Bronda’s Du 11/10/13
After the last race, it took me a while to recover, then
before I knew it, I felt like I had to get rested for this race. I did Spinervals 27.0 and tried to run
the week after the race, but ended up more trot and walk. Then I did 36.0 on this past week, then
I must have worn socks that my feel slip and move in the shoes and had funky
feeling ankle. So I did not
officially run AT ALL after the first Du. Because of all the wisdoms from Team members and
Super Sherpa, hubby Tony’s understanding and help, yet one more time, we were
very fist ones to arrive at transition, hence I got the first rack from the
Bike Out on the very end. Then he had
to hang out a while in the car while I did careful Walk/Run warm up in the
course.
I am not an advisor or anything, but just to see what
college life is like, I hang out both in Facebook page for school Cycling Club
and Tri Club. I learned that they
made a special event page, so I posted my picture from last race and asked to
wave and say hi if anybody spot me.
Sure enough, when I was warming up in the parking lot, Kyle called me
and introduced himself. I met Adam
then. I see those names all the
time and always wondered how they fit all the studying, important college
social life and still squeeze training for three sports. Later around the registration area, I
met the third racer, Abhijit. (You
can see white SMU cycling jersey eager to start at the very front of the
video. That is Kyle.)
Originally the start was described to have waves, but then
it turned out to be a mass start.
I placed myself way in the back, but even so, I quickly realized I am at
the very end. I turned around once
things settle and spotted two guys behind me. I am the very last gal! Then the guy in blue passed me and ran ahead of me for a
while, then I passed him somewhere along the line. By the time, I am closer to the first lap (1 mile of 2
miles) the very fast people were finishing up their second lap! I saw Kyle like maybe as third guy and
soon Adam passed me. They existed
to the bike. I was thinking, OK,
if there is ever a race that I come very end in the race, this has to be it, as
this is my first real race, not like fluffy champagne event like last
time. Unlike last whacky numbers,
my heart rate was hovering around 152-155-ish, which must be zone 3 on the
run. It was a good start. I looked one last time before exiting from
the loop, the very last guy was even quite behind from me. Oh, my.
When I got to T1, my bike was easy to spot not just because
it was in the best spot, but also hardly any bikes left! I exited and went down the tunnel
and then I noticed something is too light. I FORGOT MY CAMELBAK.
As I am a dehydrated person, I am NEVER without liquid in handy and
always carry Camelbak riding outside and huge number of bottles riding
inside. I remember in one of those
grand tours, Cadel Evans dropped his bottle in ITT and team car was unable to give him
more bottles for some reason. Of
course, he didn’t do well and pretty much lost the hope of winning. I was thinking, I have NEVER ridden 50
minutes without liquid and I really don’t know what is going to happen to
me. OK, I have to take it easy as
much as I can. By then, my heart
rate was about AT already and I was passing quite a few people. A lot of people passed me, but those
must have been the guys that were finishing up the run when I was going for the
second loop. They had proper TT
bike with fancy wheels with perfect aero position and I can hear them coming
like airplane and passed me like I was not pedaling at all. Meanwhile I was passing people. Most of them were on road bike and a
couple were on cruisers. The bike
course was around regular road going around the Speedway, but closed. The street was very wide and even we
were supposed to ride inside the cones, there was plenty of space to pass
without being in danger of drafting.
I finished the first lap and thought OK, two more times without any
water. I passed a lady with
Camelbak and almost confessed that the face that I forgot to take mine, but I
didn’t witness too much socializing on this race, so I just passed her. In the second loop, I noticed IF was
going down quickly even I felt like I was keeping good cadence, so I grabbed
back up GU gel from the tri short pocket and gulped., still thinking, this
needs to be consumed with water. By
the time I came back to close to transition, Kyle and Adam were running
together (cool down after race?) and they cheered me and whistled because I
almost followed the guy in front of me and made a wrong turn. How sweet of them!
At T2, I took my time drinking the whole bottle of water and
gulped another GU gel. Made sure
Edge was off and started Polar, but I knew GPS was having fits, but I could
still see heart rate and time. My
heart rate was a little higher than the first run, but I felt strong and just about when I got to the
loop, I felt like I got in the rhythm.
Some people were exiting while I was going for the second loop. I was passed by a few people, but it is
amazing that how widely spread out the race becomes. A lady told me, “You were awesome on bike.” and buzzed
passed me. I thanked her and I was
trying to compose a nice sentence trying to say I wish I could run as fast as
she could, but never accomplished that task. As usual, I can her husband cheering me everywhere and I
finished!
Learning from last race, I had Tony carry change of warm
clothes and went straight to the bathroom to change. The guy from RBM, who helped Tony buy his Cervelo talked to
us and I spotted Kyle. I spoke
with him in length commenting that I do not see any girls racing. Transition opened up again fairly
quickly and I got everything out then I suddenly got hungry and grabbed a hot
dog for me and wonderful husband.
I told Tony that I was hearing all the cheering friends were doing online
and asked if he had been posting.
Then the timing chip result was printed out and Tony took a
picture. I must have passed 20
people on the bike. 100th
on the first run, 80th after the bike and 83rd overall. I am thinking, if I had
camelbak, I would have pushed more on the bike. But ankle didn’t bother me and overall it was a race that
was executed well and my run is getting faster. The race production company does the same format at the
Speedway, three times a year. They
also do a TT by a lake that I have heard a lot about in June. I am hoping to come back to the race next
year. Thank you, Tony, my
Spinervals Team and SMU Tri guys!
1 Comments:
Awesome job ! Camelbak would have weighed you down. And glad the ankle cooperated :)
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