April 10, 2006
I did not ask the pro duathlete who stayed at my home over the weekend for permission to mention her name, so I won't do that. She was really nice and we had a good time getting ready for the race yesterday. I'm sure she helped me get in the right mindset for the race by helping me to start the day well-prepared.
On Friday, the local new stations concocted a story of doomsday and death because the radar showed some approaching storms. Schools and offices closed early across the area despite that the weather on Friday was gorgeous, with clear skies and full sun. I'm not going to accuse the Doppler storm tracking system of being inaccurate, but I do think that the local news anchors are a bunch of fear-mongering idiots. One of these days we may have a REAL emergency, and most of us will be seasoned to ignore their ridiculous blather because they cried wolf a thousand times before something truly important actually happened. Perhaps the FCC should impose financial sanctions on those who create a news story out of nothing, since it should be a crime to spread false paranoia throughout a population.
So, guess who was at the grocery store on Friday evening after work? Yep, the ENTIRE WORLD. I fought my way through the crowded aisles, and you know that since there is THE STORM TO END ALL STORMS on its way, we are given license to leave our manners at the door. Yeah, right.
Sorry about the additional rant. Anyhow, I bought a lot of food to feed some hungry athletes. The pro was scheduled to fly in around 9 pm Friday night, but due to the storm activity in the midwest, her flight was delayed nearly 2.5 hours. She had trouble getting a rental car at that late hour and arrived at my house around 1 am, immediately retiring to bed.
We woke up in the morning and she put her bike together, as pros must fly with their bikes disassembled and packed into a hard plastic case. I cooked a large breakfast of eggs, bacon and biscuits with fruit. She had some doubts about her reassembled bike, so we took it to a local shop to have it checked out. Then we headed over to the race expo and drove through the course with J. Back to the shop to pick up her bike, then the two of us rode together for about half an hour to make sure our legs were working well. She retired for a nap and I cooked up a huge pot of family recipe spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. J joined us for a huge pre-race meal, and DAMN the spaghetti was good. My Italian ancestors could cook!
We went to bed early to get some good rest for race morning. Woke up at 5:45 am and threw on race clothes and drank a pre-race meal of banana, soy milk and honey. (Side note: I wore my BBC jersey to REPRESENT!!) Arrived at the race site, parked car, had body marked, set up in transition area, then fiddled with my clothing and gear until time for my wave to begin. Apparently I can avoid becoming nervous if I keep playing with my transition set up and my clothing. Although I know I was nervous since I had to go to the bathroom a zillion times that hour.
And I forgot to mention that I said a little prayer in the transition area. Something like "Dear God, I haven't gone to church for three weeks. I am SO SO SO SO BAD for prioritizing this activity. Please forgive me. Please protect me from harm during the race. Amen."
Time to line up for my wave to begin. I checked out my competitors and looked on the back of their calves to see who my AG competitors were. The race director gave us the GO and everyone set off at a VERY fast pace. I allowed maybe 10-15 women to pass me, thinking they were nuts for blowing out the pace at the beginning. As we started to climb a hill, I began to pass one here, one there. For a while, I drafted behind a woman trying to save up some energy while running that fast. (Drafting during the run is legal.) She eventually took off and I let her go, thinking it wasn't human for me to go that pace. At the end of the 2.7 miles, I check my watch and it says 20 minutes. That's a little above a 7 minute pace, but I'm gasping for air like I just started running yesterday. Dashed into the transition area and changed shoes, grabbed my helmet and ran my bike out to the mount line.
Hopped on my bike feeling out of breath still, but recovering. The bike doesn't require breathless panting like the run does. I felt strong and confident. Started catching women who had beat me on the run. My time was speedy, but lots of women can break 7 min miles easily. I passed back and forth with a few women here and there, and one tried to block me from passing. This is a violation, but the USAT officials have to catch it for their time to be docked. I suppose that if you are a cheater and can't rely on your training effort to win races, then you would stoop that low. This is an amateur race, which means that cheating earns you nothing.
This race course is hilly, so I'm able to drop the women who passed/blocked me once and for all. I'm thinking that my pace is pretty good, but at times my speed doesn't seem to be faster than what I've done in training (though I could draft in training!). I look at my watch as I head back to the transition area. I've gained three or four additional minutes ahead of my target time.
Back to transition, change shoes quickly and take off for the third leg/second run. This is when I begin to have a sense of dread. I'm not sure how far behind the women I passed are. I feel as if I don't have much energy left and the lactic acid has built up in my legs; the muscles are burning. The first two miles of the run sucked. I thought for sure that I was running 8 to 8:15 pace and started worrying that I would be overtaken by my female competitors. As the run progressed, my legs felt better and I began to speed up. When the homestretch appeared, which is downhill about half a mile, I took off and finished strong. I felt elated about my finish time.
After the race I ate and ate and ate. Food is a many-splendored thing after a hard effort. The pro who stayed with me urged me to do the full powerman next year. I was able to do that this year, but I wanted to test my limits at a sprint distance pace. Next year, I'll train with a focus on the longer distance.
Posted by megabeth at April 10, 2006 01:29 PM
I can totally understand your frustration with your local forecasters. In 2000 the Raleigh Marathon was scheduled for the first Sunday in December. On Saturday the local forecasters predicted that a massive storm would hit us Sunday. The paranoia wasn't just spread by the local idiots, but also by the national ones. For instance, The Weather Channel posted several weather reporters at various spots around town to report the storm. Because of the weather forecast the race director announced that he was postponing the race for a week. Well guess what happened on Sunday. Nothing. Not one drop of snow, ice, or even rain. However, it was bitter cold. Needless to say many people were very unhappy, including the RD.
Posted by: Cagey at April 10, 2006 05:13 PM