Duathlon

The boredom is palpable. Me, at work for a whole 2 hours and already bored out of my freaking mind. So now I will entertain you with a brief race report from Saturday.

6:45 AM: my alarm is waking me up from a comfortable, relaxing sleep. I wake up feeling tired and all I want to do is sleep...but I get up. After eating my common race day breakfast of oatmeal with fruit, honey, and almonds ( and a VIVRAN), I got my stuff together and loaded my car. Since Adam and I are the last minute couple, I decided I would be an hour early to this race and get a real warm-up unlike my usual drill of barely getting to the race in time for a half ass warm up. I handed my duathlon bag with my running shoes and water bottle to a race volunteer and double-checked my start time. My watch said the time was 8:21 AM. His response: "oh... about 8:40. They moved it from 9:15 you know." That gave me about 10 minutes to warm up. I was in street clothes, my bike still in pieces in my car. I tossed the bag at him and ran down to my car, chami-ed up lickety-split and hopped on my bike for a lightning speed warm up. I rode down the road at ski area and started to ride back up. My legs were in pain: aching and sore. "Oh great, now I won't even make it and the chodes will be in front of me" I thought. I went back to the area of the start feeling very apprehensive and looking unpoised. Originally, the mountain bike race was supposed to start at 8:30, but I saw Damian still riding around. I asked him about the start and he told me they moved it AGAIN and everyone was starting together at 9. I was relieved that I would have more time to warm up and that these pained pieces of lead called my legs would open up a little.

The start was a mass start...very unlike what I'm used to. Normally they have the starts with men and women separated, and then even more separation of race classes. So here we all were together, chode and pro alike, getting ready to attack the narrow singletrack of a start. I also caught a glimpse of my competition... 5 women in all. One of who was Jessica Kiesel. She is a pro who was invited to marathon worlds last year. "There goes winning," I thought. I decided to get on the front line and was happy to get a good position on the singletrack in the start. Of course, there were two guys in front of me holding me up, but the trail was so narrow that there was no place to pass. I finally came to a part where I could squeeze by the first guy, but the other guy tried to stop and let me by. The poor guy didn't move off the trail and almost caused me and some other man trying to pass to wreck. I pushed myself. To my surprise, I was ahead of all the women including Jessica. I checked my watch at the pond... my time was 3 min faster than normal. When I had to run extra technical sections, I felt a pain in my diaphram and wave of nausea would hit me. I kept going... I wanted so bad to be the first woman up the mountain. Compared to my heinous warm-up, I felt suprisingly good during the race. I checked my watch at the top. 1:11. I was delighted to set a new record for myself and hurried over to the transition area where I slipped on my running shoes and tried to tie them quickly. About a minute had passed and I saw Jessica hop off her bike. I started to run, but my legs were so tired, I could barely move them and had to walk. The run was very very bad. No one would ever guess I used to run marathons... my stride was uneven, I couldn't get a rythym. I think Jessica must have put some time on me for the run because my legs would NOT move! I changed shoes and got back on the bike, knowing she would be right behind me. Since I hurt my wrist, my descending skills have gotten relatively bad. I knew that my timidity would cost me. I managed to hold her off despite the fact that on the small climbs, my bike was shifting by itself to harder gears. I could hear her shifting up the trail aways. With 3 miles to go, I was riding a loose climb when my bike seized up and I fell over. Thank goodness I was wearing my wrist brace. I kept trying to get started again, but the trail was too loose and steep, and my bike was in the wrong gear. I started running with it, but Jessica passed me. I chased her down the remainder of the switchbacked, narrow trail, but couldn't quite get there and she beat me by FIVE seconds in a 2:20 race! I didn't mind...we are friends and she earned it! Good job Jessica! :)

On another note, a very horrible creature was on my balcony this weekend. A huge moth was attached to the wall of my balcony. I looked outside and saw the beast. Immediately my knees went weak and my stomach started to turn. I closed the blinds so I wouldn't have to look at it. When Adam came over, I sent him out to scare it away since he is too nice and wouldn't kill the bastard. I ran through the apartment and out the front door in case the moth came inside. Adam told me he pet the thing b/c it was so hairy. He said it was all squishy, and when it flew away, the moth was a little startling. Moths do not flutter. They are kamikaze machines aimed at my head to send me running... and about 6 years ago a moth sent me running toward my parent's house, hitting my foot into the door, slicing a big whole and getting stitches. I know they have teeth just for me! AHHH

This weekend is the National in Brianhead. I'm still debating going, but will probably end up there. I need some results. wish me luck!