worlds. budapest. wow.

ok everyone. lets call up to doc brown and see if we can generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity - yep we're headed back in time.

i made the decision to race in budapest late last year. it seemed to come up pretty quick on the calendar as most stuff usually does. By now I’m a certified (by me) expert at packing up my bike. I tend to go overboard with the bubble wrap, but you’ve seen those baggage dudes tossing stuff around like the weather channel reporter during a hurricane (“yes Stan, its REALLY windy out right now. whats that? yes Stan that was a cow that just flew by me”).

ok so lets get this party started:

the madness began before we even left RDU. Our flight was delayed. First by 20 minutes, then by 2 hours. WTF delta? So the nice young (I stress young cause he looked 12) man at the counter offered to fly us through Detroit (umm isn’t that the OTHER direction) or Atlanta. I chose Atlanta and insisted that bobby be upgraded to business with me. (why kari are you flying business you ask? I had to work in paris the week after the race so work paid for my ticket. Sweet. And NO paris is not awesome or amazing or worth OOOOOing over. And no I’m not a brat.). OK so despite having an extra flight leg we managed to make it to Budapest only about 4 hours later. The fun part now was we had NO luggage. None. I had my bike but nothing else. a bike without a seat or pedals i will also mention. Apparently the plane from de gaulle to Budapest was small and they put the bikes on and had no room for luggage. Shit. So we trek onto the hotel and I realize that I made the cardinal mistake of packing completely useless things into my carry on. Smart.
I had met Wendy in the bathroom in paris. She was from Wisconsin (not a favre fan!) and we ended up pal-ing around with them for some of the week. after a quick trip to the grocery (that is always my favorite part of visiting a new country. You learn SO much!) we met wendy and her husband bob to go to dinner. They asked “oh do you know a place?” I said “yep our guidebook noted a place about ½ mile away”. OK. Turns out the place was closed. Lovely. we ended up at this other place where the waiter kept asking me if I wanted ‘fruit soup’. I said no a bunch of times but then he finally just brought it to me. its exactly like you are imagining..
We were staying in the host hotel for team usa so it was ALWAYS crazy. There were huge poster boards in the lobby with all the race info on it, people were constantly pouring over them looking for new information or trying to take in everything. But it was kind of a cool feeling to see the red white and blue everywhere.

The next day (still without luggage) had us buying a few things (change of clothes!) and then heading out to sight see. here are some of the hi-lights.






When we got back to the hotel still no luggage. Depressing. I did the next best thing – put my bike together – err well actually I drug it down to the bike mechanic (Jack from jack and adams in Austin!!) and he fixed it all up nice (minus a seat post and pedals but really who needs that stuff?). anyway enough of that. we were meeting Sandor that night to go to the opening ceremonies. Sandor is marty’s cousin. Or well kind of (no time to draw a family tree). He lives in budapest. And is honestly one of the nicest guys on the planet. He claims his English is bad. (its as bad as my French is good). anyway he showed us how to use the tram (not as easy as it sound folks!) and off we went to the festivities. Sandor was truly a saint as it was total chaos. He showed us around the old university (where he went for engineering) and told us some stuff about growing up in hungary–

Anyway after all of the hoopla….we headed out to wander around and came across a GREAT place to eat. Had the most amazing roasted vegetables and honey salmon. Wow. Full bellies definitely make up for missing t shirts.
Friday was found luggage day. oh man. Never been so happy to have to lug 2 suitcases up steps before. We headed over to the national history museum for a while.
That afternoon back to the race site for my first official workout of the week. a practice swim. In 55 degree water. Yes it was like an ice bath. Yes I hyperventilated for the first 2 minutes. it never really got tolerable, just numb. It was however hilarious to hang out by the entry and watch/listen to all these people jump in and cuss in different languages. From “oh bugger to crikey to ##@%***!”. Too funny.

here is how talented I am – I fully changed out of my wetsuit/swimsuit to street clothes in the registration venue – along with about 100 of my new friends. What can I say. It was 50 degrees outside and raining and I had just come out of frigid waters. There was no waiting to get dry clothes on!!! We actually ate in the hotel that night cause it was so nasty out.
Saturday – we went to the house of terror museum. A little side note – if you’ve traveled with me you know it takes me a bit to get my lay of the land, but once I do I’m pretty good with directions and where we need to be going.. bobby isn’t. but he thinks he is. We for some reason throughout the week ended up in the same general area at least once per day and he would always start walking the wrong way home. Anyway the museum. Amazing place.

It contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes in 20th century Hungary and is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the building. (thanks wikipedia!) but you can imagine what a wild place this is. The way it was set up was pretty amazing. Each room you went into was a total sensory experience, music, lighting, even the way the “props” were set up, an experience well worth the admission price.
Saturday also meant bike check in. one of the team coaches was leading a ride over to the race site and since I had not been on my bike all week it was a good opportunity to make sure it was good to go. Problem is, there were about 40 of us riding, on narrow traffic filled streets, on sidewalks (!), over a bridge and thru construction. It took us 40 minutes to go 3 miles. Not kidding. so much for working out some kinks and getting the VROOM going… bike check in was sort of a disaster. The U19 race was happening and we had to wait for them to get out on the bike, and then imagine 1800 or so athletes trying to go thru one gate. Not to mention once you got in transition it was a mud pit. And about a mile walk from end to end. No exaggeration. Anyway I never understand how people can spend so much time in there at this point. I mean drop your bike and go. I went for a short run, felt pretty good and we headed out to dinner with new friends wendy and bob.
Back to the hotel. I was under the covers by about 9 PM. But then sleep would NOT come. I’ve never spent an entire night awake, and the night before a race was not the night to try. I don’t exaggerate when I say I slept for an hour. Lovely.
Up at 5 and on the tram to the race at 530. My wave went off at 8 am I think… but we weren’t sure about everything so better to get there early. usual morning, set up transition, ooogle over the fast people around me, get bike envy (!) and try to relax.

A little side note – I had been thinking all week about having a GREAT swim. Having my best swim. Going after the swim. Suffering on the swim. Sucking it up on the swim. So when we lined up and were getting ready to jump into ice cold water I still had that laser focus on the water. I got in as soon as I could and immediately started dunking my head. Up and down. Up and down. Deep breaths, relax. Take in the cold. I was fiddling with my watch when I heard GO. Shit. Off I went. I cant lie. It was freezing. Even with a full suit on I was only warm under the rubber. Head, feet and hands were numb. BUT I can say I motored on. Sighting went really well and I felt so good in that water. Powerful even. (what??). I exited the swim (and heard from bobby later he was shocked to see me toward the front – maybe even top 15- out of the water. That is crazy).
I huffed it up the hill and thru the tall wet grass and mud pits to transition. Getting the suit off was mostly OK, and I was ready to trek the million meters to the mount line.
I got on the bike and was ready to roll. Immediately in the mix with three other girls. We played the requisite game of catch and pass for a bit then I think one of them got pissed off and took off. The course was relatively crowded – it was a three looper so you can imagine. At that point I made my first mistake. I let them go away thinking I would make that up later. There is NO LATER. Dumb kari dumb. I didn’t have the ride I should have. I was flat and making excuses. I had also not pumped my tires to the usual 120 because of the wet roads – another should’a could’a.

I did have one advantage in that I actually knew where the dismount was and had my shoes off and ready to go. So many saw it too late and were forced to run the entire length of transition and back to their spots with shoes on. Brutal.
I came out of T2 with 2 girls. The first part of the run was along the river and a slight down then up. I passed the first and started to work on the second. My next mistake came in the form of LATER again. I should have gone after her sooner. We made our way up to the castle and turned onto the bridge for 2 loops over and around st stephens. This is where I truly LOVED the race.

so many specators and such a great atmosphere. How can you not love running around a 1000 year old castle (ok the cobble stones kind of hurt!) and hearing go usa. That’s pretty cool. I turned the full motor on a bit late and ended up 12th. BUT I have to say the whole week was fantastic. budapest is truly an amazing place. Some great lessons learned in racing and a nice bottle of wine to celebrate  duh.