Race Day in Reverse

I’m in the Geneva Airport in Switzerland. They were so thoughtful when they designed these ‘Power Stations” for people to recharge their electronics…but of course they don’t have FREE wireless internet…that would be too much to ask for:)! But at least I’m not draining my computer battery while I type my post race report and this blog.
My flight from Geneva to Frankfurt leaves in about an hour. I wish I didn’t have to spend so much time in the airport before my flight, but since we had to take a train here from Lausanne…we are at the mercy of the train schedules! Taking the train with my BIG bike box was not a problem because they are very athlete/activity friendly in Europe and have places on trains to hold bikes and such. Now, getting onto the plane with my BIG bike box…is never such a pleasure. I had to pay a nice large fee for checking my bike in today.
Going backwards in time…last night I had a great time with my friends, teammates, and competitors at the post-race party/dinner in Lausanne. We walked down to the lake and found the huge tent where they were serving dinner, awards, drinks and dancing. I didn’t stay out as late as some people…my body needed some rest and a good night’s sleep after the race and all the cheering…I’ve got another big race in 7 days to focus on!
Backwards in time again…I almost missed the whole dinner. Thanks to Jasmine for waking me up from my nap just in time to walk down with her, Manny and Lesley. I was exhausted and took a solid nap from 6pm until 7:45.
Backwards again…after my race was over and I gathered up all my gear, Jasmine and I walked up to our hotel and cheered for the Elite women’s race at the same time. They were biking up the hill as we were walking so we got to cheer for a few laps. Between laps, I ran into the hotel and took a quick shower with the TV volume up as loud as possible because the race was broadcast live on channel 2 (which was a useless action because the broadcast was in French:)!
Jaz and I stuck together the rest of the day running all around the race site cheering for all our American teammates. The women raced solid and Laura was 8th, the top USA woman. The next race was the Elite men…we cheered on the hill during the bike and on an out-and-back section of the run. The USA men’s top finish was Hunter in 7th after a non-USA group broke away on the bike and had a substantial lead starting the run. The final race of the day was the U23 boys…and Jaz and I cheered with all the energy we had left! Manny was the top USA finisher in 6th place after a fantastic run.
Backwards once more…the U23 women’s race started at 7:30am. We still had cloud cover and cool air from the night before. I exited the water in first place and rode two laps on the bike by myself. When the chase pack caught me, I couldn’t hang on up the hills so I got dropped. I started the run with the second pack of women and still in the top 10. Right at the end…400 meters to the finish line…one girl passed me and I finished 11th overall! Jasmine had a great race and finished 7th!