nationals - race recap

1st off. Oregon rocks. what a beautiful state. it reminded me of maine, but with a real west coast attitude, and a little hillier. what i liked most of all was the daylight hours: the sun rose at 5am, and didnt set until about 9pm. it is an outdoursman/womans dream.

well i should have known it was going to be a tough course, when i arrived at my buddies house last thursday night. they live on, (what would be a mountain in most places, but they confirmed it was just a hill) this absolutely beautiful "hill". my flight arrived in portland around 11pm, and i quickly got a cab, because my buddy and his wife were out of town that night. getting a cab was an experience all alone. he was the only russian cab driver in the city, who had no idea where he was going. a 30 dollar cab ride quickly turned into a 50+ ride. as we climbed this monstrasity of a "hill" where the Oregon Health and Science University and Hospital is located, i though, uh-oh? put it this way, this hill is so steep they installed a $75million tram to bring people up and down throughout the day. so, we finally found the house, and i nestled into a cumfy bed, not to wake until 9am!

so as i wake up, and start thinking how badly i need coffee, i found the kitchen, and holy crap a view. their porch looks out on the city of portland, the columbia river, and the mountain range containing mt hood, mt st helens, and mt rainier. amazing, as i fight the caffiene headache, i think to myself, "of course, i forgot my camera" so i built my bike and ventured down the ravine/road to get a cup of coffee. after almost getting killed by a box-truck, i stumbled upon about thirty starbucks and local bean-ettes on 23rd street. i hung out had some unbelievable coffee, a few bagels, a beer, and some pizza. i needed the carbs. then i ventured back and took the tram up the "hill", in order to save my legs for the race, of course. so as i cruise up this tram, filled with doctors and med students, clad in my sugar spandex, i got a few looks. but, my face looked weirder as i stared at the incredible face of mt hood. it was so impressive, it almost looked scary.

my buudies wife, erin, came home, and told me that jimmy was still on duty(uscg) and might not make it home until after the race. i was totally bummed, and kinda felt bad, because now his wife was like quasi responsible for her husbands friend whome whe never met. haha. we had a great time. we went out to the packet pick up and the transition to drop the bicycle off. as we drove out to the course, and her car was whining going up the hills, i thought 1) i might be screwed, 2) has pancake flat texas really got to me, 3) i need to get back to boston.

as we arrived to the transition, all i could think about was how it was the most beautiful race site i have ever been to, hagg lake. this picture was taken in early spring, imagine everything green. it was a really cool place. so, as every other athlete was duct-taping bags to their drive trains and saddles, i dropped mine in my spot and went down to see holw cold the water was. it was perfect.

we ventured back to portland, and she made me an awesome seafood pasta dinner. thank you erin. it was awesome. as i went to bed kinda early, i was thinking, and then passed out, i never do that, especially before a race. i slept awesome, weird.

race morning: 5:15am, and im up, and were out the door, and looking for the first starbucks. we found one, and i got my fix. we arrive, get on the bus to the transition, and it was freezing. not texas. in highnsight, i should have probably warmed up more because of the temperature. the scene was busy, and i decided to leave my shoes off my bike, because of the hill leaving transition! so, let's swim.

the swim was a deepwater start, and i felt ready. i found the guy to draft off of (he ended up swimmimng sub 18 for the 1.5km) with that said, i couldnt stay with him for long, and probably started to hard. my first length of the rectangular course was crampy and slow, but my length back felt good and rythmic. my t1 was okay, it wasnt real quick, but i got out of it, and got on my bike. holy crap...

so, there is a half mile peice of the course that's flat, that was nice, but the rest was either up or down. the two loop course was a battle for me, i just didnt have the legs to crank up those hills. i've been riding the flats of texas, and it was a shock to the system. by bike split was 1:08, for

the 40k, and it was too slow. i will tweak my training, and ride local overpasses over and over, hopefully preparing me for hills. at first, i was really disapointed, but i have accepted it, and now i know what i need to get better at. and i will.

i had a great dismount, and cruised out of t2, and forgot my race number. i ran back, and pulled it out of my bag, and through it on, a total rookie move. haha. i started running, and my legs were heavier than usual, and damn! the run course was on the bike course, hills.
i finally got into a rythm around mile 3, and started passing alot of people. it wasnt my usual pace, but noone passed me. i finished with a run split of 37:15 for the 10k, and a total time of 2:10 something. i missed team usa by about three minutes. i obsessed about the shouldas' and couldas' for two days, and thank you erin for listening to me. but the truth is, all the shouldas', couldas', and wouldas' wont get me a cup of coffee and a donut. so, i will move on, get stronger, and faster. crossing the line is the best part of the race, but we cant forget the miles in between.

thank you erin and jimmie laird for having me at your place, and driving my ass around all weekend. portland rocks! thanks to everyone for your support, expecially sugar cycles and janda ricci-mun.