Tempe Continental Cup Race Report Sunday, May 22, 2005
This was my first pro race of the season and my first race with Team AEGIS.
I woke up at 6:45 – nice to be able to wake up late and leisurely, but I wish we had had an earlier start! Probably the only time I'd wish for that. I did a 10 minute jog in my racing flats, then had breakfast: coffee, 1 cup of oatmeal and half an orange. Then back to the hotel room to shower and get my stuff together.
Left for the race site at 8:30 on my bike with a couple other girls. Set up my transition quickly to get out of the sun ASAP, it was already approaching 90 degrees F. I did a warm up jog and then I got ready for the swim. (no wetsuit! Ha! We'd DIE). Pro men went off at 9:40, we went off at 9:50. The temperature was 94 degrees F by that time.
SWIM (1500m) The swim was a rectangle and we had to swim two laps. It was a beach start – but the water got deep right away so running in the water wasn't an issue. It was pretty rough at the beginning but not as fast as I thought it would be. I was concerned because I was on the inside edge and I wanted to move up but that would mean swinging out wide, losing the draft. I was too far on the edge – I was breaking open water. The buoys really sucked – at the first buoy, this huge girl grabbed my shoulder and yanked me backwards. I wanted to say “hey pick on someone your own size!” After the second turn, groups started to form, and I was behind a couple girls and feeling really good. I never felt like I was struggling to stay on and I was looking ahead to see if there were any groups close enough I could bridge up to. I was debating about going around but honestly, I was just elated that I was IN it and not off the back all alone. It DID feel long though, and by the last turn I was super ready to get out of the water. I was thinking about surging around at the end but then I was thinking, ‘ok, chill out, think about the first transition, bide your time, you're gonna ride with these girls anyway…' so I ran up outta the water… it was quick but I was with a girl on my team and a Canadian and this other girl. I was out of transition very fast (because no wetsuit!) and had a smooth flying mount on my bike. I rode with my feet on top of my shoes for a bit because there was a big hill out of transition. So my swim split was definitely a PR but since they didn't take splits at this race, I'm not sure what I swam. But I can estimate it to be right around 21 flat or maybe a little faster.
BIKE (40k – 6 laps) In transition, we heard that the next group was only like 20 seconds ahead. 20 seconds can easily be bridged with a group of 4 girls, if we could get it together quickly. I headed out and up the hill with complete intention of catching that group we saw at the top of the hill ASAP. The other girls in my group were kind of slow climbing up the hill and slow to get their shoes on… I was feeling really good, ready to hammer and go catch the group ahead. I was turning around shouting to them to hurry and get on my wheel, but no one else seemed to have an urgency to catch them. I was way out in front of them, turning back and looking at them, they were in a line about 20 feet back. I had to like sit up and wait for them to come up. We even had a long downhill that we could have gotten a lot of speed on, but we didn't go fast down the hill…I'm so used to suffering in bike races – this wasn't even close. I don't know if it was the heat and they were being careful but… when I told the other girl on my team that I felt good, she said she didn't. I thought about attacking. After a couple laps and hearing times from Siri, I kind of lost the urgency to catch the group ahead - the gap got to like 2:30. We caught a girl on the 2nd lap because she had crashed out of the lead group. I was constantly reminding myself to drink and I ate a Gu sometime in the middle but I couldn't eat the other one because the heat made it seem sooo gross.
These girls frustrated me SO much! Cornering like grandmas, not keeping a tight paceline with FORWARD motion… letting it fall apart on the turns – how can they call themselves professionals?? I was still feeling awesome. So I went around a downhill turn on the 4th lap and I was about 15 yards ahead so I went for it, hammering up the bridge. I actually think I could have gone harder in my attack but the heat sucked my energy. So I gave up too soon, and got caught again. I wanted to rest for another lap or so, then around the same corner, Beth and I were a couple lengths ahead and I said ‘lets go lets go, we can drop these girls' so we started going and it hurt a LOT and we were putting time on them. But when they started catching us, Beth said I should keep going alone. So I tried, I came across the bridge, yelling at a girl who got dropped from another group to come work with me but she just let me go by. I keep looking back working hard watching my speed, which wasn't much faster than how we were going before. So on the road before the turnaround I sat up and waited. That effort fried me. I could barely pull through on the last lap. Everyone kind of sat up and slowed down right before we finished the lap. We got our shoes off and I had a good dismount and a quick transition… I was the second one out. We biked slow – a 1:09.
RUN (10K – a 2 mile section, then 4 loops on the bridge) Out of transition I followed the Canadian up the hill, taking short strides breathing deeply, just biding my time. I passed the girl pretty early. The first 2 miles were grueling and lonely because everyone was up watching on the bridge. I passed another girl on my team and this other girl who stopped at a medical person. I got to the stairs and had to walk up them. I kind of didn't think I was going to finish. I gave up competing and just relied on surviving at that point. The water stations were only at one end of the bridge, every 700 meters and I was taking it one lap at a time, knowing that at the end of the lap I got to get a bottle of water. There certainly should have been more water on that course. A bunch of girls passed (lapped) me but I just focused on keeping some sort of forward motion. Siri was great, cheering, so were other people out there. The blisters started to hurt about halfway through. It was just one more thing stacked up. The laps seemed endless, the finally I was on my last length of the bridge, and Sarah Haskins picked it up and passed me just before we turned off the bridge (200 yards to go). I had no fight in me… I know I could have run faster but it was hot and the sores on my feet hurt a lot. I finally crossed the line and it was over. It was kind of funny because I wanted to get my shoes off my feet so badly that I stopped like on the timing mat and it was ringing out a looong BEEEEP and I was standing there looking at my bloody shoes. The volunteers were like, ok you have to move, and I took a couple steps then sat down and took my shoes off. My feet were really bloody. Ouch.
So I finished in a slow 2:19.33. But I'm just glad I finished. I got like 17th place. Not horrible for my first pro race of the season. I was happy to get it out of the way. I have a lot to learn.
Thanks for reading!
