 NB's Comments:
I skipped the gym
on Friday... and slept like a brick on Thursday night.
Friday night at brewer's... I didn't sleep so well.
Maybe I was just excited? I woke up about once
every two hours ready to GO!
brewer and I
arrived at the course early Saturday morning and got
our stuff set up in the TA (Transition Area).
There seemed to be more people there than normal... I
reckon 'cause it was the USARA Nationals.
Tougher competition... tougher course.
Last year we did
the course in an hour and 30 minutes. Not so
this year. Two hours and 20 minutes.
Completely different course layout... except the
darned hill. Basically the hill is like riding
up a 30-story building in a mile. I HATE long (up)hills.
You can see the ugliness in the elevation graph below:
The elevation changes over the
15.7-mile course.
The race started
with a half-mile sprint to break up the teams.
Easy enough, but it sure didn't break up the teams
like I had hoped. We got stacked up behind some
slow riders on the first section of mountain biking...
and they kept coming off their bikes to walk some of
the more difficult sections. Unfortunately, we
had to come off too, because they were pretty much
stopped in the middle of the trail. UGH!
We saw the poor girl with the compound fracture.
Poor thing. I hope she's OK. Probably not
what she signed up for...
After the ride, we
had a 3/4-mile paddle followed by a three-mile trail
run. When we got back to the boats to paddle
across the lake, they directed us to the "rings" where
we had to swing across a small section of water, drop
in, then swim to the dock (with our running gear on).
Then we made it back to the boat to paddle across the
lake to the bikes.
Change shoes,
throw on Camelbaks, helmets etc. and we were off on
the bikes again for nearly four miles when we had to
stop and climb down a hill to a cave and retrieve a
token. That was the easy part. The
climbing-up part sucked. And for the very first
time ever in a race, brewer's calf started to seize
up. He told me he'll never again say anything
mean to me again when mine does it. Rest
assured... it SUX!!!
After the climb,
we hopped back on the bikes, and I had to peddle up
the hill from hell (brewer did too, but he didn't have
as much of a problem with it). I hate that hill.
Going down it at 40mph is OK, but climbing back up it
SUX!!! SUX!!! SUX!!! I made it. It wasn't
pretty, but I made it without coming off the bike and
walking. Here's that elevation graph again, but
this time with Speed (in blue) and my comments...
The elevation and speed changes over
the 15.7-mile course.
The nearly 300-foot drop is fun on a
bike on the down side... not so much on the climb!
There's also the ugly hill climb during the run, which
was basically a 150-foot climb over less than 2/10 of
a mile. You can also see the 150-foot drop (and
climb) over 2/10 mile to get down to the cave.
FUN!
At the TA we had
one more event--basically run around to a pool, jump
into the waist-deep water and make our way around to
the other side, get out and run through the finish
line.
We ended up in 3rd
place in our division... 2:20:12. Interestingly
enough, had we raced in Male Open, we would have
placed 5th. And we were faster than any of the
female teams. brewer said, "I wonder if the
surgery is worth the prizes?" I reckon they'd
have to be pretty good prizes...
Anyway, 3rd place
in the nationals... We'll take it!
I need to get my
long-hill legs better. brewer needs to drink
more fluids!
Next race in three
weeks.
Peace.
NB
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