have the body shape of someone you think of when you think of a runner so I was a little nervous about running a half marathon in a skirt. I opted for the tall-sized skirt in hopes that the slightly longer shorts under the skirt would help me avoid the dreaded “chub rub.” For those of you not familiar with these terms, chub rub is when chubby thighs rub together which can lead to chaffing. I usually wear long shorts or capris to prevent this very uncomfortable side effect of running in shorts that are too short. A week before Robie, I gave the white running skirt a trial run at the Micron FABulous 5K. I had recently invested in some Body Glide which I liberally applied to my inner thighs just in case the shorts on the running skirt rode up during the race. It took all of 0.25 miles for the shorts to ride up on me. Luckily, the Body Glide did its job and I didn’t have any chaffing. whew! However, I did not have enough experience with Body Glide to know if I could trust it to work for 13 miles. If the Glide didn’t work, the already grueling race would be miserable. I had just a few days before the race to come up with a solution for my skirt dilemma. With three young children to care for, I didn’t have a lot of free time to shop. I looked for a solution in my closet. First thing I found- Spanx! The form fitting, suck it in, keep it there spandex intended to go under your clothes to improve the fit. I gave Spanx a try. This particular pair of Spanx was nude colored with mid-thigh shorts and a tummy control waist the went to just below my chest. I thought, “If Spanx can prevent chub rub all-day in a dress, it can work under the running skirt, right?”. It may have the added benefit of hiding my belly a little. So, I gave the Spanx and white running skirt combo a test run in my neighborhood. I set out on my a 5-mile run feeling fast and thin with these Spanx holding everything in. All was fine until about two miles in to the run. I started to run up a pretty big hill and I suddenly realized that I couldn’t breathe. The tummy control part of the Spanx was restricting my breathing! I couldn’t make it all the way of the hill like this, so I turned around. As I ran down the...
Read MoreRace to Robie Creek: I Fought the Hill (Or The Heat?)…
Still mulling over Robie Creek? Maybe it was a great day, maybe you walked more than intended. What I am hearing is more of the latter; the warm day forced many to their Plan B. After training for months, it is disappointing for a strong influence on your race to be so outside of your control. One Bettie’s report captures the emotion I heard from so many. My Robie Race Report AKA “I fought the hill and the hill won! ” Or maybe it should be called “I fought the heat and the heat won!” And what is the point of being half Egyptian if I can’t run in the heat, anyway?!?! I started the day with high expectations. I was hoping to beat my time from last year (which was 2:09 something) or maybe even do as well as 2:05. I felt like I had trained well. I had trained harder and more for this Robie than any other Robie: more mileage, more speedwork, more hill repeats, more time on the course, more weights, more core work, more cross training. I think my fitness level is in a better place than last year, so I didn’t think I’d have an issue beating my time. Plus, on my long runs, I actually *ran* to the summit. It was a slow run, but I was “running.” And that’s something I had never done before. So I hoped to be able to do that in the race too. I covered my watch hoping I’d be able to go off of effort and not be distracted or discouraged by pace as it slowed towards the summit, as I had in previous years. I felt okay the first couple of miles. On the first hill I told myself I would not pass anybody. That would my way of keeping my pace in check. However there were some people that stopped to walk and others that were just running at a slower pace than I felt I wanted to be running so I did pass some people. When I got to the 3 mile marker I saw it and thought something along these lines: “Oh s@#$!. Only 3 miles and I feel like I am running out of gas already. I must have run the first 5k too fast. I effed up. I am totally screwed. I want to quit. I am never going to make it to the top. I am not even at the dirt yet and I am hot. And I feel sick. This sucks.” Totally self defeating thoughts. Not exactly what you want at mile three of a half marathon. Or any race really. I thought when I looked at my splits for the first 3 miles I was going to see that I had run them ridiculously fast or something. When I saw the splits I don’t think I had run them too fast. I think it was just the heat that got me. The heat got me last year too. I got too hot too fast. After that point I started walking through each water station. I’d grab two cups of water and drink one and pour the other one over my head. Once I got to the dirt I felt a little better. I like the dirt better than the pavement. And by a little, I mean just a little. I was still pretty miserable and feeling sick. I saw Ashley pretty early on in the dirt passed her and told her good job. It made me so happy to see another Bettie! I was pretty sure she’d be passing me...
Read More
