race report - Long course DU

its been an interesting trip, both with sights of belgium and the race itself. just going to tackle yesterday's race and will get to the other stuff later..
the weather here has shown us all four seasons in the span of about 30 minutes. seriously. so it was a toss up what to expect. alas race morning brought cold temps, wind and rain. not just sprinkles, but full on rain. weather that makes you long to get back in to bed..nice. anyway start time was 802, right after the 40+ men.. yep if i cant catch some of those guyss...my ankle has been ok, i've been running on it and it hasnt been too much of an issue. the swelling refuses to go down though.. but some how i knew i would have other hurt parts during the race that an ankle would be the least of my suffering ...
anyway its always funny at the start as the guys stare each other down and try to look intimidating, while the ladies are all chatty and talking about uniforms and weather and post race goodies.. anyway - the first run.. at no time in my mind did i think about this leg as 11+ miles. it was four laps. no more no less. four is a much easier number to work with than 11... anyway there was definately a group of girls woho took off like rockets. i settled a bit behind them. i knew i wanted to be at a comfortably hard pace, and since the course was marked in km i decided to not look at mile splits, impossible anyway, and instead guage by lap times. it turned out to be a great run for me except lap four which brought on a terrible side stich. it lasted just about entire last lap, with me cringing on the right side - BTW pinching your side does not help as i had always been told.. i was so thankful for the bike leg.. i had a goal of 7:30 miles on the run (which i thought would be tough but doable for me) and ended up at 7:08. so that was a victory in it self. T1 was a bit of a mess for me, as all the bikes always magically look the same when lined up.. good thing they were in numbered order (a small luxury i've never experienced where they put your name and number on your bike spot!) anyway for some reason i kind of forget what i need to do here. so its was like put on one shoe, put on helmut and glasses, grab gels (bento box will be my next investment! shoving 5 gels into your uniform is quite teh trick..) then other shoe, ok guess i'm ready.. ok yes bike.. and switch number (they made us wear race belts the entire time). so off on the bike. i love the bike. especially the beginning when your legs feel good and you just roll. that is awesome. so teh course is flat. flat flat can be. good news. bad news is its over cobble stone and the wind and rain were tough. blow me over tough :)4 laps of this course as well. over all it was an ok bike for me. not spectacular but solid. not quite the split i was hoping for though. but perhaps that was a direct result of the 180. my nemisis on this course. so quick explanation - there was an out and back portion on a highway where you had to do a 180 at the end of it in a very tight turn. right hand turn. i'm not good at turns. and when i had to make 4 of those over the course of the ride, it was not pretty. turn #1 i went wide and up into the grass..(yep embarrassing!!) turn #2 thought i would be cool and remove shoes from pedals to help navigate. great idea o geting feet back in proved tto be daunting as feet were frozen and slippery. turn #3 determiined to do this right, i made the turn and lost momentum and yep fell on my right side. road rash galore. (which is now turning a matching shade of purple to my ankle. man i am BROKEN!) ha ha. sprawled on the road, one shoe off, it was probably humerous to on lookers - but very painful to me. turn #4, honestly i dont even remember this one, i think i took out one shoe and it was marginally better.. the point of this turn is that it took away my plans to pass the would be #2 in my age group... after the third mishap i never saw her again. ugh.. so the bike ended and T2 was much better though 2 more girls from my AG blew in right behind me out of no where. i think i lost a lot more ground on that bike than i thought.. losing sight of my target i forgot about the ones behind me.. oh and some chick racked her bike in my spot so that frazzeled me cause i was like where is mind supposed to go.. i just shoved it in the next one and hoped for the best...so the second run.. at this point i was just putting one foot out there as fast as possible. trying to stay tall and relaxed. i knew i could pass the girl from GB who came thru in T2 and was just ahead. the issue i knew would be the aussie girl. its like there was a 20 yd wall between us. and i could not close the gap. the last 2 km or so i tried to find the next gear and it wasnt there. i was done. i knew i would be mad that i missed third, but i also knew that i gave it my best shot and had no more to give. so i took fourth. 15th overall. it was a great experience all around. meeting all of these different athletes and learning some key things (know the bike course - volunteers who point to the left are not always correct..!!, dont let the no draft rule keep you from hanging back on people and not moving forward, practice quicker transitions.) i'm really happy to have been a part of it. and have now eaten my weight in waffles and chocolate to celebrate. to be running around town hearing people yell' go usa' is really cool. no it was not the olympics, but it was awesome.