Big Weekend

Here it is, Sunday evening and I'm sure I'm going to sleep well tonight. It was an active weekend and I think both of us deserve some extra hours to sleep it all off. The problem for me is that I'm wondering if I have a broken little toe on my left foot or just some torn ligaments or just a deep bruise. I busted it during the duathlon I did down in Opelousas this morning when I was racking my Guru after the bike leg in preparation for my last run of the race. I rolled the bike under the high rack bar to hook it by the seat so I could get my running shoes on. As I came around the wooden rack support I banged the underside of my toe while in my running socks (I had already ditched the bike shoes) but it didn't seem that bad at first...it just hurt like a #*@##%. I pulled the runners on and headed out for that last two miles trying to ignore how much it hurt on every other step. I averaged a 7:05 mile pace, which is about a minute faster than I usually train at, so it was tolerable.

Now I'm home and I'm limping around the house trying to not bump my boo-boo against the wall, a cabinet or any other obstruction and increase the "ow" factor. The bruising has shown up and my toe is purple...yeah, baby! I might try to see if I can ride on it in the morning. I know I can't run on it for a while. If it doesn't improve over the next few days, I'll get it looked at.

Anywho, Jonnene did a bike tour in Tyler, Texas yesterday called Beauty & the Beast (Texas folks call them "rallies") that features a 1/2 mile long hill that goes from a 7% to 13% grade called the BEAST at the 32-mile point of the 64-mile ride. Guess which route Jonnene went on? I did the Beast twice in one day during a road race a couple of years ago and I remember it very well. It's a bear to climb but it is quite doable. She did great, averaged just under 18 mph for the entire ride but she was pretty tired when she got back home at 4 Saturday afternoon. Only two hours later we were on the road to my brother's house in Alexandria to sleep over before going to the duathlon at five Sunday morning.

Great shot from Jonnene of the race start...that's me in the middle.

After 16 miles on the bike, I'm thinking over my second run already.

First, the stats on my race. I got second...again...in my age group but improved from 31st overall last year to 17th overall today! I carved about 1 minute, 48 seconds off my 1:15:25 time last year to a 1:13:36 for this year. The runs were good...if you take out the busted toe part...with a 6:47/mile pace in the first run and that 7:05 the second time. My bike was faster, too, but still not what I wanted. The drive down to the race from my brother's house was in the dark since we left around 5 am but we got to the race site with only a slight misdirection but no harm. Got signed in and parked the Rav right next to the transistion area where I could set up the bike, helmet and shoes where I wanted. It was coolish with some fog rolling in I didn't go with any cold weather gear...wouldn't need it anyway. Generally speaking, everything went pretty well. There were 141 total participants, down from last year by about twenty people but it was still fast and frenetic.

So, Jonnene got to do a bit of traveling....west into Texas and then down to south Louisiana, all in about 32 hours, with a long bike ride and then helping to support me at my race. I do appreciate the support she gave...helped keep my mind a little clearer.