The past couple months part 1

Part 1 of 3

The past couple months have been the hardest of my life. Big changes happened that I didn't see coming and couldn't change. My heart was shattered by the person that I trusted most with it.

For the past couple years Conrad has been asking me to quit my job and come to South Africa with him. With huge student loan and credit card debt I hadn't been able to. For the past 2 years I stopped racing to save money and worked every extra shift I could. I finally saved up enough money to quit the job and after much encouragement from Conrad I quit. He said that I had to do it this year for the relationship to work. I was told to trust him and that everything would work out for the best. A little over a month after quitting my job, I found myself all alone. The day after Xterra Worlds shortly before getting on his flight he said, "it's over and I don't want to talk about it." Asking for an explanation the only thing I got was, "you're not Afrikaans and you have bad table manners". I don't know why it took him 5 years to figure out I was American. I guess sometimes there is no explanation. Where was I supposed to go from here. I just quit my job, moved out of our house, and the biggest race of my life was coming up in 5 weeks.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1667724450453
from this to breakup in 24 hours




For 2 weeks I didn't eat, sleep, or train. I considered dropping from the race. Riding had always been my escape and now it was just torture. Then the supportive Ultraman family started arriving in the islands. Without them I wouldn't have made it through the race. I stayed as busy as I could and joined with every group ride and swim. I figured I was here and I should make the most of the experience. About 2 weeks prior to the race I decided to go for it and race.


Pre-race practice swim.


Pre-race ride with Gary, Jason, and Marty. This was an infamous gas station bonk where you grab every item of food in sight.

Race week came along quickly with all the preparation and organizing. I think I bought out the entire supply of chicken broth and pedialyte. Then there was the selection of an ice bath bucket. I was pulling the storage bins off the shelf at Target looking for one big enough to fit when the manager asked if I needed help. I quickly jumped from the tub I was sitting in and replied that I was okay.


My support crew came together at the last moment. Thanks Darian, Siri, and Taylor for getting me through the race.

The biggest worry about the race for me was the swim. Wetsuits were legal and I was a bit worried about overheating, but knew that I had to take advantage of the extra flotation. I'd been doing a bit of open water swimming, but the sheer distance of 10K was intimidating. The swim itself went really well for the first 9K, then I hit a bit of a wall. I struggled a bit to get through the current coming out of Keauhou Bay, but once around the buoy the current seemed to let up a bit. My paddlers did a great job of keeping me straight and stopping me every 25 minutes to refuel and hydrate. My goal of the day was to get out of the water no more than 30 minutes behind Hillary Biscay and mission accomplished. I was only 22 minutes behind. :) Hillary smashed the swim record with a 2:20 swim, breaking the old record by 26 minutes.


That's me in the water beside the buoy and my paddlers Karen and Don.

Actually feeling fairly good coming out of the water with a swim PR of 2:42


The first couple miles of the bike go straight up. Not a great feeling after being horizontal for the past 2.75 hours. My legs never felt great this day, but they didn't feel bad either. Post race I think it was due to not taking enough calories in during the swim or the bike. After the initial climb it's a bit rolling to downhill, and it goes by fast. Heading up to Ocean View we hit the infamous wind. Wow! I'd pre-riden this section once before and I thought it was windy that day, but it wasn't even close to as windy as race day. The last 30 miles of the ride are the climb from sea level to 4000 ft at Volcano. Looking at my bike computer I was calculating how much longer I'd still be on the bike and the numbers weren't good. On some of the short downhill sections I'd be riding in my aero bars going 12 mph. It was going to be a long climb and my energy wasn't great. I started to take in a bit more calories and amazingly felt better during the last 10 miles of the climb. Note to self... eat more. I finished the ride portion in 5:39 for the fastest ride split of the day.

The long climb up to Volcano.


Hawaii can be cold, very cold, at the top of Volcano, but the post ride ice bath was a must for recovery. Bob Babbit is trying to distract me from realizing that I can no longer feel my feet.


Just had to throw a sunset picture in. This one was taken from the lanai of the condo.