2006 USAT Age Group National Championships. Kansas City, MO
Eight weeks and six days after ! jacked up my foot, ! landed in Kansas City, MO for Age Group Nationals. Since the injury and 3 days on crutches !’ve had 2 new coaches. Ben and Jerry. They really helped with my 9 week taper and making sure ! had plenty of fuel stored up for the race.
Poor Charley would have stomped butt out there if he hadn’t just had his meniscus trimmed down for lightness. He drove out anyway to support the rest of us. The rest of us were me, Katrin and Mary Sietsma. ! called Charley when ! got off the plane to see if he had made it to town yet. He had my gear. He was about a mile away and headed over to the Fairfield Inn to get a room. Katrin was in the hotel next door and Mary was in the airport Marriott, aka host hotel. The girls were already out @ the race site driving the course. Charley and ! went by to check me in then headed out there. ! can think of 4 more of us who qualified, but didn’t come out to play. Micah and Luke both qualified @ Rattlesnake like ! did. Michael just did a little race in Idaho a couple weeks ago and was still recovering. Nancy was signed up but not there.
There were a huge number of racers from CO. We ran into Steve Pye and his wife Andrea who are coaches so they know and adore Charley. With them were Laura and Eric. Laura has come out to swim with us on occasion. ! had credentials so we could get in anywhere around town no problem. After bike check-in it was back to the hotel to meet the girls and hunt dinner. We found what we thought was a brew pub. It turned out to be just a pub with brews. We made it work for us. Have you ever watched girls feed? It seems like they just quit when they aren’t hungry anymore. Makes you wonder how those super models get enough down to throw up.
After 9 weeks training with Ben and Jerry, ! decimated the field in the feeding competition. ! think ! frightened some of the other patrons, even the ones who looked like ringers. Back in the room ! started into the leg shaving. Ten minutes in ! was most of the way through a piss-poor job on one leg and losing patience. ! worked over the other leg to the same level of quality and went to bed.
Two alarms and a wake-up call was effective, but not as fun as being jumped on by my 5 year old nephew like the prior week. Made the coffee. Ate the groceries. Packed the bags and headed downstairs. It’s about a 25 minute drive out to the traffic jam for parking. We had plenty of time to set up.
! found our girls in the female section of Transition. It was a much more pleasant place to be than where ! had to park. Girls all over. One from St. Louis looks totally like someone ! used to know. ! haven’t yet figured out who yet. Since !’m such a nice guy ! didn’t gloat about how the arches around her come in pairs and are golden. Some dude recognized me from 5430. He had been inspired by my cheering. He also has met Charley and commented on how friendly, helpful, positive, motivating, humble etc. etc. he is. ! heard those comments a few times.
Water temps were mid 70s so wetsuits were not allowed. They told us it wasn’t supposed to get over 80* all day and it was sunny. A really nice day. The boy’s choir sang the National Anthem and the parachute guys lept out of a perfectly good airplane just like Sarah would.
Into the water. It was shallow for a long way out. ! should have run in deeper. ! was about 2 ½ minutes slower than Lake to Lake. T1 went ok. The ride was rolling hills. ! had so many guys blow by me ! was getting thigh envy. Then girls started going past and ! had other thoughts. Up and down. Up and down. Half way in we turned back West for the first time into the wind. Those sections were tough, but not too long. At 17 miles ! got by a 70 year old guy. Then a couple hundred yards further on ! got a 71 year old lady. ! just wasn’t getting any power. ! only managed 20.3 mph. Maybe ! should start showing up for these things in shape. On the last bit before T2 ! pulled my tootsies out of the shoes and my calf cramped up. ! had taken 3 salt caps before the start and 3 more in T1.
Tugged on the brand new racing flats and socks and hit the run. First mile was 8:12. Lake to Lake was the longest run !’d done since ! got hurt and it was a bit short. It was starting to hurt. ! went into full IM run mode. Run a mile and walk the aid stations. By 2.6 miles ! was walking again. ! told myself that each time ! walked it would only be until my heart rate dropped down to 165. That wasn’t long. ! got to mile 3 and got a drink. Back to running. Then walking. ! think ! kept the walking to about ¾ of a mile total. Even running down the long hills was leaving me wiped out.
! had estimated that running under 1 hour would beat 2:45 and would be tolerable. At 1.5 miles to go ! calculated a 10 minute pace would do it. ! could do that as long as ! kept running. ! ran through the last aid station then around the corner for the final stretch. Passing the parking lot ! still couldn’t see the finish. ! knew it was close. ! passed Steve Pye and his wife standing on the side of the road. He’s in my group and hadn’t been optimistic. He had been done for nearly 30 minutes. Now ! could see the picnic area. Then Katrin cheering me in. It was about 100 yards downhill with a 90* left at 25 yds. To go. ! was really pushing it hard for that 7:22 pace on the last third of a mile. Then it was over. It still hurt. My feet were sore and my throat was parched. Mary was still out there. ! had a 10 minute head start on her. They were playing 80s songs and ! was recovered enough to recognize them so ! limped to the fence chugging fluids. And there she came. We rounded her up so Charley could take pictures of me getting armpit sweat on their shoulders. One day they’ll look back on that and grimace.
Time to feed. We had a choice of condiments to put on our burgers with white bread buns. No veggies to top those burgers. At least the burgers were tasty. Pasta salad and a bag of chips.
My Mom lives in a small town. When she wants to go shopping in the “big city” she drives an hour to where “At Close Range” was filmed. Madonna called Evansville, IN the most boring town she had ever been to. That’s where the girl behind me in the lunch line was from. She had decided to do a triathlon and qualified for Nats. This was her second race ever. She may have made Team USA. If she hadn’t been so cute !’d be even more annoyed. She had seen the girl who fell down 3 times on the run. The volunteers pulled her out of the ditch and assisted her to the finish line.
After a shower, ! loaded up my gear and we headed back to the Marriot. Charley and Katrin needed to get on the road home. Mary and ! had time to kill before our flights out. ! hung out in the lobby while she showered and packed. The wait was worth it. A really cute little girl asked me to help her take off her….pedals. She had noticed my bulging muscles. They weren’t that tight. She had done 2:28. Her mom wasn’t going to send her to Switzerland because she wanted to waste that ca$h on back surgery. Mary and ! decided to head to the airport to see if she could get an earlier flight and then to feed. At lunch ! noticed ! had missed a whole strip of hair up the back of one leg and lots of other patches. Then she pointed out to me that my “credentials” were actually just a luggage tag. How embarrassing. ! still wore it all the way home.
Friday at check in ! had a disagreement with Charley. Based on the way Andrea was touching Steve Pye, ! decided she was his wife and Laura wasn’t. Charley thought Laura was his wife and must have beaten up Andrea later for hanging on her guy like that. ! sat across the aisle from Laura on the flight home. She told me that Charley had been cheering her on, but calling her Andrea. So, clearly ! was correct. Na Na Na Na Na Na.
! pulled in @ 1:48 for 52nd of @ least 53. That’s only 46:30 away from the top spot on the podium. Katrin got a good place (20th). She didn’t qualify for Worlds unless she got a roll-down spot. Mary was out of contention for a roll-down. Final results should be posted here http://www.usatriathlon.org/ soon.
Remember to count your blessings, treasure your experiences and find the beauty in every hardship.
Poor Charley would have stomped butt out there if he hadn’t just had his meniscus trimmed down for lightness. He drove out anyway to support the rest of us. The rest of us were me, Katrin and Mary Sietsma. ! called Charley when ! got off the plane to see if he had made it to town yet. He had my gear. He was about a mile away and headed over to the Fairfield Inn to get a room. Katrin was in the hotel next door and Mary was in the airport Marriott, aka host hotel. The girls were already out @ the race site driving the course. Charley and ! went by to check me in then headed out there. ! can think of 4 more of us who qualified, but didn’t come out to play. Micah and Luke both qualified @ Rattlesnake like ! did. Michael just did a little race in Idaho a couple weeks ago and was still recovering. Nancy was signed up but not there.
There were a huge number of racers from CO. We ran into Steve Pye and his wife Andrea who are coaches so they know and adore Charley. With them were Laura and Eric. Laura has come out to swim with us on occasion. ! had credentials so we could get in anywhere around town no problem. After bike check-in it was back to the hotel to meet the girls and hunt dinner. We found what we thought was a brew pub. It turned out to be just a pub with brews. We made it work for us. Have you ever watched girls feed? It seems like they just quit when they aren’t hungry anymore. Makes you wonder how those super models get enough down to throw up.
After 9 weeks training with Ben and Jerry, ! decimated the field in the feeding competition. ! think ! frightened some of the other patrons, even the ones who looked like ringers. Back in the room ! started into the leg shaving. Ten minutes in ! was most of the way through a piss-poor job on one leg and losing patience. ! worked over the other leg to the same level of quality and went to bed.
Two alarms and a wake-up call was effective, but not as fun as being jumped on by my 5 year old nephew like the prior week. Made the coffee. Ate the groceries. Packed the bags and headed downstairs. It’s about a 25 minute drive out to the traffic jam for parking. We had plenty of time to set up.
! found our girls in the female section of Transition. It was a much more pleasant place to be than where ! had to park. Girls all over. One from St. Louis looks totally like someone ! used to know. ! haven’t yet figured out who yet. Since !’m such a nice guy ! didn’t gloat about how the arches around her come in pairs and are golden. Some dude recognized me from 5430. He had been inspired by my cheering. He also has met Charley and commented on how friendly, helpful, positive, motivating, humble etc. etc. he is. ! heard those comments a few times.
Water temps were mid 70s so wetsuits were not allowed. They told us it wasn’t supposed to get over 80* all day and it was sunny. A really nice day. The boy’s choir sang the National Anthem and the parachute guys lept out of a perfectly good airplane just like Sarah would.
Into the water. It was shallow for a long way out. ! should have run in deeper. ! was about 2 ½ minutes slower than Lake to Lake. T1 went ok. The ride was rolling hills. ! had so many guys blow by me ! was getting thigh envy. Then girls started going past and ! had other thoughts. Up and down. Up and down. Half way in we turned back West for the first time into the wind. Those sections were tough, but not too long. At 17 miles ! got by a 70 year old guy. Then a couple hundred yards further on ! got a 71 year old lady. ! just wasn’t getting any power. ! only managed 20.3 mph. Maybe ! should start showing up for these things in shape. On the last bit before T2 ! pulled my tootsies out of the shoes and my calf cramped up. ! had taken 3 salt caps before the start and 3 more in T1.
Tugged on the brand new racing flats and socks and hit the run. First mile was 8:12. Lake to Lake was the longest run !’d done since ! got hurt and it was a bit short. It was starting to hurt. ! went into full IM run mode. Run a mile and walk the aid stations. By 2.6 miles ! was walking again. ! told myself that each time ! walked it would only be until my heart rate dropped down to 165. That wasn’t long. ! got to mile 3 and got a drink. Back to running. Then walking. ! think ! kept the walking to about ¾ of a mile total. Even running down the long hills was leaving me wiped out.
! had estimated that running under 1 hour would beat 2:45 and would be tolerable. At 1.5 miles to go ! calculated a 10 minute pace would do it. ! could do that as long as ! kept running. ! ran through the last aid station then around the corner for the final stretch. Passing the parking lot ! still couldn’t see the finish. ! knew it was close. ! passed Steve Pye and his wife standing on the side of the road. He’s in my group and hadn’t been optimistic. He had been done for nearly 30 minutes. Now ! could see the picnic area. Then Katrin cheering me in. It was about 100 yards downhill with a 90* left at 25 yds. To go. ! was really pushing it hard for that 7:22 pace on the last third of a mile. Then it was over. It still hurt. My feet were sore and my throat was parched. Mary was still out there. ! had a 10 minute head start on her. They were playing 80s songs and ! was recovered enough to recognize them so ! limped to the fence chugging fluids. And there she came. We rounded her up so Charley could take pictures of me getting armpit sweat on their shoulders. One day they’ll look back on that and grimace.
Time to feed. We had a choice of condiments to put on our burgers with white bread buns. No veggies to top those burgers. At least the burgers were tasty. Pasta salad and a bag of chips.
My Mom lives in a small town. When she wants to go shopping in the “big city” she drives an hour to where “At Close Range” was filmed. Madonna called Evansville, IN the most boring town she had ever been to. That’s where the girl behind me in the lunch line was from. She had decided to do a triathlon and qualified for Nats. This was her second race ever. She may have made Team USA. If she hadn’t been so cute !’d be even more annoyed. She had seen the girl who fell down 3 times on the run. The volunteers pulled her out of the ditch and assisted her to the finish line.
After a shower, ! loaded up my gear and we headed back to the Marriot. Charley and Katrin needed to get on the road home. Mary and ! had time to kill before our flights out. ! hung out in the lobby while she showered and packed. The wait was worth it. A really cute little girl asked me to help her take off her….pedals. She had noticed my bulging muscles. They weren’t that tight. She had done 2:28. Her mom wasn’t going to send her to Switzerland because she wanted to waste that ca$h on back surgery. Mary and ! decided to head to the airport to see if she could get an earlier flight and then to feed. At lunch ! noticed ! had missed a whole strip of hair up the back of one leg and lots of other patches. Then she pointed out to me that my “credentials” were actually just a luggage tag. How embarrassing. ! still wore it all the way home.
Friday at check in ! had a disagreement with Charley. Based on the way Andrea was touching Steve Pye, ! decided she was his wife and Laura wasn’t. Charley thought Laura was his wife and must have beaten up Andrea later for hanging on her guy like that. ! sat across the aisle from Laura on the flight home. She told me that Charley had been cheering her on, but calling her Andrea. So, clearly ! was correct. Na Na Na Na Na Na.
! pulled in @ 1:48 for 52nd of @ least 53. That’s only 46:30 away from the top spot on the podium. Katrin got a good place (20th). She didn’t qualify for Worlds unless she got a roll-down spot. Mary was out of contention for a roll-down. Final results should be posted here http://www.usatriathlon.org/ soon.
Remember to count your blessings, treasure your experiences and find the beauty in every hardship.
posted by Doug!! @ 5:54 PM
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