The Boulder son of a Peak

Yeah so Sunday was the Boulder Peak.  My arch nemesis.  You might say Rudy, but its your hometown race.  Yeah but there is no oxygen here.  Or humidity.  My favorite things.

For some reason I never feel like I race well at altitude (or maybe its just that everyone is really fast?) Maybe both.  Anyway, I felt like I had a good swim staying on some guys feet, but it wasnt really that good, I was like 2 min behind the leaders (ie TO)!!  Holy smokes.  The bike goes up over old stage (a huge climb right at the beginning) and I kept it strong over the top but heard someone yell that I was 4! min down to the leaders at the top (this is like mile 6 of the bike...).  Yikes.  The run felt solid, I held it together pretty good I thought and ran like 36 something which isnt terrible at altitude either. I ended up finishing 13, which is kinda meh.  In all reality, I had a great race for me, probably my best Boulder Peak (of the 3 I have done), but I still feel pretty mediocre at the end.  I guess I have to go down to low altitude and redeem myself!  (its probably all mental anyway). 

Photos courtesy of Jess Broderick (pro triathlete and teammate on OTFM who was there to watch, and Andrijan Smaic who was snapping away at the race.

Oh well.  I did have a super fun weekend last weekend traveling back to Charlottesville VA to see my friends Todd and Amara get married at the UVA chapel!  I hadnt been back since graduating in 2010 but dont worry, it is still beautiful.  And the humidity was so fantastic.

Plus, I flew into DC to meet Mike, my good friend from undergrad.  We got to spend Saturday catching up. It was a productive weekend, though it didnt include much training.

Next up is Giant Eagle Tri in Columbus OH, which for some reason I thought was 3x weeks away but is actually only 2.  Goodness gracious, triathlon is so demanding!  Its like a bad girlfriend.  Where has the time gone?  Plus its summer and I thought school would lighten up.  Eeeh, wrong guess.

Rudy

Over the hill?...and far away to the show me state

June 20th.  The date of my birth.  Kinda feels like a long time ago...I always call my mom on my birthday and thank her for birthing me and for those 9 months of carrying me around (which were just the beginning I guess).  After telling her that I "felt kinda old-ish" she proclaimed in her infinite wisdom, "Old as the hills."  Ok, true.  I guess I am not really that old.  But my car insurance did go down, whoot!  Ten years gone.  I've decided that 25 feels about right actually. 

Besides that, its been a pretty eventful month of June since the engineering conference, I definitely cant complain.  Ginna's parents were here for a weekend and treated us like kings taking us to dinner, brunch, a Rockies game etc.

We also took a trip down to Red Rocks Amphitheater in Golden CO to watch a Tuesday night movie: Wet, Hot, American Summer.  Though Nate wasnt impressed...

I had to share this one too...haha. I am sorry to say, I didnt respond to Twan (whoever he is).  I guess phone scams are the new junk e-mail.  I think that area code is Charlottesville VA?

------------#Boulder---------------
For those of you who dont follow me on the tweeter @RudyKahsar, you should! Its a surfeit of mindless entertainment.  Here is a little taste from the last month:

Typical bike to work...hipster with his dog on board

View from the top of Deer Trail Rd off of Lee Hill

Hike to the top of Green Mountain (9k mountain right on the edge of Boulder)

And finally, the St Louis 5150: (this is where the blog gets short and boring-er)

Trampled Underfoot: (is anyone catching these references?) I met a bunch of people at the airport heading out to St Louis.  A nice guy, Steve whose daughter does youth triathlon and is coming to Hy-Vee (fans for Rudy = 1 and counting), a guy from Tennessee who plays in a bluegrass band and actually pronounced America 'Murica, and a pretty awesome girl from Jackson Hole, plus 2x others.  For some reason, I think because I am finally not stressed out about school, I took the time to talk to some random strangers at the airport and not only got to meet them but got like 4x phone numbers (ok, ok, it was only 1).  Still.  Statistical anomaly.  In times like this, it becomes brutally obvious how school year stress really puts me in a cave. 

Eventually, I got to St Louis.  The humidity was a bit of a letdown (I wasnt even sweating); however, the homestay was not.  Scott and Lauren were fabulous, the day before driving me all around and taking me out to pizza!  I ate that one in front.  Its was flippin delicious.  Kinda cornmeal crust.  It was a bit of a mistake to eat the whole thing because it definitely didnt digest by Saturday morning...gastrointestinal calamity ensued...

But whatever, it was worth it, it was delicious.

I felt pretty good for the race, I thought.  Here is the mens start.  The race director had been talking about his starting cannon, yes cannon, all morning over the PA and almost wet his pants when he finally got to shoot it off to start us.  I swam like crazy to stay with the leaders to 750m but got dunked and lost them just like that (insert snapping fingers).  I kept the pace hard and led group 2 out of the water 30-40 seconds back.

The bike felt awful, false flats and constant wind (and I am pretty sure my brakes were rubbing :) ).  David Thompson rolled past me at mile 1 and pulled away but I managed to drag him back on the back half of the course and at about mile 22 we ended up catching the 2x guys up the road from their fast swim.  The 4 of us went to T2 together, my first pro race entering T2 with the leaders!

I had crushed myself on the first 2x legs...hence crushing my legs.  And the run was tough.  Greg Billington (who was in our group of 4) rocketed out of T2 never to be seen again.  I continued strong only about 10 seconds behind David but the downhills killed me.  I took them slow trying not to aggravate my feet which are really my one source of injury (plantar fasciitis).  Sure enough, on a downhill at mile 4 Kaleb VanOrt came blowing by me and ended running himself to 2nd.  I ended up hanging on to 4th.

 My 3rd 4th of the year.  One of these times a podium is gonna happen, but I have seen the light! The cup is raised.  Here is Greg giving a pretty hilarious victory speech.

Shout out to my boy Jake Shoemaker (OTFM teammate)who raced like a champ with a duct taped race suit.  If someone would just put that kid on a bike he would probably make people quit triathlon because he runs and swims like a beast.

Closing remarks: Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream. I am a traveler in both time and space, to be where I have been...get it?

Rudy