totals, and a trip report! (which includes RCT '08 report)
July totals, not good, but certainly not bad, considering:
Bike:15h 17m 30s - 220 MiRun:4h 26m 57s - 20 MiSwim:7h 51m 36s - 13550 YdStrength:1 h 15m
Trip photos here
RCT ’08 - the 3 “R’”s
Rockin’, Racin’ and Representin’ (TriZones, that is)
Rockin’ and Racin’ was the motto of the 28th annual River Cities Triathlon near Shreveport, LA
This well-known race almost always sells out within 3 hours of opening online-registration on 1 June at 6 am every year. Strangely, this year, although I and several others got up at 5:30 and registered early, the race actually did not sell out. There were still open slots up till the week (or maybe the day before) the race. Genny could confirm that for us
I first heard about this event shortly after I did my first triathlon, Danskin 2004. I was already addicted to the triathlon lifestyle by then and I remember sitting in one of the first few TriZones training sessions after a Mansfield Dam open water swim and seeing all the schwag that Dena, Katie, Genny, Lynn, Tracy, Lee and whoever else from TZ did this event brought to the workout. That year the theme was superheroes. I secretly vowed to wake at 5:30am on 1 June, 2005. Remember, at that time I’d done exactly ONE triathlon.
Sure enough, I woke at 5:30 on 6/1/05 and registered for RCT. What I didn’t know was that it’s way harder to get a hotel room than even getting into the race! I finally made a reservation at Shoney’s which was where NOBODY else from TriZones was staying.. at least I had somewhere to stay and it was close to Holiday Inn. As race day approached, Denise’s Holiday Inn roommate Susan could not make it so I canceled my reservation at Shoney’s and roomed with Denise. Yay! I was part of the “group”. I found out that this race sells out quickly for a reason. The goody bag is beyond description. I still use my yellow RCT25 (the one from 2005) tri-bag as my transition bag and judging from this past weekend, I have lots of company.
Okay, so I did RCT2005 and had a blast with the TZ team. And I did the same thing in 2006 and had a blast. In 2005 and 2006, I drove up on Saturday and only stayed in Shreveport/Bossier one night (Tiring!!) And last year I convinced my boyfriend to join me so we did the two night stay. This year, I reserved my Holiday Inn room in mid-May. That way I didn’t have to worry and I got signed up for the tri at like 6:02am on 6/1. To my surprise, Steve said he’d go with me again this year.
Now, I’ve not had the best triathlon season this year. Thought it was a pulled hammy, turns out to be s-I joint issues, pt every week and a tri nearly every weekend. Oh, and the long-term goal is longhorn 70.3. Then after I turn 50 in Sept, train for the 2009 MARATHON. In May, I did Skees Greets, in June I did Danskin, in July I did Couples AND Marble Falls and here I am about to do my 4th RiverCities Tri. I’ve met Coach Cindy for swimming/biking/running several times and it really helped me mentally to do “speed work” on the swim. A couple of Splash n Dash’s also helped. Here we go to RCT ’08, with the lean and mean TriZones Crew….
Steve and I left my house just about 10am Friday. Since he has the mid-life crisis car (PT cruiser convertible), I had to buy a bag to put my bike in at Performance Bike which requires removing both wheels. There ain’t much room for luggage.. and I packed light since I knew I’d be bringing back some sort of storage bag along with at least two shirts and other assorted schwag. I brought the old faithful RCT05 bag for my actual tri-bag and last years convertible gymbag/backpack for general clothing/toiletry packing. I apologize, I haven’t taken a pic of this year’s schwag yet. On the way out, we went through Corsicana but since we weren’t carpooling/caravaning, didn’t stop at Cotton Patch. We drove thru Wendy’s to get lunch and proceeded onto Palestine and Rusk. Steve and his roadsideamerica.com research….. so we went to Rusk State hospital (which used to be a penitentiary, and still has shackles on the wall in the basement/dungeon), walked around a little, saw historic sites, took pix and got outta there.
Steve’s Treo/GPS started acting weird. Well, guess what? I had the $4 Walmart US Atlas that I bought for us when we went to visit my family in 2006. Fills in quite nicely (The original “Redneck GPS”)… We knew we wanted to go to Carthage and hit the Tex Ritter Texas Country Music Hall of Fame museum, but it closed at 4. Steve drove on two lane country roads like a madman (well, actually he drove like his normal self, except he didn’t get a speeding ticket) till we got there. We made it, and cruised the giftshop, then went through the museum itself. I forgot to mention.. it was REALLY FREAKING HOT!!!!!!!!!!!! He got a shirt and postcards from the museum, which had some interesting stuff in it. We asked why there wasn’t any Ray Price stuff there and they said, “well, he hasn’t given us anything yet”.
After Carthage, we intended to head to Marshall and/or Jefferson. We also knew we wanted to end up near Caddo Lake (The only “natural” lake in Texas) and Uncertain, Texas. Yes, that’s really the town’s name. There was supposed to be some attractions in Marshall and Jefferson but with the Treo acting up, we didn’t have details.. There was a shell station which afforded a restroom break and we used it. so we followed signs to Uncertain, TX, to the photo op spot, which had a few brochures. I noticed there was one that mentioned a couple of sites I wanted to see nearby.
It mentioned 13510 fm134, the childhood home of one Claudia Alta Taylor. Well, how can you not stop and take pictures of LadyBird’s first home? So we did. It’s a Harrison Co historical site. the Uncertain brochure also mentioned the grave of Huddie Ledbetter (aka “LeadBelly”) whose grave was supposedly on the Blanchard-Latex road. Okay, I wondered what the hell gave it the name latex, when my brilliant tech writer boyfriend said: “Louisiana-Texas border……….. La-Tex!” D’oh!!!!!!!! We started seeing lightning flashing the sky then and a few drops (and a rainbow!). I got out first at Shiloh Baptist church/cemetery and headed out toward the iron-fenced affair. I soon heard “whimper, whimper”… turned to see a really little, scrawny doggie that appeared so sad…… where did he come from? There were no houses close. And as I’m allergic, I just talked to him while I searched for LeadBellys’ grave, which I found (as evidenced by pix). Steve actually petted him (he has no clue for how it will affect me later on, which is why I always carry wetwipes…….) and the doggie had a massive tick on his back. He was wearing a flea collar but it looked very old and obviously didn’t work, hence the ½ inch tick sucking on his back!!!!!!!I took a couple other Louisiana grave pix and we headed for the next thing on the brochure- the historic drawbridge across Caddo Lake at Mooringsport.
We got there, but the actual bridge doesn’t operate anymore. We drove alongside it. Then we got on “1” to Shreveport/Benton Rd. Looking in his half-working GPS system for “Cajun” places. We drove ALL OVER till we finally landed at Gator’s which was 1) expensive and 2) had very lightweight drinks…….. We had “gator toes” for appetizers. Steve had a grilled fish and I had fried catfish. We went and checked into the Holiday Inn. Thank goodness I brought real wine..
Sat morning I went and used the HI recumbent bike for 15 min and the elliptical for 15 min. Cleaned up, went to the “24 hr restaurant” across from HI for brunch and set out for the day. Went to packet pickup and ran into Jimmy so said hello, went in and got packet. Got numbers then headed to the “attractions” we wanted to hit. Drove to Clyde Fant pkwy but the Red River boat cruise was closed. We did see the metal roses and water park down there though, that was cool. We went to Bass Pro Shops (near the board walk) to see gators, then headed off to Jonesville.
T.C. Lindsey. Very old General Store. No A/C. Had a very nice (Sit down in the rocker next to worker) conversation. Steve got a tshirt, I bought a book outlining some historic general stores and a COLD IBC rootbeer. They had Dublin Dr. Pepper out there. I asked how they got it and they seemed kind of clueless. I guess they don’t know the mysteries of the Imperial sugar Dr. Pepper v. the Waco High Fructose Corn Syrup Dr. Pepper……….. but all in all, it was like talking to your neighbor. Very friendly. This site has been in several movie shoots.
They had a can that proclaimed “dehydrated water”. Apparently, someone from a famous magazine came and photographed that can in the past, and a motocycle club came into town and one of them tried to buy it. Well, Charlie, it ain’t for sale.. waaah!!
All right, I’m on page 3 and haven’t gotten to the race yet..
We drove up to Jefferson which was supposed to have some kind of historic value. We drove around, I got kind of miffed (no convenience store with Gatorade!) but we did finally find the private railcar, then the steam railroad. We arrived at 2:40, 10 min after the train took off, and the railcar tours were full, so we went to the texas café. Edible, not incredible. Then to Brookshire Bro grocery store for food/fruit and CASH..
Went back to tour the railcar, they’d closed for the day. Went and got $10 tix for the steam train. What a disappointment. Tour started at 4:30, took 50 min (didn’t even see Caddo lake), we then had to drive back into Shreveport and given how early I had to get up, talked sweetie pie into going to Dinner at the new Monjuni’s on Airline. We only had to wait about 10 min and then I got my $9.25 spaghetti w/one meatball (and side ceasar salad for 2.99). Truly you have to split these plates. Their servings are TOO HUGE. If you go to RCT next year, find someone to split your dinner. I’m serious. You can’t possibly eat that much. Next year if Steve goes, I’ll split the penne with him. Here’s the menu: http://www.monjunis.com/
BTW: for RCT vets!!!!!! The “usual Monjuni’s” that we went to on Benton Rd. is gone. They’ve built a bypass for Benton Rd. (refer to Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy-bypasses have to be built) that veers west of the old location that had the garden hose on the roof. So the new location is on Airline at “Airline Center” (I think), not too far and pretty nice/modern and looks like the old location (red/white tablecloth, etc). We had VERY EFFICIENT service there.
Since Steve had to take me out to the site on race day, we decided to stop by the book store on the way back to our room after dinner. I got Cormack McCarthy’s “no country for old men”.. Steve got some stuff including a George Carlin book. We went back to our room, I packed, then read for a while and called BlondePam. Done by 9:45.. he’s over there reading, I’m in my bed, reading….
Somehow we mutually agree to the lights out. I, of course being menopausal, lay there awake till 12:30. I do eventually go to sleep cause I have that stupid dream. The one where you think you’re going to be late to the triathlon.. and you wonder, AM I ASLEEP????? Looked at clock. 3:45.. but this clock is an hour ahead… ugh.. calculation- 2 hours. Okay. 2 hours of sleep is good.. 4 would be better.. so I tossed & turned and most likely did not ever get back to sleep. I was relieved (again) when the alarm went off at 5:15 and a min later the phone rang with the wakeup call. I’d really like to get more sleep but it’s actually kind of cool if you don’t get more than 4 hours sleep and you’re not stiff when you get up.
Dressed in my (now ragged/threadbare) TriZones Go-Fast suit and headed to lobby to toast my English muffin. For the past two years, the lady who is at the breakfast station brings her own personal toaster and her kid wears his IronFish t-shirt. I have to admire this. They got up early the previous day and that kid did a triathlon and is over there schlepping water for us on Sunday. Good on ya! I made my breakfast and ate it, filled my travel mug with coffee, went back to the room and told cutie pie at 6:05 “We gotta go”.
So off we go onto Benton Rd to McDonald’s so Steve can get his breakfast. He pays. He starts to get back on Benton.. I stop him, “don’t you need to wait till your food comes out?”
Backs up to window to get food. Mutters something about it being way too freakin’ early to be out of bed..
We head out and turn right at Fred’s. I love knowing to turn at Fred’s. Cause there was no sign this year indicating to turn there!!
After turning left onto Airline and right onto Linton, We get in line into the park. Many many people behind us!!!!! As we get ready to park, BlondePam, heading to transition with her stuff, sees me waving and acknowledges us.
Park. Assemble bike. Pump tires. Put on water/eload bottles. Load up backpack. Boyfriend notices that the whole reason for going to the bookstore had fizzed. Somehow the book didn’t make it this morning.. but the sling chair and hotel pillow DID.. I had no trouble racking my bike-THIS year I grabbed an official to make sure I had the “downwheel” on the side which contained my number (425). I brought along the orange bandana that Shayla gave us last year, to mark my bike position on the rack. We had received beach towels in our goody bags and many people were using them! All spread out! This event is famous for not having much rack space. Apparently these people with their new towels laid out a) never heard Coach Tracy’s talk about using an old ugly bath towel such as you’d take to your college dorm room and b) are new to this event because they’d never take up that much space if they were experienced.
After getting transition organized I put on the 99cent flipflops and went to get body marked. There was a guy at the back with no waiting so I headed over toward him. Except I wasn’t looking at the ground and twisted my right ankle in a pothole right in front of him. Uh… I must have been his first customer of the day because if it were me, I’d warn people “look out for the pothole right there”. MAN, that hurt!! He asked if I was okay and I said, “no”. But what are you gonna do? I turned around and presented my left calf for age and said, “50”. He replied, “oh, we’re not doing that”. Well, why not? The race booklet said they were. I should have grabbed his marker and put it on myself. But nobody else had their age on their leg, either.. whatever!! Went back to my transition spot and sprayed on the sunscreen, ditched flipflops, did a last mental check, grabbed cap, goggles and water to go say hi to BlondePam and Kari. We all left transition and I got in the bathroom line. Went down to start of race and noticed my right foot REALLY hurt, just walking through the sand. Great. I have a pulled left hamstring, a sprained right ankle and my foot hurts. So I did some light stretching and stayed in the shade. No way was I gonna go down there and stand in the sun to watch the start.
By gosh I got through that 8:36am start of Kelly green caps. I completely forgot I was in the 50+ age group (no wonder it was a small wave). I applied Coach Susan’s advice: “take 25 strokes at the beginning, before you try sighting” and it worked out! I didn’t feel the need to pop up with breaststroke, but one lady behind me (behind me? Me?? Ahead of someone in the swim??) seemed like she was trying to tackle me so I did pop up and look around. I realized we were swimming to the right. We were headed for the far middle buoy that marks the backside of the course, but we were supposed to be heading for the orange buoy that hid the far left yellow buoy. I wondered why the kayaker didn’t yell at us.. maybe with Kelly green caps, they couldn’t see us?? Anyway, for the reading enjoyment of last year’s RCT participants, the hissing in the water was there again. I didn’t notice it after I made the first turn, though. And I’m happy to report that the course-correcting was the ONLY BREASTROKE I DID !!!! woo hoo!! I still haven’t looked at my splits online because despite everything, I did have a good race and don’t want to spoil the feeling by looking up the official times. Looked for race clock at swim exit but didn’t see it. Did see the guy who came out just ahead of me, doubled over. Not sure why - cramps? So I ran past him and on into transition. Hey, my foot wasn’t hurting! Hooray! Didn’t realize it at the time but Steve said he got a shot of me after I got out of the water.
Ditched cap and goggles, put on helmet & sunglasses, sucked down gu & water, put on socks and bike shoes and headed out to mount line. Yeeeehaw!! I passed lots of people on the bike and they all stayed behind me. Except for that one woman who I played leapfrog with at the end. I guess I don’t know what my “race pace” is. Last time I was on the bike was the 63 mile longhorn ride and I forgot it’s only 18 miles at RCT, I could have sprinted a little… oh well. As we turned right back onto Linton at the Country Corner, the volunteer said, “Watch that car right there”. The sheriff had this car stopped and was yelling at the driver, “WHEN YOU SEE FLASHING RED LIGHTS, YOU DARN WELL BETTER STOP! YOU MIGHT KILL SOMEBODY!”.. whoops.. the woman passed me again. I passed her again. She passed me again and by then we had less than a mile to go, so I just took it easy knowing there was a little uphill to get into the park. Dismount, smile for the camera and into T2.
Off with the helmet and bike shoes, racked bike, grabbed a swig of water, put on run shoes and grabbed race belt & hat to head out on run. Surprisingly, it didn’t suck all that bad. I just have to take short strides to keep the pain at a minimum. Seemed like I was cruising along pretty well, and before long I saw people who had been ahead of me stop to walk. NOT ME!! WOOHOO! I guess Jimmy & Pam had already been through the “back” part of the out-n-back before I got there.. oh well. I did see Kari though and I walked just long enough to grab/drink/splash water. Before I knew it, there was the 1 mile marker and the race clock. I took a cold iced towel at the next stop but I think I just put it around my neck and kept running.. Then, again surprisingly, there was the turnaround already!! Am I really halfway done with the run?? I hardly hurt at all! I used the same strategy as I’ve used at Danskin, Couples & Marble Falls - dump water under my cap at each waterstop cause it aint’ worth getting overheated for. At the mist stations, I just stopped, took off my sunglasses and turned my face up to the spray! Somewhere on the road I heard, “go trizones!” and looked up to see a woman wearing TriZones shorts. Sorry, I didn’t know/remember your name! I had a cup with ice in my left hand so I think I grunted woohoo or something. I didn’t have the presence of mind to do a high-five then.. Soon enough we were on that little dirt trail with a slight uphill back to the paved road. I passed a couple of ladies who were walking. About half a mile from the finish, my RIGHT hamstring started feeling tight. OH NO!! I’m so close… I was near some curbing so I stretched it out a little and started back out slowly. Pretty soon I’m flying down the approach to the finish line, hear Dave call my name, notice Steve off to the right so I smile for the camera, then get a high five from Dave, collect my medal and bottle of water.
Whoo hoo! 4th RCT done, and it wasn’t too awful. I kept thinking it didn’t seem as hot as before, but I said that about MFT also. I think maybe I’m just getting used to working out in 100 degree heat. I headed for the beerline, Pam came by and we chatted a bit, and while still in line, heard someone say, “They’re out of cups”. Wha?? Did these people also attend Urban Assault Ride? But again, there was a guy behind me in line with 3 empty cups and I unabashedly asked if he’d let me have one of them. He didn’t respond. When we got up there and I had to use my waterbottle to try and get the foamy beer from the tap, I heard him say to another guy, here I got a spare cup. So I turned around and said, “so you have one for that guy but you couldn’t spare one for me?” that’s weird.. but not as weird as being in two events this year that did not run out of beer, but ran out of cups……….. I took my foamy “beer” (it came from the millerlite tap, not the Michelob I wanted) and went to get my stuff from transition. I started walking toward the finish line and heard my phone ring. Steve had camped at a picnic table under a tree so I found him and we made our way back to the car.
Back at HI, once again our keycards didn’t work after noon. They had also come by and opened the curtains, which I didn’t appreciate because much of our stuff was sitting there in view of whoever walked by. I went to get the card reactivated so we could get in and take showers. We checked out, then went for lunch at TaMolly’s. I noticed it while we were looking for Cajun food Friday night and have only eaten at the one in Paris, Texas. Went to use the ladies room and there was another lady in there wearing her green race tech shirt - she said, “nice shirt!” and I told her the same. The food was good, but I was also hoping for a real margarita - I didn’t realize they don’t serve alcohol. Just as well, I’d probably have slept on the way home.. As we went to pay the bill, the other RCT lady and her family were behind us. The hubby and Steve exchanged some kind of familiar looks like they knew how crazy these women are to do triathlons. He said his wife got into them when she turned 50 - I told him I can relate, I’ll be 50 next month!
We headed back toward Jefferson by going back up to Karnack and heading up 134. I can’t remember why Steve wanted to go back up there, but there must have been some photos to take.. got back on I-20 and intended to exit at Canton on 19. I noticed Pam had called me, I imagine to let us know that there was a traffic bottleneck. We figured it out.. Stopped and took a few pix in Athens, again in Malakoff, drove all around Trinidad (took a few more pix) trying to find the high school only to find out they may not have a high school next year (they had a good 6-man football team), few more pix in Hubbard then we got back on I-35 to head home. Looooong but fun weekend. Now I can go look up my stats.
Bike:15h 17m 30s - 220 MiRun:4h 26m 57s - 20 MiSwim:7h 51m 36s - 13550 YdStrength:1 h 15m
Trip photos here
RCT ’08 - the 3 “R’”s
Rockin’, Racin’ and Representin’ (TriZones, that is)
Rockin’ and Racin’ was the motto of the 28th annual River Cities Triathlon near Shreveport, LA
This well-known race almost always sells out within 3 hours of opening online-registration on 1 June at 6 am every year. Strangely, this year, although I and several others got up at 5:30 and registered early, the race actually did not sell out. There were still open slots up till the week (or maybe the day before) the race. Genny could confirm that for us
I first heard about this event shortly after I did my first triathlon, Danskin 2004. I was already addicted to the triathlon lifestyle by then and I remember sitting in one of the first few TriZones training sessions after a Mansfield Dam open water swim and seeing all the schwag that Dena, Katie, Genny, Lynn, Tracy, Lee and whoever else from TZ did this event brought to the workout. That year the theme was superheroes. I secretly vowed to wake at 5:30am on 1 June, 2005. Remember, at that time I’d done exactly ONE triathlon.
Sure enough, I woke at 5:30 on 6/1/05 and registered for RCT. What I didn’t know was that it’s way harder to get a hotel room than even getting into the race! I finally made a reservation at Shoney’s which was where NOBODY else from TriZones was staying.. at least I had somewhere to stay and it was close to Holiday Inn. As race day approached, Denise’s Holiday Inn roommate Susan could not make it so I canceled my reservation at Shoney’s and roomed with Denise. Yay! I was part of the “group”. I found out that this race sells out quickly for a reason. The goody bag is beyond description. I still use my yellow RCT25 (the one from 2005) tri-bag as my transition bag and judging from this past weekend, I have lots of company.
Okay, so I did RCT2005 and had a blast with the TZ team. And I did the same thing in 2006 and had a blast. In 2005 and 2006, I drove up on Saturday and only stayed in Shreveport/Bossier one night (Tiring!!) And last year I convinced my boyfriend to join me so we did the two night stay. This year, I reserved my Holiday Inn room in mid-May. That way I didn’t have to worry and I got signed up for the tri at like 6:02am on 6/1. To my surprise, Steve said he’d go with me again this year.
Now, I’ve not had the best triathlon season this year. Thought it was a pulled hammy, turns out to be s-I joint issues, pt every week and a tri nearly every weekend. Oh, and the long-term goal is longhorn 70.3. Then after I turn 50 in Sept, train for the 2009 MARATHON. In May, I did Skees Greets, in June I did Danskin, in July I did Couples AND Marble Falls and here I am about to do my 4th RiverCities Tri. I’ve met Coach Cindy for swimming/biking/running several times and it really helped me mentally to do “speed work” on the swim. A couple of Splash n Dash’s also helped. Here we go to RCT ’08, with the lean and mean TriZones Crew….
Steve and I left my house just about 10am Friday. Since he has the mid-life crisis car (PT cruiser convertible), I had to buy a bag to put my bike in at Performance Bike which requires removing both wheels. There ain’t much room for luggage.. and I packed light since I knew I’d be bringing back some sort of storage bag along with at least two shirts and other assorted schwag. I brought the old faithful RCT05 bag for my actual tri-bag and last years convertible gymbag/backpack for general clothing/toiletry packing. I apologize, I haven’t taken a pic of this year’s schwag yet. On the way out, we went through Corsicana but since we weren’t carpooling/caravaning, didn’t stop at Cotton Patch. We drove thru Wendy’s to get lunch and proceeded onto Palestine and Rusk. Steve and his roadsideamerica.com research….. so we went to Rusk State hospital (which used to be a penitentiary, and still has shackles on the wall in the basement/dungeon), walked around a little, saw historic sites, took pix and got outta there.
Steve’s Treo/GPS started acting weird. Well, guess what? I had the $4 Walmart US Atlas that I bought for us when we went to visit my family in 2006. Fills in quite nicely (The original “Redneck GPS”)… We knew we wanted to go to Carthage and hit the Tex Ritter Texas Country Music Hall of Fame museum, but it closed at 4. Steve drove on two lane country roads like a madman (well, actually he drove like his normal self, except he didn’t get a speeding ticket) till we got there. We made it, and cruised the giftshop, then went through the museum itself. I forgot to mention.. it was REALLY FREAKING HOT!!!!!!!!!!!! He got a shirt and postcards from the museum, which had some interesting stuff in it. We asked why there wasn’t any Ray Price stuff there and they said, “well, he hasn’t given us anything yet”.
After Carthage, we intended to head to Marshall and/or Jefferson. We also knew we wanted to end up near Caddo Lake (The only “natural” lake in Texas) and Uncertain, Texas. Yes, that’s really the town’s name. There was supposed to be some attractions in Marshall and Jefferson but with the Treo acting up, we didn’t have details.. There was a shell station which afforded a restroom break and we used it. so we followed signs to Uncertain, TX, to the photo op spot, which had a few brochures. I noticed there was one that mentioned a couple of sites I wanted to see nearby.
It mentioned 13510 fm134, the childhood home of one Claudia Alta Taylor. Well, how can you not stop and take pictures of LadyBird’s first home? So we did. It’s a Harrison Co historical site. the Uncertain brochure also mentioned the grave of Huddie Ledbetter (aka “LeadBelly”) whose grave was supposedly on the Blanchard-Latex road. Okay, I wondered what the hell gave it the name latex, when my brilliant tech writer boyfriend said: “Louisiana-Texas border……….. La-Tex!” D’oh!!!!!!!! We started seeing lightning flashing the sky then and a few drops (and a rainbow!). I got out first at Shiloh Baptist church/cemetery and headed out toward the iron-fenced affair. I soon heard “whimper, whimper”… turned to see a really little, scrawny doggie that appeared so sad…… where did he come from? There were no houses close. And as I’m allergic, I just talked to him while I searched for LeadBellys’ grave, which I found (as evidenced by pix). Steve actually petted him (he has no clue for how it will affect me later on, which is why I always carry wetwipes…….) and the doggie had a massive tick on his back. He was wearing a flea collar but it looked very old and obviously didn’t work, hence the ½ inch tick sucking on his back!!!!!!!I took a couple other Louisiana grave pix and we headed for the next thing on the brochure- the historic drawbridge across Caddo Lake at Mooringsport.
We got there, but the actual bridge doesn’t operate anymore. We drove alongside it. Then we got on “1” to Shreveport/Benton Rd. Looking in his half-working GPS system for “Cajun” places. We drove ALL OVER till we finally landed at Gator’s which was 1) expensive and 2) had very lightweight drinks…….. We had “gator toes” for appetizers. Steve had a grilled fish and I had fried catfish. We went and checked into the Holiday Inn. Thank goodness I brought real wine..
Sat morning I went and used the HI recumbent bike for 15 min and the elliptical for 15 min. Cleaned up, went to the “24 hr restaurant” across from HI for brunch and set out for the day. Went to packet pickup and ran into Jimmy so said hello, went in and got packet. Got numbers then headed to the “attractions” we wanted to hit. Drove to Clyde Fant pkwy but the Red River boat cruise was closed. We did see the metal roses and water park down there though, that was cool. We went to Bass Pro Shops (near the board walk) to see gators, then headed off to Jonesville.
T.C. Lindsey. Very old General Store. No A/C. Had a very nice (Sit down in the rocker next to worker) conversation. Steve got a tshirt, I bought a book outlining some historic general stores and a COLD IBC rootbeer. They had Dublin Dr. Pepper out there. I asked how they got it and they seemed kind of clueless. I guess they don’t know the mysteries of the Imperial sugar Dr. Pepper v. the Waco High Fructose Corn Syrup Dr. Pepper……….. but all in all, it was like talking to your neighbor. Very friendly. This site has been in several movie shoots.
They had a can that proclaimed “dehydrated water”. Apparently, someone from a famous magazine came and photographed that can in the past, and a motocycle club came into town and one of them tried to buy it. Well, Charlie, it ain’t for sale.. waaah!!
All right, I’m on page 3 and haven’t gotten to the race yet..
We drove up to Jefferson which was supposed to have some kind of historic value. We drove around, I got kind of miffed (no convenience store with Gatorade!) but we did finally find the private railcar, then the steam railroad. We arrived at 2:40, 10 min after the train took off, and the railcar tours were full, so we went to the texas café. Edible, not incredible. Then to Brookshire Bro grocery store for food/fruit and CASH..
Went back to tour the railcar, they’d closed for the day. Went and got $10 tix for the steam train. What a disappointment. Tour started at 4:30, took 50 min (didn’t even see Caddo lake), we then had to drive back into Shreveport and given how early I had to get up, talked sweetie pie into going to Dinner at the new Monjuni’s on Airline. We only had to wait about 10 min and then I got my $9.25 spaghetti w/one meatball (and side ceasar salad for 2.99). Truly you have to split these plates. Their servings are TOO HUGE. If you go to RCT next year, find someone to split your dinner. I’m serious. You can’t possibly eat that much. Next year if Steve goes, I’ll split the penne with him. Here’s the menu: http://www.monjunis.com/
BTW: for RCT vets!!!!!! The “usual Monjuni’s” that we went to on Benton Rd. is gone. They’ve built a bypass for Benton Rd. (refer to Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy-bypasses have to be built) that veers west of the old location that had the garden hose on the roof. So the new location is on Airline at “Airline Center” (I think), not too far and pretty nice/modern and looks like the old location (red/white tablecloth, etc). We had VERY EFFICIENT service there.
Since Steve had to take me out to the site on race day, we decided to stop by the book store on the way back to our room after dinner. I got Cormack McCarthy’s “no country for old men”.. Steve got some stuff including a George Carlin book. We went back to our room, I packed, then read for a while and called BlondePam. Done by 9:45.. he’s over there reading, I’m in my bed, reading….
Somehow we mutually agree to the lights out. I, of course being menopausal, lay there awake till 12:30. I do eventually go to sleep cause I have that stupid dream. The one where you think you’re going to be late to the triathlon.. and you wonder, AM I ASLEEP????? Looked at clock. 3:45.. but this clock is an hour ahead… ugh.. calculation- 2 hours. Okay. 2 hours of sleep is good.. 4 would be better.. so I tossed & turned and most likely did not ever get back to sleep. I was relieved (again) when the alarm went off at 5:15 and a min later the phone rang with the wakeup call. I’d really like to get more sleep but it’s actually kind of cool if you don’t get more than 4 hours sleep and you’re not stiff when you get up.
Dressed in my (now ragged/threadbare) TriZones Go-Fast suit and headed to lobby to toast my English muffin. For the past two years, the lady who is at the breakfast station brings her own personal toaster and her kid wears his IronFish t-shirt. I have to admire this. They got up early the previous day and that kid did a triathlon and is over there schlepping water for us on Sunday. Good on ya! I made my breakfast and ate it, filled my travel mug with coffee, went back to the room and told cutie pie at 6:05 “We gotta go”.
So off we go onto Benton Rd to McDonald’s so Steve can get his breakfast. He pays. He starts to get back on Benton.. I stop him, “don’t you need to wait till your food comes out?”
Backs up to window to get food. Mutters something about it being way too freakin’ early to be out of bed..
We head out and turn right at Fred’s. I love knowing to turn at Fred’s. Cause there was no sign this year indicating to turn there!!
After turning left onto Airline and right onto Linton, We get in line into the park. Many many people behind us!!!!! As we get ready to park, BlondePam, heading to transition with her stuff, sees me waving and acknowledges us.
Park. Assemble bike. Pump tires. Put on water/eload bottles. Load up backpack. Boyfriend notices that the whole reason for going to the bookstore had fizzed. Somehow the book didn’t make it this morning.. but the sling chair and hotel pillow DID.. I had no trouble racking my bike-THIS year I grabbed an official to make sure I had the “downwheel” on the side which contained my number (425). I brought along the orange bandana that Shayla gave us last year, to mark my bike position on the rack. We had received beach towels in our goody bags and many people were using them! All spread out! This event is famous for not having much rack space. Apparently these people with their new towels laid out a) never heard Coach Tracy’s talk about using an old ugly bath towel such as you’d take to your college dorm room and b) are new to this event because they’d never take up that much space if they were experienced.
After getting transition organized I put on the 99cent flipflops and went to get body marked. There was a guy at the back with no waiting so I headed over toward him. Except I wasn’t looking at the ground and twisted my right ankle in a pothole right in front of him. Uh… I must have been his first customer of the day because if it were me, I’d warn people “look out for the pothole right there”. MAN, that hurt!! He asked if I was okay and I said, “no”. But what are you gonna do? I turned around and presented my left calf for age and said, “50”. He replied, “oh, we’re not doing that”. Well, why not? The race booklet said they were. I should have grabbed his marker and put it on myself. But nobody else had their age on their leg, either.. whatever!! Went back to my transition spot and sprayed on the sunscreen, ditched flipflops, did a last mental check, grabbed cap, goggles and water to go say hi to BlondePam and Kari. We all left transition and I got in the bathroom line. Went down to start of race and noticed my right foot REALLY hurt, just walking through the sand. Great. I have a pulled left hamstring, a sprained right ankle and my foot hurts. So I did some light stretching and stayed in the shade. No way was I gonna go down there and stand in the sun to watch the start.
By gosh I got through that 8:36am start of Kelly green caps. I completely forgot I was in the 50+ age group (no wonder it was a small wave). I applied Coach Susan’s advice: “take 25 strokes at the beginning, before you try sighting” and it worked out! I didn’t feel the need to pop up with breaststroke, but one lady behind me (behind me? Me?? Ahead of someone in the swim??) seemed like she was trying to tackle me so I did pop up and look around. I realized we were swimming to the right. We were headed for the far middle buoy that marks the backside of the course, but we were supposed to be heading for the orange buoy that hid the far left yellow buoy. I wondered why the kayaker didn’t yell at us.. maybe with Kelly green caps, they couldn’t see us?? Anyway, for the reading enjoyment of last year’s RCT participants, the hissing in the water was there again. I didn’t notice it after I made the first turn, though. And I’m happy to report that the course-correcting was the ONLY BREASTROKE I DID !!!! woo hoo!! I still haven’t looked at my splits online because despite everything, I did have a good race and don’t want to spoil the feeling by looking up the official times. Looked for race clock at swim exit but didn’t see it. Did see the guy who came out just ahead of me, doubled over. Not sure why - cramps? So I ran past him and on into transition. Hey, my foot wasn’t hurting! Hooray! Didn’t realize it at the time but Steve said he got a shot of me after I got out of the water.
Ditched cap and goggles, put on helmet & sunglasses, sucked down gu & water, put on socks and bike shoes and headed out to mount line. Yeeeehaw!! I passed lots of people on the bike and they all stayed behind me. Except for that one woman who I played leapfrog with at the end. I guess I don’t know what my “race pace” is. Last time I was on the bike was the 63 mile longhorn ride and I forgot it’s only 18 miles at RCT, I could have sprinted a little… oh well. As we turned right back onto Linton at the Country Corner, the volunteer said, “Watch that car right there”. The sheriff had this car stopped and was yelling at the driver, “WHEN YOU SEE FLASHING RED LIGHTS, YOU DARN WELL BETTER STOP! YOU MIGHT KILL SOMEBODY!”.. whoops.. the woman passed me again. I passed her again. She passed me again and by then we had less than a mile to go, so I just took it easy knowing there was a little uphill to get into the park. Dismount, smile for the camera and into T2.
Off with the helmet and bike shoes, racked bike, grabbed a swig of water, put on run shoes and grabbed race belt & hat to head out on run. Surprisingly, it didn’t suck all that bad. I just have to take short strides to keep the pain at a minimum. Seemed like I was cruising along pretty well, and before long I saw people who had been ahead of me stop to walk. NOT ME!! WOOHOO! I guess Jimmy & Pam had already been through the “back” part of the out-n-back before I got there.. oh well. I did see Kari though and I walked just long enough to grab/drink/splash water. Before I knew it, there was the 1 mile marker and the race clock. I took a cold iced towel at the next stop but I think I just put it around my neck and kept running.. Then, again surprisingly, there was the turnaround already!! Am I really halfway done with the run?? I hardly hurt at all! I used the same strategy as I’ve used at Danskin, Couples & Marble Falls - dump water under my cap at each waterstop cause it aint’ worth getting overheated for. At the mist stations, I just stopped, took off my sunglasses and turned my face up to the spray! Somewhere on the road I heard, “go trizones!” and looked up to see a woman wearing TriZones shorts. Sorry, I didn’t know/remember your name! I had a cup with ice in my left hand so I think I grunted woohoo or something. I didn’t have the presence of mind to do a high-five then.. Soon enough we were on that little dirt trail with a slight uphill back to the paved road. I passed a couple of ladies who were walking. About half a mile from the finish, my RIGHT hamstring started feeling tight. OH NO!! I’m so close… I was near some curbing so I stretched it out a little and started back out slowly. Pretty soon I’m flying down the approach to the finish line, hear Dave call my name, notice Steve off to the right so I smile for the camera, then get a high five from Dave, collect my medal and bottle of water.
Whoo hoo! 4th RCT done, and it wasn’t too awful. I kept thinking it didn’t seem as hot as before, but I said that about MFT also. I think maybe I’m just getting used to working out in 100 degree heat. I headed for the beerline, Pam came by and we chatted a bit, and while still in line, heard someone say, “They’re out of cups”. Wha?? Did these people also attend Urban Assault Ride? But again, there was a guy behind me in line with 3 empty cups and I unabashedly asked if he’d let me have one of them. He didn’t respond. When we got up there and I had to use my waterbottle to try and get the foamy beer from the tap, I heard him say to another guy, here I got a spare cup. So I turned around and said, “so you have one for that guy but you couldn’t spare one for me?” that’s weird.. but not as weird as being in two events this year that did not run out of beer, but ran out of cups……….. I took my foamy “beer” (it came from the millerlite tap, not the Michelob I wanted) and went to get my stuff from transition. I started walking toward the finish line and heard my phone ring. Steve had camped at a picnic table under a tree so I found him and we made our way back to the car.
Back at HI, once again our keycards didn’t work after noon. They had also come by and opened the curtains, which I didn’t appreciate because much of our stuff was sitting there in view of whoever walked by. I went to get the card reactivated so we could get in and take showers. We checked out, then went for lunch at TaMolly’s. I noticed it while we were looking for Cajun food Friday night and have only eaten at the one in Paris, Texas. Went to use the ladies room and there was another lady in there wearing her green race tech shirt - she said, “nice shirt!” and I told her the same. The food was good, but I was also hoping for a real margarita - I didn’t realize they don’t serve alcohol. Just as well, I’d probably have slept on the way home.. As we went to pay the bill, the other RCT lady and her family were behind us. The hubby and Steve exchanged some kind of familiar looks like they knew how crazy these women are to do triathlons. He said his wife got into them when she turned 50 - I told him I can relate, I’ll be 50 next month!
We headed back toward Jefferson by going back up to Karnack and heading up 134. I can’t remember why Steve wanted to go back up there, but there must have been some photos to take.. got back on I-20 and intended to exit at Canton on 19. I noticed Pam had called me, I imagine to let us know that there was a traffic bottleneck. We figured it out.. Stopped and took a few pix in Athens, again in Malakoff, drove all around Trinidad (took a few more pix) trying to find the high school only to find out they may not have a high school next year (they had a good 6-man football team), few more pix in Hubbard then we got back on I-35 to head home. Looooong but fun weekend. Now I can go look up my stats.