Today marks Week 1 of the official marathon training program! It’s been more than a year since we have run a full marathon, and I this is going to be the year for the follow up.

We have our plan in order, and the training schedule is starting to fall into place! Thanks to my wonderfully sporadic work schedule, it is a bit complicated to plan more than a couple of weeks in advance, but I am taking it one day at a time.

I will post some details from the plan as soon as I get a chance, and hope to have details on more musings on life as a running lighting tech, and some other exciting plans as well!

So, I would like to take this opportunity to let everyone on the internets’s tubes know that Lucy and I are officially engaged.  Since Facebook has decided that pictures aren’t really worth much, let alone a thousand words, I am posting pictures of the ring here.

Isometric View

Top View

Lucy had a great time at the Danskin Women’s Triathlon, which took place at Disneyland California Adventure. A this race, she was able to improve on her time from the Zot Trot considerable, posting a total race time of 01:16:22. This was much faster that Lucy’s first triathlon, even though the distance of this race was actually longer.

The official race start time was 6am. Swims started in waves of 100 athletes, spaced 3 minutes apart. With over 1,000 entrants, you can imagine how long this took. There were actually about 16 waves, although I don’t think that they all had 100 swimmers in them. There were still swimmers waiting to start when Lucy finished the swim at about 6:20. Lucy says that the water was not too warm, but also not “take your breath away cold.” She had originally planned on wearing a wetsuit, but a conversation with a woman at the start line made her think twice, and (with the help of an army of anonymous women) ditched the wetsuit just before her wave started.

Here’s a picture of Lucy’s wave lined up for the swim start. This was actually a boat ramp that is used to launch service boats into the lagoon. Lucy said the surface was pretty slimy and gross. The blue railing in the back is the launch area to the California Screamin’ roller coaster.

Chaos ensues as the wave gets started. There is a slight drop-off at the end of the boat ramp, so there were a lot of people pushing forward pretty hard to get a start. In actuality, the water was shallow enough to stand in. The lagoon drops off at some point further along to an eventual depth of 12′.

Lucy has found a nice place very early, and is making some space for herself. Nothing ever lasts for long in the water though…

Though the water was quite dirty, it really was quite a nice place for a swim. Water temp. at race time was reported to be 78ºF, and there’s a beautiful background of California Adventure.

I was very lucky to catch some pictures of Lucy actually in the water. She’s in the very center of this picture (click the image for a larger version). This is also the point at which a spectator said: “It’s like Titanic out there.” That’s my quote of the year.

It’s easy to get caught in traffic going around the buoys, but Lucy takes this turn nice and wide, and clears very nicely. She seems to have been in a good place in her wave, as there was not much traffic in front or behind her.

After rounding the buoy, Lucy seems to be settling back in, and showing some nice breathing, clearing the water quite nicely.

Lucy said to me after the race, “I didn’t know my shoes were going to get so wet.” I guess I never thought about it, because my bike shoes usually get the worst of this, but I can see now how that would be a problem. Note the balance and skill required for this type of sock application.

Helmet buckled and ready to head out of T1.

Coming in to T2 from the bike. This was a very confusing area for some ladies. Not sure why really. Lucy says there were volunteers sorting out those coming in to finish from those going for a second lap long before this area, but for some reason, this was a point of mass chaos. I should add that this area was VERY well marked with cones. Lucy didn’t seem to have any problems.

Lucy is all smiles as she turns the final corner into the finisher’s chute. She ran this race at a blazing 8:08/mi pace. That’s pretty fast after coming off of a bike. She said, “I felt like jelly.”

Still smiling, and having a great time as she strides in to the finish.

Lucy’s Mom was there with Ejiro to help cheer her on! Mom and Ejiro came with us at 5am to the race site. Considering it’s wasn’t even 8am when Lucy finished the race, I’d have to say that these are some dedicated fans! Thanks for coming, guys!

I had to get a picture with her, and her giant bottle of water. I’m very proud that Lucy posted such a great time, and showed so much more confidence this time out. As she said, she’s come such a long way. From not knowing how to swim, and being deathly afraid of the water to swimming in open water with a bunch of crazy old ladies… It’s really saying something. I’m proud to have her call me “coach”!

Lucy wanted to take one final picture with her prized water-bottle-trophy. They only gave these extra big ones out to the cute finishers!

Today marked a milestone for Lucy.  With two marathons under her belt, she set out to make one more notch in the endurance sports wall—triathlon.  So with that end in mind, we set out very early in the morning to UC Irvine to the Zot Trot triathlon.  This sprint tri featured a 5k run, 10 mile bike, and 250 yd. swim.

When we arrived at UCI, it was dark.

After checking in, Lucy took her bike to the transition area.  That’s the place you stash all the stuff you aren’t using, since you obviously can’t do all three sports at once.  There, she received the true mark of a triathlete—body markings.  (You can see in the second picture the other true mark of a triathlete, the knee-scar from a bike accident.)

At that point, it was time to pin-on the race numbers.  But first, Lucy had a key observation to share with me: “I match!” The ladies will appreciate this one…

Luckily, it was starting to warm-up, and just in time.  Time to wander over for the start of what Lucy called a very soggy 5k through grass and mud.  But, she didn’t know that yet… she’s happy and excited!

Lucy was clearly having a great time despite all the crap she allegedly had to run through.

I was able to capture this image seconds before she realized that this wasn’t water, but Accelerade.

Lucy kept up that signature smile on the bike… I forgot to tell her that you should keep your mouth closed to keep the bugs out.

After three loops of the bike course, she was back in T2…

After a quick change, she was off to the pool for the final leg of the race.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us into the pool area to take pictures, but trust me when I say that it was amazing to see the display of human will to survive.  Lucy did great… put her head down and swam straight through.  But, we could really see that some people were more in “survival” mode than race mode.  Their mantra: Don’t Drown.  Luckily, she swam over the weak, and triumphed!

After the race, Paola and Ejiro offered their congratulations on a job well done!

And, finally, I was able to tell her how proud I am of her!  You are a triathlete!  Although, as I always say, there was always a triathlete inside of you… today you let it out.