I would love to earn a wage as a writer and a triathlete.  I don't need to earn a million dollar paycheck, luckily my husband does most of the heavy lifting in that arena, but I would love to actually make some cash off of my two greatest passions.  In my free time, I am huge fan of learning about my idols in both the triathlete and writing field.  There are two quotes that have struck a chord with me over the years in both universes, "People need time to become great". This from possibly the greatest Triathlete of all time, Chrissie Wellington.  Then, "Read and write four to six hours a day.  If you can not find time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer."  These honest words were uttered by Stephen King.

The funny thing for me is that I do have time to accomplish both of my passions, because I do have the time.  I have the rare lifestyle set up that I can train for five to six hours a day if my training schedule calls for it, and then read and write for easily another four to six hours.  This of course is much easier to accomplish if I turn off the boob-tube.  Yes, to answer the befuddled look on your face, I am by myself a lot.  I do run my step-daughter around town every other week, but she is settling into her teens nicely, so she does not need constant attention like the years of yore.  Plus, my husband is ALWAYS working, and barely ever home by 10PM at night, and barely ever two days back to back on the weekends.  Yes, this is a pretty cool set up if you are an independent woman life myself, yet it does have a lonesome underbelly to it also.  The fact is, my dream is to become a writer people love to read, and a triathlete that people fear to race against, and I do have the time to become both.  I just celebrated my 33rd birthday yesterday, and now is the time to dedicate the daily hours I spend dreaming and planning for greatness, to actually do it.

Ironman Louisville Race report

Greetings,

My name is Taryn, and I am runner.  I fancy myself a bit of a triathlete as well, and last weekend I participated in my 7th Ironman in Louisville Kentucky, which also served as my 23rd marathon.  I really enjoy running marathons, they are my favorite thing, but I enjoy Ironmans immensely, too.  So, I invite you to sit back, take a sip of your beverage and take in the amazingness that surrounded me in beautiful Louisville, KY last weekend...

Once again Louisville was a special place to race.  This race was a little different because I did not have anyone from my family coming out to support me, Marion was working like crazy as always, and it was a little far for my parents to come out, but I did have a few friends racing, so that was fun.  To be honest, it was nice to just go through the motions of race prep and not worry about keeping anyone entertained, plus I always enjoy a little quality “T Time”, and I knew everyone would be tuning in online, so I still felt the love.

Okay, so race morning was warm, and pleasant, but the swim line was L to the O to the N to the G!!! LONG!!  Still, I was in the water by 7:25ish, and rocking my new TYR Torque, which did not have the amazing powers of my wetsuit, but was helpful nonetheless.  I felt pretty good while swimming past Toe island, but once we made the turn, I kind of felt all over the place.  I did not feel any current helping us down the river, but I felt like I was in a pretty good spot.  My swim stroke has vastly improved this year, and since the St. George swim was more like a squall than a IM swim, I was looking forward to see how my improved form would translate on race day, so when I looked at my watch while climbing up the stairs of the swim exit I felt sucker punched when I saw a 1:20 on my watch, “What the F%^*?!!” I knew it was not a fast swim, but I was hoping for a 1:10, so I just pictured my day BLOWN!  This deflation in spirit explains why my T1 time was an eternity, but I was just sorting out my thoughts, and decided to put the swim behind me, and go crush it on the bike. 

Luckily, I felt like I had all the energy in the world, and got to work right away on River Rd.  The first 90 miles of the bike was an absolute dream, I was pushing hard the entire way and just had to giggle to myself at how much easier this course was compared to St. George.  However, a little bit of St. George came up to haunt me around mile 90 in the form of a nagging headwind that slowed me down a bit coming on home.  I was working towards a 5:40 split, but the last 15 miles blew that out the window, and I felt like I needed to take into account the marathon, so I wanted to be smart and just keep a quick cadence to spin out my legs, get in at a decent time, and move on to the run.

I was a happy camper when I ran into T2, it could be because there were not many women in the tent, always a good sign, but also because running always brings me out of a funk, and my day was pretty funky thus far, so I just wanted to go run, and luckily I had 26.2 illustrious miles just waiting for me.  As soon as I ran out of the tent I was beaming, my legs had no remnants of the hard ride, and just felt strong and ready to carry me for the next four-ish hours.  This was my 23^rd marathon, and even though I am still fairly new at ironmans, I feel pretty confidant at running marathons, and this one was executed nearly perfectly.  My first thought was to stay conservative for the first ten miles, which I wanted to do for my mother, I knew she was worrying, and I wanted to run smart, and not push it hard too early.  I was methodical about what I would eat and drink at each aid station, and just maintain my pace, which I though was a 4 hour pace, but my math was off… Fortunately, I did not discover my mistake until mile 12, and at that point I was pretty bummed, because it was more like 4:20pace, but than I was just thankful that I had fooled myself up until that point, and just had to keep clicking off the miles.  Oddly enough, I did have a new sensation overwhelm me around mile 14 – 15 that I had never felt in a race before, sleepiness.  I blame the mere 3 hours of restless sleep I gained the night before, or the gallons of sunscreen that had flooded my eyeballs all day, but honestly I just wanted to curl up on the sidewalk and take a nap.  Obviously, that did not happen, but I adjusted my aid station plan and decided to start drinking coke earlier than I planned, I was holding out for mile 20, but I grabbed it at 16 instead.  I immediately woke up and I started to pick up the pace.  I am not sure if I have ever shared this with you, Marion thinks it’s weird, but whenever I feel in an amazing running groove, I feel really tall, and from mile 17 on I felt like a giant.  I decided to take complete advantage of how amazing my body felt because I knew that this surge may not last too long.  Luckily, I just kept feeling stronger and stronger as the miles clicked by, and I knew I was taking minutes off of my pace, yay!  My original goal for the day was a sub 11 hour finish, that was not to be, but I did see a possible sub 11:40 in my future, and my bod did not let me down.  I pushed the last couple of miles, and ran that final half mile like the end of a cross country race, fast!  I probably could have spread that out across the entire marathon, but I thought I executed it well because my first 18 miles were controlled, which set up the last 8 miles to be the fastest of the day. 

It was a little strange to not have anyone from my family greet me at the finish line, but when I talked to Marion he had all of my splits ready to report, and I was happy to hear that I was 9^th in my age group, not amazing, but respectable.  Also, my finish time was 11:39, exactly 2 hours faster than St. George, which was 13:39, yikes.  I did feel a little better about my rotten swim time after talking with a few other athletes, and the 3^rd place finisher Terra Castro, who said that it was a slow swim for the pros, too.  She also gave some credit to the bike course, which I thought I should have raced faster, but I guess the rollers did account for some time slippage for everyone.  All in all, Louisville was a fun race, lessons were learned and I hope to go back again some time in the future.