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.