Racing Manatees - Better Together in 2022 (Page 16)

Racing Manatees!!!

March 12-13
No racers that I know of

Is anyone racing or doing anything else fun this weekend?

Congratulations! I don't know how anyone can actually make themselves do race effort in a virtual race!

I will be participating in the Underground Marathon Relay on Saturday.  It is a 10-man relay. Everyone runs the same 2.6-mile out-and-back.  It takes place in the Woodlands on the waterway where the IM-Texas and the Marathon are run.  It was started last year during Covid cancelations by a running club in The Woodlands to give everyone a chance to burn off some energy during the race drought. The team I will be running with won the inaugural race last year.  I am told there will be 10+ teams this year comprising of all the ringers in the Houston area.  It was originally scheduled several weeks ago but got moved because there was a city event on the run course that would have impeded racing.  I am convinced the hosts moved it to the week after the Marathon to sabotage the defending champion's team knowing that a week after a third of us ran marathons and another third are out of town for spring break, band trips, choir trips, etc that they had the best chances of winning.    

Have fun!  Don't the the saboteurs defeat you!

Before covid I saw virtual options for races and thought, "Why would anyone ever do a virtual race"?  The motivation just wasn't there for me if you didn't get to see all the other people who had trained for the race and showed up to reach their goal.  In 2020 I did like 6-7 virtual races and PR's in half of them (of course I planned easy coursed for fast time on some of them).  So....I am okay with doing some virtual races now (depending on how they are set up and what my goals are).  They are tougher than live races though.  13.1 miles as a virtual race is impressive.  

There were 9 teams in this year's Underground Marathon Relay.  I learned this was actually the 3rd time this event was held (just the 2nd time my team was invited).  There were multiple lead changes among the leaders so it was pretty exciting.  The host running group had three teams and had recruited four (4) high schoolers with fast legs to run on their "A-Team".  I ran #9 and started just a few seconds ahead of one of the host group's teams.  I thought it was their A-Team but had left 15 minutes before I started to do strides and warm-ups so I had lost track of where all the teams were at. Turnes out it was actually their B-team.  I don't know how far ahead the A-Team was but apparently, I cut into their lead by quite a bit coming in about 15 seconds behind them.  Our #10 runner ran for the University of Houston several years back and had the fastest split of the day winning the relay for us by almost a minute at 2 hours 24 minutes.  The Host team beat our time from last year and with their 9-minute 2-mile high school recruits almost pulled it off but we slide past them again for the two-year winning streak.   

So...If you put all the fastest Age Group runners in the Houston area together for a marathon relay we almost run fast enough to make the cut-off time for US Olympic Marathon Qualifying time (2 hours 20 minutes).  :-)  

Congratulations on your win streak and on putting the Saboteurs in their place. 

Nice trophy!

well done!

Very cool trophy and excellent effort, Curtis!!  Congrats!

Racing Manatees!!!

March 19-20
No racers that I know of

Is anyone racing or doing anything else fun this weekend?

Was just going to come on and ask what was up for folks this weekend! 

For me, my kids are at my parents house so it's weird to have just an open weekend. I am very motivated to get my Starbucks steps so some long walks and runs are in order to get that. Also started a strength program so getting to that as well. 

Was thinking ahead to what i want to do in 2023 - because that's what i do. My husband is training for a big event this year (we are planning to trade off) AND we are getting a puppy!! We are getting a lab puppy in June. Our friend is a breeder and will have two litters of puppies in mid-June. We will have to pick up the puppy in Nova Scotia so my husband has booked a flight to go pick up said dog. It's all very exciting.

Anyway, back to the race planning and I am not feeling the desire to do long distance - mostly it's the time training on the weekends. I think i might opt to do a few sprints and maybe an Oly for the summer of 2023 - i am pretty lucky to have two good local race series so ... that's the plan. Another idea floating around is to start applying to a couple of the big marathons. The chance of getting is low (I saw lots of London ones not get in) but do want to do race-cations. 

PUPPY!!!! That's the most exciting thing.

I'm on board with the racecation idea as well. I have occasionally had my eye on Lisbon (most likely the half).  It would be awful to have to go to Porto afterward...  Edinburgh also catches my attention.

Oh both of those sound delightful! It would definitely be a terrible idea to go there after - i will go in your place ... 

Yes! We haven't had any fur babies for a few years. Logan was just a baby when we had to put our old girl Samantha to sleep and although we both love dogs we were in the midst of baby and little kids and getting another pet would just feel like another obligation. But with Logan turning 5 it feels like it is a good time. :D 

OK, folks, Strava now offers an option for a "multisport" club which appears to include more than just the SBR that the triathlon club counts.  It looks like it includes strength, etc.  I was thinking that this might be a good change for the Manatee Strava group.  What say you?

This is what the multisport leader board looks like

And this is the Triathlon one

On the one hand, the multisport one better reflects that total activity that is being completed.  I really like that it captures the cross training (yoga, strength, BeachBody, etc.) that everyone is doing.  On the other hand, it's sort of nice to see, oh, Jim did a lot of running last week, didn't he?  I do feel like we can get that detail form BT itself though.

How would you feel about swapping to the Multisport club type? Are there any objections?

Puppies are the best!

Puppies are a lot of work but so awesome. I am jealous!

I don't have any objections. Any downside to having both?

We can have only one or the other -- unless you mean having two groups?

I just thought you could leave the current one going and add the new one, but apparently, that is not possible. It would be too confusing, I think, to have two groups just to have both clubs.

Well, for those who want to take a look before weighing in

https://www.strava.com/clubs/Team-Teddy-Zoe (request to join)

Wow! That sounds like an amazing trip.  Now you need an investment property that you need to visit (for business purposes, of course!) in early April.  Darn, that happens to be Lavaman weekend.  Oh well, must participate.

Wow, I miss a couple days and come back to some great posts!

PUPPY!!!!

Zoe and Teddy multisport club! I endorse switching to multisport or staying the same if the group prefers.  I'm fairly neutral on the switch.  If we switch to multisport I may be less lazy about not filling in the manual activities.

And wow, the Hawaii trip sounds absolutely incredible and EPIC!!!  But for real epic, not sarcastic epic.  What a great mix of activities, very memorable for all.