Trip-Tips

I am receiving so many great questions! Thank you. I have recently improved my site so that I can more quickly post answers here so please keep sending them via email.

Speedy in the Big Apple

[update: July 19, 2006]

I have one word to describe the NYC Triathlon- FAST!! It has been a while since I have gone head to head with the big guns of the Olympic scene and wow, it was a bit of a shocker. The days leading up to the race were action packed. Arriving Thursday afternoon I headed out to Central Park for a quick run and then it was off to SBR with Carri and Val for a book signing. The store is like a hip discotec with bikes everywhere! Very cool. After SBR we whisked into a cab to the radio studio for 101.9 FM. The host Mark Farrel was cracking me up the whole time during the interview. Afterwards he joined us for what we thought was sushi but turned out to be Korean food….and it was delicious.

The following day we went to swim at Asphalt Green, they literally do have a green grass asphalt field and had a great swim in their outdoor pool. Later that night my friend Christy arrived with her baby and husband and we all had a fun and entertaining Italian style dinner. Never a shortage of delicious food in NYC. Saturday flew by with some “fakey” street purse bargaining and purchasing and a walk to…..of course…..Whole Foods- the most crowded grocery store I’ve ever seen!

I woke up to race at 3am and headed down to the street 24 hour coffee shop, someone in there invited me to join him at the club down the street…..uhhh. Race morning started off at 5:53am…..after a quick walk down the stretch of the 1 mile swim from the transition area to the swim start. Looking out onto the Hudson I could see the current resembling a downhill slip and slide. This was going to be fun!

I slinked into my Helix wetsuit and was all ready to go, the announcer began calling our names one by by and we were to jog a plank down to the pontoon. I was to be racing a strong contingent of women including Emma Snowsill, Sam McGlone, Laura Bennett and Becky Lavelle all fresh?? off of Lifetime Fitness the day before! They fired us off to start, we all dove into the rushing water and before I could count past 13 minutes we were out and running into T1. I was a bit behind the lead pack as I hopped onto my Guru and made my way into the Bronx. I had a strong ride but could see that I was not making up any time on the lead group of girls…..with a quick transition and a slip into my Asics (ahhh) onto the run and I was off behind Laura careening into Central Park at about 5:30 pace. We were hauling! I told myself to stay on Laura’s heels and I did just that, running by Tony Deboom who was out there to support our Tri Dubai team he yelled “There are some slow movers up ahead! ”. I found this encouraging as I was still feeling good running my fast pace. With my heart pounding I accelerated up a hill and dropped Laura, I began to see Becky up ahead in the distance. My legs were really starting to burn and all I could do was grab water and hope that I could hang on for a few more miles. As I passed the four mile marker I tried to draw strength from the beautiful scenes surrounding me in the park….to no avail, I was cooked. Natacsha Filliol came by me like a rocket as did Katja Schumaker. Into the finish I was the 7th girl and was disappointed. Tony was there to greet me as were several friends and family members. All in all it was an exciting experience to race in the big city of New York but I will be happy to stretch my efforts over 4 plus hours next weekend at Vineman!

Congrats to Emma, Sam, Becky and Craig for amazing back to back races, and to Tim for gutting it out on a too-short course as well. Thank you to my team of Tri Dubai for being there even on my not-so-fast days, and to my other sponsors for providing me with the amazing equipment I get to use that make my job feel almost effortless :) See you at Vineman…......Desiree

Buffalo Springs 70.3

[update: July 13, 2006]

Leading up to this race I heard many stories, some not the most pleasant and causing some anxiety- raging temperatures and hard climbs on both the bike and run. It turns out sometimes expecting the worst can make what you imagined as horrible seem “easy”. Notice the quotations around easy :) Paul so graciously offered to come out and watch, to help me with things and to drive my Guru the 7 hour trek from Austin so I could fly. What a relief it was flying without having to lug around my bike box!!

Everything went smoothly up until the start of the race. Paul and I drove the course the day before to get a good sense of the climbs- fortunately I was expecting much worse. Baja has made everything since then seem like a breeze! The pre-race meeting was humorous- Mike Greer the race director made sure we were well aware of all hazardous objects to look out for on the bike course, many I had never even heard of! He had a list- bullweazels? cockleburs, tarantulas, snakes, cattle, horses, spider like tractors, prairie dogs, some sort of gigantic horse fly….we were in for a great Texas hill biking country adventure!!

Race morning as we drove up to the race site, across the dark prairies we spotted huge bolts of lightning. With every streak the dark sky would light up with purple way out in the distance.There had been storms forecasted and I began preparing myself for a possibly wet and wild bike ride. I said to Paul “Maybe it’s just heat lightening”. This is idea was soon to be thrown out the window, as we parked the truck and made our way to the transition- it was actually chilly! I had on full sweats and I was still shivering a little…Not quite the 100 plus temps I had heard stories about for months! Upon arrival into the transition area, the supposed “heat lightning” patches were making their way towards us. The wind picked up and started billowing…I had to re-rack by bike and hang it by the brakes for fear of it flying out of transition! The wind gusts were so powerful the sponsor signs were being lifted off the transition area fencing!. I kept telling myself to remain calm, that everyone would be in the same boat and that it could pass over…..and eventually it did.

A calm suddenly returned 20 minutes before our 6:30am start, the lake looked flat and still as it did the day before. Tiny waves lapped onto the shore. I breathed a sigh of relief, bid my farewells to Paul and made my way to the swim start. I don’t want to make any excuses but going into this race I was a little nervous of my condition., Having just raced Eagleman two weeks pervious, I had been feeling very tired and not quite at full recovery. I was expecting to feel a little sluggish at first. Again better to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised but this feeling happened to be dead on accurate! I got off to a decent start but once I got to the real deal swimming part my body just wasn’t going. I began to heat up inside my wetsuit- I had visions of my back being lit on fire and of stopping to strip off my wetsuit, leaving it to float around in the lake. I noticed Natascha was swimming next to me and I knew this was not the best sign, I was hoping come out of the water in front of her and now I was more concerned with staying on her feet! I started to feel more and more like a slug baking inside a blanket. I tried imagining that I was swimming in freezing water, that I was cold. This helped a little, I realize that anxiety will only heat you up even more! I was so happy to reach the shore and to take off my wetsuit-ahhh it felt great.

Onto the bike and again I was fighting myself to snap out of slug phase. There would be times when I felt like I was flying and very strong, other times the opposite. All in all I had a great time out on the bike course. It was a beautiful course, the climbs were my favorite part! and there were sections that wound and rambled and were very roller coaster like. My only disappointment was that I never had the opportunity to encounter a bullweazel! I was in third position coming off the bike, Natascha and Andrea were having great rides and I knew I was going to run hard to catch either one of them. I had a whole plan to beat the heat, Paul and I had trekked to the Lubbock Wal Mart the night previous (quite the experience!) and purchased a cooler and zip-locks. Paul made up some little bags up for me so that I could stash them in various places to keep me cool on the run. Although the temps had risen into the 80s or so at this point, Io felt so lucky not to be battling 100-plus temps.

The first few miles of the run I was feeling strong, I passed Andrea and was now in second, not really aware of how far ahead Natascha was or how far anyone else was behind. I passed Paul at around mile 4 and he told me Natacha looked tired. My first thought was “well so am I!” but instead I decided to try and catch her….that plan did not come through very well. I did manage to hold off Heather Fuhr who was looking strong at the turn around point. I was absolutely amazed by the encouragement I received on the way back home. As there were many Austinites racing out there, I saw so many familiar faces and they almost all managed to cheer despite the fact that they were tuckered! They really all helped me home, the last few miles were around a flat lake and I was so looking forward to the finish line at this point! It finally arrived in second place and Paul gave me a big hug, my dad was there and looking proud, and announcer Jerry was on the mike saying some really nice things. Meanwhile the med tent was looking like the cool place to be so I grabbed a seat and let the lovely volunteers take care of me. I will definitely be back next year, still in search of the great Bullweazel….

One more important thing I forgot to mention that happened out on the run- at mile four I asked for coke while passing through an aid station. The volunteers didn’t have it poured yet so I passes through and turned to start the first big climb on the run. To my relief and disbelief a woman volunteer traversed the grass uphill with the poured coke in her hand and stood on the hill with it so I could grab it. Amazing. There were several other moments like that during the race, all brought on my the wonderful volunteers- you would think they were being paid a million dollars to do such a great job out there. You guys rock!

Thank you to Mike and Marti for putting on such a fun and immaculately run race, to Paul for being the best and most patient “domestique” ever! to my sponsors and Tri Dubai team for believing in me, and to all of those who cheered for me on a day when I may have only been able to muster an unintelligible sound effect back. I feel so fortunate.

Ironman Arizona

[update: June 24, 2006]

I couldn’t help but check out your new bike…. TOTALLY sweet. I bought the “old” aluminum Chrono about 2 months before they debuted the carbon one…. and I’m kicking myself. How’s it run? What kind of setup do you have on it?

Got any tips for the IMAZ course? I’m registered for it this year, and it looks a far cry from the only other IM i’ve done (IMC). Matt

Hi Matt,

Thanks for asking, I love my new bike! It runs very smoothly, and everything I put into it moves the bike forward. I have also been impressed with the professionalism of the company and the people involved.

Arizona, yes it is quite different than IMC. I have also done both. The swims are similar. although Arizona was quite choppy on the way in, so expect that in the the second half. The water was pretty cool and a wetsuit was a nice thing to have on! Arizona is pancake flat on the bike with strong, strong headwinds. Last year we did three city loops so we had the wind three times, I think they are changing the bike course for next year, is that correct? If so , expect strong tailwind on the way out and strong! headwind on the way in.

The run was also challenging but very interesting and pretty. There were many surface changes throughout, one mile on pavement, one mile on trail, 1/4 mile on sand, etc….it seemed to be changing quite often but I really enjoyed the run. Not quite as undulating as Canada but several steep short climbs that can hurt, espcially on the second go around. There is enough trail though so your legs stay relatively fresh feeling through the first loop.

In general, I really enjoyed the course and if they do change the bike course, it will be even more fun.

I hope this info helps, I will see you out there! I am competing next year as well.