Sunday, September 24, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Race Report: Best of the US Triathlon
What a fantastic weekend! We left Oklahoma on Thursday, stopped in NW Arkansas to switch vehicles and pick up Justin’s folks, and took off for Excelsior, Minnesota, for Saturday’s Best of the U.S. Amateur Triathlon Championships. We finally arrived after approximately 15 hours of driving (ugh…), and had some time to check out the race site, drive the run and bike courses, and look around town a bit before the pre-race meeting. We met up with Daniel, his mom, and his grandma at the race site as he was about to go ride the course. At the pre-race meeting, the race organizers, Jerry McNeal and Trudy Marshall, really started pouring on the “make you feel special” sauce – we were given temporary tattoos of the numbers for our body marking, temporary tattoos with the BOUS logo, temporary tattoos with our state flags, as well as our own little state flag to wave during the “parade of athletes” that was supposed to take place later. We sat through an informative meeting and then everyone drove to the race site for the expo and “parade of athletes”. The “parade” was more of a general introduction of the two athletes from each state (Jerry is the “voice of triathlon” in the area, and he did his homework on each athlete!), but it was pretty fun (maybe a little cheesy, but in a good way!).
I do want to note that Daniel had the most AMAZING breakthrough race – he was third out of the water even though he did the full swim course (the top two guys missed the last buoy, and a lot of folks followed them…but not Daniel). Daniel’s bike was awesome, but his run was absolutely phenomenal. Justin had the opportunity to watch everything, and he said that Daniel simply looked amazing as he took off out of transition onto the run course. It turns out that Daniel PRed the 10k by only about 6 minutes!!! Something clicked for him, and he ran a 34:xx! He ended up 6th overall for the guys in a pretty impressive field. His was a fantastic performance, and he definitely needs to be working closely with USAT, because he’s going places in triathlon if he keeps this up!
Daniel and I both received really nice individual awards for being top ten finishers, as well as a lovely Waterford crystal vase for each of us for being the fifth place team (I don’t even want to go back and figure out if my penalty cost us a place or two, but I might later when I really want to get annoyed at myself). We were both pretty happy with the day, but it was obvious that some of the other competitors were upset about the swim course penalty.
I can’t say enough good things about the race organization overall, though, and hope that I’ve communicated what a neat experience I had. This is the second year that BOUS has run, and while they’re still ironing out some logistics, it is definitely on its way to being a premier championship race.
Thanks so much to Tri-OKC for the support provided for this race – I was so happy to be able to attend for
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Coach Justin
I’ve been dealing with a strained hamstring that has affected the past week and a half of training. I’ve been trying to be conservative and actually took four days off from running, but I’ve been driving myself crazy about it because running wasn’t going great right before the time off. I’ve been a bit concerned about an upcoming race – I really wanted to be dialed in and feeling fast, and I’m not exactly there because of this injury. Justin interprets my moods pretty well and generally knows exactly what to say. Here are some examples of things where he is simply an amazing coach that I really should be paying 20% of my annual income for:
1. This morning Chris finishes her first run in several days and is secretly disappointed that the time is not faster because it actually felt pretty good. Coach Justin appears to sense her mood and reminds her that the time is actually quite good because Haley (one of our dogs…the other one wouldn’t get out of bed this morning) had to take a shit and we had to scoop and bag it.
2. After the run, Chris asks Coach Justin if he’d be up for transition practice tonight, and he tells her that he would rather watch her and see if he can help her by pointing out anything that he might see.
3. After a shower, Chris diligently wraps her leg with the compression ice pack that our good friend and physical therapist, Norman, has loaned her. She laments (this is only the 442nd time this has crossed her mind in the last week) that it’s too bad that she’s not been doing speedwork because she really was hoping to be able to run well this weekend. Coach Justin hits a home run with her by telling her that many of the great race performances have been done by athletes who were dealing with injuries leading up to raceday and had been forced to rest. He points to Joan Benoit Samuelson and her Olympic win and also says he has heard of others whose name he can’t recall.
4. During breakfast this morning, conversation switches to Coach Justin telling Chris that he spent some time during our run this morning thinking of things he was going to yell at her when she races on Saturday. He says the thoughts give him goosebumps. Chris gets teary inside when he tells her and then teary again as she writes this.
5. Finally, Coach Justin tells her that she needs to be confident in her abilities. Chris asks Coach Justin why he’s never had a confidence problem, and he just shrugs as though she had just asked him why his hair is not hot pink. Chris makes mental note that her on/off confidence might simply be a decision she has to make (to turn the confidence switch to “on”).
How lucky am I? All this plus a million other things that he does (including lots of help with bike maintenance stuff!). And to think that even this morning I gave him a hard time for not looking for things very well (“Honey, where is my race belt? I can’t find them in your bag” “They’re there! Stop looking like a guy!” “I can’t find my tri-shorts” “In the drawer” “Didn’t see them” “They’re there!”). I feel bad about that. I think I need to give him a million “Find it for me without giving me a hard time” passes (Chris makes mental note of this...maybe she better write it in her PDA so she doesn't forget).
He’s an amazing guy, and I’m so fortunate.