Pensacola Beach Triathlon: Race Recap

While typically a race recap would include me divulging to you my ins and outs of my race experience; this isn't that friends. Although  I  have been active this entire pregnancy I reluctantly had to sit this race out and I believe not race until after my little lady is here (we are down to 5 weeks yall #eek). As I progess closer to my 40 week mark I'm feeling more of the pregnancy  symptoms that have eluded me since week 12.  However I am grateful  for such a long stretch of uber preggo strength.  And not to toot my own horn I'm a pretty darn good cheerleader.

So I convince my once relay partner Andrea that she should go ahead and do the triathlon sans moi. And being the super OG that she is she took the challenge and just as I suspected rocked it!! Exactly the same way I was encouraged by my homie/fitspiration friend Mary and the ladies of my local running club  Phat Girlz last year. 

This year Pensacola Beach Triathlon served for me as a chance to give back with love and encouragement to ladies who always make me feel included and like I can reach whatever fitness goal I conjure up in this noggin of mine.....hehehe. I encourage  you to give a triathlon a try near you. Don't let fear of failure intimidate you. Go out there, think fun, and just finish what you start & I promise you'll swim,bike,run & love it.

Race recap: Biggest Loser Half-Marathon

A little over 2 weeks ago I completed what now actually  seems bananas and honestly  such an accomplishment.  I mean I honestly went into it with training and all thinking ok I'm pregnant but I'm fit and aside from the slower pace, need to take more frequent potty breaks, oh and let me not forget Abigail taking over my midsection;  I honestly wasn't feeling all that pregnant.

My friend Andrea and I decided to stay the night before at the host hotel, so packet pick up was swift at the expo downstairs  and then we checked in and got settled in before going out to dinner with some of the other ladies that were there for the race. Then  before bed my pre-race must, the runners flat photo. Lol

So race day...cause that's  what you're here for right? Lol

So we didn't know that Mobile has 2 -civic centers and ended up walking half way to the one we saw on our way to our hotel the day before. Of course seeing the groups of runners with the same bibs going in the opposite direction got us thinking. So we called some friends that were also running and they confirmed we were indeed going in the wrong direction.  All that excess walking got Abigail into sleep mode which to pregnantathletes = potty break hehehe. So since we were passing back by the hotel I dropped in to use the restroom & then headed over to the  correct civic center. Ended up getting there just about 10 minutes or so before the race was scheduled to start. I wasn't  really worried about warm-up cause like I said earlier we walked a bit so I had warmed up my muscles enough for the race.  So in true Tiffany fashion I found my friends & we took some pre-race selfies, got my garmin and nike+ running app set to go as we inched forward in the corral towards the start line.

My game plan was to do run/walk intervals of 1:00 min run followed by a 1:30 min walk which for me placed me at about a 13:00 min/mile pace. I was beyond stoked about my pace, 30 weeks pregnant and I was only running :30 secs off of my pre - pregnancy pace. *breaks into happy dance * I  was able to keep up that pace till the urge to take a potty break became too grave. I tried to run as long as I could before taking a potty break simply because there just weren't enough Port-a-potties on course . The 3-water stops I passed that had them only had one and they each had at least 3-4 people waiting to use them. I actually ended up just popping into a Chevron gas station around mile 5 that a fellow runner Larissa told me about. By then the urge was so severe I was reduced to only walking and it wasn't a swift pace at all. But after exiting the Chervon, Abby & I got in some H2O & consumed half of a pack of our black - cherry clif bloks and jumped back on the race course. Now I feel it is important  to point out that at this point my Garmin went bonkers on me and on my search to find a restroom I forgot all about my Nike+ app that was running in my camel pak so it was never paused. Netherless I decided to just reset my Garmin (which meant not saving the data from 1st half of the race) just cause i need the notification of when to run/walk. * insert broken heart *  So by mile 6  I was able to get the Garmin back on track and saw some friends  on course and that gave a much needed boost  to my endorphins tank. Mile 7 is where it got progessively tough for me. Pain slowly began to increase in my glutes and then my groin muscles. So much so by mile 8 I was just walking at a leisurely pace. People that I had passed early on were now passing me asking if I was ok and I assured them I was and thanked them. Between mile 8-9 I stopped to use the portable potty cause there was no wait, lol. And when I came out several of people I knew were walking by but by then I was down to a 30min/mile pace and just couldn't keep up. But God knew I needed some assistance if I were to make it to the finishline on my own two feet. 

Insert my Andrea.

She comes around the corner uses the restroom and off we go. For about 2 miles we just walked speaking words of encouragement to each other and willing each other to just keep pushing  forward. The crowd of runners at this point had thinned out as you could imagine and without Andrea being there I seriously believe I would have quit, I was just in that much pain. Later I learned that the pain I was experiencing was likely due to stretching ligaments and relaxing muscles. You  know those pregnancy symptoms I was saying at the beginning I hadn't experienced, lol. Note to self: keep race distances to 5ks possibly 10ks in my 3rd trimester.

So now we are in the home stretch miles 11-13.1,  By this time our friend Tabitha had joined us and we mustarded up the strength to run/walk again and with these intervals, time didn't matter it was just a way in our minds  to get to the finishline quicker, I was determined to finish at this point, all the doubt I had in the previous miles were erased and etched in my mental was pain is temporary. By mile 12 I was back to exclusively walking and I knew that's pretty much all I could do at this point and that was totally fine by me cause I knew I was still moving forward.

Then I see my needle & thread aka Chrys, Melody, and there was one other person but I can't remember who and I feel pretty bad about that but they talked  me through my last mile. Telling me stories to help keep my mind off the pain. That last 100 yds Chrys & I began to jog/walk again and ultimately jogging across the finishline. It truly hurt but then the sense of accomplishment becomes so intense you forget all your inhabitions and take off. Crossed the finishline with my buddy Chrys, she's just as awesome as Andrea. Then Larrisa, the lady I met back at mile 5 comes over to give me my finisher medal and up till then I was holding in my pregnancy horomone emotions aka no crying. Then she hands me a medal for Abigail and in conjunction that releases the water works followed by forever documentation of my ugly cry thanks to the Biggest Loser photographer. Lol

 This 13.1 mile race for real is a highlight in my pregnancy journey and plan to stay fit during it. Can't wait to do it  again next year with Abby, M3 & the hubster MJ at the finishline waiting!!