I focus on each year as it comes, so here is how the path to the 2014 Duathlon National Championship race unfolded...or should I say unraveled? It is one week since the event, and I've been laying around my house, feeling somewhat exhausted and fatigued. I would say it just takes longer to recover the older I get, but in reality not only is training exhausting, but life is exhausting. Taking time to revel in my accomplishments is not something I do well. Once a big race is over, I make it a priority to focus on my family as inevitably I have neglected them in some way, so movie nights and dog walks take priority. Leading up to this fourth national event was a whirlwind of family events, so at least I did not come out of race season feeling like I left my family behind. On the contrary, I spent a whole lot of time with my favorite boys this year.
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| Washington DC with Chris |
Early in 2014 I made a decision that this would be an "off" year for me. What exactly does that mean? Well, rather than being focused on a year long training plan, I would allow a great deal of flexibility in my race commitments, and put family events before races. I also spent a lot less time training. This meant the time I did train had to be pretty focused. I have attended World Championship races in the past 3 years, and much to my travel partners chagrin, Jerianne, I did not plan to race in Pontevedra, Spain this year. I opted for a most excellent trip to Washington D.C. with my fifth grader, and 17 of his classmates, which occurred during the same week as Worlds! Also, because I have gone into two priority duathlon events with a strained hamstring, I felt like a decrease in my run training was in order. I did exactly zero running races this year (at least to date) in an effort to preserve my hamstrings.
With a decrease in run volume, I felt like I needed to hammer on the bike, and what better way to accomplish that than racing with my women's cycling team, Tulsa Tough! Hitting the bike racing circuit kept my cycling fitness in top form, and somewhat kept me from lamenting the fact that I wasn't running much. A lot of triathletes and duathletes are solitary trainers, but I thrive when I have teammates to push me. Granted much of my training is solitary, but the group training events always garner more effective sessions, at least for me. In addition to bike racing, I like to sign up for as many practice duathlons as I can, and fortunately for me, the Triathlon Club of Oklahoma City has a great duathlon series. These local races, in conjunction with the bike racing I did throughout the season had me fairly well prepared for duathlon nationals. But I must confess my confidence going into this race was not as high as previous years. Not being injured was however a big plus!
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| Training at Mt. Scott with Alisha |
So, with an early flight to St. Paul, I set two alarm clocks, prepared my travel gear, and went to sleep. During the night there were storms, thunder, lightening, and a lot of rain. By morning, the roads were flooded and Jerianne's electricity was out. She called me around 4am to let me know she was getting ready with a flashlight! I had most of my stuff ready, but was running a few minutes late as I prepared last minute items for travel. I headed out in the dark and rain, and as I approached the gate to leave my neighborhood, nothing happened! NO! The electricity was out, and there is not a good way to get out of my neighborhood when the electricity is out. I prayed hard that the other gate in the hood had electricity...U-turn to the back side, and thank goodness the gate opened! Then as I approached the first intersection on the city streets, there was a large sign, "High Water". Do I go for it, with my low clearance Mazda? Well, I didn't have time for an alternate route, so I floored it through the deep water, and drove a little recklessly to Jerianne's house. Running about 15 minutes late, I drove a little faster than I should have, but we made it to the airport with plenty of time to check in.
The only hitch at the Frontier gate was the fine print we missed at the check in kiosk, carry-on bags have a fee. Really?? So as we approached the boarding attendant, he informed us we didn't have a carry-on stamp, sent us to the counter to pay for our carry-on, and $50 later we were onto the plane, fuming a bit, and with a greater understanding as to why no one was carrying on luggage.
Flights were uneventful and we arrived at St. Paul ready to explore the city. We walked to a burger joint and enjoyed a power salad, complete with spinach, hard boiled eggs and bacon. One of the better decisions we made this year was to have the bikes picked up by Race Day Transport. After lunch we walked to the race venue and picked up our fully assembled bikes from the excellent staff at Race Day Transport and brought them back to our rooms. One of the more stressful parts of travelling to multi-sport events is the bike! Not limited to disassemble, pack, schlep to airport, pay a shocking amount to get the bike on the plane, then pray it arrives at destination, without broken parts, followed by reassemble, adjust and race, followed by disassemble, pack, schlep...I think you get my point. I highly recommend alternative transport of bike. Then we hooked up with our favorite gang of lifetime duathletes and made plans for dinner. A lot a eating goes on at these events! We had an overpriced Italian dinner, but it was good.
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| Who knew Schultz was from St. Paul? |
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| Ready to preview course with Jerianne |
Again, make dinner choice, head to room early to prepare for race, and in bed at reasonable time. I had to get up early, race time 7:30 am. I had a light breakfast, a little caffeine and started hydrating. I put on my tattoo numbers, and headed out to the race course. I rode my bike to the venue which was about a half mile away, then rode around for about 10 minutes to start my warm up. I checked my bike and gear into the transition area. I had a good spot in transition, would have no trouble finding it during my run in...aftre I checked in and set my bike and helmet, I did a run warm up, reviewed the run course one last time, and started to get nervous. Fairly normal. I was in the first wave with 50+ women and 60+ men. Had I been with the entire group of women, I would have known the youngsters to pace off, but I didn't know any of these men. I knew many of the women in my age group, but none of them typically ran faster than me, so my strategy was to roll at race pace!
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| View of the race venue across the river |
One of the females took off at a sub 6 minute pace, and I let her go. Within in half a mile I was passing her, so I started watching the men to see who was pacing well at a comfortable pace for me. Having not raced any running events this year, my pacing wasn't on. There were several 60+ men pacing well, so I paced off of them and I finished the first run as the female leader with only a handful of men in front of me. I got through transition at a good pace and made no errors in getting onto the bike. I took off and started passing male competitors. Eventually I found myself in the top 3 in our wave, and continued to ride as strong as I could. The course was good, I had only one scare when I hit a pot hole straight on, thought I might flat, but got lucky. I rode into transition behind a couple men.
As I got out onto the run course, I heard Tim Yount encouraging me not to let any men pass me; this motivated me to hold my pace, keep my focus on not being passed. I finished strong, first 50+ woman, I was a National Champion, woo hoo! The next female crossed 6 minutes later, so I knew I had a good race. The younger women started about 40 minutes after our wave, and I watched the clock to see how I was doing overall. It was hard to tell, but at the conclusion of the race, I ended up 5th overall female, second masters female, and felt really good about that!
As I was watching the rest of the standard distance competitors at the finish line, several women complimented me on a great race, and that is when one of them asked me, "What's your secret"? I couldn't come up with a good answer, but I have considered that question as I write this account of my race. I did tell her "I train hard", in addition to that I should have added "I race harder". I believe that is my mantra.
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| Transition after the race |
The awards presentation was larger than life and well attended. Tim Yount, USAT COO, presented overall and age group awards and national titles. At the conclusion of the presentation, he announced one final award, new this year, to be presented for the Outstanding Performance of the Race, one award in each the Sprint and Standard races, not gender specific, voted on by a panel of 10 USAT representatives who combed the results to find what they considered to be the most outstanding performance of each respective race. To my surprise and honor he called my name as winner in the Standard, along with Patty Peoples for the Sprint. How incredible to be recognized for race performance. USAT Nationals is always a humbling experience. I've said this after each race, if you get a chance to go to a National USAT event, do it!
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| Award for Outstanding Race Performance |
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