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It took me a little longer to sit down to write this blog because I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go with.  My past two blogs were pretty personal and I wasn't sure where to go next.  Luckily I can always count on a tri buddy to help me out!  I woke up Monday morning to get ready for my usual 5 am swim and saw a text on my phone from Angie Spayde.  First of all, I just want to say how amazing Angie, and all triathletes with kids, are.  I get asked a lot "Oh my gosh, how do you do it?"  Honestly, it isn't all that difficult.  Sure, I get up early and have to stick to a very organized and tight schedule, but my husband is also a triathlete and we spend lots of time together on what we call "trainer dates."  But for mothers and fathers, that is difficult.  Trying to balance work, a child (or multiple children) and a relationship is not easy.  I have seen marriages fall apart due to triathlon, which is why I consider myself extremely lucky that I met my hubby at a triathlon.  Okay, back to the amazing Angie Spayde!  The text was thanking me for being the voice in her head because we had met a few weeks back and I had passed on wise words from my coach: "comfortable" is not a word that belongs in racing vocabulary!  Angie was racing Rev 3 Half Ironman and had found herself settling into a comfortable pace, then remembered those words and pushed herself to an absolutely incredible 7:27 average on the run!  I'm honored to have been the voice in her head!

So how does this relate to Reeds Lake?  Well, I've been struggling with my open water swimming this year.  My times in the pool have dropped and I'm swimming faster than I ever thought would be possible since I taught myself how to swim in an apartment pool 7 years ago.  But it wasn't translating to open water, so I promised myself I wouldn't settle into an easy pace, but would be uncomfortable for the entire race.  I lined up next to teammate Abby Geurink, who I knew would be out of sight quickly, but I was hoping for a solid swim.  The horn blew and I sprinted to the front, trying to stay as close as possible to Abby.  Lucky for me, another athlete, Drue, quickly moved into Abby's draft and I moved into Drue's draft.  Abby, being incredible as she is, quickly pulled away.  But I was determined to stick with Drue and push myself.  The water had seemed cold when I first got in with my Xterra long sleeve suit, but I soon found myself heating up.  Good, I thought, that means I'm working hard!  Drue and I rounded the last buoy before heading to shore together, then everything kind of fell apart.  I had no idea where swim exit was.  It was a pretty far distance with no sighting buoy and the buoy marking the exit was hidden behind a dock.  I swam hard in the direction I thought was the exit and later realized I was far to the left.  I corrected and pushed a hard pace to shore.  As I came toward shore, Drue pulled up alongside me.  That was encouraging because I thought I had gotten way behind, but we ran out of the water together.

Making my trademark ugly post-swim face!

Thankfully I got my wetsuit off quickly today and was able to have a quick transition, exiting with Drue.  With Abby speedy as ever and long gone, we both knew it was a race for 2nd.  I knew the course was hilly, which I was looking forward to as an opportunity to overcome a bad habit.  In my last race, which was also very hilly, I was shocked when my quads cramped and seized after only one mile.  After reviewing my data, I realized my cadence had been low, like disastrously, quad cramping low.  Biking with a cadence in the 80s, a problem I faced when I first started triathlon, had started to slowly creep back during trainer rides.  Then it became a full blown problem, rearing its ugly head at Boyne.  But now I had a chance to correct that and use the full strength of my giant legs to my advantage on these hills!  I kept a close eye on my bike computer and spun my way up hills, amazed at how many guys I passed as I spun, looking light as a feather compared to their mashing.  Alright, lesson learned!  I knew Drue was close to me at the turn around, so I really pushed my watts (but with a high cadence!) on the long hill back to transition, hoping to pull away.  

I pulled into transition, tugged on my flats, grabbed my inhaler, hat and racing belt and I was off!  As I was leaving transition I could hear them announcing that Drue was pulling in, so I estimated I had less than a minute lead.  Okay, time to run!  If you have read status updates from myself or friends, then you probably noticed I was very excited about not running in the bucket and you might have been wondering what that means.  Well, I was wondering what that meant 3 days before the race too!  My coach had sent me feedback on a running video and said I was dropping my hips and "running in the bucket."  I asked my husband what than meant and he smiled and said I stick my butt out when I run.  I was shocked!  I loudly retorted that I do NOT stick my butt out!  We were running at the time, so he lazily glanced back at my behind and said "ummm, yes, you do."  He then explained that I need to tuck my rump so that my legs "break" at the knee and not at my hip.  Well, that sounded very confusing for me, but I did what he said and realized an instant difference.  But I had to think of it as stacking my hips under my body, the whole hip drop thing didn't make sense to me.  I also realized it takes lower core strength to stack my hips that way, but I did notice myself running faster.  I also realized I was running taller.  Then it hit me.  Running in the bucket, with my butt sticking out and my hips all collapsed and looking a hot mess, is why I always photograph terrible on the run!  But with my hips stacked under me, running taller, core engaged, suddenly I felt good and I'm thinking I look good too!  

In the last mile of the run, focusing on NOT running in the bucket!

The run at Reeds Lake is pretty long for a sprint, 4.9 miles around the lake.  I was feeling the fatigue from my last two races, both Olympics, but I kept pushing my pace.  I tried not to think about how tired my legs felt and instead focused my mind on my new cue and some old ones: stack the hips, tuck the ribs, cadence, cadence, cadence, drive the arms.  Unfortunately my hip had made itself known on the bike this race, so the ache in my hip was my constant companion on this run.  But I pushed that to the back of my mind and let my cues fill my mind.  Whenever the I'm so tired thought entered my mind, I took a cue from Prefontaine and thought to myself "She will have to bleed to catch me!"  Not literally of course, but I wanted to make sure it would not be easy for her to catch me.  Finally the last straight away came into sight and I couldn't see Drue behind me.  I smiled and enjoyed the run into the finish, packed with spectators and friends cheering me to the end.  

Finishing with a happy smile and good form!

Overall, I finished 2nd with a time 2 minutes better than my time from last year.  I am very happy that I have now improved my time in my last two races!  Who knew racing uncomfortable could be so great?  Well, my coach knew, but we all know how stubborn I am!  And of course the biggest thank you of all to my number one fan and support, my incredible husband Todd Kennedy.  It was also a pretty amazing weekend for my tri buddies!  My good friend, Todd Buckingham, gave the crowd a very exciting finish to edge out Alex Vanias for 1st place!  Alec Womboldt also had a strong race and finished on the podium in 3rd.  Eric Abbott dragged himself away from his gummy bear and beer diet to finish 10th overall.  Amy Bross and Tarra Deprato also had amazing racing to finish 4th and 5th overall respectively.  And I know many Oak Park YMCA Triathletes raced at Rev 3 half and full Ironman this weekend, including the fearless and inspiring Kathi Shipley, Sue Blemaster, Mike Morgan, Martin Ackley, Gary Holbrook and Matt Schartow.  A huge congrats to them!  And Mike, you are incredible and I hope your eye heals up soon!  I know some other Oakie raced as well, including Lynne Hart finishing 1st in her age group at Tawas, huge congrats to everyone who raced!  The Lansing Tri Team was helping out with the kids triathlon at Hawk Island, very cool to see kids getting involved in triathlon at such a young age and I love all the adorable pictures!  

Looking forward, I decided to hop into the local duathlon this weekend at Hawk Island since I will be canceling my trip to Texas.  Unfortunately, due to re-distribution of prize money at many races this weekend, Galveston 5150 decided to cut their prize money and thus do not have a pro division.  I still have one race in the books, the Life Time Triathlon Championship in Oceanside California toward the end of October.  Which such a big break and no other races due to the chilly weather, my coach and I decided this would be a perfect chance to rest my hip for a couple weeks and see what happens.  If you are done racing for the season, I hope you enjoy a little break and do something fun!  And as always, thanks for reading and happy training!

Goofing around with teammate and good friend Abby Geurink post-race!