A Mexican vacation in short..

A quick post from beautiful Cancun, Mexico where we roughed it for a few days of cloudy weather but managed some great sun time the last couple of days. It has been nothing but rest, eat lay on the beach, by the pool and rest and eat some more. No training whatsoever unless we count the 2 mile walk on the beach yesterday which only got aerobic at the end when I had to walk fast to get to a bathroom. I am sure I have gained 5 lbs already but don't care at this point. One highlight is that I did not have to spend 2 days going to the dentist this year. A real improvement from last year!

Back to real life tomorrow as we travel back to the States and Christmas begins..

Back to training soon enough!!

Life is unbelievably good..

Ahhh..the joys of aging..

There are certain things about being in my 50s that I really like:


1. I do not give a shit what people think of how I look. No really! I use to want to have the latest styles, the nails and hair..the whole bit. Now I just do stuff that I like..if others like it too..that's cool.

2. I get to not work. I have worked up until this point since I was 14 years old. I deserve it, have worked hard for it.

3. I get to enjoy my kids. Not the "oh my god I have this overwhelming responsibility to raise these kids and they drive me crazy half the time" anymore...they just love us and we love them and love hanging out with them. Now they are bringing grand babies to us to love. Need I say more?

4. I get to say I did an Ironman in my fifties!! Not just one, but three! I am sure doing IM is incredible at any age but when you add the fifties factor, it just sounds more impressive to me..

5. I can blame alot on menopause...tiredness, weight gain, crabbiness, almost anything..

Things that suck about being in my 50s:


1. I will never, never have a flat stomach. And it is getting worse. I have loose skin all over me where muscle use to be. Wrinkles in places I do not want to have wrinkles. I can't really botox my arms, can I?

2. I need more sleep. I just can't do the "get up at 5:00 to swim" anymore..just cannot..

3. I find myself thinking about death more often. Like it is more close than it use to be. Nothing to morbid, just a fact.

4. I am stuck in a routine and seem to have lost some of my spontaneity. Like, let's go to the movies on a whim just doesn't seem to make any sense to me these days..

5. The worst part is my memory really really sucks these days. It is a bit better than a few years ago but I still have a hard time remembering some conversations, mostly with the family. I must repeat myself because I cannot remember the stories I tell half the time...I use to be soooo organized!!! Now I am lucky to remember to get our bills paid. I was the anal traveler who always had everything order WAY ahead of time. Documents checked and rechecked months before big trips.

Well, this brings me to our current plight. H asked me a few weeks ago if our passorts were up to date and I said why of course they are good until 2010. Well, as I pulled them out of my drawer yesterday, much to my angst, H's expired in Sept. 2008. Oh shit! My memory failed me again!! Mine is the one that expires in 2010-duh!! We are leaving Tuesday for Cancun and as of 2007, you must have a passport to fly into Mexico. After many frantic calls to the passport government agency, it became clear there is no easy way to get a passport in 3 days. The only way to have a chance is to show up at one of about 6 locations around the country, one of which is Denver, in person and try and get your passport renewed. Weren't we just in Denver?? To make a longer story short, Hartley now has to fly to Denver Sunday night. He has an appointment with the official passport agency on Monday AM at 8:30 where hopefully he can get the process done right away. I fly to denver on Tuesday and we meet up to fly to Cancun. This change in travel schedule cost us and would have cost more if I went with him so he will be up there seeing my little Hadley along the way while I sit here at home packing. I don't think I have ever felt so stoopid. I do not think I have ever made a more dumb travel mistake..One time I lost my driver' s license and didn't realize it til I got to the airport and had to go home to get my passport instead and take a later flight.

I blame this on my age. CRS-can't remember sh#^*t!! We will laugh about this someday I know. I will be the butt of family jokes..I can feel it coming..Grandma Debi had some weird illness and had to wear a mask around the baby then forgot her passport had expired..something like that will be a family memory for sure...

Who is that masked Grandma?

This is not really how I saw my week going with my new grand baby. We arrived in Denver last Tuesday. I felt a sore throat coming on on Wednesday and the rest is history as they say. The cold has gone into a cough so I am wearing a mask at the new baby's house and not touching the little one. It is torture to say the least. But rather be safe than sorry..









I guess I should be grateful this did not happen before IMAZ. The fact is, I managed to train for the last 9 months without getting sick. That is pretty lucky..

Just wish it would have waited one more week!

We still have had a great time here with Becca, Dan, Allison here from California to help with her new little niece. Her presence and recent mommy experience was much appreciated. I do remember some things basic things, like changing diapers and breast feeding basics. Beyond that, it gets a little foggy. Well it as been 27 years since I had a little newborn. Dang Hadley is so little..Were my kids that little? There is something surreal about watching your daughter who was once that little, nursing and mommying the next generation. What a miracle!

I signed up for Beach to Battleship half IM , slotted for next November this AM at the crack of dawn. This is the one that all the Outlaws are doing next year so wanted to get in before it filled up.

I have not missed training. Not one bit! I am relieved to be finally, after all these months, to be "resting" The days are full right now in Denver but tomorrow we head home to rest for a week before we leave for Cancun. Then more rest..I can't think of a better way to head into Christmas! I am not even thinking about training yet. I think I will free form it until after Cancun then make some kind of a plan to keep some base over the holidays...right now it feels so good just to have no structure to my day and to go with the flow..

Run and finish..

As I sit here in Denver, visiting my new grand baby for Thanksgiving, I can't believe how lucky and grateful I am for all my blessings this year. The baby is TOO CUTE! Here I am holding her, before I realize that I have a full blown head cold. For now I am quarantined in my hotel room until the Dr. gives OK for me to be around the baby with a mask and gloves. I really hope so..

Back to IMAZ:

The run: I ran out of transition after an angel stretched my legs post biking. I felt pretty good the first lap of the run. It is 3 loops that went kind of in a figure 8 around Tempe Town Lake although I could not retrace my steps for the life of me. Thank goodness it was well marked and lots of people running. The volunteers at the aid stations every mile were fantastic! Of course there were folks passing me who were obviously on their 3rd loop which was a little discouraging but I kept up a 12 min/mile pace the first 8 mile loop. At the start of the 2nd loop Lorna called out to me that Becca and baby were doing great, as this was a worry of mine and she had agreed to call them for me. I thought of the new little one the whole way, I was so happy. The 2nd loop it was getting progressively harder to keep up the pace. My legs were really starting to hurt at this point. At one aid station there were more stretching people, but I didn't want to stop. I walked all the aid stations, stopped at the porta potties probably 6 times on the run. My stomach was getting pretty upset by now. Infinite concentrate and water worked for awhile. I tried to take in some Carboom but that made me go to the bathroom only more so finally I switched to chicken bouillon and coke. I crossed paths with H 3 times on the run, at the same place. He was about an hour behind me I finally figured out. I walked with Miguel for a bit, who was having leg cramps. I saw Brian heading the other way,also Mark and Michi. The last loop was really, really hard. My legs were hurting more than they ever had before, probably because I was on pavement and we had been training on dirt for so long. Also I had pushed on the bike more. I took as many Advil as I could but then lost track of how many I had taken so was scared to take more. I usually take Tylenol also on the marathon but somehow had forgotten to put them in my race belt-damn! I started to walk some at this point. It was very dark by now, I was just trying to get the whole thing done by now. Trying to keep positive thoughts. I'm a runner, I'm a winner, I can do this! was my mantra. I even talked out loud to myself I think at one point. The weird thing is I never got what I call "Ironbrain Syndrome" on this IM marathon. In the ones past, I had gotten really spacey and dingy in the head at the end. Even though I was hurting so much more at this one, I never had that experience. I crossed paths with poor MG, who was obviously suffering on his run. I tried to encourage him. I saw a clock somewhere along the way and knew I would not get a PR. I was, and am, discouraged by this. I thought I deserved to get a PR since I had done 9 months of training, 2 IMs and 2 half IM's in a year, shouldn't I be getting a PR? Oh well, I changed goals-beat my time at IMCDA. Land somewhere in the middle..Last lap, mile 25, I saw a woman in my age group walking. I flew by her running and just ran as fast as I could into the finish. I could have sworn she was right behind me but she really wasn't. It was inspiration to fly into the finish though. I slapped hands, jumped into the finishing tape and there was Duane!! he gave me a big hug, they gave me a T-shirt small I might add, usually they are out of my sizes but this time. Small but important detail..

Run time: 6:02

Final time: 14:44

Halfway in between my IMFL and IMCDA finish time. My run seems to stay the same almost with each race.

28th out of 52 in my AG although 60 women signed up for the race so I choose to count those and say I was in the top half of my AG. Also I was one of the older ones in my AG. So I can console my non-PR with that I guess..

Off I went to the pizza tent and wolfed down 2 pieces of pizza, while sitting with Mark and Lorna in the dining tent, waiting for H to finish. I stood at the finish line and finally I saw his red hat with a big smile on his face!! It was so great to see him and he was soooooo excited!!

We hung around to cheer the rest of our crew in. We all finished!! It was happy times in the Ironhouse that night and the next day. MG managed to pass out in the middle of the night which gave Michi a scare, but he was just dehydrated and was fine the next day..

This is my last IM for a long long time, maybe ever. But I have the fondest memories of this one, training and racing with my Ironmate was the best! Getting good coaching at the end to do a faster swim was amazing! Staying with my people at the Ironhouse was so much fun-I would do that again in a heart beat.. Having a grand baby the night before IM-well I might try and time that one better-that was pretty nerve wracking!

IMAZ-Bike..

I took off on the bike feeling really good. I decided to try and eat right away some solid foods, since I knew later they would not go down. MISTAKE! I know better than this, really. I cannot eat solid food in a race, no matter what. I know this but wanted to "try it" since we had been eating in training...I paid the price. Although my first loop bike split was not bad, my stomach was a swollen mess. I took some Gas-X, I tried drinking more water, then was afraid more water would make it worse. About 1000 people passed me on the bike..one problem with having a good swim..and being an average rider. I had my HR monitor on and kept my HR below 145 for the most part. Finally in lap 2, I stood and passed some wind! Ahhh, that felt so good..I knew my stomach was operational again..Managed to suck down some Carboom gels and Infinite in loop 2 & 3. By loop 3, my legs felt really tired. I was having a hard time keeping my HR up, which I knew meant I needed to take in more calories, which I did with the gels as much as I could. I had to stop at the porta potty about 4 times, which I guess was good but totally sucked because I really wanted to break 7 hours on the bike. Which I did according to my Garmin, but with all the stops, it ended up being 7:06.

Since it was a 3 loop bike, I finally saw H on the first loop and each loop after that. It was so good to see him. He had a smile on his face..that made me so happy! I saw all my Outlaw peeps on the bike except for Brian and Cody...There was an ambulance that came zooming by, which made me a bit nervous..

As I calculated my bike time, I knew I would have to pretty much rock the run course if I was going to get a PR (14:15 at IMFL 4 years ago). My secret goal was to break 14 hours. I felt ready for it, I knew I had done the training. The weather was perfect! In the 70s for most of the day, very little wind, even had the headwind going dowhill on the Beeline Highway. What better conditions to ask for? I felt like I gave it all I had on the bike. I had pushed much harder than at IMCDA and knew I may pay the price on the run but wanted to push my limits a bit on this race..

As I headed into T-2, I was still in good spirits...still thought the PR may be in grasp. The volunteers at T-2 were amazing. Not only did I get my own personal assistant that did everything for me, there was also an A.R.T. therapist there offering to stretch my legs for me. Are you kidding me? Is this a mirage? I thought..Nope, she really did stretch me after I changed all my clothes. I decided to bag the Garmin for the run. I just did not want to deal with the chest strap and extra weight and stuff.. Off I went to run. I thought sure my T-2 was 20 min but it was "only" 10 min.