A friend of mine from the LA Tri Club forwarded me this video of a triathlon racing start. It’s hilarious…what makes it even more funny is that it’s not that far from the truth.
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Sunday January 10, 2010
We woke up super early to get ready for race day. Marc packed all his gear for the race and I packed the camera and all my spectator gear. This time I was bringing a folding chair. Preggy lady can’t stand or sit on the floor like I used to. Around 530am we headed over to the race start, Venice Beach area, to get good parking and so that Marc could unwind and relax. He likes getting to the race early to avoid the crazy crowds and last minute rush. Plus, it gives me a chance to scope out the area and find a good spot to set up shop. Luckily we found a nice beach bench. Then Pablo arrived. He was sporting his fro. So funny. He seriously can grow out a fro. It was nice and fluffy this morning. We just caught up on life and shared some laughs before the race started. It was scheduled to start at 7:13am.
7:05am Marc and Pablo got in the race start crowd and the race began. After the the participants left the start line I picked up my gear and headed toward the ocean. It was such a pretty morning. I wanted to just enjoy the scenery. We really are quite fortunate to live in Los Angeles. Great weather, beautiful scenery. Sigh… I just watched the ocean for a bit then headed toward the finish line.
The finish line was about 3 blocks south of where we were. So I grabbed my stuff and made my way down to the corner of Rose and Main street. Half way to the finish is where the Expo started. I walked around to see what vendors and booths were available. I like to check out all the stuff they have. There wasn’t anything new or free, haha, so I made my way to the finish. When i got there, families had already set up chairs and stuff on the sidewalk, so I made sure to grab my spot fast before I missed out. I found a nice spot where I could read and eat and still see the racers. So glad I brought my chair. Man, it makes such a difference. I left all the non important stuff on the chair, sweaters and magazines, and went for a walk with my camera. I took pictures of all the goodies they were preparing for the participants once they were done. Apples, bananas, bagels, sports bars, etc. They had a ton of stuff. They even had Border Grill there. They were offering free breakfast burritos!
Afterwards, I sat in my oh so comfy chair and began reading Parenting magazine. I got so caught up in some of the articles that time just flew by. It was almost time for the guys to come in so I got the camera ready and waited patiently for them. Man, there was this lady that was standing next to me that smelled like BO! I wanted to throw up, but I didn’t want to move since I had a great viewing spot. I had to say “excuse me” to her a few times cuz her dirty ponytail would swing close to my face when she turned. Ugghhh! So gross. I almost left, but thankfully her family member crossed the finish line and she left. Inhale… there’s nothing like fresh air. Seriously!
When I saw Marc I yelled and congratulated him. Whoo whoo! He did it! But when he crossed the finish line I noticed he was limping a bit. 
Did he hurt himself again? He explained that at mile 11 he started to cramp up. Sucks! He always seems to cramp up during races, but rarely to almost never during training. How frustrating. He grabbed some food and we made our way through the expo so he could partake in the fun stuff they had for him. He took a picture with Darth Vader and ate a bagel and a banana. We found Pablo and Kate soon after. We said our good byes and made our way home. Marc had a basketball game in just a few hours, so we needed to get home so he could eat and rest up a bit.
I stumbled upon these two running sites and just wanted to share them.
The first site is the Treadmill Pace Conversion Chart (here). I run a lot on the treadmill and it is always nice to know the conversion between treadmill mph and pace per mile.
The second site is the McMillan Running (here). You enter in your desired race, estimated time and other little details (make sure you pause that annoying video than runs on load). The site will then tell you what paces to run your intervals, tempo runs, recovery runs and long runs. Pretty dope huh!
Here is what I calculated mine to be…with the goal of running a 4:30 Marathon.
So based on these numbers…
On the treadmill: I need to run Intervals at approx 6.3 mph and Tempo Runs at approx 6.1mph.
