we set out from bri's house on thurs afternoon to hit up some food before heading our merry way to Tx for longhorn weekend. i was in a foul mood and the boys were kind enough to ignore my mood and continue on with the sarcastic comments until i couldn't help but join in! getting through the security line and checking in bags was far faster than we thought so we ended up goofing off in the terminal for a while before boarding. i sat next to ryan on the plane ride over and paul got to sit between bri and this dude who was large and in charge and insisted on sitting next to paul after questioning bri's story of saving the seat for someone. seriously hilarious!! anyway, had some good conversations with ryan and got some work done while listning to the new flogging molly albums ryan had given to me so all in all, good flight!
we get into Tx and there at the bottom of the escalators is katie b, momma brunner, and clara fay looking sleepy eyed but happy to see the lot of us. we chat a little, grab our bags, and hit the cars to find the hungry triathletes some food (cause we're always hungry!). we hit up taco bell - no, i didn't think it was such a great idea, and attempted to scarf our food asap so we weren't keeping katie b and fam waiting to guard our stuff too long. yes, it was apparently a neighborhood you don't just leave open luggage out for people to steal! we get out to bfe and the boys put their gear in the camper and head to the house where we meet mr. brunner and have a beer or two before hittin the hay.
friday turned out to be a lazy lazy lazy day for us that started with taco surprise - namely so because you never knew what kind of taco you were going to get when you plucked one out of the bag! we checked email, hung around, watched the new charlie and the choclate factory and eventually worked up the enthusiasm to go for a swim at the lake. the water was nice but NOT buoyant whatsoever! oh how we missed our wetsuits as we were struggling to tread water without salt to carry us to the top! after a short swim, we showered and went to greet tim who had just driven up from his new place in the south of austin. mr. b fried up some fish and okra for us for dinner and the 5 of us (paul, ryan, bri, tim, and myself) ended up drinking three 12 packs of shiner before hitting the hay! what can i say, we were carb loading :0) katie b got a little annoyed with us as she was attempting to solidify our plans for the next day but all we could focus on were our "special" needs :D
saturday was a different beast altogether! we got up early-ish to get out and going since we had a lot to be done before race morning prep at the hotel. we pulled ourselves together and marched out of the brunner house with our barney butter shirts on to get ourselves ready for the race. an hour and a half ish later we are at tim's new pad where we load our bikes so that we can haul them to the race site. we park the truck at race site (after tim banged a new hole in the budget rental) and headed to the expo. none of us were terribly impressed by the expo (it was tiny) but i did find the most beautiful tri bag and immediately bought it!! yes, i finally own a bona fide tri bag - guess i'm gettin serious about the sport! paul was a huge sweetie and bought us towls and we all grabbed some other t-shirts and schwag and all in all we made out like bandits!
we headed back to the race site to get our bikes prepped and racked for the race. tons of pics later (espcially by the "special needs" sign) we loaded up into the jeep and off we went to preview the course. this prooved to be no small feat as there were little to no street signs on the roads and we had to dodge all the potholes and rough road to find our way through the 56 miles we were to ride the next day. most of the terrible spots were highlighted in yellow paint but seriously, i was concerned about the rough pavement and the technicality of the road (lots o sharp turns). eventually we got ourselves good and lost enough that even the boys were willing to stop and ask for directions. here, i'll divert to ryan's explanation of our quest to find our way as he describes it so well:
We flagged down a lady who was out jogging and asked her how to get to Blake-manor Road, which would lead us to civilization, and most importantly, to dinner.
US: Excuse us, how do we get to Blake-manor Road?
Lady: Blake Manor road?
Us: Yes, please.
Lady: Well, you're on Ann Showers. Just keep going a couple miles and turn left on Damita Jo (ed. note: I am not making these street names up. the directions really did sound like a bad porn script.) So you turn left on Damita Jo, keep your doors locked, and (ed. note: the transcript ends here, because the SoCal city kids all pooped themselves.)
you can correctly guess that since i'm writing this post, that we kept our windows rolled up and our doors locked and sped as quickly as we could out of the backwoods of Tx that promised to swallow us whole! after our little adventure, we gave up on the rest of the course preview and decided to head to the hotel so we could get the crew gathered for dinner. after attempting to u-turn on the interstate (dont' ask), we made our way to the hotel and eventually to papadeaux's. now i wouldn't recommend eating cajun food for a pre-race meal, but that's exactly what we did! full tummies later and we hit our hotel to ensure that we were fully stocked and ready to rock the next morning at 4:30 am. i packed my beautiful new tri bag and eventually headed to a somewhat sleepless night next to tim. as all racers, i couldn't sleep for fear of missing something in my tri bag, not waking up on time, etc etc etc. sooner than i wished, race morning rolled 'round and like it or not we all got up and got ready for our race.
race morning:
i crawl out of bed and into my tri gear with my eyes as close to closed as they could possibly remain. grabbed my well packed gear and headed down to bri and ry's room to get some breakfast. the boys were barely up and their eyes managed to be more closed than mine! (i'm pretty sure ryan mastered the art of sleeping while meandering about) i threw some barney butter on my multi grain bread with some bananas and sat silently eating until katie b in her shining glory burst into song and into the room. not amused, i'm thinking "you need to shut up so i can at least have a pretense of still sleeping" but eventually her enthusiasm rubbed off on all of us and we finally woke up.
the trip to the race site wasn't bad and we got there in plenty of time to get our transition areas together. i spent some time with bg and with katie b but most of my time that morning was spent with tim. we walked back and forth to the truck a few times (the budget was still there for us) and eventually went on our pre-race warmup run. i finished my carbo pro and felt like i should have finished it sooner as my tummy was full. i grabbed the last of my stuff, made a last port-o-potty stop, and threw my post race clothes into the truck. by this point i'm alone and wandering to the start. i made it to the start as the first wave (bg's) goes off and i wander around looking for a friendly face and attempted to hide my belly (as i only had my tri bra on - the barney butter jersey has pockets and would've created a LOT of drag).
swim:
my wave went off and i was close to the back of the pack as i'm not a terribly strong swimmer. i allowed myself to go slowly at first so i could warm up my arms (stupid me didn't get in a pre-race warmup swim). there were a few people around me but i mostly stuck behind one girl and drafted her for a bit. eventually the next wave of people (men) caught up as the waves were only 3 mins apart and i got slighly pummled. i dunno why faster swimmers find it necessary to draft off of you then crawl over you in order to pass you. seriously - is it necessary when i obviously pose no threat to you breaking some sort of world record? i mean, i'd love to get out of your way but since i'm in front, i have NO clue you're there so PLEASE don't take it personally and set out for revenge. i'll gladly move as soon as i know you're attempting to tear off my timing chip!! anyway, the swim continue thus as a few more waves caught me and pummled me and i drafted off the same girl for most of the swim. it didn't feel terribly long or terribly short and i even had a nice burst of speed for what i considered the home stretch which is just past the second bouy that takes you on a straight away toward the swim finish. i felt pretty good exiting the water and kept looking for my super sherpa and the brunners. just before the transition area, i hear paul screaming "dana - look at me - dana - look at me!!"!! cracked me up and i had a smile on my face as i entered t1.
t1:
ran to my isle (between f and g - i remember cause i kept thinking fuckin go!) and look down to my transition mat and low and behold there are already goggles and a cap there. i got confused for a second and thought "i don't think i've already been here" then realized they weren't mine and someone around me had just plunked her stuff on my mat. i got over it really quickly and threw on my sunglasses, barney butter jersey, bike shoes, and helmet. ran toward the opposite end of the transition area and off to the bike course/obstacle course.
bike:
off i go and people are passing me left and right and i'm passing people (on the left of course!) all the while spinning and attempting to warm my legs up slowly but thoroughly for the challenge ahead. i was immediately glad that we'd trekked out to find the course (well as much as we could) cause i knew exactly where to slow and how to gear. this came in very handy when i hit one 90 degree right turn that went directly up a sharp but short hill. as we're approaching the hill, you can hear the volunteers yelling "slow - turn head. slow - bikers down"! wait......WHAT? yes, that's right bikers down!!!! i turned and saw 5 bikers down on the road and their friends stopped beside them yelling encouragement, other bikers having to go over the center line to avoid the downed bikers, some bikers having to traverse around rolling water bottles, and the whole thing seemed like a hilarious circus to me at that moment. i giggled, prepped my bike to shift easily up the hill, and powered up out of my saddle and put the whole carnival ride behind me.
all in all, the ride was very techincal, very pretty, and very much like an exterra race. there was at least on part of the course that i came upon that had a whole litter of 30 water bottles down so i knew immediately i had to slow or risk losing my own or my tires! speaking of - there were dozens of riders off to the side of the road with flat tires. some attempted to change their own and some just sat and waited for the mavic truck to show. the course also had some seriously rough road that would put my personal toyz to shame!!!! by the end of the bike, i was screaming at my aero bottle cause the bumps in the road were causing the lid to one of the containers to flop open. i think i freaked some bikers out cause i was yelling and hitting it until it stopped popping open! :D
another thing to note on this course was the complete lack of biking ediquette and rules displayed by those "competing" beside myself. i mean it was seriously sad to see......gu wrappers thrown on the ground, power bar wrappers tossed aside, water bottles by the numbers strewn around the course, and bikers riding in widths of up to 4. people were drafting left and right and it was hard to not be penalized on the course with the cluster fuck that people were causing by cruising next to their friends while chatting. i was utterly disappointed in those around me and their lack of race day ediquette.
in the end, ryan passed me and we hit the last two hills (where quadzilla resided) and rode into the bike dismount area. it was difficult to spin and loosen my legs for the run as the two hills were decently substantial and required some work to get to the top. i got in as much spinning and allowed as many people as possible to pass me while getting my legs ready for the run. during the ride i'd gotten in 4 gu's, 1 bottle of carbo pro, 1 bottle of ultima, and 5 salt tabs and i figured that was good to carry me through the run......boy was i wrong!
t2:
i had no major problems with t2 and didn't find any further gear that didn't belong to me in my spot. i did have a little difficulty finding the holder for my run bottle as someone had tossed it to the other side of the rack and i had to attempt to grab it without knocking over all the bikes on the rack (including my prescious Guru). i felt decent and was ready to hit the pavement (and dirt) for the run ahead.
run:
started off pretty well as i caught ryan and ran with him for a bit but by the secondish aid station (past the disco dancers) i headed off on my own. i started feeling just tired and achy at first. i mean like "i'm over this and ready for a nap" kind of tired which is not good considering around mile 4 i seriously considered stopping for a nap on the side of the road! i ran past the barney butter tail gate area and was greeted with a few cheers as i made my way toward quadzilla. i walked a few of the uphills until i'd hit quadzilla and then i seriously was brought down to a very pathetically slow walk as it was steep and my legs and body were starting to consider giving out on me. my legs were beginning to hurt because i'd allowed myself to walk too much and my knees were catching onto the fact that they were not happy with me in the least. my body was reacting badly because of the lack of water which has til now been so prevalent on my bikes and was not terribly well present that day. huge mistake on my part.
i get to the top of quadzilla and run into tim and start running with him for a bit til i feel like it's er time for the pr/er combo. i slow back to a walk and have 2 salt tabs and a gu. keep on walkin, takin water in, and putting cold sponges on my head to cool myself off. walking down hill toward the disco twins for the second time was my most dismal moment as i seriously felt that i wanted to curl up on the side of the pavement and pass the eff out. the only thing that kept me going (so not kidding) was the thought that i'd gotten that far and wouldn't get my finisher's metal. i kept my body going and ran into bg as he was heading toward mile 10 and i toward mile 8. i mumbled something about how terrible i felt and had to keep moving or i wouldn't make it and he looked at me with such concern and pity i left and kept on walkin. i figured i was in pretty bad shape at that point so i found the nearest port-o-potty and took a little pit stop to cool off and regain my bearings.
as i head back out on the "run" ryan catches up to me and we walk to what was the 2 mile turn around (i forget how far it is on the 2nd loop) where the saloon aid station was. we jog for a little while after that and i begin to feel a bit better (though seriously still delirious) and i am VERY blessed for the company. we eventually passed our team barney butter tail gate again and i think everyone thought i'd gone insane at that point as i'm screaming "where's my sherpa?? i want a beer!!!!" we continue on with our walk/run/walk/walk/shuffle/run/shuffle/walk routine while attempting to get me in under 7 hours. then we bargain that it's gotta be under my vineman time. shot that out of the water too and just bargained that i'd finish! he seriously was a huge part of the reason i was able to make it to the finish line that day and for that i am grateful!! thanks ryan :0) we run the last .1 to the finish line and get our pics taken just as ryan's legs fully give out on him and i'm screaming for my post race beer!!!! we find our teammates, have a beer, take a group pic and head off for food, shade, and beer.
the official stats:
Dana Banister #773
Cardiff By The S, CA
Age: 28 Gender: F
Distance | Long |
Clock Time | 7:25:50 |
Chip Time | 7:25:50 |
Overall Place | 1708 / 1929 |
Gender Place | 470 / 513 |
Division Place | 82 / 90 |
Swim 1 2Mi Rank | 1683 |
Swim 1 2Mi Time | 38:22 |
Swim 1 2Mi Pace | 1:59/M |
T1 Time | 03:32 |
Bike 56Mi Rank | 1440 |
Bike 56Mi Time | 3:17:59 |
Bike 56Mi Pace | 17.0mph |
T2 Time | 03:19 |
Run 13 1Mi Rank | 1798 |
Run 13 1Mi Time | 3:22:35 |
Run 13 1Mi Pace | 15:28/M |
post race:
we had some seriously good fajitas (courtesy of mr. b) champagne, and beer and relaxed util a volunteer told us we had to move our stuff from the transition area. we eventually head back to the hotel for showers, bike packing, relaxing, and of course foooooooood! we didn't end up heading out of the hotel and that turned out ok by me (well, katie b headed out for dinner but came back for some hang out time).
it was a great day even with the run from hell thrown in because i proved to myself that i can make it to the end of the race even when i feel at my worst and there is no possible way my body can carry me. it was a true test of will power and i won! it was a learning experience and i now know i need to be fully attuned to my nutrition for future races. and i learned that the comfort of a friend can work miracles when you're at your absolute worst.
~danban
2 comments:
Awesome race report!! congratz on sticking to it and finishing!
nice job danban, i'm proud of ya ;) and so glad you were there for my first half, wouldn't have been the same without ya!
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