Cancun BG World Cup ~ Cancun, Mexico ~ November 5, 2006
Pre-Race
I arrived in Cancun early – Tuesday night – because I raced as the anchor on Team USA for the ITU Elite Team World Championships on Wednesday. That race was a great tune-up to test out the climate and venue and to shake out the legs before the big race on Sunday. Teams of 3 athletes each competed in a mini-triathlon of 250m swim, 6.6k bike, 1.6k run. I went 3rd and had a solo effort but secured a 2nd place finish. It was fun and paid a hefty paycheck… the best hourly wage I’ve ever earned!
I spent the rest of the week preparing: getting used to the humidity, the seawater, and the course, and letting my body recover from 6 weeks of training at altitude. The course was straightforward: a 2-lap swim (one 1000 meter, one 500 m with a short run on the beach between laps), a 7-lap, flat/fast out-and-back bike, and a 4-lap flat/fast out-and-back run. Race morning brought some wicked storms with high winds, choppy water, and torrential downpour.
Race Day
I got to the race site early so I could check out the swim course. They hadn’t even set it up when I got there and they were still setting it up 10 minutes before the scheduled start. I didn’t save enough time to practice my swim start (we started in knee-deep water, separated by metal gates like a horse race) and I should have practiced my dolphin dives more. We stood around a long time in line so my warm-up was worthless. They gave us the entire set of about 100 gates to choose our spots and I chose one that was pretty much the middle. The first buoy was 500m out so starting position wasn’t a big deal. They used a whistle to start us so we all hesitated at first - it was pretty ghetto. (Of course by the men’s race, they had the usual horn).
I only did one dolphin dive then started swimming: a big mistake. Everyone else did 5 or 6 dolphin dives and I was immediately behind the giant line of women going out. It really spread out from the chop of the waves making it really hard to sight the buoy. I found myself right up alongside a girl for maybe 150-200 m and we kept bumping into each other, it was silly and annoying because no one was around us. Finally I surged and got away and ahead of her. I felt her get on my feet but I didn’t care, I focused on getting on a group at the buoy, which I did successfully. That first 500 m though, it felt sooo long and I was sick of the waves and seawater. We turned for shore and I was right up on a group. I was a bit discouraged by who was in that group because I realized how bad my start had been. I knew I had to make up time if possible. I got a side stitch during the swim, which was weird. I felt like my stroke was stronger this race and I had better rotation. Maybe that’s why I got a stitch. It was hard to sight on the shore from the waves and the current pushing us to the left. I stayed with the group as we neared the shore and I had an okay exit/reentry. As I ran back into the water I got around the group and went after the feet of a girl just ahead of them. There was a big, big gap in front of her and I knew that was bad. The second lap felt calmer and much shorter. As I started nearing shore I heard Barrie saying names like Lauren Groves, Alicia Kaye… and I knew I was still maybe 40 seconds from shore. I went as hard as I could into shore and ran past the Mexican girl on the beach. I ran hard, hard into transition and had a fast T1 getting out by myself.
I hammered out and got in my shoes, feeling the headwind slow me down whenever I stopped pedaling. It was raining. I looked back, saw a group of 6 or so and took a deep breath, put on my sunglasses, took a sip of water to rinse out the seawater and waited for them to come. Margie Shapiro was in the group behind me and it was still getting organized when they caught me. I didn’t know how big our gap was because no one told us but I was ready to work a bit on the first couple laps to catch anyone we could. A Russian girl who never got her shoes buckled for the whole race would pull really hard and kinda messed up the flow. We had some moments where we’d have a nice paceline going but someone always screwed it up. It started pouring really, really hard. Puddles everywhere, rain stinging. I didn’t drink much, I can only remember drinking 3 big sips total. My bottles were pretty full when I finished. I drank the water that sprayed up from the wheels in front of me.
We caught a small (6 people) group on the 3rd lap. I rode hard because I stayed near the front, but I didn’t want to be in the back in case I’d miss any breaks or get behind crashes. I went through transition in the first 2-3 girls on every lap. I got another side stitch in the middle of the bike and I was worried it wouldn’t go away before the run, when it’d really hurt me. We gained on the chase pack from about a minute down to only 20 seconds down on the last lap. The last lap I was mentally preparing for a hard run, knowing I could do some damage with only 20 seconds down. My body and my legs were fighting my mind though. I knew this run was going to hurt and I tried to get all pumped up for it but I was more like dreading it. I couldn’t fool myself. As we came around the last 180, Frintova (as usual) and Ueda were in the front and I got up there too. I ran hard to my spot and had a fast! T2 and was one of the first to take off. I tossed my sunglasses into the grass as I left transition.
Frintova, Ueda, Dederko took off fast and I knew I couldn’t run with them so I just focused on keeping them in sight, trying to think: run, those girls from the pack ahead are slow runners. I started passing people. I didn’t take any water on the first lap. Cesznik passed me on the 2nd lap but she always outruns me so I didn’t go with her. I drank a little bit on this lap but sprayed most of it on my head. At the end of the 2nd lap I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to keep up the pace for another 5k. My head and my focus started to cloud with the pain/exhaustion. I started to go into survival mode, not really challenging myself.
I got another side stitch on the 3rd lap which hurt a lot and I tried to change my breathing to make it go away. It hurt me enough that I didn’t want to drink that much, just spray it on my face. I tried to keep drinking but I wasn’t getting much down. It was hard to just maintain my effort (I knew I wasn’t maintaining pace) and that was how the 4th lap went as well, despite my intention to pick it up on the last lap.
I came in 45th which wasn’t whatI had expected and I felt pretty unhappy about it. I probably didn’t drink enough water the week of the race and I was probably dehydrated even before the race started. I didn’t drink enough during the race either. I had come from training in snow/dry/cold to trying to race in tropical conditions. And then I just get unlucky. The race didn’t come together and I can’t control that. I hope New Plymouth is my lucky race because I haven’t had one all season.
