Salford BG World Cup Race Report ~ Manchester, England ~ July 30, 2006
Pre-race Stress Out
This report wouldn’t be complete without a run-through of the few days leading up to my race. After an 8 hour overnight flight with hardly any sleep on Thursday night, I arrived in London airport very tired and ready to be finished with my journey. I was very disappointed to discover that my connecting flight to Manchester was canceled. I arrived in Manchester around 11:45 am local time, but neither of my checked bags (including my bike) made it there with me.
My bike showed up Saturday morning. I still couldn’t ride it though because my other lost bag had my uniform, pedals, bike shoes and running flats. After an unsuccessful trip to the airport, I decided I had to make alternate preparations for the race – buying new bike shoes, pedals and elastic laces to put in my training running shoes. One of the extremely helpful race organizers dropped me off at the bike shop while he ran another errand with Debbie Tanner. They only had shoes that were too big for me but I bought them anyway. While trying to find elastic laces I met a couple local age-group triathletes (special thanks to Rob and Paul - say hi if you're reading this!) who said they’d drive me to another store to find them. We ended up going to two different stores and in the process I had the race organizers thinking I’d been kidnapped. I found better-fitting shoes and elastic laces and new pedals. I went back to the hotel, put the cleats on my shoes, put the pedals on, and went for a quick ride at 7:30pm… stopping at the ITU office to pick up a generic ITU uniform. I didn’t get much cycling in and got lost twice trying to ride the bike course. I had to fiddle with the pedals to make them feel right. I was a little uneasy with the brand-new untested set-up but it would have to do. I had a nice dinner with my parents and went to bed feeling a little amped up from the stress but I still slept okay.
In the morning, the Internet baggage tracer showed that my bag might have come in on a morning flight. I called the race organizer and he promised he’d send someone out to the airport to check it out. Meanwhile I went about my normal race prep. I added in a little jog since I didn’t run the day before and the race started so late. I ended up getting my bag at around 11:15 am. I was really happy I could use my own equipment and wear my own uniform with my name and sponsors on it. I was at the race site on time and ready to go.
Race
We didn’t have much time to set up our transition area because the juniors were still finishing their race. They delayed our start a bit so I had enough time to get set up and warm up in the water. It was pretty chilly with threatening skies. I hoped it wouldn’t rain – that would’ve sucked because the roads would’ve been really greasy. It was pretty frantic and unorganized when they lined us up and started introductions. There were SO many women racing! Like 65 or something! They didn’t even call my name before they had us all on the edge of the pontoon toeing the line. I was lined up next to the Colombian girl I was with at Corner Brook (D’Croz).
Swim – 2 oval shaped laps
The start was really fast this time, like “take your markHOONK”… so we were off and I went as hard as I could. I was all on top of people, getting scratched and beat up a bit. I tried to grab everything my hands hit. I’m glad we didn’t have to sight that much because it was so crazy in there. We came up to the buoy (just a big U turn with a long buoy turn) and I was next to this small girl who was nudging me up right against the buoy. It wasn’t bad because I just had to breathe on my right the whole time and I didn’t have to worry about sighting. After the buoy the field spread out more and I got really concerned about my positioning. I was on the inside edge of the field breaking open water. I looked to my left and thought about dropping back to get in behind the group but I decided against it because maneuvering through the field like that would take a big effort. So I stayed where I was. I came around to finish the first lap in 11:14. I was in 42nd place, 47 seconds behind the leader but there was a huge group all around me.
After we dove in again I was surrounded by different people. It was a mosh-pit all over again. Some girl behind me kept scraping my feet. I was in behind a wall of girls and they were on all sides of me and I felt comfortable there (except for getting splashed while trying to breathe and hit with elbows and arms). The pace actually felt relatively easy. I realized too late that I was on the outside of the group when we started going around the buoy. It was harder to sight this way because it was a big sweeping turn and you had to breathe right to sight on the buoy. But with girls on my right, I would breathe in mouthfuls of water. I went way, way too wide on this turn and lost the feet I was on when we went into the turn. I knew I had to go really hard now or else my entire race would be lost. So for the last 300 or so I gave it everything I had. I ran as fast as I could up the ramp, grabbing the posts and swinging my body around so I wouldn’t slip. Now our transition racks were a little crazy. They were individual racks and you rack your bike one way before the bike and the other after the bike. I came into transition and went to the wrong side of my bike so I could throw my cap/goggles in the right bucket. Then I had to run around my bike to get my helmet on (which was very slow too, I was fumbling around) and then I finally unracked and ran out of transition. My T1 was 32 seconds, 55th slowest! Once again, even though it’s a World Cup and they’re professionals, there were a few girls stopping at the mount line to get on their bikes. I ran by them and leapt on my bike, stood on my shoes and took off.
Bike – 8 very technical 5k laps
I saw that 2 good cyclists were in my group and I knew this was good news but I had a fleeting desperate thought that the bike was either going to be really hard or I was going to get dropped. So for the first one or 2 laps, I made sure I was near the front of the group in case they attacked. I had to do some more work up there but I felt safer. After the first lap I heard the announcer say we were a 3rd chase pack. Ugh, further back than I thought! Sometime before the 4th lap, the two chase packs ahead of us merged into one that we caught on the 4th lap. Now it was like 40 of us all riding this very technical, very fast course together. It was really fun and not that hard of a pace. I concentrated very hard on being careful and not putting myself in harm’s way (crashes). I also thought about my positioning… it was truly like a bike race: if you’re not moving up you’re moving back. On the 7th lap (one to go) I was thinking about trying to get up further in the pack so that I could go into transition sooner. I moved up to the front and pulled everyone through the technical sections and through transition. I heard my mom shout that I was in 11th. I was surprised to hear how small the lead pack was. Then I thought about all the fast runners in my pack. It was pretty fun being first through on this huge pack on the bell lap. If we were the lead pack, it’d be a prime lap J . I didn’t want to pull the whole lap so I let someone else get in front but unfortunately more people got ahead of me than I had planned. We heard a crash go down in the middle of the lap.
Many of the fast runners had moved to the front. I was unsure of the best place to start undoing my shoes… this is the biggest pack I’ve ever come in with and I wasn’t sure what everyone else would do. I took them off when a girl ahead of me did, but I lost some positions doing it that early. I also lost some positions going into T2 because I didn’t know where the dismount line was. I had the 56th slowest transition with 36 seconds. Running into transition I almost collided with a couple girls running by me. I was on the wrong side of my bike again when I racked it and I had to run around it to get to my run shoes. There were sooo many girls running out with me. And it felt soooo fast! Ahhh!
Run – 4 flat (except for a small bridge) 2.5k loops
I tried to focus my eyes ahead, not on the girls right in front of me. I know a lot of them would be slower than me but I had to go with the ones that were passing people. It just felt sooo fast. It hurt a lot. I was still picking girls off though. So the 2nd lap I caught up with 2 girls I ran with for a while then we dropped one. The British girl and I ran together for the beginning of the 3rd lap then it seemed like she really picked it up on the 4th lap. My run splits were 9:25, 9:14, 9:17, 9:26, totaling 37:20. The first lap had a run from transition in there so it was probably closer to 9flat or sub9.
So I finished 28th in 2:09.02. My time lost in transitions hurt me but they weren’t what knocked me out of World Cup points. I got Olympic points and ITU points but still have yet to score at a World Cup. I was initially pretty disappointed but after I found out it was the largest women’s field in World Cup history, I am a bit more proud for finishing top 30. There were 58 finishers. I lost 20 seconds on my 2nd swim lap. It’s not necessarily a fitness issue but more of a learning curve… I still am learning how to maneuver through the packs on the swim and get good positioning. I guess its like bike racing, I sucked at that at first too. I am just impatient! Gaining experience is tough when the races are so expensive.
Manchester put on a wonderful race – there were a ton of fans, the course was really fun, and I enjoyed my weekend (not counting Friday and Saturday…). I will definitely come back next year. Thank you to Mom and Dad for helping me out with the weekend and showing their awesome support during the race.
