My actual first CapTexTri
After getting rained out two years ago,and having a not-so-fun volunteer experience last year, I only signed up to do anything related to CapTex 2009 due to one Kirk Offel.
Last year my friend at work Hans told me about Kirk and his cause. I became an informal "mentor" to Kirk (and I guess, ultimately the team). This year, the pressure's on - they want me to join The Team. And one of the races they wanted to take 'by storm' was CapTex. Kirk is a Navy vet and it makes sense that he'd want to have CapTex be a big "awareness" event for the cause of Sarcoma.
Well about 2 weeks ago I got news that my right knee will need some arthroscopy in the near future (AFTER DANSKIN!!!!!!) so I told Kirk I'd be glad to be the cyclist on an Olympic relay team. He paired me with one Doug (I've done IronMan Coeur d'Alene) Thompson for the swim and Karen (I got three kids, and I'm a badass runner) Ayala. Sweet.
We met each other for the first time in the vestibule of Palmer Events Center on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, we were in line behind some poor sap whose team didn't know the whole team had to be present to pick up packets.. well.. uh.. WE DID! so, could you let us through please????
Karen's hubby was doing the sprint (not relay) and they had a committment later in the day, so we wanted to get packet pickup underway so they could see where I'd rack Buzz Yellabike. Well, there are only two racks for Olympic Relay. One at the very last row closest to the lake, and one on the very last row across from the path from the other rack..
Doug followed me to transition to see where the bike was (which was the most important anyway, since I gotta get the chip from him). We somehow lost Karen. But I figured we'd see each other at the tent in the morning.
I arrived about 6am on race day at TxDOT parking lot and thought, "where is everybody"??? So I re-parked about 4 times, finally picking a really primo spot under a tree just behind the strip joint.
Indeed it was a good place cause when I came back later, it was in total shade............
I loaded up the TriZones cooler with icepack and two bottles of gatorade endurance for the bike as well as a water bottle, and my sling chair (race starts at 7:00, Olympic Relay goes off at 8:30.. thought I'd put my feet up) and the 2008 RiverCities Awesome custom-embroidered tribag containing my bike pump, helmet, sunscreen, phone, paper towels, hand sanitizer, bandaids, spare goggles (even though I'm NOT SWIMMING), and extra electrolyte powder mix.
Made my way to the transition area (where I turned my back to
triman so he could see my helmet with number!!) so I could pump up my tires, put down my "never kissed a frog.. never had to" tri towel with my bike shoes, Texas Iron socks and road id on it, and wipe off my rear view mirror and bike computer, then put the two bottles of gatorade endurance on the bike cages. I wandered through transition and found Coach Jen so went to say hi to her.
Went back to VFS tent to hang out. I knew Sarah R was supposedly working in bodymarking. I went over to the tent, but she wasn't there... dang.. Karen, my runner arrived and I explained how we'd exchange the timing chip. Went back to bodymarking tent. Still no Sarah..... whipped out my own sharpie and marked myself while talking to Karen at our team tent and putting on sunscreen (our photographer got a lovely pic of this)
Soon saw Bets walking by on her way to Sprint transition (I also saw her last year! cool to see your friends again and again). I am truly amazed at her "pre-race" meal. she was holding a bagel with what appeared to be chunky peanut butter on it, and a can of diet coke. DIET COKE?!?! BETS!!! you have a cast iron stomach!!! and you seemed so calm about all of this.. (more on Bets later.........)
I saw Heather and she so tried to find me a Water Monster to fill up my waterbottle! Heather was out there solely to cheer for us, that is truly awesome!!Karen & I walked down to swim start and ran into Amber and Rob, stopped to visit for a bit, then wandered down to water where I saw Kendra "meditating" on the ground. I can't really get on/up from the ground so bent over to talk to her. Chris was already in the water, but I knew Kendra was a strong swimmer. Just passing the time............Karen's hubby was getting in line to do the sprint so we went back to team VFS tent for a bit.. very soon we went to transition and not too long after 9:00 heard Doug yell, "ANNETTE!!" so I grabbed the chip/strap, put it on left ankle and ran the bike out of transition. that rocky/bumpy transition. It took FOREVER till I got to the mount line. Then it was time to rock 'n roll. Up 1st street, right on CC.. HEY!!! THERE's NIKKI!!! Thanks!!! Congress Ave will now be known to me as the Wind Tunnel. Saw Amber again as I approached the Capitol. Mentally it was kinda weird, since previously all the events I've done that approach the Capitol from the south were running races. Then after you turn right onto 11th, it's an uphill... then SanJac.... ready for downhill? had some gatorade?? CHECK!!! fly at 30mph down SanJac.................. U-turn, and back up... ugh.. do it all again.. I think it was on 2nd loop that Bets passed me.... I saw trichelle just before I had to head south on 1st for the u-turn.
last few loops, the police let people cross in front of us (hey, can't you see we're climbing here??) on SanJac. I didn't think I'd like the loop course (due to USAT rules, which, at this race are a MOOT POINT), but actually it felt like some kind of NASCAR racing. I really enjoyed it!!
Handed off chip to Karen who really smoked the 10k run!! We even made the front page of today's Austin American Statesman.After we were done, there is evidence that although I raced under VFS jersey, I was ringing a TriZones cowbell for one of my teammates!!
Finally saw Sarah R after I finished, who said she'd be reassigned to water safety.. probably where they needed most help. Thanks Sarah......
Last year my friend at work Hans told me about Kirk and his cause. I became an informal "mentor" to Kirk (and I guess, ultimately the team). This year, the pressure's on - they want me to join The Team. And one of the races they wanted to take 'by storm' was CapTex. Kirk is a Navy vet and it makes sense that he'd want to have CapTex be a big "awareness" event for the cause of Sarcoma.
Well about 2 weeks ago I got news that my right knee will need some arthroscopy in the near future (AFTER DANSKIN!!!!!!) so I told Kirk I'd be glad to be the cyclist on an Olympic relay team. He paired me with one Doug (I've done IronMan Coeur d'Alene) Thompson for the swim and Karen (I got three kids, and I'm a badass runner) Ayala. Sweet.
We met each other for the first time in the vestibule of Palmer Events Center on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, we were in line behind some poor sap whose team didn't know the whole team had to be present to pick up packets.. well.. uh.. WE DID! so, could you let us through please????
Karen's hubby was doing the sprint (not relay) and they had a committment later in the day, so we wanted to get packet pickup underway so they could see where I'd rack Buzz Yellabike. Well, there are only two racks for Olympic Relay. One at the very last row closest to the lake, and one on the very last row across from the path from the other rack..
Doug followed me to transition to see where the bike was (which was the most important anyway, since I gotta get the chip from him). We somehow lost Karen. But I figured we'd see each other at the tent in the morning.
I arrived about 6am on race day at TxDOT parking lot and thought, "where is everybody"??? So I re-parked about 4 times, finally picking a really primo spot under a tree just behind the strip joint.
Indeed it was a good place cause when I came back later, it was in total shade............
I loaded up the TriZones cooler with icepack and two bottles of gatorade endurance for the bike as well as a water bottle, and my sling chair (race starts at 7:00, Olympic Relay goes off at 8:30.. thought I'd put my feet up) and the 2008 RiverCities Awesome custom-embroidered tribag containing my bike pump, helmet, sunscreen, phone, paper towels, hand sanitizer, bandaids, spare goggles (even though I'm NOT SWIMMING), and extra electrolyte powder mix.
Made my way to the transition area (where I turned my back to
triman so he could see my helmet with number!!) so I could pump up my tires, put down my "never kissed a frog.. never had to" tri towel with my bike shoes, Texas Iron socks and road id on it, and wipe off my rear view mirror and bike computer, then put the two bottles of gatorade endurance on the bike cages. I wandered through transition and found Coach Jen so went to say hi to her.
Went back to VFS tent to hang out. I knew Sarah R was supposedly working in bodymarking. I went over to the tent, but she wasn't there... dang.. Karen, my runner arrived and I explained how we'd exchange the timing chip. Went back to bodymarking tent. Still no Sarah..... whipped out my own sharpie and marked myself while talking to Karen at our team tent and putting on sunscreen (our photographer got a lovely pic of this)
Soon saw Bets walking by on her way to Sprint transition (I also saw her last year! cool to see your friends again and again). I am truly amazed at her "pre-race" meal. she was holding a bagel with what appeared to be chunky peanut butter on it, and a can of diet coke. DIET COKE?!?! BETS!!! you have a cast iron stomach!!! and you seemed so calm about all of this.. (more on Bets later.........)
I saw Heather and she so tried to find me a Water Monster to fill up my waterbottle! Heather was out there solely to cheer for us, that is truly awesome!!Karen & I walked down to swim start and ran into Amber and Rob, stopped to visit for a bit, then wandered down to water where I saw Kendra "meditating" on the ground. I can't really get on/up from the ground so bent over to talk to her. Chris was already in the water, but I knew Kendra was a strong swimmer. Just passing the time............Karen's hubby was getting in line to do the sprint so we went back to team VFS tent for a bit.. very soon we went to transition and not too long after 9:00 heard Doug yell, "ANNETTE!!" so I grabbed the chip/strap, put it on left ankle and ran the bike out of transition. that rocky/bumpy transition. It took FOREVER till I got to the mount line. Then it was time to rock 'n roll. Up 1st street, right on CC.. HEY!!! THERE's NIKKI!!! Thanks!!! Congress Ave will now be known to me as the Wind Tunnel. Saw Amber again as I approached the Capitol. Mentally it was kinda weird, since previously all the events I've done that approach the Capitol from the south were running races. Then after you turn right onto 11th, it's an uphill... then SanJac.... ready for downhill? had some gatorade?? CHECK!!! fly at 30mph down SanJac.................. U-turn, and back up... ugh.. do it all again.. I think it was on 2nd loop that Bets passed me.... I saw trichelle just before I had to head south on 1st for the u-turn.
last few loops, the police let people cross in front of us (hey, can't you see we're climbing here??) on SanJac. I didn't think I'd like the loop course (due to USAT rules, which, at this race are a MOOT POINT), but actually it felt like some kind of NASCAR racing. I really enjoyed it!!
Handed off chip to Karen who really smoked the 10k run!! We even made the front page of today's Austin American Statesman.After we were done, there is evidence that although I raced under VFS jersey, I was ringing a TriZones cowbell for one of my teammates!!
Finally saw Sarah R after I finished, who said she'd be reassigned to water safety.. probably where they needed most help. Thanks Sarah......