Since I don't have a sponsor and have to pay 100% of my own expenses for races, gear, and travel, I knew I needed to convince my husband that this trip to St. Louis would be a fun vacation. Fortunately my husband hasn't yet realized that all our vacations have something to do with me racing....
...like that week we spent in Boston in 2009 (when I ran the Boston Marathon)
....or that romantic weekend we spent in Door County Wisconsin for our 5 year wedding anniversary (where I completed my first half ironman)
Since St. Louis is a 9 hour drive from St. Paul, we decided to split up the drive with a stop at my parents house in Cedar Rapids, IA. I managed to finagle my way out of a late afternoon meeting at work on Thursday and Husband and I were able to hit the road by 6pm. We spent a whopping 11 hours in Cedar Rapids (sorry Mom and Dad!) and continued our way to St. Louis on Friday morning.
We arrived at the race site with no time to spare. I immediately grabbed my bike and headed out to warm-up.
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| Unloading the car at LaFayette Park. |
Unfortunately, there was really no place to warm-up on the streets around LaFayette Park. Next time I'll be sure to warm-up on the trainer! The good part of my warm-up was running into Rebekah D. from Nebraska who I met when we raced in Clear Lake, IA in July. We warmed up together until she turned off to head back to the park and I set off to do a couple more efforts. This was the point where I got my zillionth flat of the season. I have been plagued with rear wheel flats all fricking year. I think this was flat #11 or 12. I've changed the tires, I've changed the tubes. I've done everything except admit the issue is the rim. I checked out the damage from today's flats and have concluded the wheel is definitely done. Time to get some new wheels!!
I was good mile away from the park, not entirely positive how to get back, it was 3:55, and my race was to start at 4:15. Complete panic set in. I did not have my cell phone to call my husband. I ran down the block, only to find it was not the street that would take me back across the bridge and to the park. Instead, I waved down a car to ask for directions. The guy had a general idea where the park was and as he was giving me directions, I decided I was too pressed for time to listen.
"Can you give me a ride to the park?" I asked as I was assessing the leather interior of his small car and wondering how I was going to shove my bike into his back seat. Only then did I realize he had a bike rack on the back of his car! Thank you, God! I threw my bike on his bike rack, jumped in this complete stranger's car, and got a ride back to the park.
Thank you, Brad from St. Louis, for completely ignoring everything you've ever learned about stranger danger and giving me and my bike a ride back to LaFayette Park!
I ran the 1/2 mile around the park until I found my husband, switched out my rear tire and then was extremely thankful that the men's 4/5 race was running behind schedule. I had about 20 minutes to gain my composure as much as possible before we were called to the start line.
The race:
As usual, I was not warmed enough and spent the first 4-5 laps hanging out in very back of the pack. I was thankful no one made any big moves in the first few laps because my body was not ready to react. On the first prime, I used the lap to move up to the front of the field. Since the course was completely flat and wide open, I moved up on the outside. We could easily go 4-5 wide around the corners. I was in good position on corner 4 and sprinted for the prime, but quickly realized I was not in good enough position. I sat up and crossed the line in 3rd. We had a group of 4 off the front a tiny ways. No one was interested in taking advantage of that gap, and I'm definitely not aggressive enough to make it happen on my own, so we let the field catch back up to us.
On the 2nd prime, I took the same approach. I used the lap to work my way to the front, pulled through corner 2, tucked in for corners 3 and 4 and then sprinted up the outside for the prime. I thought I had it, but Rebekah took me at the line. I knew I hadn't given 100%, so I'm OK with losing the prime. I'm happy Rebekah was able to win it as she has improved tremendously since the last time I raced against her. She definitely deserved the money.
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| The sprint for prime #2 at LaFayette Park. |
Before I knew it, we had 5 laps left. The laps went quickly and, as usual, came down to the final sprint. I wasn't in perfect position coming around corner 4, but sprinted with everything I had and was able to pass 2 girls on the home stretch. I finished 10th in a field of 36 which is exactly where I wanted to finish.
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| Race #1 complete! |
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