Now that is a GATOR CHOMP!!! That's actually the first Gator chomp by a McLarty while breaking the finish banner...Dustin has officially beat his big sister to that acheivement! He is also DOMINATING the Publix Family Fitness Weekend Points Series!!

Long Beach...The Race

The professional men were scheduled to start at 6am but with delays and things, it finally got started at 6:15…which delayed the women’s race start 15 minutes as well. That gave me a bit of time to stretch, pee, and get into my wetsuit before diving into the cold water for a short swim warm up. I felt really excited on the starting line and was ready to race the top American women. The horn sounded and 25 women sprinted down the beach into the 67 degree water. I tried to use the same strategy as the Honolulu race…create a small group of women in front of the main pack and then let them draft off my feet so we could get a BIG lead out of the water…this time it was a VERY small group, only my roommate Sarah Haskins was able to stay on my feet.
After the first 750 meter lap, we exited the water and ran around some flags on the beach before diving back in and swimming the second lap. This gave me the opportunity to see who was close behind and who was NOT close. Sarah was right behind me and then there was a HUGE time gap till the rest of the competitors. I yelled some encouragement to Sarah as we ‘rounded the flags and then we started swimming another fast lap together.
When we exited the water for a second time, it was to start running a quarter mile up the beach to the transition area…that’s a LOT of soft sand to run through! So I waited until I was on the pavement to even think about taking my wetsuit off…I just thought about fast and flat feet as I was running up the beach. Sarah and I got to transition together and the coaches yelled that we had 50 seconds of lead time over the chase group…SWEET!
We hopped on our bikes and headed out on to the 4 lap bike course…right away we started working together to maintain (and increase) our lead. We traded off with short fast pulls on the flat and technical course…I made sure that we were taking the tangents to every corner (the shortest line) and Sarah made sure that we climbed the bridge really strong every time (8 times, to be exact!)
There were so many people on the course giving us time splits, I think we had one every MILE (which is 24 times:). John was on the top of the bridge (we saw him on the ‘out’ and the ‘back’ part of the course; Katie was at the aquarium and was always so encouraging; Barb was at the 180 degree turn; etc. Our lead continued to grow the entire time…at the end of the first lap we had a 60 second lead, at the end of the second lap we were hearing 1 min 10 second splits, third lap it was 1 min 15 seconds…I think we were a bit unhappy with that small of an increase so Sarah and I hammered the fourth and final lap…and we entered transition with people yelling that we had a 1 min 45 sec lead on the chase pack!!!
Now it was time for the RUN…usually my nemesis and where I get passed by lots of people…but I wasn’t thinking about that, I was thinking about how to pace myself and focus on having the best run that I possibly could. It was a 2 lap run on the bike path on the beach…so we went ‘out-and-back’ and then ‘out-and-back’ again…giving us 4 different times to see who is in front and who is behind, and how close/far away they are! I had my hat pulled low over my eyes so I would not see everyone else as much (and stress out)…and it also keeps my head and eyes in the correct position to run fast!
From experience, I know that I tend to start the 10K too fast and then die near the end…so I started off nice and smooth and relaxed for the first lap and promised myself I could let loose on the second loop. Again, I was getting tons of time splits on the run course…on the first lap the chasers were really catching up…my 1 min 45 sec lead dropped to 60 seconds with in the first 2 miles! But I keep focusing on my race, my pace, and later in the race I was still hearing 60 seconds…I was holding everyone else off!
(By-the-way…Sarah Haskins is such a strong runner that she had the race won as soon as we started running…but she continued to encourage me on every turn-around)!
With one mile to go, I was pretty confident that I was going to finish in second place…but I had to remind myself not to “count my chickens” just yet and re-focus on running fast:)! At the finish, I was coherent, upright, and HAPPY…I gave some people high fives and did the Gator Chomp across the finish line (like always)…then I gave Sarah a big hug and a ‘thank you’ for all her hard work on the bike!
By finishing second overall behind Sarah, I earned the U23 National Title and a slot to compete in the Elite World Championships. I’ll take the title, but I passed up the slot because I want to compete my last year as a U23 and try to get on the podium at World Champs. The awards were fun…they had Champaign for the top three men and women and we drenched each other (being soaked in Champaign is actually pretty smelly:).

I'm in there with the best of the best of American Triathletes! This was at a dinner hosted by the LA Tri Club for a speach by Hunter and Barb...the rest of us just tagged along for a free meal and moral support after the USAT National Teams Summit on Monday!

There were 500 members of the HUGE LA Triathlon Club at the dinner to listen to Barb and Hunter speak...it was so cool to see so many American triathletes interested in ITU athletes!!

Pre-Race in Long Beach

I feel a bit late writing about my race in Long Beach! After meetings, traveling, unpacking, training…it’s taken a bit of time to finally write about the Pro Triathlon National Championships in Long Beach, California on Sunday!! Remember, I only do a short and fun recap here…if you want the official “Race Report” that comes via e-mail!
Since Friday morning started at 4:30am for my flight to LAX…I haven’t had a morning to sleep in! On Saturday morning, I was awake and out the door at 6:30am to join my U23 teammates to ride the bike course while the roads were still quiet. We actually had a huge group of athletes on the Shoreline Drive at 7am practicing the technical turns and testing our legs up the ‘hill/bridge’. It was nice to get a feel of the course and be comfortable with the weather at the approximate race time. We also scouted out the transition area, practiced a few bike mounts, and some people chose to take a quick swim in the ocean.
I declined the opportunity to get in the 70 degree water while the sun was hidden behind clouds AND fog…instead, Jasmine and I went back to our hotel room to relax and shower. At 9am we joined all the other members of the USAT national teams (Resident, Gold, Silver, Bronze, U23, Junior and Youth) for a yummy brunch at the race site. Everyone was handed their Speedo sweats and polos…later in the day we wore our new team apparel for team photos at the Hyatt. I can’t wait to see the photos because we all looked very snazzy in our red/white/blue track suits and the photo’s location was cool too!
For lunch I joined the Oeinck family for sandwiches and fruit at the hotel pool. We ignored the old wife’s tale about waiting 30 minutes and went for a short swim after lunch. It was just enough to get wet and stretch out my arms before I went back to my room for some ‘down time’ before the pre-race meeting. At 5pm a ton of people were crowded into a meeting room in the Hyatt for the last minute details about the race. After everything was clarified, I picked up my race number (#70) and started thinking about dinner. I ordered some California Pizza Kitchen for myself, Jasmine, and Jessica and we met up with some other U23 athletes to eat and relax. If pizza wasn’t the secret…it was the Cold Stone ice cream afterwards that made everything perfect:)!
Of course I saved the packing of my race bag for late Saturday night…but with over 120 races under my belt, I can get it all organized in about 10 minutes! After that, it was time to set an alarm (or 2), turn out the lights, and try to get to sleep as fast as possible (do you know what happens when you WANT to fall asleep…you NEVER do:)!
On Sunday morning, the wake up call rang at 4am…followed closely by my back-up alarm on my phone. Jazz and I had our special pre-race breakfast while watching some random TV shows that are broadcast at 4am. We biked down to the race site together and then I left my race bag in transition and did about 15 minutes of spin-ups on the course. I set up most of my transition area, except for my race shoes, which I used for my 15 minute run warm up on the running path.

L to R...Laruen Groves, Canadian, 3rd place at Long Beach National Championships...Sarah Haskins, my roommate, USA Elite Triathlon National Champion...Sara McLarty, ME!!!!!!!!!!!, 2nd place at Long Beach, U23 Triathlon National Champion!!!!!

Escape on TV

I’ve heard from a few people (my mom, dad, and brother) that The Escape From Alcatraz triathlon TV show aired on Sunday morning in Florida! I don’t know if that was the only showing…I don’t know if it played everywhere at the same time…I don’t know if I looked good:)?!?! But if you happened to be watching TV and see the broadcast, I hope I didn’t ruin the ending by telling you who won (and who got third in the women’s race:)!!
Since I kinda know what happened in the race (I was there, remember) and I’ve been given a summary of the TV show from each family member mentioned earlier…it sounds like I got some great coverage (my sponsors will be hearing from me soon:), they made sure to mention 10 times that “SHE’S A STRONG SWIMMER”, and they made sure to include each time I was passed.
My support crew in DeLand (with the satellite/cable technology) made sure to record the show and as soon as my dad can get it burned onto a DVD and into the mail…I will get to watch it! You can also order the DVD online at the Escape website…but my family has to be useful some way (hahaha, I’m just kidding, you know that I sorta love you guys:).

Hang 10 from Long Beach

Travel this morning was very easy. I had to get up at 4:30am (that was the worst part) for the 4:45am shuttle van to the airport. I used some miles to upgrade into First Class for the flight…I got a nice nap in the big seat!
Both my bike and bag arrived on time and I took the Super Shuttle to the hotel with Joe and Sarah. After spending a bit of time relaxing in my room watching movies I jumped in the hotel pool for a few minutes to stretch out.
My roommate, Jasmine, arrived a bit later in the day and we grabbed a light lunch together before doing some more relaxing and watch movies. Finally, around 5pm, we got off our butts and went for a light jog on the run course. It’s flat and fast and it probably wont be too hot at 9am on Sunday morning (good news for me:).
After a shower and some computer time, I went to dinner with a few of my teammates at Chili’s…a yummy crunchy chicken salad and some chocolate afterwards made a great dinner.
Now it’s time to get a good night’s sleep before riding the bike course tomorrow morning…we are heading out at 6:30am (good practice for race morning!).
Thanks to everyone who sent a ‘good luck’…I appreciate them very much!
Also a good luck to my Gator teammates (Ryan, Katie, Scott, Ricky) who are currently competing in Santa Clara, California at the international swim meet…Chloe, the 10k national champion I’m mentoring, is also swimming fast!

Longest Day(light) of the Year

Today started out like 50% of my days normally do…with the alarm going off at 7:34am followed by a quick trip to the bathroom. 8:00am swim practice was the first job of the day. Since we are racing this weekend in the Pacific Ocean, I took my Orca Wetsuit to the pool to remember how it feels.
The pool water is 82 degrees right now because we are sharing the pool with the USA Synchronized Swimming team and they get cold really easy when it’s 80 degrees (the perfect temperature for swim training). So 82 degrees is already a bit warm for normal swimming workouts…imagine it with a neoprene wetsuit on! All I could manage was the warm up set (1000meters) before I had to get out of the pool and practice a quick wetsuit removal.
Fortunately, I like my wetsuit, it’s really comfortable, and I don’t need too much practice with it on. The rest of swim practice (wetsuit-less) was short and sweet…remember, it’s TAPER time…we did some sprints and some side-by-side swimming before warming down and heading for breakfast.
After chow time in the cafeteria and a bit of relaxing time in my room (aka: taking a short nap:) I headed out for a bike training session with Jaz, Jess, and Sarah. We brilliantly chose 12:00pm/noon for the start time of this ride…the exact same time Mother Nature decided to put some nasty storm clouds over COS and dump big drops of rain. My thought process was something like this: “I’m in my bike clothes, I’m on my bike, I’m outside…if I don’t do this ride now, I might never get it done”!
So…we headed out to our favorite street in COS…Wood…and did some efforts at race pace. I put my areobars on my bike before departure so that I could practice in that position and did a lot of 180 and sharp turns during the efforts. (Remember…Long Beach has over 10 x 180 degree turns…practicing them is a smart thing…especially when I CRASHED on the 1 x 180 degree turn in the Honolulu triathlon:)!
Since I was already wet…and my bike was now wet and muddy…I stopped by the USA Cycling bike shop to wash my bike before heading for lunch. After a bit of soap and some elbow grease…my Blue is all shiny/greased/and oiled…and ready to race! My cycling shoes are drying in my room (and I hope they dry fast because we bike early in the morning tomorrow…wet shoes are never fun at 8:00am).
Lunch was uneventful and it was followed my more uneventful activities like checking email, paying bills, solving crossword puzzles, etc. I finally got really bored and didn’t want to actually start packing for the trip this weekend (it’s not close enough to the departure time for me…I must procrastinate until late tomorrow night!). So I headed out of the OTC for a quick trip to the library…I found some interesting reading materials to travel with and maybe educate myself a bit. After the library I stopped at Blockbuster to use a free movie coupon…and of course I picked out 3 movies so I had to pay for the rest!
Now I’m looking forward to either reading a book or watching a movie…as soon as I get back to my room after dinner (tonight we have a Summer Solstice BBQ in the cafeteria…extra yummy)!

Rest Days Make Me Happy:)

I was afraid it was going to start off wrong because I woke up naturally at 7:30am when my alarm usually goes off for swim practice! But I rolled over, put a pillow over my head and woke up again at 9am…a respectable time for a required ‘sleep in’ day.
I grabbed some breakfast in the cafeteria…the dishwasher was broken so we had to eat everything off paper plates and Styrofoam bowls with plastic utensils. I chatted with my teammates and friends about what we each had planned for our ‘rest day’.
On my schedule was to clean my room, do laundry, shop for some supplies, catch up with emails, write a blog, watch some TV, maybe see a movie, and lots of other relaxing activities.
As soon as I returned to my room, I turned on my PC like normal and started folding laundry. When I looked back at my computer, I was puzzled because nothing was showing up on screen…not normal. I tried some simple fixes…jiggle the plugs, restart the computer, push random buttons, etc. Nothing was working…well, everything WAS working…but nothing was showing up on the monitor.
So my next solution was to turn on my laptop and see what Dell Support offered…I searched the website and logged on to Chat with a Dell Service Rep. After only 10 minutes of waiting, I was explaining my problem to someone who could help. He had me try all sorts of solutions…I was jumping back and forth between my laptop on the bed and my PC on the floor. I had the cover off, I was unscrewing things, I was taking ‘cards’ out…each time looking at my monitor to see if anything was showing up.
After about 50 minutes of chatting and trying the suggestions, my service rep said that my Video Card must have died and he would get a new one in the mail right away! I didn’t know what to say (good thing I didn’t have to SAY anything because I was typing this conversation:), I guess my computer is still under some sort of warranty and Dell has a great system! The new video card will be here in 1-3 days and all I have to do is put the new one in the computer and mail the broken one back to Dell! And to finish off the whole experience, our entire ‘chat’ was emailed to me…so I guess I can try all the solutions again if I get bored?!
That took up most of the middle of my day… so I switched my plans around and decided to go shopping later in the week. Instead, I finally sat down and put a big stack of photos I’ve been saving into a scrapbook. I had fun writing fun captions and having a bit of nostalgia remembering some good times (Golden Goggle awards in NYC with Dustin, Navy Seal day in San Diego, relaxing on the beach in Honolulu, etc). I also put some race memories into the scrapbook…it’s just going to be filled with random things that I want to save…photos of myself and friends from magazines, race articles that I’m mentioned in, etc.
After that I uploaded some things I’ve been saving to sell on e-Bay…like my textbook from my favorite class (Statistics)…we’ll see if there is anyone out there who even wants it!:) Jaz and Jess called on their way back from meeting with our coach (my meeting is tomorrow morning) and I met them in the cafeteria for dinner. Still eating on paper and Styrofoam with plastic utensils…so now that the day has gone in a complete circle, it’s time to say “good night” and get some well deserved sleep after a big productive rest day!
Tomorrow I’ve got a bit of everything on the schedule…starting with a run, meeting with my coach, a little bike ride, and finishing off with an afternoon swim practice. I should also start my packing for Nationals…I’ll be in Long Beach for 4 days this weekend.

Where in the USA are the McLarty's?

Let’s start with me…I’m in Colorado Springs, training and hanging out with my teammates. Today was a crazy training day…we started with swim practice at 8am and pounded out 5-grand in the pool…we had 10 minutes to change into our bike gear and then we rode to Gold Camp road…we did 2 ascents of the road (Cliff’s instructions were to ride as hard as possible ‘to failure’) and then road easy back to the OTC. After lunch and a short nap I did a run on the trails with some 5K efforts mixed in. It was a tough day but I was really happy with how I felt in all three sports. One more day of key workouts and then Monday is the start of our taper for Nationals.
Dustin…he’s sound asleep in his house in Gainesville after a long day of racing and traveling. On Friday night he drove to St. Petersburg and spent the night at the Weiler’s house. On Saturday morning he did a sprint triathlon…and finished 1st place overall (here he will say that he didn’t actually win b/c some guy from the draft-legal race beat him by 35 seconds…but all that matters was that Dustin was the first person across the finish line:). After the race he was planning on staying in the area and doing another sprint race on Sunday morning…but changed his mind after the first race when he realized how tired he actually was! Now he’ll have Sunday to recover before another week on “fun” Gator swim practices.
My Dad is spending his first night of his trip in the Grand Canyon…I think this is his 4th trip down the river and he and Irv departed Lee’s Ferry this afternoon with a full boat of passengers. He called me from the warehouse after they loaded all the boats with food and supplies on Friday…he told me that everyone I know said “Hi” so I’ll send a “Hi” back to all my friends at Grand Canyon Expeditions. Speaking of Grand Canyon…the Travel Channel show that was filmed during my brother’s trip last month is airing on Sunday on the Travel Channel (duh) at 5pm Eastern time…tune in and see why you should sign up for a trip!
My Mom is the only one on the McLarty Farm right now…talk about empty nest syndrome! But it’s not like my mom to sit at home and miss us…she started off the morning at the beach with some surfing, open water swim practice with the Lifeguards and Swim Team, jumped off the end of the pier, had a board game party with her friends, and she’s going to be skydiving all day tomorrow followed by who knows what!! Sometimes I don’t think I can keep up with my mom!
So that’s the McLarty Update…and Happy Father’s Day to dad who will not read this until next weekend:)

Between Swimming, Biking, and Running

I’ve got 40 minutes before my next training session. It’s been go-go-go since the alarm went off this morning…and the end is getting closer, but I’m not there yet!
7am it was time to grab a quick bit to eat in the cafeteria…nothing too heavy or it might not sit well in my stomach.
7:55am I dropped my running gear off in the back of Cliff’s car and met the rest of the group on my bike.
8am we all rolled out from the OTC on our way to the Garden of the Gods. The ride to GOTG was our warm up and when we got to the loop we split into groups and rode 3 loops hard followed by 5 minutes easy spinning. We re-grouped and rode another 3 loops hard before leaving the park.
10am we rolled up to Monument Valley Park, had a fast transition into our running gear that Cliff set out on the sidewalk and started running down the trail on our first 2K.
10:10am I started my next 2K on the trail; this one was faster than the first! After 3 minutes of recovery it was time for a pace change on a 1K. We had about 6 minutes recovery and then one more 2K to finish the workout!
11am I rode back to the OTC easy for my cool down. Since I sweat like a race horse, I jumped in the shower before grabbing lunch in the cafeteria and sitting in the cold tank in Sports Med. to help my legs recover.
12:30pm get out of the cold tank and walk back to my room to check emails and write a blog.
**Now I’m going to start writing about the future:)**
1:10pm I’m going to head over to the pool and get ready for swim practice.
1:30-3pm: we will probably be cranking out meters in the pool for most of that time. As soon as practice is finished, I’m going to change really quickly and go to the weight room for 30 minutes of core strength.
3:45pm I’m going with about 5 or 6 of my teammates for a hot drink (hot chocolate) at a café in downtown Colorado Springs. A perfect way to finish off a hard day…Coffee Talk with my good friends!
Tonight I’m probably not going to have enough energy to push the keyboard so I thought I’d get this blog typed now while I’m still semi-coherent! These are the days that make-or-break a professional triathlete…if you can stay mentally focused and technically strong…you will see a benefit on race day when it gets hard! I know that training days like this before my race at Alcatraz helped me finish strong after climbing all those hills and cliffs.
This time we aren’t training for hills…we are training for 180 degree turns on the bike and hot weather on the run during the National Championship race in Long Beach next weekend. I think we bike around a loop 6 times in the race and on each loop there are 4 x 180 degree turns…so 6x4 is 24 turns!! Good thing we’ve already started practicing our 180s! And I’m pretty sure that we are going to get a bit of heat on the run because the Pro Women start at 7am…plus 2 hours…means we are going to be finishing our race at 9am in southern California in June!
You can check out the start list for the Long Beach Continental Championships and other information at www.triathlon.org.

Sunday's Weekly Recap

The week since my race in San Francisco has passed so quickly. I got back to COS on Sunday night (actually Monday morning) and then got right back into everything on Monday. Training has been really good during the last couple of days.
We’ve pushed the pace in the pool everyday…on Friday we actually did some sprint relays and 100s for time! It was painful, but in a good way…all that lactic acid building up in your muscles so fast that you can barely make it from the 75meter mark into the wall with out drowning:)! I dove a 1:02.9…pretty slow if I was at Florida 2 years ago, but pretty good for being a triathlete in Colorado Springs!
Every day it’s been crazy windy…but that doesn’t stop us from hammering on the bike! On Saturday, around noon, a nice group of teammates and I headed out for a 2.5 hour ride. We rode up to the Air Force Academy and around the ‘loop’ with lots of hills. Too late we realized why it was so easy to get TO the academy…as soon as we made the turn to head back to the training center…we almost started going backwards into a 30mph+ headwind! Thank goodness for drafting and the 6 of us rotated our way home…rolling into the center at exactly 2.5 hours.
As for running…it’s taken the longest of all three sports to feel good since the Escape race. I had a few days early in the week when running was miserable (mental and physical). But on Friday, all the negative was erased as I was flying down the road during a tempo workout! And on Saturday, right after the bike ride, I felt great again during my transition run.
Other than the three main components of my life (swim, bike, run) I’ve been doing a few other things this week. I’m proud of the ‘spring cleaning’ I gave my room upon return from San Francisco! I’ve got a huge bag of clothes for the Goodwill…I just have to remember to drop it off at the building:)
I caught up on a ton of emails that I have been neglecting…always a good feeling because you know it sucks to wait for a reply from other people! And, of course, I’ve been posting photos like crazy on my blog!
After getting a reminder via snail-mail, I’ve looked into registering for next class for my MBA. It looks like its going to be something like “Government and Business” or “Economics”. Both don’t sound too exciting but since I already took classes with names like those at UF, I hope that I might remember something and be able to use it again!
I bought a pair of time trial aero-bars/handle bars from one of my teammates. I’m hoping to build myself a Time Trial bike for non-drafting triathlon races. I’ve got a frame and some spare parts lying around…of course a NEW, already BUILT, bike would be FANTASTIC, but we can all have dreams:).
Speaking of races, my next race is in Long Beach, California…it’s Pro and U23 National Championships on June 25th. Wish me luck for the next week of training leading up to this race!

Duster Buster...first OVERALL at the Beaches Fine Arts Triathlon on Saturday morning! He lead from start to finish, in typical McLarty fashion!

There's my mommy on her pretty piano:) My dad just got a new digital camera so I got some random family shots in an email! But at least the photos will help me remember what my family looks like...when I go home at Christmas, it will be about 6 months since I've seen them!

I've got to make sure I show off my sponsors in some photos...this is the only photo I could find with my Orca wesuit (best I've ever swam in!)...notice the Speedo cap and goggles too!

Here I'm sporting the Rudy Project helmet (which saved my life in Hawaii when I crashed) and sunglasses (the fog was too thick to actually wear the glasses:) and powering up the climbs on my Blue bike (with Gator handlebar tape!).

My favorite shot from the photos on brightroom.com...check out the FOG, and the GG Bridge in the background!

That's the Horn Blower (with all the triathletes aboard) heading out from the loading area and passing by the San Francisco skyline.

That's the boat we were on heading toward Alcatraz Island.

2006 Alcatraz start...some people heard the fog horn, some didn't. I was listening for it...and I was the first one in the water! That's me over on the right, the only pink cap that's not still standing on the boat, but diving into the water!

Prospect Lake Kids Tri Clinic

This morning started off with a great training session on the bike…we rode ‘out east’ for warm up and then did some 10 minute group efforts, in pace lines, taking one minute pulls. It was great to work with my teammates on a hard workout…Jaz, Jess, Sarah, and Sam were all strong on the ride. After a 30 minute section of effort on our own, we rode easy back to the OTC. It was H-O-T outside when we were riding (8:30 to 11am!) and I went through 3 bottles of water!
We all immediately went to the cafeteria for lunch because we were starving! Afterwards, I did a bit of computer work and then took a short nap in the middle of the day. At 3pm, when the rest of the team went to swim practice, I went to the gym for 30 minutes of strength and core work, followed by an easy 30 minute jog in the park.
At 5:30, I rounded up a bunch of my teammates and we headed over to Prospect Lake park (about ½ mile away from the OTC) to help at the kids triathlon clinic. It was SO much fun…the kids were SO cute! Big surprise, I helped out on the swim part and talked about water safety and explained the course they are going to swim on race day (the same day we are in Long Beach at Pro Nationals…bummer). Then I basically said “Go” and each group of kids got to practice by actually swimming the race course…they were brave, the water was freezing! After their practice swim, they ran to the transition area and learned all about that…followed by biking and then the running station. There were about 10 local professional triathletes that helped out and it was a great success to see so many kids eager about a new sport (most had never done a triathlon).
Since the clinic ran right through our normal dinner time at the OTC, we headed into town for a delicious pizza dinner at our favorite wood-fired oven place. I’m always guaranteed a good day of training after eating my favorite pizza…so I should rock in swim and run practice tomorrow! I’ll let you know how it goes:)
By the way…photos from the Escape race are on line…remember, I was Bib number 50 when you search for my photos. I’m going to post some here on my blog, that’s just if you have a desire to see more, or search for someone else in the race (unfortunately, you have to know their bib number…Hunter was #1, Sam McGlone was #6, Laura was #9, Becky was #10).

Top three men at the Escape From Alcatraz: Simon Whitfield (Olympic Gold Medalist), Matty Reed, Andy Potts!

Top three women at the Escape From Alcatraz...Me, Becky, and Laura!

Back to the Routine

I’ve been back in COS for a few days now…enough time to finally unpack my bike and bag, do some laundry, and catch up on e-mails. The weather in Colorado is breaking record high temperatures…I’m glad I was in the cool breezes of San Francisco last weekend while it was 97+ degrees here!
Ahead of me is another 3 week time period before my next triathlon…plenty of time to get some serious training before tapering for USA Pro Nationals. The race is in Long Beach, California on June 25th…I fly into LAX on the morning of the 23rd. After the race I will be staying an extra day to participate in the USAT National Teams Summit…basically most of the top American Pro triathletes are going to meet and discuss race strategies, team tactics, and all sorts of top secret information to help us win races:)!
This race is also our second U23 team race…so there will be 5 guys and 5 girls in matching race suits…Jasmine, Jenna, Lesley, Jen, and I for the women and Matt, Manny, Mike, John, and Ethan for the men. We all had great results in Honolulu, the first U23 team race, and it will be exciting to see even more improvement!
The Honolulu triathlon was also the first of five races in the “Haul to the Great Wall” series...since Jasmine won the race, she’s leading the points right now…and I’m in third behind Sarah Groff. The Long Beach Pro Nationals is the second race of the series. As of right now, I plan on competing in only 4 of the races because the Boston Triathlon is the same weekend as World Championships in Switzerland! Hopefully, with good results at Long Beach, Connecticut, and Westchester, I will stay near the top of the points.
I’ve almost forgot to report on my lil’bro’s first USA Open Water National Championship experience…Dustin had a great 10K swim in Ft. Myers last weekend! I was setting up my transition area for the Alcatraz race and the last thing I did before boarding the buses to the boat dock was call my dad. He was walking up and down the beach while the men were the water. He reported that Dustin was swimming in the front group of 12 men which had broken away from the rest of the competitors. It was just after the 5K (half way point of the race) and I had to leave my phone behind and go do my own race.
The first phone call I made after finishing was to my dad again…this time he and Dustin were driving home…but I got a recap of the race: Dustin hung in with the lead pack for 3 out of 4 laps and then when the pace increased, he hung on as long as possible in a full sprint! At the end, he finished 13th overall in a field of 40 top swimmers…his Gator teammate, Scott Kaufmann was 2nd in the event and will be representing the USA at World Champs.
Since I’m talking about Dustin here…I should mention that his 20th BIRTHDAY is on Saturday! I’ve got to take my box of presents down to the shipping offices and get them in the mail to Florida or they are going to have a belated arrival!

The One and Only Chloe Sutton

Here’s a great story! About 3 or 4 weeks ago I got an e-mail from a young girl who asked me some questions about open water swimming. I was more than happy to share some of the tips and techniques that I have learned from my experience and replied to her email with my answers. (I might have gotten carried away, my reply email was a bit excessive:) Anyways…
She replied that she was going down to Ft. Myers, Florida to compete in the 5K National Championship race. I told her my brother was going to be competing in the 10K and wished her luck.
What do I find when I get home from the Alcatraz race??? Chloe has WON the 10K National Championships!! She got second in the 5K and hung around to compete in the 10K! My favorite part was seeing that Chloe beat Kalyn Keller, the Athens Olympian!
If anyone had to be the new 10K National Champion…I can’t say I’m upset that it’s the one girl who asked me questions…I’m just glad that I wasn’t at the race to get smoked by Chloe!
So…anyone else looking for advice?!? I’ve got an “open door” policy now!!

That's actually a weird photo...but I'll post it anyways:) As you can tell, I was VERY excited/happy/actually I'm not entirely sure what emotion was coming out right there?!?

This is about 10 feet before the bottom step of the infamous Sand Ladder!! I'm using the quick/flat feet running technique that Bobby taught me for running in very soft sand. The really small person on the very left of the photo is Laura...she passed me on the Ladder.

Christine and I after the Escape From Alcatraz triathlon...check out the FOG in the background! She volunteered at a water stop on the run...it was so motivating to have her enthusiastic cheering all three times I went by!!

My Escape from the ROCK

I swam, biked, and ran my way away from Alcatraz! The Escape was a success!
Check out results from the race. I had a stellar performance from start to finish and I was the 3rd woman to cross the finish line!! I spent 29:12 swimming away from Alcatraz…4:20 running to my bike…55:06 biking around San Francisco…1 minute changing from bike gear into run shoes…and 53:52 running along the edge of the Bay. Total race time was 2 hour, 23 minutes, and 30 seconds!
After jumping off the boat and swimming to shore, I was the first woman out of the water behind 7 pro men. After spending a few extra seconds locating my shoes, I sprinted to the transition to get on my bike.
The whole bike ride was overcast and cool because the infamous San Francisco fog rolled in. It kept me cool and let me bike hard up and down all the hills. Becky Lavelle (eventual race winner) passed me at the halfway point of the bike. She was flyin’…she’s such a strong cyclist!
I headed onto the run in second place (no clue how far the next women were behind me) and felt g-r-e-a-t! My legs were strong and the fog was still keeping the sun from overheating me. At one point on the run, we do a 180 degree turn on the beach so I saw my competition and how far back they were. Laura Bennett was closing fast and passed me on the killer sand stairs/ladder. She had a great run and even had breath to say ‘good job’ as she went by (I was too busy sucking air into my lungs to reply).
After the ladder, it’s mostly downhill and then flat to the finish…I hauled butt the whole way…taking a moment to enjoy my friends cheering at the water stop as I went by. Thanks Christine and Keith and the rest of the tri club!
I had hoped for nothing more than a strong performance from myself on a very tough course…and I pulled out a great race among fantastic professional women. I took my time in the finish chute to enjoy the crowd. You can watch a 30 second video of my finish here…type 50 as my bib number then highlight my name when it appears in the box.
There are some really nice online articles from the race at Inside Triathlon and Triathlete Magazine.
As soon as the photos are posted online…I will share some of the good ones with you!
Oh yeah…and keep looking back here to find out when the race will be broadcast on TV!

Hi From San Francisco

I’m sitting in the Royal Ground Coffee shop on Fillmore Street in San Francisco right now…I picked this place because of the large “FREE INTERNET” sign on the outside window. I’ve already drank my hot cocoa while I was reading and replying to my e-mails and now that I have a nice sugar buzz…it’s time to write a blog post:)!
This morning started at 4:15am when my alarm went off…I had a 4:30am shuttle from the OTC to the COS airport. Although it was extremely early for my 6:30am flight…I’m glad I had all the extra time in the airport. After checking in for my flight to San Francisco, I purchased my ticket to LAX for my next triathlon race in Long Beach.
I prefer buying my United plane tickets online because of the bonus 1000 miles they give you, but I had $300 of United vouchers that were about to expire. The only way to use the vouchers was at a United certified location (a.k.a…the airport). There was NO way I was going to let that money expire because I spent an extra 10 hours in the airport last year on my way home from Alcatraz!! The flight was overbooked and they offered $600 of travel money for people to give up their seats…I was on that deal like white on rice!!
Maybe this year I will get that opportunity again, keep your fingers crossed. My round trip ticket from COS to SFO for this race on Sunday was a total of $10! Thanks to the thousands of United miles that I have racked up…I used 25,000 of them and only had to pay the $10 taxes.
Back to what I’ve done today…the flight was pretty uneventful, I slept most of the way! We landed in SFO at 8am and my bags arrived without any problems. I took the BART train into the downtown area and got off at Montgomery Street. Christine’s offices are right around the corner and she met me at the exit. I got a quick tour of her offices…very cool with lots of great photos of the Special Olympians. She showed me the postcards of the 2006 Tiburon Mile…there’s a great photo of me swimming in the middle of all the guys. I took a big stack and plan on mailing them to EVERYONE that I know:) If you would like to get some snail mail from me…let me know!
I took a taxi from Christine’s offices to her apartment…met one of her roommates for the first time (she was out of town last year) and went to work on building my bike. After getting everything unpacked I spent about an hour relaxing on the couch with the TV remote control.
Finally, I motivated to get up and head out for some exercise…little did I realize, going DOWN Fillmore street on you bike is a LOT more scary than in a car!! I was off my seat, leaning back over the rear wheel to prevent if from flipping me end-over-end down the hill! Too bad there are stop signs every 200 meters or I would have LOVED to fly down the street…and I would have been FLYING, just like the cars do in the movies! But maybe we should keep that until after the race because I would be likely to kill myself!
I biked over to the Hyatt where Sam was staying…she left me a room key at the front desk so that I could use the hotel pool. It was a bit short (maybe 20 meters) but it was outside, in the sun, and completely empty…I swam for 30 minutes and actually had fun swimming in different shapes. I did the ‘figure 8’, the ‘X’, and the “M’ to make it a bit more exciting and stretch out the 20 meters by going from corner to corner.
After drying off in the sun, I headed up to Sam’s room and since she was there, hung out with her for an hour while she built her bike. We left the hotel together for a short bike ride to the race site, chatting about this-and-that, and then I said good-bye because I had to get lunch and some groceries at the Safeway. The rest of my day is pretty boring…I WALKED back up Fillmore street to the apartment, took a shower, grabbed my computer and walked to this coffee shop!
It’s been fun filling you in on my 2006 Alcatraz adventure…tonight will be dinner with Christine and her boyfriend…followed by sleep and then all the fun events of “the day before the race”:) Later, Gators:)

Gotta Make This One Short

Lots of things on my “To-Do-List” today…and they all have to be done TODAY because I leave for San Francisco tomorrow morning. Here’s what I’ve got to accomplish in the next few hours:
Finish this blog and post it online…go for an easy hour bike ride…drop off my ITU race suit at the screeners to repair my Orca logo which is peeling off…get my bike checked out by the resident mechanic…pack my bike in the bike box…pack my regular bag for the trip…shower and dress in nice clothes for speaking…print out 42 copies of my PowerPoint presentation…eat a quick dinner before 6:30pm…walk over to the RBE room and set up my PP presentation…lecture on Triathlon Swimming Skills and Techniques for 30 minutes to the 41 people attending the USAT Level 1 Coaching Clinic…walk with all the future triathlon coaches over to the OTC pool at 7:00pm…lecture and demonstrate Swimming Skills and Techniques for 1 hour in the pool with all the coaches…find out what time tomorrow morning my shuttle to the airport leaves from the OTC (even though I can guess it’s going to be 4:45am:(…and finally finish the day off with a solid night of sleeping before traveling to the West Coast!
I’ve got a request for anyone reading this…my brother, Dustin, has a 20th birthday fast approaching…June 9th to be exact! Does anyone have any ideas on what I could get him?!? Any ideas will be much appreciated!
Now, it’s time to start that “To-Do-List” by getting in my cycling gear and heading out…I’m going to “kill two birds” on this bike ride by dropping off my race suit at the screeners…the business is just down the street from the training center!