Little Miss Runner Pants

the first annual MINI DU at LAKE DOO DOO was held yesterday at Heritage Park with all my favorite tri-friends.

0% was there. Banker Chick. Really Tall Chick and MU Girl. Good At Everything Girl of course made an appearance as well as Babysitter Girl.... and then there was me.

resident runner pants extraordinare.

it was a good, really fun group of girls. the split was almost 50/50 for newbies and old pros, and although i did have a few jitters in the beginning, i was mostly excited for our fun little du-venture.

we started out across the dam, 0% giving us an idea of what its like when 600 people crowd together on a small lane of road. apparently the triathlon and the duathlon start at the same time, so immediately i had images of myself being passed by a bunch of wet people smelling like goose poo.

(incidentally, for those not familliar with Heritage Park, its... gross. the lake, or... pond rather, is full... CHALK FULL, of goose poo. you can smell it just standing in the parking lot. its disgusting. and very well known.

hence the reason so many of us choose to make heritage a DUathlon, rather than a TRI.)

like i said, images of goose poo smeared athletes running past me in a wave of stink filled my mind and... i definitely grimmaced a bit.

you'll just have to be fast. you'll have to be super fast. and just beat them all. you can do that. um... no problem!

the group started out at a reasonable pace. the idea was to run/bike/run the course, and our first leg called for a 2-mile run.

keeping in mind that the midwest had a burst of winter activity these past few weeks... i haven't run in. well... a while.

somehow, amazingly enough, i was able to keep up with the group and was rewarded by a bit of a side stitch, but nothing major. by the end of our run i knew two things...

that wasn't as bas as it could have been

and...

i really need to work on my run!

after our quasi-somewhat-sorta transition (that involved me losing the clicker to my car, scrambling for keys and having to take a time-out to put pig-tails in, which prompted someone, i'm guessing MU girl, to say "if you're still in transition at this point... thats bad". *ahem*)... we were off!

and this is kind of where things started to sort of um... fall apart.

immediately out of the park, there are hills. not long, big, gradual hills, but short, steep bursts of omg this sucks.

three of them. one right after the other.

so i??? took off. bolted. i flew down the first hill in some sort of an attempt to gain enough speed where rounding that first hill wouldn't kill me.

yeah. it didn't work.

i passed Good At Everything Girl, 0% and MU chick on the down, only to be passed by them all on the up.

@($#*%*!!

i hate the bike.

down... up. pass... get passed. down.. up.

up.

up.

omg, i'm never getting up this hill..... EVER!

and just as soon as the hills began, they ended. i was back in the park, biking up a false flat, and the suck-ti-tude was over. i was now by far the last one sucking wind through the park and was slowly realizing...

um. i sorta gotta poo.

NOT. GOOD.

my stomach started cramping up. my pace slowed way down, and i knew i was in trouble.

half way through the park though, it all sort of went away. i thought it had passed, and i was in the clear. at just about the point where we exit the park for loop two, i caught up to the group and was ready to go again.

hills, hills, and more hills.

but my legs were spent. i didn't have near the gusto i had in the beginning, having blown my entire load on that first go-round, and by the time i got back into the park, i really wasn't feeling well.

i mistakenly thought water would be helpful at the time, took a swig, and then dropped the bottle while trying to get it back in the cage.

ohhhh son of a @#*)$%(#$)!!!

and from that point on, it was just one piercing cramp after another.

sadly to say... i DNF'd the DU at DOO DOO. the other girls went ahead and finished a third loop, ran another few miles and completed the adventure.

i.. on the other hand... did not. instead i found a bathroom, then curled up in my car, and awaited their return.

it wasn't pleasant. 0% hung back from the run and made sure i stayed alive and eventually i was feeling.... almost normal.

all in all... it wasn't so bad. it was a training day, and thats what training is for. all the good, all the bad... all the poopy stuff comes out in training. saturday Really Tall Chick and i plan on doing it again, and by the time the actual DU at DOO DOO rolls around, i'm certain i'll be ready.

the first annual mini du at lake doo doo was complete. and regardless of anything else.. i survived. and thats definitely a step in the right direction!





runner pants and 0% after the doo






the doo doo crew