The morning of this race, I almost considered not doing it at all. I was moving this weekend and had to pack up my entire apartment, along with preparing for a conference the next week for school, and other personal issues that kept me from sleeping most of the night.
Thankfully, my EC teammate Mariska had offered to drive our carpool. The hour or so that I slept in the car was probably all I got. (Thanks Mariska!). It was a comedy of errs from there. I have to laugh at myself a little for being so unprepared for this race. I arrived and had left my USAT card and ID in the car so had to go back just so I could get my packet. My rear wheel was rubbing with my brakes so I had to bring my bike to the mechanical tent, I forgot the rubber bands for my cycling shoes, and so on.
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| Mariska and Laura, Team EC |
By the time I got myself together and my transition area set up, it was time to head to the beach for race start! The race consisted of a half mile swim, 18 mile bike, and 5k run. The swim went off and I was pretty delirious the first half, when it hit me that - I was racing, TIME TO GO! I came out of the water in 5th position with a time of 15:40 for 800m.
T1 - 22 seconds, fastest overall
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| Setting up in the transition area |
Part of what made this race interesting was that there was an Olympic distance race and Duathlon going on at the same time, and it wasn't clear who you were competing against! On the bike I was clueless of my position and figured my teammate Mariska was in front of me, so I was on the chase! At the turn around point (it was an 18 mile out-and-back course) I realized that I was actually ahead of Mariska by about a minute and a half. Sadly, she had trouble getting into her rhythm in the swim and I pulled slightly ahead, we are nearly evenly paced in the swim.
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| Transition area - as minimal as possible. |
From many training rides, I know she is a stronger cyclist than me and that I had to go!! We pushed each other - with me, pedaling for dear life, and her, closing the gap! We had no idea what position overall we were. And when I came in for the run, I knew I had to run like hell as the two of us are very closely matched.
T2 - 34 seconds, fastest overall.
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| Posing after the race with my and Mariska's speed machines! |
The run. I had a great run. After being injured earlier this season I've felt like I've been chasing that good run - and in this race I had it. By this point, I knew a mile into the run that I was leading the race for the first time in my multisport career. The hilarious mishap on the run was that a volunteer was apparently supposed to mark your number at the turnaround to prove you ran the whole course. When I got there I had no idea, and she was completely unprepared and called me back after I passed her, while she casually got out a marker and I was screaming "MARK ME, I'M IN FIRST AND THEY ARE COMING!!" No one else was marked - WTH! The benefit of an out-and-back run of course being able to see where your competitors are and Mariska and junior national team member Ashley P were not far behind. In the end, I had the fastest time in the womens' field by over a minute and the second fastest time of all the competitors overall, including men.
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| Top 3 Overall finishers - Mariska 2nd, Ashley 3rd, Laura 1st. |
It was blistering 96 degrees when I crossed the finish line to turn around and see Mariska finish in second and Ashley P (who is also coached by my coach, Dan Arnett) cross in third. A fantastic showing for the Endurance Concepts and Cadence Bikes and Multisport elite team! The fire department had opened up a fire hydrant to drench us in cold water, nothing ever felt so amazing!
I was overwhelmed with emotions from the overall win. The feeling reminded me of my break through day in highschool when I first broke the conference record in the 800m. One day I just felt like, I can run faster than this, only to drop 7 seconds on my previous best half mile, and never to be beat again my senior year. And on a day when you least likely expect it to, all that training and hard work comes together. Makes me remember what all the training is about and why I absolutely love this sport. And want to get faster!
Three weeks until the USAT National championships in Burlington, VT. This year I am competing in the Olympic and Sprint distances, with the pleasure of doing the Sprint race with my sister, who qualified this year as well. GO ANALISE in your first national championships! Are we ready!??
