I just realized that I didn't do the GATOR CHOMP while breaking the finish banner at the Aquathlon World Championships...oh well, I was enjoying the moment and being a bit crazy:)

Online Article

Check out the nice article Tim Carlson at Inside Triathlon.com wrote about the Aquathlon World Championship!!

Last SECOND Racing!

Lausanne, Switzerland
Wednesday morning started out very early. My alarm rang at 5:30am so that I had just enough time to eat a bowl of cereal, get dressed, and walk to the front desk to catch the shuttle to the Frankfurt airport. Our driver was INSANE! He averaged over 200 kilometers per hour on the autobahn and maxed out at 240!! It was a bit scary but exciting at the same time because that’s officially the fastest I’ve ever traveled in a car. The trip to the airport usually takes about an hour and we got there in 40 minutes! I actually put on 2 seatbelts in the back seat because I could see my life flashing in front of my eyes (it might have been the other cars flashing by as we passed them, but no matter what, it was still scary:).
I had a short 9:30am flight from Frankfurt to Geneva (we only spent about 40 minutes in the air)…then took a 50 minute train ride right from the airport to the city of Lausanne…then hopped in a taxi from the train station to the Hotel Royal Savoy. The hotel building is very beautiful, it’s a chateau, and it’s very expensive to stay here for a night…but the rooms are NOT worth the price!! I’m very unimpressed! But I’m not paying the bill and I do appreciate USA Triathlon choosing a hotel that is so close to the race site (we actually bike right by the hotel:).
After I check into my room and tossed my bags on the floor, Manny and I walked down the hill to the lake for a swim. We saw Coach Cliff at the water and suddenly started talking about the World Aquathlon Championships that started in 3 hours. There were about 3 women entered in the race and there was decent prize money up for grabs! I was VERY tempted to enter and race…so with Cliff’s permission I walked back to the hotel, found Katie Baker and asked her to put my name on the start list!!
I had 2 hours to grab some lunch, lie down in my room, and then head back to the lake to warm up for the 1 kilometer swim (with a wetsuit) followed by a 5k run. My bike box had my racing shoes and my wetsuit inside…and the box was on a truck somewhere between Sembach and Lausanne! I had spare shoes to run in and the Orca guys had a new wetsuit for me to test out…fortunately the truck arrived before the race so I got my gear…but I did get my new Orca Apex 2 wetsuit right before the race!
The women’s race started at 4:15pm…not a very big field of women…only 9 ladies on the start line and 3 of them were juniors:)! The starting horn sounded and I dove in the water and immediately took the lead because my new Apex 2 slid through the water like a torpedo:)! The race course was just one lap in the water and 2 laps of the run course…I excited the water with over a 1 minute lead on the next girl. Quick run to my shoes, rip off the wetsuit, slide on my shoes and hat and take off running!!
After lap one, Cliff called out my split time and said the other competitors were not gaining very much…that was nice to know because I was able to take it easy on the second lap and save some energy for the IMPORTANT race on Sunday morning. I crossed the finish line about 55 seconds ahead of 2nd place and now I’m the 2006 Women’s World Aquathlon Champion!!!
I wasn’t too sore after the race…stood around and cheered for the men’s race which started at 5:15pm…and then went to a local pizzeria for dinner with some friends. I didn’t have a hard time falling asleep around 9pm after such an eventful day:)

Corrections...

I meant to write 37 degrees Fahrenheit for the temperature in Lausanne...but the good news is that the weather forcast has changed and they are saying only a low of 50 degrees on race day now! That's still not going to be pleasant but I'll take that instead of 100 degrees or something crazy hot. Maybe it will be raining and overcast too...keep your fingers crossed!

Relaxing Today...Adventures Yesterday

Today is an easy/off day…meaning we each have the choice to do absolutely NO athletic activities or do something light and easy…like the 30 minute jog/drill session that I plan on doing at 4pm if the rain would STOP!!
I woke up at 9:25am when my coach knocked on my door. I didn’t set an alarm because I didn’t think I would have a problem waking up by 9am and getting ready for swim practice at 9:30. Oops…I guessed wrong about how much sleep my body wanted and fortunately, I can get away with missing a few easy swim practices now and then (sometimes I think I can get away with missing EVERY swim practice for the rest of my life…but I show up and work hard anyways:).
I had a relaxing breakfast in my room and started on some homework until 11am rolled around. Coach Cliff planned a meeting with me to chat about how I’m feeling and about some race strategy for World Champs (which is THIS Sunday!!). The chat was great; it got me very motivated and ready to race fast and tough on Sunday. Cliff is on his way to Switzerland today…and the rest of us travel on Wednesday to Lausanne.
So I’ve got 2.5 more days here in Sembach before moving to the Hotel Savoy from Wednesday afternoon until Monday morning. I’m rooming with Jasmine (no surprise there…she’s my perfect roommate during races and we’re also teammates!). We race at 7:30am on Sunday, September 3rd…the forecast for weather that day is right above FREEZING at 37 degrees Celsius!! That is very exciting and very scary news because that temperature could cause the race to be canceled or worse: turned into a DUathlon!
As I mentioned above…it is non-stop raining outside today which puts a damper on any sort of outside exercise. I’m finally feeling like my body is completely over the sickness that I picked up after the Hungary World Cup and the last thing I want to do is go run around outside in the 50 degree, overcast, and rainy weather! Instead, I’m sitting inside my warm room with pants and a jacket on...taking advantage of the day-off to get a head start on my homework.
I’ve managed to read through 2.5 chapters of my Economics book (unfortunately, I’m supposed to get through chapter 7 by this weekend). I’ve also been working on my Self-Application paper for the Leadership class and have about 3 or 4 pages typed out (again…unfortunately, about 10 pages are due THIS weekend:)! Lots of things are taking my focus in other directions…like wasting time on the internet, doing laundry, packing for traveling, watching crappy Air Force TV, napping, and hanging out with all my other teammates that are also bored because of the rain!
Fortunately, we’ve been doing quite a lot of activities in the past few days that have not been boring. Yesterday we took our second team outing to a nearby town with tourist-y activities. Bacarach, Germany is located on the Rhine River about a 1 hour drive from Sembach. We left a little after noon and it was a short drive for me because I took a nap the whole way! We parked near the river and purchased a ticket for a sightseeing boat trip down the river…it was all planned out by Hunter and Val Kemper who were our official USAT trip planners and tour guides. We wandered around the local a wine tasting festival while we waited for our boat to arrive.
The trip on the boat was beautiful…the sun actually came out and the views were spectacular of the old castles and the present day vineyards on the steep hillsides. We got off in a different town and toured the ruins of a huge castle before taking the train back to Bacarach (1 hour by boat, 4 minutes by train). We chose a delicious restaurant for dinner…not quite ‘traditional’ German foods, but very influenced. After wandering the town and stopping for gelato (Italian Ice) we headed home which was also very fast because I napped the whole way!

This is the beautiful town of Bacarach where we stopped for dinner after sightseeeing....I fell in love with all the Tudor buildings on the main street!

Touring the castle ruins...built in the 1200's it's pretty amazing that some parts are still standing!!

Jasmine and I relaxing on a big boat motoring down the Rhine river...we had beautiful views of 5 or 6 castles in the hills during the trip.

That's Becca at the Bacarach cith wine tasting festival...we wandered around the booths for a while before boarding the Rhine River sightseeing boat.

Today's USAT tourist group at the top of the castle in St. Goar...during one of the short periods of sunshine:)

The whole USAT crew! Bec, Cliff, Diane, Jarrod, Me, John, Lesley, Hunter, Jaz, Jen, Sarah, Barb, Johnie, Lauren, John, Mike

That's me in front of one section of the Heidelberg castle...it was a dreary day but didn't rain on us!!:)

The Heidelberg Castle in Germany...we drove about an hour to the city and walked around this beautiful old castle built in the 1400's.

More People!!

Sembach, Germany –
This morning the number of USA triathletes at the Sembach base tripled in number! Most of the other team members flew into Frankfurt from the USA…now we’ve got an entire pool full of people instead of just one lane:).
While everyone was unpacking and adjusting to the new area, I continued on with my normal training schedule which consisted of a nice 90 minute bike ride. I was climbing a steep hill on a forest road (going very slowly) when two tiny German deer leaped across the road in front of me...it was the first ‘large’ wildlife that I’ve seen in the area.
I got back and ate a quick lunch before we loaded up two full vans of people for the pool. We drove to the little town of Winnweiler, about 15 minutes away, to swim in the beautiful outdoor 50 meter pool. They had diving boards and platforms, which I took full advantage of using before and after the practice:) We are heading there again today so I’ll take a photo because it’s a very pretty facility with bright blue water (which is NOT heated at all) and natural grassy stands on the hill beside the pool.
The commissary/grocery store is not open at all on Mondays and Tuesdays so yesterday I was scrounging through the remnants of food that I have to create an eatable and nutritious dinner. Good thing I have lots of experience from college and I can basically create an omelet from whatever I have in the fridge…and an egg or two, of course. I’ll be hiking (or catching a ride) up to the store later today to refill the fridge and cabinet.
I’ve been on a weird time schedule living on this base. Since we’ve been going to swim practice in the morning at 10am, I just wake up naturally around 9am. That means I’ve been going to sleep around midnight and I move everything later in the day to accommodate this schedule. Now that the rest of the team is here…we’ve got ‘team’ practice times scheduled out…so this morning I saw 7am for the first time in 2 WEEKS during a group run session on the trails. I guess its back to setting alarms and turning off the TV early to get on track for training. But it’s a good thing because my World Championship race is at 7:30am and I need to feel fast that early in the morning!

We found a cute cafe in the downtown section of K-town...and afterwards Alicia and I found some kids toys to play on to settle our meal!

They randomly seach cars entering the base...we got flagged over, had to turn off the car, get out, open the hood and trunk, and wait while they looked through everything...fun times:)

After driving into town for a cafe dinner...we had to wait at the entrance to the base while the car was searched...so I had Becca take a photo of me in front of this sign!

Proper Bike Mounts

Check out the “ITU Triathlon Training Tips” on the video section of their website…Watch the video while Annabel Luxford is talking about swim-bike transitions because that’s ME leaping onto my bike at the Gamagori World Champs last year! They even show it in slow motion:)…fortunately, this time I’m not crashing in slow motion:)!

Recovery Day on Friday

I just ate lunch…it was pasta I cooked in a coffee maker!! Amazing what you can do with a microwave, fridge, and coffee maker! But it’s sooo nice to be eating foods that I like for cheaper than going to a restaurant at every meal.
I’ve been slowly feeling better since getting sick after the race on Monday. I’ve contacted everyone that I know who competed in Hungary and it seems that 90% of my friends got sick so we are blaming it on the bad water in the Tisza River.
This morning I woke up to heavy rain and dark skies over this part of Germany. Eventually, the rain stopped but the wind is still blowing very strong…I’d be a bit scarred to get on my bike right now (going one direction would be quite fun but getting back would be a challenge:)
I’ve borrowed Alicia’s copy of the DaVinci Code book…I read it about 2 years ago when I was in college but I’ve been wanting to read it again before I watch the movie. Since the movie didn’t get all amazing reviews, I haven’t rushed to see it. We are going to try to catch a showing of it at the Air Force base movie theater some time next week.
I’m also becoming hooked on Germany pop songs because they play on the MTV channel here…mixed in with the American pop songs that I already know. Now I understand how foreign people ‘sing’ English songs…you just kinda guess at the sounds but have NO clue what the words are!:)
There are a few more triathletes at the base now…most of the USA World University Team athletes arrived yesterday. The WUG competition is one week before our World Champs and it’s on the same course in Switzerland…hopefully we can get some feedback from them about the course and area.
My mom and dad just emailed me their flight itinerary to come watch me race in the Westchester Triathlon on September 17th in New York!! What an awesome surprise…I’ll get to see my parents at the conclusion of this crazy 47 day trip! I’m not even sure what number day it is…I’ve completely lost track…maybe that’s a good thing b/c I’m having a lot of fun and enjoying the whole experience!

Here's the one photo of me from the ITU website...pretty cool, huh!

More of the crowd...I'm not kidding, it was HUGE....this is looking back on the last 400 meters of the run course.

Check out how HUGE the crowd was on the course...this is just the grandstands at the finish line...they were SOOOO loud and energetic!!

That's Manny on the right...running to 20th place for his first World Cup point!

Alicia and I after the race in Hungary. We're standing in front of the finish line waiting for the men to enter town on their bikes!

I Actually AM Alive!!!

It’s been a long time since my last blog post…and I have a good reason: I’ve been HORRIBLY SICK since the race finished! I’ve finally got enough energy to pick up my computer and type a few words about the race on Sunday and what I’ve been doing since then!
The Tiszaujvaros World Cup started at 10:30am on Sunday morning…it rained a lot the night before the race so we had lovely overcast skies to deal with. I was very happy with the weather because it meant cool temperatures for the whole day…especially during the run when I need it the most.
I planned on working together with my friend Leanda Cave (from Great Britain) on the swim and get a strong lead on the bike…but during the swim, her swim suit got caught on a tree branch and she lost contact with the draft from my feet! So, I made the mistake of trying to work together with a strong runner…she eventually stopped working hard on the bike…so I rode hard on my own for most of the ride!
It was good for publicity and moral…but when I was caught by the chase pack…I knew it was a runner’s race again! Off the bike and onto the 4 lap, flat, fast run through the middle of town. It was so cool to see so many people on the course cheering…I couldn’t understand much of the cheering b/c it wasn’t in English, but it was still motivating:)
I finished the race in 16th place…accomplished both of my race goals: 1 – finish above my starting number of 19; 2 – finish in the top half of the women so that I would earn my swim prime!
Now the real story starts! After the race I had a great time cheering for all the American men in their race…in order of finishing: Manny, Matt, Timmy, Dave, Haven, Victor. By the time they finished it was actually pretty chilly outside and I went for a relaxing moment in my room to shower and change for one last dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant.
At 8:30pm, I was lined up for the awards presentation on the stage in the town square…they brought the top 20 finishers on stage in front of about a thousand Hungarian fans! I’m thankful to Leanda (who was my roommate) for talking me out of going to the all night dance party because I was already feeling a bit sick. I got to bed at a reasonable time and had 7 hours of sleep before catching my 6:45am shuttle bus to the Budapest airport.
When my alarm went off, right away I knew that I had a cold…my sinuses were messed up and I could feel my lungs filling up with junk. I made sure to drink a LOT of water during the trip back to Germany…and even felt good enough to go on a light bike ride in the afternoon around the Sembach base. But that was the end…
I woke up on Tuesday morning and could barely move. I actually went to the pool for morning swim practice and floated through 4000 meters…bad idea. When I got back to my room…I crawled into bed and didn’t wake up for 7 hours! All I could do was MOAN, SLEEP, and DRINK water! Forget training…forget eating…forget working on my computer. Around dinner time I managed to eat something…and then crawled back into bed for an uninterrupted 11 hours of sleep!!
Now it’s Wednesday morning…and things are looking and feeling a bit better! I woke up and went swimming again…could barely make half the practice, but it felt good to stretch out. We stopped at the Grocery store on the way home…so now I have food to make all my meals instead of paying for the unhealthy restaurant food. I even turned on my computer and checked email and wrote this blog. I’ve completed a 30 minute jog with Alicia on the beautiful trails around the base and we are planning an easy 1 hour bike in a few minutes:)!

Day Before the Race

Day before the race.
Slept in until 9am
Went to the lobby with Leanda for breakfast
After eating, got my computer for a bit on e-mail checking
Met with the ITU Media people for an interview…you can watch it online here
There’s also a nice pre-race article at insidetriathlon.com
Watched some TV
Biked to the swim course
Swam in the fast-flowing river Tisza
Biked home and around the course once
Took a nap
Jogged for 20 minutes
Showered
Got dressed
Went to dinner with friends
Ate my special pre-race meal
Walked back to the hotel and checked more email
Will write again after the race:)

There's Camille, my favorite IronKid, on top of the podium in Louisville, CO. She won her age group, so did her sister Bryn...and they were both in Brideport, CT last weekend cheering for me...Thanks Girls:)

Sara & Sarah - together again! That's me after the race in Bridgeport, Conn last weekend with my old triathlon buddy: Sarah Bickerstaff! We met when we were 9 years old at IronKids...she's working for Snapple drinks and lived right down the road from the race...thanks for CHEERING SARAH!

2 Days in Hungary

Thursday, August 10th
My alarm was set for 5am today, I wanted to do a short jog in the morning before driving to the Frankfurt airport for my 9:10am flight to Budapest. Unfortunately, when I looked out the window at 5am, it was still very dark and raining hard…I made the easy decision to go right back to sleep!
30 minutes later, I was awake again to meet Manny, John, Jarrod, and Alicia at the rental van (thank goodness we had loaded the BIG bike boxes last night!). We all slept most of the drive to the airport, since I’d already seen that part of the countryside, I didn’t feel like I was missing much:)…and as soon as I got onto the plane, I did some more sleeping…and then after we got our luggage and loaded into the Triathlon vans, I slept the whole 2 hour drive to Tiszaujavros!
Backing up a little bit in my story…I forgot that I had my bike multi-tool in my rolly bag…and I tried to carry it onto the plane! Fortunately, since it’s the ONLY bike tool that I own, they allowed me to check my entire rolly bag at the gate! It was only after we landed in Budapest that we started hearing all about the arrests made in London of the terrorists plotters!! Surprisingly, all the events in London did not have an effect on traveling in Germany or Hungary…we will see how things are during the return trip…right now, people are only allowed to carry their ticket and passport onto planes in London.
The drive from Budapest to the little race town was quite long…but since I napped the whole way, it was just a bit uncomfortable. I checked into my hotel room…paying for my half of the room for 4 nights was not very painful…it came out to 16,000 Hungarian Franks, or about $81:), that’s about half of ONE night in the USA! But, then you have to take into account that I AM in a $20 a night hotel room…yikes!
I went for a nice run workout on a dirt path along a levy on the edge of town, it was sunny outside but not to hot…no matter what the temperature, getting into the pool after my run sure felt nice! There is a beautiful 25 meter pool that costs about $3 to enter and about ¼ mile from the hotel.
For dinner, I met up with Manny and Timmy…they are two and three doors down from me on the 6th floor…and we walked to a DELICIOUS Italian restaurant for dinner. I think I might have paid $8 for appetizer, meal, drink and tip. After dinner we stopped a the grocery store for some snack foods and water…I’ve been told that the tap water is okay to drink but I don’t want to take too many chances, it tastes a bit funny too.

Friday, August 11th
I’m sound asleep (which is a gift in itself on these ‘beds’) and suddenly I wake up because the TV has just turned on! So I roll over and there’s Leanda (my roommate) trying to figure out how to turn it off! She is from England and was supposed to fly from the London/Heathrow airport…but if you’ve seen any of the news, all flights there were canceled because of the terrorist threat! So she bussed over to London/Gatwick and caught a flight to Budapest…arriving around 1am and then taking the 2 hour drive…which explains why she was trying to turn off the TV at 3am:)! As soon as we got it off, we both went right back to sleep until around 10am…just in time for the free continental breakfast in the lobby!
After breakfast I went to work on unpacking and building my bike…5 minutes later, I was ready to ride:)! The bike box that Jessica Jones let me borrow for this trip is amazing…if I didn’t have to pay $500 for my own, I would buy one! Leanda and I headed out to ride and she took me down to the swim start and then we rode the course back into town. (Short version of the bike course: we swim in the river outside of town, get on our bikes, ride 10k into town, and then ride a 5k loop through town 6 times for a total of 40k). It’s very technical and very flat (my two favorite descriptive words for a bike course…least favorite are ‘hilly’ and ‘out-and-back’).
Along with checking out the bike course, I made sure to check out the town and take mental photos for myself…who knows if I’ll ever visit Hungary again! It’s NOT America, that’s for sure…there is a very strong Soviet and Communist influence about the town, cars, food, dress, etc. And EVERY SINGLE PERSON smokes cigarettes…it’s awful…I wonder if they are educated to the dangers of first and second-hand smoke?!?
After snacking in the room for lunch, I biked over to the pool for a short swim. This time I couldn’t sneak in and actually had to pay the $3…but it was worth it to feel better in the pool today than I did yesterday (I actually thought I was going backwards yesterday after all that traveling:).
Back in the hotel I grabbed a shower while Leanda got a massage. When she got back, we headed across the street for the ITU Pre Race Briefing. Nothing really exciting in the meeting: basic instructions, race course details, time schedules, etc. I picked up my race numbers and had a nice surprise…I made it into the “teens” with number 19!!! That’s the lowest number that I’ve been in a World Cup (remind you…this is only my THIRD WC and I was in the “twenties” for Ishigaki and Corner Brook:)… I hope to finish lower than my race number because that would mean I had a great race!
I’ve finally caught up to ‘present time’ and I’m sitting on my ‘bed’ and typing…unfortunately, there is no wireless internet access so I think this blog will be one massive post upon my return to Germany. I’ve got dinner reservations at 7pm with Leanda, Timmy, Matt, Haven and Manny at the Italian restaurant…chow!

2 Thumbs Up for Sembach!

I’ve been at the base for a little over 24 hours now…and I’m already packed up to leave in the morning! I’ve got a 9am flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Budapest, Hungary. Upon arrival, I’ve got another 2 hour drive to look forward to…the little town where the race is located does not have an airport (I even think that Budapest might be the ONLY airport for Hungary:).
So far this trip has been amazing…I’ve competed well at the first race…nothing too dramatic happened during traveling…and the Sembach base is really nice! We’ve moved into our rooms (as you can see by my photos) and we each get a whole room to ourselves! Unfortunately, if you can tell by the ‘countryside’ photo…I’m quite a bit off the ground…4th floor to be exact and they DO NOT have elevators, just stairs!! Not a problem if I wasn’t transporting a 70lbs BIKE BOX to and from my room…but thank goodness for friends and training partners to grab the other end and help carry it up 9 flights of stairs.
I’ve been on two bike rides…in different directions both times…and it’s just so much fun. There are signs every couple of kilometers to YIELD TO BIKES so the drivers are very aware and give plenty of space when passing. I’ve also seen TONS of other cyclists out on the roads so the American Triathletes are nothing new to this area:).
Jarrod, Manny, Alicia, and I all have our bike boxes loaded into the rental van (John Crawley is here as coaching staff to drive:) and I’ve got my alarm set for an early morning wake up…I’m hoping to get a 20-30 minute jog completed before I shower and hop in the van to the airport.
I’m not sure what kind of housing I’m going to be in during this World Cup in Hungary…it’s like 20 dollars a night (split between two people)…Leanda Cave is my roommate so we might be sharing a small space!! Good night and I will be writing next time from another country!!

This is the inside of my room...really nice, built for two people and I've got it all to myself...that's why everything is spread out from wall to wall:) Thanks to Jessica Jones for lending me her HUGE bike box for this trip...I couldn't have made it without!!

This is the view of the Germany countryside from my room. That is the cafeteria building right in front (not too far of a walk:). The biking here is amazing...country roads with lots of trees and farms...I look forward to seeing '3 hour bike ride' on my training schedule next week!

The Bad Day That Wouldn't End

I’ve just drug myself out of bed after an amazing 12 hours of un-interrupted sleep and I thought I would let the world know about it:)! In order to understand the importance of last night…you have to read about my previous two nights of ‘sleep’. Sunday night is recounted in a post below…and Monday night will be included in this post!
After my nice jog on Monday morning, I drove Manny down to the beach so he could swim while Barrett and I rode the race bike course 3 times…thank goodness the race was over because we had some stiff head winds that were not fun. After training, we grabbed lunch (for the 5th and last time) at Quizno’s and then started packing our bikes and bags to check out of the hotel.
We got on the road towards NYC around 3:30pm…plenty of time to get to the airport so we thought we could stop in Manhattan for a few minutes to kill time. That idea was tossed when we got on I-95 towards the airport and sat in 5mph traffic for 2 hours! It was miserable…especially since I was driving the tank (aka a mini van) filled with bike boxes, luggage, and people. So all our extra time was spent on the freeway…we did pull off once to find a Starbucks for coffee and chocolate to keep our spirits up:).
We got to the airport around 5:30…about 4 hours till our flight…and left Barrett at the check-in counter with ALL our luggage while Manny navigated me to the ‘off-site’ rental-car return. Of course we managed to get lost a few times in the Bronx…but that just made this story better.
I filled up the gas tank about 2 miles from the Enterprise location, but when I started driving the gas gauge needle decided to have a mind of its own…it would just move randomly back-and-forth between empty and ¾ full (never all the way over to F, though). I KNOW it was full because I topped it off at the station (right where they have BIG signs saying: ‘Do Not Top Off’)!!! At least the guy at the car rental place believed me when I told him the tank was full…I think he did…
Back at the airport, we found Barrett with our bags and bike boxes and got in line to check into our Lufthansa flight. I was the first one at the counter but when I handed my passport tot the lady, she said they had NO record of me on the flight to Frankfurt!! My heart went ‘thud-thud’ but I kept my cool and started calling people at USAT to find a solution. I finally got in touch with Scott who got in touch with the United travel agency that booked our flights. They called me back and spoke to the Lufthansa people via my cell phone…and finally found my ticket…now I could check in!
Of course, they weren’t going to let me get on the plane without taking me for all I was worth to get my bike box on the plane…so I had to go over and put $210 on my credit card at a different desk. They ran my credit card once, but when it didn’t go through, I asked them to try it again. After two denials, I tried another card, which was successful. I immediately got on the phone with my original card company to find out what the problem was…the charge from Lufthansa was coming to them through Germany…so I had them note that I would be in Germany, Hungary, and Switzerland over the next month.
The day-with-too-many-problems was not over yet…I had to go through the EXTRA security line before getting to the gate for our 9:10pm flight to Frankfurt. At Gate 4, we heard an announcement that the flight was going to be delayed a few minutes so we had time to grab some dinner before boarding. Once on the plane, I had my first good moment of the day: the plane was about ¼ full so I got an entire middle row of 4 seats ALL to MYSELF! I was already stretching out to sleep…but then the Captain came on the intercom and said we were last in a LONG line of planes for take-off…it must have been one heck of a line because we sat for 2 HOURS before finally getting off the ground!!
I actually don’t remember a bit of the flight because I was sound asleep on my row…we landed 2 hours late in Frankfurt…breezed through customs (I got a new stamp in my passport:)…picked up our luggage and bike boxes…and then loaded into the van with one coach and 2 athletes who had been waiting 6 hours for us to arrive!!
It was about a 1 hour drive to the Air Force base at Sembach…I looked out the window the whole time to take in the sights of Germany…beautiful fields and trees mostly. The base is really nice too…out in the middle of nowhere, not to busy, and it has great roads in every direction for biking! Photos will be posted soon!

Bridgeport Triathlon

The website for the results from the Bridgeport Triathlon can be found here!

I Just Want Sleep!!

We finally decided to watch the free movies on HBO and TBS last night, saved me a bit of money, and finally turned out the lights around 11:30. I was so tired from training, driving, and recovering from the race….all I wanted was a solid 10 hours of sleep!
But I definitely didn’t get what I wanted! First, the hotel’s fire alarm went off at 3am for 10 minutes!! It was interspersed with a staff member telling us that it was an accident and we should stay in our rooms…the ridiculous part was the 10 minutes of letting the alarm continue to go off! So I finally got back to sleep…just in time for Manny’s phone to start beeping that the battery was low!! ARRRGGGHHHH! I finally made him find it and I plugged it into my charger (good thing all three of us have the same phones:). So I finally got back to sleep…just in time for my computer to start making some kinds of noises because it was updating or something. I was about to just give up on my goal of sleeping…but I easily fell back asleep. UNTIL…Manny’s phone started RINGING!!! At this point it was 8:30 am so it wasn’t really an ‘early’ phone call…but since we all still wanted sleep, I got up and hit the silence button for another 30 minutes of sleep!
Around 9am we were all ready to wake up and head out for some training. I had a great 50 minute jog into the town of Stratford, CT…it rained last night so it was quite humid, but also cool because the skies were still overcast.
On another note, Saturday after the race, I saw Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby! HILLARIOUS!! I thought I would fall asleep in a movie because I was so tired after the race…but there was no thoughts of sleep for me, just lots of laughter:)!

From Connecticut

I’m sitting in my hotel room with Manny Huerta and Barrett Brandon. We’re trying to decide what movie to watch…it’s hard for three people to agree and make a decision. Anyways, I’ve got these two guys in my room because all my other U23 teammates have gone home after the Saturday triathlon and we are staying in Connecticut until our 9:10pm flight to Frankfurt, Germany on Monday. I’ve got a rental mini van as our transportation…around town for dinner…to nice areas for training rides…and into New York’s JFK airport for our flight tomorrow night. The room is a bit smelly with sweaty workout clothes, wet bathing suits, random food stuffs, etc…but I won't carry on about that for too much longer…not a pleasant topic of writing:).
I guess I should get onto some sort of story about the race yesterday:)…it went really well!! Basically, I had a “Plan A,” and that was to work together with another strong swimmer to build a strong lead into the run. Unfortunately, that plan went down the drain because my transition was too fast (never thought that would be a bad thing:). I had a “Plan B,” and that was to ride solo on the bike and keep my lead going into the run. Unfortunately, that plan was flushed because the chase pack actually worked hard to catch me. So it turned into a pack of 10 getting off the bike and starting the run…basically my “Plan Y,” a running race for Sara McLarty! But there is no ‘unfortunately’ for this plan because I had a KICK BUTT RUN and finished in 2nd place!! That finish puts me into the lead of the “Haul to the Wall” series…now it comes down to the Westchester race on September 17th where I will work with my teammate Jasmine Oeinck to finish FIRST and SECOND in the series!

Photos from IronKids awards ceremony on Sunday...10 years ago I was ON the podium (and 20 years ago Hunter was on the podium:)

Dustin - The Fish!

The USA Swimming National Championships are taking place this week in Irvine, California. The meet started on Tuesday. My lil’bro is competing in 4 events and started off with a BANG in the 400IM last night. He swam a best time in the prelim heats: 4:25 and was seeded 12th in the finals. Whatever he did between prelims and finals was a good thing because he came back at night and WON the ‘B’ heat! So he’s a Conci King:) Oh yeah, and he swam another best time: 4:23!!!! Studly!
Keep track of Dustin…and the other Gators and Daytona Beach Speed swimmers on the live results page at OMEGA Timing.

My Credit Card is on FIRE

I think I set a personal record yesterday…by spending over $300 in less than 45 minutes! The majority of that went to the UCCS book store for a HUGE stack of reading materials for my two MBA classes that start in a few weeks. I had to purchase my books early and I’ve already packed a few to take with me to Europe because the classes start on August 21st. One professor was nice…only one text for the Economics class. But for the “Leading and Managing” class I’ve got 4 books and a packet of CDs…causes a bit of pain in my wallet! $197 disappeared at that register.
On the drive home I stopped for gas (not loving my SUV right now) and it was $2.93 per gallon. I’ve heard that Colorado is pretty low compared to the rest of the country…well, if $2.93 is low, I feel sorry for everyone else. $40 disappeared at that register.
The last place on my list was Colorado Cyclist for some bike supplies, a chain and a grease injector to be exact. Neither of those items was cheap or on sale and $63 dollars disappeared at that register!
Tonight I went to a yummy Mexican restaurant with a group of friends. We were having a small ‘good-bye’ party for Mark Fretta who has decided to leave the OTC and start law school! It was a restaurant I’ve never visited before…and I look forward to going back:) Mark broke his collar bone in a crash about 1 month ago…I guess he’s decided that that marked the end of his triathlon career. I wish him the best of luck!

Yep...that is exactly what it looks like...stacks and stacks and stacks of clothes on my bed! Now I just have to find a place to pack it all...this is the first thing I accomplished in the process of getting ready for my Europe trip! Some will go in my luggage bag and the rest will go in a box that I'm shipping to myself in Germany!