A Race Year In Review

2017 has been a year of big events and changes that required a change in plans & goals along with some awesome celebrations along the way. I haven’t had much time to blog and didn’t do my usual race reports. I decided to do a year in review instead to celebrate an awesome 2017 as I prepare for a FABULOUS 2018!

APRIL 9TH – Clydes 10k – 1:30:35 (14:28min/mile)

Coming off of a shot in each knee and a recommendation that I learn to power walk if I want to keep at it and I had a goal of doing IMMD.

The brace helped and I felt like I crushed it even with that disrespectful hill coming up Rt 108.













6 MAY – NEW JOB

21 MAY – Columbia Triathlon (Redemption)

Swim 47:56   Bike 2:20:58   Run 1:39:09

15 min overall improvement (5 Bike, 10 on Run)

         

             
You can practically feel the joy and exhilaration I felt at the completion of this race. Columbia Tri is a BEAST and has been my nemesis for ever. 2015 – Bronchitis and I raced anyway having to pull out of the run. 2016 – DNF having to pull out of the water, too damn cold, panicked and ended up in med tent for 30 min for high BP. YES I CAN!!

MAY 29th – JUNE 6th –
30th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION – LONDON & PARIS

     

 

I had the most wonderful time celebrating 30 years together. Here is looking for 30 more. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

9-10 JUNE – Moved into New Home

This was the same weekend I had to make the command decision on moving forward with IMMD. All move, the travel and the new job travel requirements made it so I could not train like I needed to do if I wanted to be successful. Looking back at it now, I made the best decision for me and my family.

18 JUNE –Ellicott City 10k- 1:34:08 (15.16min/mile) – coming off of a decadent trip to London & Paris with the most training being lots of walking and a bike tour followed by the move, I was impressed with my wog! Especially, having to do that two mile climb. THAT WAS RUDE!

15 – 16 JULY – DU THE 2 – Maryland Duathlon Challenge
         
                   
Let’s just say that after 2 years of this back to back race…yeah. Imma stick to the OLY and call it a day. I seem to not be able to get my nutrition right, it is always hot as a mofo and running is my Achilles heel. My Sprint time pretty much the same from previous year and the Oly was the same except add 10 min onto the run time. I was so glad to cross that finish line. 2018…Just the OLY.

26 AUGUST – West Point Sprint Triathlon
Swim 21:49   Bike  1:04   Run 46:40 –

3rd PLACE ATHENA

      
Took the podium again with a 3rd place Athena! YES!!

26 – 27 AUGUST – CHICAGO TRI
(SuperSprint & OLY)


Back to Back races and I didn’t drown, crash or fall. WINNING!! I followed it up with a vacation with my GlamBaby (and her parents too). Another fabulous racecation.

10 SEPTEMBER – Nations Triathlon 1ST ATHENA MASTERS
I decided to do this race at the last minute for grins and giggles since I wasn’t going to be doing IMMD. It is the first triathlon I ever did back in 2010 and I wanted to see how I have progressed over the years.
I cut off 47 – FORTY SEVEN MINUTES – off my race time and came in 1st in my Division. 10 min off the swim and 37 min faster off the bike – run was essentially the same. WOW!!!
I won an entry to ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ in 2018. Guess what the A race is for 2018!!






28 SEPT-1OCT 30th WEST POINT CLASS REUNION
        

5 NOVEMBER – Across the Bay 10k 1:32:05 Nothing to write home about, but I am not losing pace ground. One more puzzle piece to collect.


19 NOVEMBER – Turkey Chase 10k – 1:28:54
My last race of the season and one of the best as I ran it with my son, Trooper Jordan Steptoe.
        
It was a wonderful year of racing amongst a lot of celebration and life changes. You adapt, improvise and overcome as things are thrown in your path. Don’t give up on your goals and dreams. Shoot for the stars and if you land on the moon, you have a better view of the stars and are that much closer.

Wishing all of you a wonderful 2018…May all your days be Merry & Bright!

A “Do Epic Shit” Weekend

What does a “Do Epic Shit” Weekend look like? It starts with a drive to the Poconos for CIGAR FEST followed by going to West Point to the Athena Arena: 40 Years of Women at West Point and sealed up with a 40 mile bike ride through New York City at the FiveBoroBikeTour. Whew!

 

Thursday morning (April 28th), The Queen Momz and I leave out to go to CigarFest and attend some of the free events at the Cigar International Stores. We went to the Drew Estate event in Hamburg and then over to the Perdomo Event in Bethlehem.

  

We met up with some other Lodge members for the Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo Cigar Club, hung out for a while, spent a lot of moolah and then we hooked up with Lodge 19 (I am the Grand Poobah of Lodge 19) member, IlaGator. Lodge 19 moved the party to Split Rock Resort where CigarFest was being held and attended the Daniel Marshall “Modern Day Campfire” Event.

  

I was sure that one of us was going to win one of the awesome prizes, but alas, it was not meant to be. I still have my Daniel Marshall Gold Cigar and plan to take it to Puerto Rico with me to celebrate my 29th anniversary.

 

Friday, Momz and I were up early to get to the breakfast for the VIP CigarNUTs (yep, that’s us) and scored one of the nice large ceramic ashtrays, although I thought I was going to have to build a defensive perimeter around it or go all ham on some guys who thought that two women smoking cigars would need an ashtray. Beat it, bub. MINE!

 

We picked up our great military style back packs filled with CigarNut goodies and made our way into the “tent” to go around to meet, great and pick up a cigar from over 50 different Cigar-makers and brand owners. IT WAS AWESOME!

            

So, after we made all of our rounds and had spent all of our monies, we loaded up and made our way to West Point to meet up with the Class of 87 Women for a get together and then the conference on Saturday.

 

It was fantastic to spend time with women grads and to hear from some phenomenal speakers including hearing from the 1st Women Ranger Graduates – all of whom are West Pointers. It was a glorious day for a conference, a parade, Spring Football & Class of 87 Tailgage. Just Simply The Best!!!  

 

After the tailgate, we (me, ConnieB and Momz) drove down to NYC…and that was an adventure itself – missed a turn and ended up having to go across the Brooklyn Bridge where I made a U-Turn where I probably was no supposed to causing a tad bit of havoc on the road, but I got back across and to our hotel which I would say was not really in Chinatown but actually China. It was GREAT! We picked up dinner at a carry out (yes, Val…it had an A on the door) and Connie and I had to spend a little time reading over the menu and trying to figure out what to get – there was no General Tso Chicken or Schezuan Beef anywhere to be found. What we did end up getting was SLAMMING though. Connie and I pulled our stuff together, debated on whether we should even do the race as it was calling for some serious rain, decided we would play it by ear, and went to bed to get ready for our 40 mile FiveBoroRide.

 

We decided to go since it was just cloudy and misting a little, picked up some gloves under the Manhattan Bridge from a street vendor (they were Clutch!) as we rode to the start line – we grinned and kept each others spirit and humor up. I couldn’t have picked a better person to ride with in such miserable conditions. Mark Twain once said if you want to know if you really like or hate a person, travel with them. Not only did I travel with my classmate & friend, but we survived 40 mile in the freezing rain together with laughter, good humor and comradery. I wouldn’t have done it or kept going without her there with me. I HAD A BLAST! A perfect end to an EPIC SHYT WEEKEND!

I have been asked would I do this ride again. Probably not. It was so crowded – 40K people on almost as many different bikes and with so much various experience – mostly a lot of people who don’t have the faintest idea of the rules of the road. People would come to a sudden and complete stop in the middle of the road. Stop on the left side blocking people from passing and weaving erratically in and out of the people without saying a word. I saw a lot of unnecessary and/or preventable accidents of which I had no interest in being part of. I was pretty much over it when I saw a guy bite a jersey wall. Yep. No.

 

I put together a little slide show from the ride. Enjoy

Race Report: 26th Annual West Point Triathlon

ANOTHER BREAKTHROUGH! A PODIUM FINISH!!!

I registered for this race at the last minute so I could attend the Acceptance Day Parade at West Point for the New Cadets – particularly “my” new cadets Nia & Kelsey, Class of 2019. I was originally scheduled to do the 10th Annual Columbia Iron Girl, but seeing my cadets was more important. Besides, Nia’s mom, Danielle, AND Nia were racing so – PERFECT!

My faithful Spectathlete, The FireMarshall, drove me up to West Point and we stayed with our classmate &  Nia’s Sponsor Mom, KarenW’s place. Let me just say that Karen is badass – she signed up to do the Tri as well for grins and giggles. Just Wow!

We had a full day on Saturday of Parade, Diversity & Inclusion Picnic, Packet Pickup and whatnot.

     

The whatnot turned out to be allegedly a short easy ride from Karen’s house on post and back – about 8 – 10 miles; however, I didn’t bring my ID with me so we couldn’t get on post. Karen was all like well we will just ride out to Garrison and back. I shrug…okay…sounds good to me (not knowing what that really means). What that meant was riding down 9W, across Bear Mountain Bridge, and up 9D to Garrison. Now, I have ridden on roads with traffic – like an occasional couple of cars on my country roads on the Hills of Howard County – but not like interstate highway kind of traffic. Karen was rolling along, jumping her bike over obstacles & potholes as if there wasn’t a care in the world. I’m trying to keep up with her; shrieking constantly as I tried to not lose control as cars & trucks blew past me and trying so hard not to just break down and cry. Finally, she felt pity for me as we stopped at her friends house. I wanted to kiss the ground when I got off the bike, but I wouldn’t have looked like the badass I thought I was – AT ALL.

The FireMarshall was summoned and we went to dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Riverside for our Pre-race dinner. It took two beers to get my nerves settled.
Sunday – Race Day

Here is the race crew with the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, LTG Robert Caslen (Yes! He raced as well). We got all set up in transition and then waited around for the swim waves to kick off.

SWIM 800m – (28:03) –
I stood on the beach area of the lake looking at all the people in the purple caps of my swim wave and realized that they grouped the Athena’s with the children – like the 18-21 youngsters. All the fluffy chicks – 6 of us – gathered round cause we stood out in this wave like bowling balls next to the pins. It gave me a chance to peruse the Athena’s all at once and I decided right then and there that I was going to stay ahead of 3 of them and that was gonna be that!


The swim itself was uneventful in itself, I felt good and was cruising along but I lost significant time on the return as we were swimming into the sun and even with my tinted goggles, I couldn’t see a damn thing. It was so bright AND the sun was reflecting off the water. Finally, I just decided to follow in the middle of the pack and sight way more often than I usually do. Then there was the lakeweeds…ewwwwaaaahhh. Just keep moving…and I was out!
Now…I screwed up a little and got lost in transition trying to find my bike. See…usually, my bike is like one of the only ones still in transition so – yeah – count the number of racks from swim in and there it is. Ummm…see I rolled into transition and there was a gazillion bikes still there. I found my rack but then ran up and down cause I couldn’t see my bike. I just wasn’t accustomed to having bikes around – UNPREPARED for that I was. Found it and moved out. T1 – a #pathetic 3:23

BIKE – 14 miles (1:01:39) -
I forgot how long the climbs are and how many of them there are on this course…but the downhills though! I knocked 7 mins off my bike time from 2 years ago. WINNING! I knew 2 of the Athena’s were still back in the water or transition and one got out right before me, but I chased her down on the bike. When I passed her, she screamed NOOOOOOOO!!!! I said something encouraging and then it became my mission to put as much distance between me and her on the bike so there was no way that, even if I walked the damn run, she (or the other two still behind me) could catch and pass. I knew that 3rd place was in the bag as long as I didn’t let up.


RUN – 3.1 miles (47:16) -
Tough hilly run, but I was determined. I just kept it moving and I didn’t see the last 3 Athena’s until I had about one mile left and they were just starting out. There is a joy; an elation that I can’t describe when you KNOW, that you are going to get to stand on the podium for the first time in years of racing. I felt empowered…so I ran.

VICTORY!!

It couldn’t have happened at a better place or a better race for me. At my Alma Mater! I was home and I conquered! Four years of racing – and for those that have followed me all these years – four years of fear, doubt, uncertainty, drama, injury. Still, there was four years of perseverance, dedication and overcoming…then culminated in a perfect day.

Will it always turn out like this for me? A podium finish. Maybe, maybe not. What it will always turn out be is JOY and ACCOMPLISHMENT in a job well done.