the week leading up to this race was pretty ho hum. i just couldnt get my head in the game and things at work were pretty hectic -- not allowing the normal anticipation to happen. maybe that was good after all...
we headed to concord early friday morning. the best thing about this DU was it felt like a local race. just 2 hours down the road. sweet! not having to pack up my bike or be so stingy when packing was fantastic. its so nice to just throw anything you want into the car! got to concord and were able to check right into the hotel. headed over to registration.. thats when all of this started to become real. standing in line hearing three different languages really hits hard that this is the real deal. people are here to compete. after signing about 5 waivers, i got my number and YES free bags of dog food. Eukanuba was again a sponsor.. they were at tri nats a few weeks ago so i guess they are trying to appeal to this athletic market ? best comment was from the dog food rep - she said they originally wanted to be in the bags with the other stuff but worried some of the internationals wouldnt know it was dog food and might eat it :) ha. love it.
the expo kind of sucked. basically it was IOS and trisports selling their own stuff. i did run into bill, a guy i met in belgium last year. its so nice to see familiar faces at these events, especially ones that are fun and positive! headed over to team usa meeting with him and sat with sherri and amy (2 others from belgium last year). the usual meeting. some logistical stuff. nothing mind breaking or earth shattering. oh just the fact that if you had a protest after the race that could be filed along with the $50 fee. WHAT are you kidding? as if they needed to swindle more money out of you!
i headed over to the course as they were doing bike tours from 11-2 and i wanted to preview the bike course. wow. super technical. and a few hairpin turns that seemed to only be located at the bottom of some steep hills. oh shit. a double whammy for me. i knew that i would have to take some of these a bit easy.. i'm really still not comfortable enough as i should be and definately some off season work needs to happen.. the coolest part of the whole course was the loop around the speedway. that was awesome.
so back to the hotel then off to walmart for some groceries. i really picked a winning hotel this time. full on suite with a kitchen. and only about 5 minutes from the race. anyway lunch time then back to drop off my bike and a team photo. maybe this is where it starts to get a LITTLE real. but honestly it all still hadnt sunk in yet.....the talk of the day was the weather for sat-- rain. rain. more rain.
setting up in transition.
the winners circle at lowes..back to the hotel for some home made dinner and an easy night of tlc tv!!
perhaps the best and weirdest part of the trip was no early morning wake up call on sat. it almost seemed like we were on vacation- ha! since my race didnt start till 345 in the afternoon, there was NOTHING to do all day but sit around. NOTHING. tv sucks. the weather was nasty foggy misty rain. so no going outside to even relax. so up until about 1 PM i sat in the room, and munched and watched sponge bob. talk about non-expendure of energy or brain power! it was weird to cause i didnt have that much to get ready for the race. bike was already checked. just needed shoes and my helmut really. oh and a rain slicker... and extra dry clothes and towels..
so we headed over to the race site and the pro men were just finishing up. we were able to see the most incredible finish EVER, and an american, shoemaker, took gold. right at the finish. seeing these guys in a DEAD sprint after racing for that long was amazing. he just WANTED it!
here they are about 20 m from the finish line. shoemaker is on the right.. he beat out that frenchman.. now that got the blood going. that sealed the deal for me. that got the competitive juices flowing. i was now ready to go :) so they opened up transition and i went and again felt like i was missing stuff. your spot looks so empty with only your bike and helmet... chatted a bit with the ladies around me. made the executive decision not to carry a spare tube - thinking that for sure i would be out of the race if i flat. seemed to be the general consensus.. and besides that way i could rack my bike by the back of my seat and it would be soo much easier to pull off the rack. i tried to dry off my bike as best i could. at least the brakes and the pedals. then headed out to warm up. i felt ok on the warm up. i mean i never feel GREAT. ever. i dont feel light and springy.. mainly because i'm not light to begin with...and i was once again reminded that i desperately need to get my back figured out...i just put it in my head as one more pain i was going to have to embrace today.
headed over to the starting line and 15 minutes never went by so fast.
this is me thinking what the F am i about to do... ok so my strategy was to go out too fast and just hang on. so GO! and everyone goes like its a 100m sprint, not a 2 hour race. typical for a DU. the field spreads out rather quickly and i try to stay with the front pack. my first thought, and well my only thought, was SHIT this is going to hurt. i'm a bit mad at first that the miles arent marked but now looking back i'm glad i didnt look at my watch once during the run. i just kept going. there were three pretty tough hills, one that i swear was straight up... but i kept thinking push when you can. dont let up. i went thru the first 5k in 20:20 and thought , wow that might be my fastest 5k in a tri or du ever. hmmm. just kept hammering for the second loop. with about a mile or so to go the sky opened up. as in, i was looking around for Noah and his ark. it was pelting rain. i came into T1 in 7th place with a 40 min 10k. i took about 3 seconds to relish that, since that is HUGE for me. HUGE. i finally felt like i had lived up to my running ability. nice timing. so into T1. look for the french flag and there is my bike. ok concentrate. helmet on, glasses on. shoes.. ok socks are nasty, bleh. grabbed my bike and immediately realized i could not see a thing. after mounting, i took off my glasses and shoved them down my shirt. sweet. now only to deal with slick roads and wet eyeballs. in my head i thought i would give myself a minute to chill on the bike but i immediately knew the girls i came into T1 with didnt have that same plan... so i hoofed it on out of there and did my best to negotiate the early turns.
coming thru on the first loop. i admit i came into this course already apprehensive. i am NOT an agressive rider and i deperately need to work on that. i knew this bike course would be a challenge for me in good weather so the rains just made it that much tougher, mentally, for me. i managed to keep up a decent speed for most of it, but did take the 3 down hills (with turns at the bottom) pretty slow. the sheets of rain didnt help either. everyone had to deal with that weather and i learned that the good riders dont let it bother them. they just ride. and ride well. at one point on the first lap some dude came up on me on a turn and locked front wheels .. i thought for sure we were going down.. but at the last possible millisecond the skewers disengaged and i fumbled to recover my balance. jerk.
heading out on the second loop of the bike. second loop i got passed by three girls. one - was the person who beat me out in belgium last year for a medal. ohh that got under my skin. i knew she was a mediocre runner so i tried to keep her in my sights knowing i could out 5K her. my shoes were completely filled with water and drafting was pretty easy to avoid since you would get sprayed with a nice water/gravel/dirt mix if you got to close to anyone's back wheel, but still with that many people (1000) out on a 2 loop course at one time there were definately some packs that formed.
riding on the track at lowes. now this was COOL! i didnt get up on the embankment, but the thrill was definately there!!! i managed the bike unscathed and came into T2 not sure what i had left. my stomach was gurgling and my left leg was shooting fire. but i changed shoes and just got my ass out on the course. figuring the quicker i get this done with the quicker i can get out of this nastiness! my visor was a soggy mess on the ground so i left it in transition. running out i felt my glasses in my shirt, i tried to adjust them but they were so uncomfortable so i dropped them on the ground hoping to pick them up later (someone did that for me...) i pushed on that 5k. my time doesnt show that but i really gave it all i had left. on the second monster hill i dared my body to make something else hurt. i figured there wasnt much left that didnt so i was going to go for broke (broken i should say!). my US nemisis finished 9 seconds in front of me. i really didnt know any splits or how i did until i got home and loooked on the computer. ended up 10th in what i think was a pretty competitive field.
finishing up!over all i'm pretty happy with the race. i gave it my all and ended the season on a good note.
we decided to drive back to RDU that night knowing how good it would be to wake up at home on sunday! and it was. the post season binge has begun. in the past 24 hours i have eaten the following - ho hos, chocolate milk, cheese popcorn, oreos, fruit loops, lindt truffles, mint ice cream sandwiches (2), an entire pizza, 2 cans of soda, a wedge of cheese, sprinkles directly from the can, peanut butter out of the jar, and probably some other stuff that i cant remember out of my food coma. god bless the off season. :)
