First, a quick wrap-up of my racing season from the summer aquathlons to the end. I went on to do relay the Hummingbird Tri. I did the run leg. Imagine that, me being responsible for running fast. Ha! Anyway, this was a small friendly race. I enjoyed spending the morning with my friends down in Sierra Vista and plan to do the race again. The pool swim was a little chaotic and I understand the ride was challenging because the second half is totally up hill. Fun.
The run course was fast and flat. It was an out and back run with the loop for about a mile. Oh, almost forgot that I injured my lower back on Thursday and the race was on Saturday. I could barely move. Sitting and laying down were incredibly painful. Standing didn't feel too terrible and running was actually manageable. Against all sorts of common sense I loaded up on ibuprofen and threw caution to the wind. I managed to PR my 3 mile time with a 29:02 finish. It was awesome!!
Let's see. Between August 20 and October 30 I must have done something. Yep, on Sept. 17 I ran a 10k. I was slower than I would have liked but it was a total last minute decision. I decided at 8 pm on the 16th that I would get up in the morning and race. It is nice to know that my fitness and endurance level allow me to make those kinds of choices. For those 2 months I was also spending all my early Saturday mornning running a hilly 8 mile loop at Saguaro East and I managed to get my cycling distance up to a pretty comfortable 40 miles.
The Tinfoilman Sprint on October 30 was my big race for the year. By about Oct. 1st I was totally ready to race and be done with it. I felt good about all three disciplines even if I knew that my dream time was likely to escape me. The carrot I was chasing was just out of reach. This stoked my competitive nature until it almost made me explode from anxiety. I will try to remember to compete against my own time as much as is reasonable. My swim time had gone stagnant, my run was better than ever and I felt very confident on the bike. Everything fell into place over the month and on race day I was more than ready to go.
I panicked in the swim. My thoughts were out of control, mostly focusing on "I'm not going fast enough!" to "I can't breathe!". Either way, it wasn't good. I believe at 15:02 it was my fastest Tucson Tri series swim by 46 seconds and nearly a minute and a half faster than than my first Tri in 2010. On the bike I just wanted to go as fast as I could and keep my speed above 16 mph but trying to stay closer to 20 mph. I did pretty well. In 2010 my total bike (with transitions) was 51:44. In 2011, I managed to get it all done in 41:12. Nice. Now, onto the run. This run hurt. I pushed so hard on the bike that I felt completely spent. My legs were made of concrete, I swear. I dragged my butt around the course and only started to feel human again after about 2 miles. I was stunned when I finished with a sub 30 3-miles at 29:34. This was a huge improvement over the race in 2010 where I ran the 3 miles in 34:49. All my track work and run focus had paid off. It was an amazing experience. In one year I managed to drop my sprint tri time from 1:43 to 1:25. I surprised myself and the results made all the hard work worth it.
So, the next weekend I was scheduled to race in the Desert Grande Sprint in Casa Grande, AZ. My husband and I had planned a overnight trip and he was going to attempt the duathlon. You can probably tell from the past tense that this does not end well. Back in November of 2010 I was supposed to compete in this same race. One week before the race in 2010 I had a major crash on my bike. I had landed on my arm and rendered it useless for weeks. I had to skip the race. This year I signed up for it because I wanted some redemption. It was less than a week after Tinfoilman so I new everything would have to fall into place for this happen. Alas, it was not meant to be.
The events that upfolded in the week and day leading up to this event might be best summarized with a list.
- I got a flat tire during Tinfoilman and had to replace the tire. No biggie, I got it done on Tuesday. Only problem with this was that I only got to ride on the new tire for about a mile before I needed to pack the bike up. Pinch flat paranoid.
- Weather forecast in the early week is calling for a major storm to move through the area on Friday with chance for serious blowing dust and zero visibility on the highway to Casa Grande. (side note: this stretch of highway has become infamous for major crashes (up to 30 vehicles at a time) and deaths during dust storms). Hmmmm... we'll wait and see.
- Storm forecast does not change but becomes more ominous. We decide that we will leave later in the day because wind seems to calm down after the sun goes down. No, I have no scientific proof of this but it is a good hunch.
- Friday, 1 pm, 4 year old son projectile vomits all over the living room. Uh oh. he seems fine afterwards and I'm hoping that it is just a one time thing. Maybe reflux related??
- Friday, 5 pm, we load up the van and head to my parent's house. They are keeping the kids overnight. The winds are starting to pick up and very ominous threats are being broadcast by the local weather folks.
- Friday, 6 pm, finally leaving my parent's house. Four year old son is not looking great but seems okay. News people are not mixing words. The advice is do not get on the roads unless you absolutely have to. Well, for some reason $150.00 on the race and room makes me feel like I have to. Did mention the temperature is also dropping with this storm? It is.
- Friday, ~ 6:45 pm, husband and I come to the realize that he has left is running shoes at home. Oops. Too late to turn back now. We will find a store to find a new pair. Should have plenty of time.
- This is the point where a wise person would have turned the car around, gone home, crawled into bed and enjoyed the end of racing season. This time, I was dumb.
- Friday, 7:30 pm, we get off the Intertate at our Casa Grande exit. I call to let my parent's know that we made it safe and sound. The winds were strong but we didn't have any trouble with blowing dust. Success. Kids are apparently doing alright.
- Friday, 7:30 pm. I hang up the phone with my mother and look up. The road to our hotel is blocked. We are being turned around and sent in the opposite direction. Our hotel was seriously only about 1/4 mile ahead of us. Looks like a bad car accident but we can't be sure. Luckily, the shopping center we needed to get to was in the same direction the police sent us. Okay, we will go get shoes, eat some dinner and come back. No problem.
- We stopped at Kohl's and bought the husband a decent (i.e. not expensive) pair of running shoes and a Perry the Platypus shirt. We are in a good mood, we survived the ride, got shoes and were on our way to dinner. Next stop, Olive Garden. We ate soup and salad. Oh, right, we had also asked the salesperson at Kohl's if she knew why the road was closed. She very solemnly says, "fatal accident." Mystery solved.
- Somewhere in this mess we called the hotel and asked if there was another way to get into the parking lot. We were told to get to the other side of the accident (driving around the perimeter of town) and tell the police officer that we need to get to the hotel and that someone would escort us through the area. So, it is now going on 9 pm and we get directions from the nice folks at Olive Garden and we head back to the hotel.
- We manage to get around the accident, drive right up to the police officer, tell him our story and he points the flashlight ahead of us, says "road will be closed for another hour." We keep driving. Back to the Olive Garden parking lot we go. It is nearly 10 pm and the winds and dust are picking up. Dust is billowing in front of our car as we go.
- I could have sworn that on the map there was a back road into the hotel lot. We drive looking for said side road only to find that it is a dead end. Yay...
- I call the hotel. I state that we are physically unable to get to the hotel. My hope is that they will release us from our payment and we can drive home. The wind is horrid, the temps are dropping and nothing is working out. We get the best news yet, there is a dirt "road" that can take us to the hotel lot. We head back to find it. It isn't so much a road as a cleared dirt area for future homes. Yep, we were 4 wheelin' in a dust storm in our van. Good times.
- We pull into the hotel parking lot. It is about 10:30 pm. I am not even exaggerating when I say that the police re-opened the road right as we got into the parking lot from the back dirt road. It was crazy.
- We are finally in our hotel. They upgraded our room. All seemed well and we were settling in, I wasn't sure how I was going to sleep after all this chaos. I texted my mom to see if the kids were alright. I get word back that 4 year old son has again vomitted. I am done. It is over. I need to go home. Only problem is that the infamous winds and dust had kicked up. Visibility outside was hovering around zero. Thank goodness we had not turned around sooner but now we were stuck. I felt terrible and stupid. Why did I keep going? How could I leave my sick baby?
- I make the decision that the best thing (only thing) we can do is rest up while the wind is howling and leave as soon as it and the dust lets up. I'm hoping it will be a couple of hours at most. I struggle to sleep but drifted off.
- Saturday, 12:15 am. FIRE ALARM!! Startled out of bed by the hotel fire alarm blaring. Scramble to find real clothes and essentials and get the heck out of the room. Managed in our rush out the door to leave the room key behind. Not even phased by this, just seems like that is what was supposed to happen on this doomed trip. I am stunned by the number of people who will ignore a fire alarm. People would pop their head out their door and say something like, "I'm not leaving." I wouldn't take my chances and be that person that some firefighter has to risk their life to save. Good grief, just put on some pants and find the stairs! Anway... we get down to the first floor and it is so full of dust particulate that it looks smokey. The fire alarm had been tripped by the dust. People standing around the lobby looked frazzled and we nearly witnessed a fight between two men about leaving the door open. We were all tired and trapped. Got a new key made and headed back to our room.
- Saturday, 12:30 am. The wind is still howling and we can't even see the parking lot from our window. I don't even bother to change out of my clothes since I'm not sure the alarm isn't going to blare again and I am just ready to go home. We watched the weather channel and infomercials for another hour or so and then fell back to sleep. The downpour of rain had arrived by this time but the winds were still crazy.
- Saturday, 5:45 am. I woke up. I went straight to the window to see that the storm had passed. I started packing our stuff up and woke up my husband. We were on our way home by 6:15 am.
Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.
~Michael Burke
