Little Miss Runner Pants

ok first of all, yes. this is one of the most horrible pictures of me known to man.

i'm sorry but WHAT is going on with my hair? that's sticking out of my helmet? what is that?

and honestly... is THAT what my "be tough" face actually looks like? r-e-a-l-l-y!?

the above pic was taken out in lawrence this weekend at the IMKS 70.3 recon event put on by ENDURAcamps. at the time of the pic i'd been riding for about 1:30 and had just mouthed off to ProTriGuy... schloeggggggs!!! as i like to call him... about how he was showing off his mad bike skills by leaving me in his dust.

being the fun guy that he his, he turned around, had us make a "tough guy face" at the camera, and rode with me for a while.

quite clearly i couldn't stop laughing as i'm pretty sure i'm capable of looking tougher than that.

but ya never know.

AN-Y-WAY.
the day was a good one.

i arrived about an hour later than i'd hoped to and drove up to a completely full parking lot. from what i heard, there were over 100 athletes out there, so i definitely had those nervous-excited butterflies that you get when you roll up to an event like that.

it was AWESOME!

everyone was walking around, getting their bikes out, changing and re-changing clothes as the temperature rose.. i saw people i haven't seen in MONTHS because of the cold weather and it really felt like a homecoming of sorts, and the best ever way to start off the holy shit its finally warm enough to ride outside tri-season!

but m'kay. let's talk 70.3 bike course, shall we?! as i know that's what peeps wanna hear.

mostly, it can be summed up as... i dunno...

exhausting.

let me first tell you the negatives.

1.) no shade. none what-so-ever. absolutely zero.
2.) no matter what its gunna be windy, b/c youre biking over a lake at points. so... just be ready.
3.) half the hills appear out of nowhere. you're going across water and then BAM. flat and then BAM.

(either that or i was just really tired, so i felt like there was no prep. which is a definite possibility.)

now for the positives
1.) because everything is out and back, every hill you go UP, you will at some point go DOWN.
2.) um......

OH! i thought of one.

2.) because everything is out and back, you get to see people over and over and over. which is kinda fun.

(unless its over and over because they're that far ahead of you.. but still.)

so basically from what i can remember....

section one...
(from transition you get to the blue dot and turn right..)

BAM hill.
aaaaaaaaaawesome downhil.
sucky windy bridge over water.
BAM hill.
rollers.
good god will this never end?
turn around do it all in reverse.

section two...
(back to blue dot, turn right)
la-la-la.. not bad.
rollers.
la-la-la..
rollers.
turn around do it in reverse.

by FAR the best section.

section three
(back to intersection, turn right... )

ummm... this is where ProTriGuy decided to ride with me.
i was dying for breath, at my lactic threshold, not really thinking i could make it another mile...
and he was all... yadda-yadda-yadda-barely breaking a sweat-yadda.

i mean COME ON!!!

we then got to the hill and he shot off like a rocket and i crawled to a snails pace.

this section goes like this..

@$%&$!
fuck me two times.
weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! down a huge hill.
immediately followed by the realization you're gunna have to go up it.
SHIT!
turn around, do it all in reverse.

but double the @#%$, cuz now you're more tired.

section four
(blue dot back to transition)

seriously longer than you remember it being coming out of transition. thats all i have to say about that.

and that's it!

its gunna be a HARD ass day, but having now ridden the entire course... i have good feelings about this.

scary, nervous, overwhelming feelings...

but good ones none-the-less.

so there ya go.