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Marc has now earned the tittle of Triathlete! He has competed in 4 Beacon Hill sprint tri’s, 1 sprint Xterra in Temecula, 1 Xterra olympic triathlon in Lake Tahoe, & the Camp Pendleton Olympic triathlon held yesterday! Most of all it feels more “official” because the girls and I got to go cheer him on today! I must say it looks like a lot of fun. We arrived at the base just after Marc’s wave began their swim so we headed down to the water so we could see him as he exited the ocean to run to the stagging area! I first saw Bret Bryan run past then Marc and Steve Austin running side by side. The girls did an awesome job cheering on all the racers. Unfortunately we did not see any of the bike portion because it was just too far to walk especially with the girls. So we had some time to kill luckily there was a little playground right on the beach. Maren enjoyed pushing her sister in the swing and running around in the sand! Then we walked out to the side walk to wait for the runners–it was a 2 loop course which was great b/c we got to see Marc twice. The first time he stopped to give the girls hugs and kisses. I set up a little hang out for the girls right in the shade of the newspaper dispensers so they could rest while we waited for loop #2. We cheered Marc on once more then headed over the the finish line. The girls danced to the music while I stood next to the fence watching for Marc to finish! I caught Steve Austin’s finish and took tons of photo’s then turned my back to help Kaili wash off her apple only to miss Marc running down and crossing the finish line (BUMMER!). He successfully accomplished his goal time…. maybe off by 5 min or so! GREAT JOB WHOMP! We are all proud of you!

Brett charging

Steve & Marc are pretty stoked!

Hi five as Marc begins the run!

There’s always time for a kiss

I absolutely love watching Maren and Kaili play together!

the girls’ hang out!

Look at those silky smooth sexy legs!

Great job men!

Friday - Gase Powered Road Trip

Wake up Friday morning, its pitch black. 4 am I pack the truck with my gear and head over to pick up Craig Ames and Brett Brian. We double and triple check our gear and bike rack to ensure against loosing any bikes on our travels. Going to bed at 12am the night before is not helping as I pound 64 ounces of low-carb Monster energy drink. We get on the highway around 4:45 AM - pre-race anticipation has us all chatting like teenage girls about the upcoming race. No more than 3 hours into our mancation we get in a car accident. A young kid side swipes us on the highway causing minimal damage to the F-150 behemoth that is our transportation. Bi-lingual Brett Brian was able to communicate with the young driver and get the facts we needed for me to later file a claim. The rest of the road trip was filled with a blurred mix of Craigs vast knowledge of the desolate farm country that is central California and fiber induced gas attacks. Around 11 we start to get hungry and Craig announces he is jonesing for a burger from Red Robin, he gets on his cell and starts calling around to find the closest one. We find one in Sacramento and quickly scarf down some red meat - I fake like I don’t want my french fries to show I am watching what I eat (as all good triathlete’s should do) but secretly I just want to attack them and get them in my tummy and taste their salty goodness. Instead I just drink more water and the bun I just inhaled quickly inflates to fill my stomach.

Friday - Scoping out the course

We arrive in Tahoe around 1PM or so and check in to our hotel. I immediately realize a hard fact that will haunt me the rest of the race. Upon walking up three flights of stairs I become completely winded. Heart racing, I quickly remember we are at approx. 6200 feet above sea level and a whole new reality hits me and I wonder if I am ready for this race. We lay down to try and power nap and tell more man jokes just to pass the time until our race registration time (5PM). After about an hour of chilling in the hotel Craig starts to go a little stir crazy and suggests we head down to the race event and do a little pre-ride of the bike course and take care of some errands.

We head down to Tahoe City and bike the first few miles or so of the bike - although not overly steep- the climb is sustained. Again, I struggle to get my breath and start to doubt my ability to even finish this race. My mind wanders and I think about Tarah and the girls and begin to miss them. We learn from the pre-ride, this course is not technical - just super fast, and the faster you can climb and the better - just an all out pedal grind for 22 miles - nothing sketchy or terribly steep - just good fast riding at 7000 feet. My mind is set at ease when I finish the pre-ride with my breath and legs in tact. We pack up the bikes and head down to get our race numbers and free schwag. We get a baby blue swim cap and matching t-shirt along with various samples of energy supplements and sunscreen. We drive through town on our way back to the hotel and eat some delicious pizza at steamers. We analyze every angle on pre-race strategy discussing everything from what fuel to eat, transition strategy, what tire pressure to run, what types of clothes to wear. If our wives where there they would have certainly been bored to death and told us to get a life. We head back to the hotel and go through our pre-race rituals laying out all our gear, lubing our bikes and mentally going through the race in our minds making sure not to forget anything. Of course the gas does not cease throughout the night, and I am certain Craig and I kept Brett Brian from getting a good nights sleep.

Saturday Morning - Race Day

1200 M Swim - The coldest swim of my life

We arrive early around 6:30 AM and setup our transition area, carefully laying out biking shoes, camel back, running shoes,runnig hat, fuel and helmet. the temp outside is around 40 degrees, after setting up our transition area we dive back into the truck and blast the heat. Around 7:20 AM we head down to the water, I setup a mini transition area just outside the swim with my running shoes and socks so I my feet don’t get rocked running from the swim to the bike. We lube up our bodies with Vaseline and body glide and slide our wetsuits on. We are now ready to start.

We have our pre-race meeting and are told to get into the water up to our knees - upon entering the water needles shoot through my toes and feet and I pray for my feet to go numb, walking over the rocky bottom of lake Tahoe I realize this is going to be the coldest water I have ever swam in (and I have logged some significant winter surfing days) I estimate the water to be around 55 - the sun makes it feel a little warmer. I immediately pee in my wetsuit and find some warmth but my toes and feet feel like wooden appendages as i wait for the starting gun. Brett and I hang close together and I encourage him to start wide of the other swimmers to avoid the human blender of arms and legs. Then we get the final countdown - 3-2-1 Go!

We dive in and immediately my breath is taken away by the shock of the cold. I start to panic bu force myself to move my arms and start swimming, I get try to get into a rhythm but every time I breath I feel like I am sucking through a straw, my body is completely shocked and shaking and my head feels like it is going to explode from the cold. I continue to drive my arms forward reaching towards the first buoy trying to get warm. I swim hard just to get feeling back into my hands and face, but it doesn’t work. I find someone swimming my same pace and drop behind him to draft off his wake. I swim at his toes grabbing them a few times on accident. Someone is doing the same thing to me and I accidentally kick them in the head. We round the first buoy and I dog paddle around trying desperately to catch my breath, but my hyperventilating continues. I try to remain calm and think of a happy place.

I determine to rely on my training and keep my head looking straight down and focus on my form to forget about my frozen face. I start singing various songs to myself to take my mind off the cold and relax, around the second buoy I get more used to the cold and settle into a rhythm. I finish my first 600 M lap and reach the beach and run around the flags for the second lap, right next to me is Brett - we had somehow been swimming together the whole time - it gave me a huge boost of confidence and I surged on with new motivation.

We both entered the second lap together and settled into a nice cadence. The water in Lake Tahoe is crystal clear - even in the deepest parts of the swim I could see every rock and pebble on the bottom as clear as a swimming pool. I decided to swim hard my second lap and passed a few racers and finished right next to Brett. As I ran out of the lake my feet spiked with pain as they ran up the beach. My heart raced as I peeled off my wetsuit and threw it over my shoulder and slipped on my socks and shoes and ran to the bike transition area I got to my bike and quickly threw on my helmet, bike shoes and camel back and charged out of onto the bike. Brett was in transition with me and could barely get his shoes on due to his numb hands. i run my bike out of transition - “34 minutes” the time keeper called out and I begin the bike leg of the race.
22 Mile Mountain Bike - at 7,000+ feet

As I start the 2.5 mile climb my heart is racing, my feet are numb and my shoes soaked from my wet socks. My head is spinning as I try to collect my composure and force my heart to stop racing. I beat Brett out of transition so I was trying to mash my pedals as hard as I could to get a lead on him, but within minutes Brett is grinding past me as if I am standing still. In fact, despite my best mashing, I am start to get passed by what seems like everyone, girls, old guys 65+, young kids - you name it. I have no choice but to put my head down and mash harder and try to make up some time.

I get to the top of the first climb and drop into a wooded downhill with tricky lighting, I bomb past half the people who passed me on the climb - I use no brakes throughout the loose gravelly downhill and just point my tire down hill and roll, my eyes are tearing up and filling with dust, I silently regret loaning Craig the sunglasses Dave Bourne lent me. I try to pedal my bike faster but I am going as fast as I can, still cant catch everyone who passed me on the climb.

I reach the second climb and I start to have bike issues and I just cant seem to get a clean shift into my gears, my chain jumps all over the place and I start to get frustrated - I slide up into a harder gear since that is the only gear that seems to work and mash on. about mile 10 I see a racer on the side fixing their bike, I ask them if they need help and they respond in the negative, just then, ironically, I slip forward with my front pedal and in an instant my back wheel goes flying off my frame, I catch my frame from hitting the ground with my foot (thank you new “easy-to-unclip” candy pedals). I quickly flip my bike around and find the spindle which keeps my tire locked to my frame was completely unlocked and had been unlocked for the entire first half of the bike (hence crappy shifting). I correct the problem and carry on.

I settle into a rhythm after I finish my first lap feeling good. Feeling like I had some energy in reserve, I decide to push harder on the second lap. Despite my efforts, I see no one on the trail and begin to doubt if I am on the right trail. The only sound I hear is some kind of cricket or cicada sound you hear in the summer that tends to rise in volume the hotter it gets. I race about 8 miles of the bike without seeing a sole . On my final decent of the bike I pass Brett, only Brett is running up the mountain, and I am just passing him on my final bike decent - Brett had already completed his bike and was almost 2 miles into his run. he was crushing this race. I flew into transition and threw my bike on the hanger and grabbed my hat and running shoes, 3:09 the transition lady calls out as I start the 6 mile death run. Little did I know Craig had crushed Brett and myself and had finished about 15 minutes before I even finished just my bike portion.
6 Mile Run of Death

I start the run with my new running shoes. Compared to my old shoes these are the cats meow and my feet are loving the spongy springy goodness as I charge up the run. I run all the way to the trail head when reality sets in and the trail goes vertical - billy goat trail vertical. I try to run but my legs quickly say no and I am forced to walk. I end up walking the remaining 2 miles to the summit of the run - approx. 1000 feet of vertical. The trail lollipops around and then descends 3 miles straight down. I let my big tree trunks of legs loose and start running in an uncontrolled fashion, trying to make up time. At first the speed feels good and I feel like I am making up time, however about a mile down I have to stop because my knees and legs start to ache. I bend over to catch my breath and squat down to try and stretch out my knees - big mistake, my body starts to relax and all I want to do is lay down and take a nap - I force myself to stand up and start walking again. As I walk I see two runners behind me about 100 yards away starting to gain on me - seeing them is all the motivation I need and I jump into a wild run and run as fast as I can for the remaining 1.5 miles, neither runner catches me.
The Finish and post race celebration

With about 500 meters to go on the run I see Craig and Brett on the side at the transition area. Craig screams out in his Australian accent “Go Marc! GO!” and I feel a surge of adrenaline and run as hard as I can. I see the finish line about 300 Meters away and all of the pain suddenly rushes out of my body and is replaced with sheer joy. I cross the finish line at 4:15 - the winner of the race had crossed the finish line about an hour and a half before me but I could care less what place I finished, i just wanted to finish.

Post race I won a pair of sick Salomon trail running shoes. Bret won some Merrill shoes and Craig won a dry fit shirt. Craig also got 3rd in his age group and 9th overall. After the race I sat and sipped on a coke to replace some lost energy and then decided I need to ice my legs, so I stripped down to my racing shorts and hopped back into that frigid lake - which felt twice as cold as the morning. We hang for the awards ceremony and Craig is recognized for his 3rd age group finish (the 1st place winner actually won the entire race). We pack up, hit steamers for more pizza on our way out of Tahoe City and drive home replaying the days events over and over. We arrive safely in Laguna Niguel around 11:30PM - I drove the whole way home with a smile on my face reveling in my soreness and dirtiness knowing I had just finished my first championship distance Xterra.

Be sure to check out the write up on ocathlete.com

Marc completed 3, 10 mile laps on his mountain bike during the 12 hour race in Temecula. He was on a team of 4. (for race stats visit his ocathlete.com). I was fortunate enough to be the event photographer!  I loved it! I found a perfect spot to shoot so I could get a sequence of each and ever rider posted on www.egofoto.com  A big thanks to Dave and his amazing lense and grandma Jo for watching my girls.  I am proud of my husband and his newly found determination to transform his “mesomorphic body” (as he says) into a lean sinuey machine.   He is one determined man!  He trains 6 days a week and has even sacrificed his most precious surfing Saturdays time to compete! He will be racing again this Sat. in his 1st Olympic Triathalon at Lake Tahoe with Craig, Brett, Steve ? maybe more.  I am glad he has met some great athletes to help push him.  Thanks to Micah for giving him the itch and Craig for coaching Marc daily.  Now the weight is off my shoulders!  Hey Marc, the best part about it is no more nagging from the wife! I LOVE this lifestyle change!
 

A little too much down time —-don’t you think?  Marc and his nemesis , Dave Bourne

Through the powers of the universe I now find myself completely infatuated with Triathlons and have even gone so far as to secure on my own coach. As you know, I recently ranted about being a large fat pile of man boobs - and even though I still have my moobs, I am doing something about it. Starting last Monday I have been following a fairly regimented training schedule, which basically consists of alternating between biking and swimming and running 6 days a week. Lucky for you I took a picture of myself before I started - but, you wont see it until later this summer when I can actually show a “before” and “after” state. I am pretty embarrassed by aforementioned picture and am frankly not sure I really want to post it. ever.

I owe this Tri addiction to my friend Micah Denison and his family - I have participated in three, invite only Beacon Hill Triathlons, and am planning to run my first off road tri-athlong this weekend in Temecula in the Xterra Sport Sprint Triathlon (is Triathlon one word or two?). Well in my short 10 days of training I have learned a few things, specifically for you Clydesdales out there - and I’m not talking about you 201 guys - i am talking to the Real Clydesdales - the boys pushing 240 or so - (last scale measurement for me was 136 and I was naked). So here goes - learn from my mistakes:

1. Were glasses while riding bike (sun, optical, or even tinted doesn’t matter) because if you don’t a gnat will fly into your eye and eat your pupil.
2. If you forget your power goo or super blocks or whatever other supplement you use, then you can always ride around the Laguna Niguel Lake and just keep your mouth open to consume large amounts of mosquito protein.
3. If you cant fit the chest strap of your heart monitor around your chest then try your neck.
4. You don’t look nearly as good in spandex as you feel.
5. Dont be afraid to run without a shirt. Chicks dig it.
6. Never invite friends to a triathlon who are actually good at triathlons because you will end up in last place, or next to last place.
7. It doesn’t really matter what kind of bike, shoes, or swim goggles you have - your slow because your fat.
8. Regarding No. 4 please wear shorts over your spandex, for the sake of the children.
9. Tuck when going downhill on the bike and use the forces of gravity to speed up an overtake your competition.
10. Go to the bathroom before you race.

So, after nearly drowning and not being able to rip a nice clean cut back on my surf trip, I have finally decided to dedicate myself to Triathlons. So far, I have done three sprint tri-athlons, granted they were run outside of my friends garage, but none-the-less, they were a big challenge to me and so far I have improved my time each race. The last race I came in next to last because we invited the pros from Marina Hills and they destroyed everyone, and as I was running to the finish they were all loading up their cars and getting ready to go home. I was a little miffed half the participants were going home by the time I was running into the finish so I determined to make some changes.

After I graduated college I tore my ACl 2001, I subsequently packed on 25 lbs. We moved to Cali 4 years ago and I started surfing and becoming fairly active, but was too inconsistent to make any real difference. i was 200 when I graduated and I am now 235. bottom line, I want to get back down to 200 and the only way I will keep to any type of consistent program is to have a goal - so come July I will be running the Camp Pendleton International Tri-athlon - Olympic distance. Someone who I have recently gotten to know better, Craig Ames, or coach Ames as I like to think of him, has been helping me in all things Tri. He has provided me with an excellent training regime as well as nutritional information. I have been keeping a training log everyday - what I really need to keep track of is my diet - I have been cutting down on caffeine and brining lunches and watching my portions. Craig runs OCAthlete.com and is available for traning and assistance - his rates are reasonable and he is worth every penny.

I did take a picture of my body last week and am pondering posting a week by week transformation (my pic is not very flattering) - so, stay tuned and I will document each weeks painful evolution. This week my legs feel like rubber, but all and all I am pretty stoked at the end of each session I complete.