Pre-Race

Friday morning, Tim and I were up at 4am for our final pre-race workouts before our flight to St. Croix. Everything went smoothly and we were at the airport just after 6:30 for our 8:30 take-off. Because so many triathlete were flying out at the same time, we had no hope of getting away without paying the $100 fee for our bikes. The airline agent pegged us right away, and put us in a special line (while significantly more expensive, it was also significantly shorter). We had our boarding passes, were through security, and were sitting at the gate people watching by 7:30. Our travel-mates, on the other hand, were not. Chrissie, Jesse, Michelle, and Lauren were nowhere to be seen when they started boarding our plane. Somehow, all four of them made it onto the plane, and we were off on our adventure. We had one stop in San Juan, where we boarded a smaller-than-Tim-prefers plane. The flight was only 40 minutes, and was relatively smooth. The landing, however, was a little steeper than usual due to it being a smaller airport with a shorter runway. While some of us clam up and white-nuckle the armrests when nervous, others get a bit loopy. The closer we got to the ground, the louder Tim got. It began as a little chuckle when the nose dipped down. It turned into giggles as the plane rattled a little louder and gave us a shake. It was full-blown laughter and hooting, accompanied by arm motions animating what he thought the plane should be doing (flatting out and bringing the nose up) by the time the ground was in site. As the pilot hit the breaks and taxied around the runway, the rest of plane burst out laughing at the live entertainment sitting next to me.

We were shocked to see that all of our bikes had made it to the island with us, allowing us to grab them and head to the hotel without having to stress about tracking them down later on. That is, all of them made it but Molly’s. Her bike would not show up until 4pm on Saturday. Yeah, as in 15 hours before her race started. For the love!

So we grabbed a taxi, and headed over to lap o’ luxury. We should have taken this maintenance job as an omen of what was to come:

That there is scotch tape holding the windshield together. Nice!

Once we got to the hotel, we put the bikes together, and then found our way to the grocery store. In St. Croix, they drive on the left side of the road. Tim was nominated, and did a really good job getting us around safely. He was able to pick up the driving thing quickly, but it took him a little while to figure out that nearly everyone spoke English. As we pulled up to a pedestrian to ask for directions, Tim said, in a loud voice as though he expected the man to be hard of hearing, “Hi, how ya doin’? Is there a grocery store around here? A food – [motions as though he's eating a burger] – store?”, and the man replied, in perfectly clear English, “Yeah, take a right at the bottom of this hill, and then left, and there will be two stores on the left.” Slowly and loudly, Tim said, “Thank you!” Hahaha, always entertaining!

We went out to dinner at a low-key restaurant called Angry Nate’s. I don’t know who Nate is, but someone should tell him that ripping people off is no way to improve your mood! We each ordered the “Triathlete Special” (linguini, grilled chicken, and marinara sauce) and water, got the equivalent of a roll and a half, and paid $27 per person! Ok, Nate, now I’m angry!

The mood improved as we wandered around what the locals call “Jump Up”, which is basically a big block party. There were food vendors, glow-in-the-dark necklaces, music, lots of people drinking, and guys on stilts. We would have hung out longer, but we had a race in two days. Although, you wouldn’t have thought so by looking at the city, the only clues being the title of our dinner meals, the neon orange tetrahedrons floating in the harbor, and the excessive amount of unsweetened applesauce in our hotel room.

Saturday morning, we rode the bikes around the block for a final check. Tim and I were checking out the transition area when I noticed a man showering down by the water. ”Tim, I think that man is completely naked!” After a quick look, he concurred, “Yup! Yup, he is.” Alrighty. We rode back to the hotel, had breakfast with the team, sat around the hotel room for a few hours, went to the race meeting, had dinner around 7:30, and hit the sac around 8:30.

The Race

We rolled the two blocks over to the race site at 5am, got body marked, and strolled into the transition area. Several veterans of the race were sporting headlamps – it was still dark out and there were no lights in the transition area. I did not happen to bring my spelunking gear so made do with what was shining from the street lights. We got everything set up, hosed eachother down with sunscreen and headed over to the water. To get to the swim start you had to swim over to a little island that is maybe a quarter of a mile off shore. I like the guy who responded to this by saying, “Gee, that seems a long way to swim.”…

It was a beach start (all feet on land until the horn). For those of you have not had the joy of being a part of one of these, imagine a road race start in which everyone tries to windmill their arms and legs at the same time with the ground dropping out a couple strides in, at which point you go from vertical to horizontal amidst all those flailing limbs. Good times! So the horn sounded, and we tangled! At first, it was all I could do to hold onto the tail of the chase pack, but then I moseyed on up toward the front of the group and hung onto Mirinda Carfrae’s feet for the rest of the swim. I left transition in 8th place, and headed out to a course that I had seen very little of. That is, aside from the Computrainer Real Course Video which I rode along with several times during the previous week – it paid off big time! (Cheap plug, but true!) Everyone hears about The Beast, but there’s a lot more to this course. It’s also got wind, rough roads, a billion turns, and speed bumps, AND you ride on the left side of the road. I conquered The Beast, literally laughing at times as the grade continued to increase, rocked the speed bumps without catching too much air, and wound my way back to town. As I bombed toward T2, I saw Tim looking good about a mile into his run. ”You’re 10th!” he shouted. Alrighty! Let’s see how many people you can run down.

I bombed into and out of T2, and started the run feeling better than I did in New Orleans. I’m getting used to the feeling of running off a harder effort on the bike. When we first started pushing the ride I was nervous about how my “running legs” would handle it. While they start out feeling a bit heavier than they used to, by mile 2 they’re good to go (and my bike split is becoming presentable). So, I pushed it down to the assigned pace, and just trucked along – Just hold it as long as you can. I grabbed Gatorade, ice, and water at every aid station (they were every kilometer! Sweet!), and tried to stay patient. I passed a couple of girls and was in 7th by the end of the first loop. Right after I turned to start the second loop I saw Jesse for the first time. Apparently he came into T2 right behind me (started two waves back). It was to be another duel!

The back of the run course.

During the second lap, I caught a few more girls in The Buccaneer, and left the resort with Lisa Bentley in my sights. I knew I had my work cut out for me – not only is she fast, she is one tough chick! She goes hard right from the get go. When I was ready to make the pass, about a mile and a half from the finish, I pushed the pace a bit more. Then I saw Nina Kraft up ahead. Can you do this? Just put it out there and see what happens! I maintained my pace until I was a few feet behind her, and then dropped the pace again. Now I was running as hard as I could with what I thought was a quarter mile to go. As I came up to the finish area, the volunteers pointed and directed me, “Left!” What?! No! I’m finishing! I went left. I almost threw up. Well, a certain someone will never start another race without looking at the course maps! Once we got to what I thought was the finish, we had to run another half mile around the block, which would not have been a big deal had I not started my final kick 2 miles ago! Just go! If you collapse, you collapse. Just go! I finished in third! Yesssss!

Pathology psp

Fantastic Four release

Jesse crossed the line a couple of minutes later, winning the duel. Awww, man! He’s 2-1. Next showdown is Ashland. Bring it!

Tim also had a great day against a stellar field, with the third fastest run of the day. Woop woop!

I’ve got to give a shout out to Phil, who flatted twice. This mishap is not usually applauded, but what about when the second one occurs two miles from T2 and the athlete runs, barefoot, with the bike, all the way to transition, and then RUNS THE RUN! Whaaaat?!! Nice work Phil! Tough as titanium nails!

Post Race

Cookies. ’Nough said.

12 weeks to Lake Placid!

Our first flight was scheduled to take off at 11:30 on Friday morning. We left the runway at 12:45. Our connection was scheduled to take off at 3:50. It left Miami at 3:52. We deplaned in Miami at 3:55. Alrighty, time to get comfy at Miami International! Next flight to New Orleans wasn’t until 10:45. So Chrissie, Jesse, and I set up camp in a nice little corner of MIA, and had a good ol’ time people watching. When 10:15 (advertised boarding time) rolled around and there was no plane attached to the gate, we kissed good-bye to the anticipated 12:30 bedtime. At 10:45 the airline attendant announced that there was a delay… Duh! We finally made our way to New Orleans and crawled into bed around 1:30am.

Meanwhile, Tim, who’d taken a later flight, was delayed in Boston due to thunderstorms and wound up missing his 8pm connection out of Dallas by 5 minutes. His next chance for a flight? 7am. While I would have been throwing a fruitless tantrum, Tim found himself a cot and some blankets and truly set up camp!

A reenactment.

I tried to sleep as long as possible, but was up and wired at 6:30 Saturday morning. I put my bike together (with a little help from good old Wheeler), and headed up to the airport with the Snows (senior) to collect Tim. We met our fellow QT2-ers at Harrah’s Casino around 9:30 for a lovely breakfast buffet, where we enjoyed a good number of pancakes and some more people watching (we would come to find that this city was an IDEAL people watching venue!). Then it was back to the hotel to get the bikes ready before the race briefing. I had a momentary panic attack when my sweet new American Classic disk would not free-wheel, but was put at ease when we realized I’d married He-Man and the cassette was just a tad too snug. After the briefing we dropped off the bikes, made sure everything was good to go for the morning, had a little pasta, and were in bed by 8.

RACE

I was awake at 3am. I tried to go back to sleep but really just faked it until the alarm went off at 4. Time for applesauce! Woop woop! We scarfed down our oh-so-delicious pre-race breakfast and then headed for the race site. Just before we got out of the car, Chrissie yelped, “My wetsuit! I forgot my wetsuit!” Luckily she had plenty of time before her wave (there were about 25 waves in this race!) and we were traveling with the Snows. They do anything and everything to take care of us when we travel for races! They high-tailed it back to the hotel, and she was over to the swim start before any other athlete. Good work Mr. Snow!

We all dropped off our dry-clothes bags, hit up the porta-potties before the 18 that they had for all 3200 athletes (not exaggerating – they only had 18 by the swim start!) were too mangled, and jumped in the water for a quick warm-up. Two minutes after the men took off, the women got the go-ahead and began the point-to-point swim that must have looked like an EKG from above. I was locked onto feet the whole time, which was great, but I’m certain we zig-zagged an extra half mile out of that lake. Luckily there was no clock at the swim exit because I would have been quite shagrinned to see how long that “1.2″ took. I made my way through transition, stripping off my wetsuit along the way, and was out on the bike before I knew it. The first segment of the ride was on a concrete highway, with expansion spaces every 10 feet. That gets old quick! But every cross road was blocked off, so it was super-safe and easy to focus. And that I did! Right on that power-meter for the next two and half hours. The goal was 200 watts at 90 rpm. I did 199 at 88. This was the first time that I actually held my own on the bike! Woop woop! That right there is a whole bunch of bike-focused training and a sweet new ride paying off!! Here’s the chariot:

Guru Crono, Oval Carbon Base Bar with S-Bends, American Classic Carbon 58 & TT Disk

I have to admit, there were a couple things that pulled my attention away from the wattage. Among these items were the rotted out skeleton of a Bronco chillin’ in he Irish Buyou, the numerous snake carcasses all over the course, and the wind. Holy schnikies!! It just didn’t let up! To combat this, I just snuggled into my Oval bars, and tried to stay as aero as possible. I tried to emulate little Natasha, who just seems to scoot right under the wind!

My split may not have been quite as quick as that of the “Swiss Miss”, but it was huge improvement for me, and I was psyched! Off to the run! “Oh, wow! What happened to my legs?!” My calves felt like they were going to explode and I had a very difficult time going out at the goal pace – neither of which I’m used to. Then I remembered! I’d just pushed myself on the bike and started the run in 14^th among a stellar field. Of course the run is going to be a bit tougher! “Just hang in there and run as hard as you can for as long as you can!” The temperature and humidity were up there and there wasn’t a sponge to be found (I love those ice sponges they usually have!!), but around mile 4 the legs started to come back, and I began catching some of the other girls. Somehow I got down two caffeinated PowerGels over the course of the run, and came plowing into Jackson Square in 4^th place! Holy Crap! I can’t believe the women that I’m actually competing with (not just hanging out with at the start line)! I’m pumped!!

POST-RACE

Reach for the Sky the movie Sunday evening we checked out Bourbon Street. Oh, my! I always thought of this area as a cute, little, jazz-music-playing, bring-the-whole-family kind of place. NOPE! To my complete shock there were barely dressed women (and male women) and inappropriate photos all over the place. My goodness! I can’t believe you’re not carded just to walk down that street!! It was quite entertaining, but I was ready for my Cold Stone! Nine of us piled into the mini-van, and Mr. Snow careened his way across the city with George and his huge hippocampus navigating the way. We passed through various levels of the economic scale, almost hit a late-night jogger, happened upon a preacher giving a sermon to no one in particular in the middle of the street, and missed some stop signs (only a couple!) on our adventure to ice cream heaven. They close at 10. We pulled up at 9:45. Phew! That was a little close!

The flight home just put the icing on the cake (mmmm… I like cake!) in terms of the weekend’s air travel. Somehow we got all of the bikes on the plane for free, which was great. And we departed NO and landed in Dallas on time. Then we had a 2 hour delay for our flight to Boston. Ok, fine. The candy on the icing on the cake? The landing at Logan. We hit the ground, did a little bounce, landed for real, hit the breaks (I thought we might go tail over cockpit), and then the power went out. Yup! Pitch black! We just laughed. What an adventure!