I drove with some friends to Lawrence KS for the 5150 last Sunday. Everything seemed to be going well; I had some chocolate cheerios and Veronica (girl I rode with) had made some freakin awesome chocolate chip banana bread. Well then about an hour out of Lawrence we got caught in a huge wreck on I70 that backed up traffic in both directions--and when we finally got through that...the car broke down...literally right next to the wreck. So here we are on the side of the road on Friday evening. Any tow trucks still on duty are picking up the pieces of this big ass car wreck next to us, not to mention the fact that their '3 hour estimate' doesnt take into account the fact that traffic is backed up each way.
After nearly sweating to death on the side of the road, running out of water, and contemplating drinking my own urine (or worse, that can of coconut water), I was rescued by Michelle and Jeanni who were driving to the race too and were behind us. Will and Veronica voted me off the island so I got the free ride to Lawrence...but Will and V got the last laugh... we got stuck in more traffic (another accident) and they got to a hotel in Tulsa (where the car got fixed) long before we got in.
Naturally it was graduation weekend in Lawrence (University of Kansas) so every hotel was booked to the max and we were in the circa 1946 Rodeway Inn. I had to switch rooms twice (because in one the carpet was soaked and the second the tv didnt work); I was worried about the roof collapsing, but when I saw they had a Disney channel I was quickly distracted by Madagascar3 which is flippin incredible! btw.
Ok, so anyway, got some sleep and biked all over town with friend and fellow pro Jeanni and met up with the others for some pre-race swimming in the lake. (Unfortunately, not nude).
Chilled out and watched Shark Tale on that disney channel (also awesome) and my roommates finally made it with a fixed car!
They were tired so we went to pick up some pizza (to keep it easy) and whoda thought, there was Rudy's pizza shop! Unfortunately the pizza wasnt that good but I still packed down a whole large one.
So race day basically sucked. It was like a Kansas hurricane/tornado/disaster. Lightning was forking out of the sky and it was raining sideways and freezing cold. The race was delayed 30minutes and the swim was cancelled (which ok this was about the most annoying thing that cold have happened; I mean I have been working on my swim all winter and I just wanted to see if I could make the front pack. Denied.) The bike was a TT start and I got a flat like a minute before we were supposed to start. The bike support guys had peaced out about 30min before because of the weather and I was about ready to just accept the weekend as a total failure, but friend Michelle had just decided to not start and she loaned me her wheel just in the nick of time! Back in business I went off. There were only 15second gaps between the pros (way too small)...blah blah blah...groups formed pretty quickly, but I was towards the front and was able to hold off the main group of guys until the run (hilly tough course btw). I ran fine (it got hot and sunny towards the end actually) and finished 4th. Meh, cant complain; the race was 'fine' but nothing special. Here is the guys podium. Pretty nice day by the end, right?
After that I ate a loaf of bread and a 16oz container of cottage cheese (the rudy special) and we drove back to Boulder without the car breaking down (thank you baby jesus).
I am really excited to finally swim in a race! Maybe this weekend at 5150 New Orleans? Didnt have too wait long...
Rudy
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