I Want to Go Back to New Zealand

My trip to New Zealand was SOOOO short! I'm already back in Noosa, Australia...I regret booking my flights so close before and after the triathlon race on Saturday. What an amazing and beautiful country...and I really didn't see much more than the downtown area of Wellington and the race course!
This announcement might be a bit premature, but I'm quite serious when I write it: I am planning on backpacking around the country for the month of December!!! More news and details to follow soon.
This blog is going to be short and to-the-point because I'm quite tired and need a quick nap before tackling the fun and smelly task of unpacking my bike box:).
My race was AMAZING! It was the New Zealand National Championships in Wellington. I finished in 2nd place behind Samantha Warriner (the top Kiwi woman) and in front of Jasmine Oeinck (my teammate and roommate)! The 4 American women in the race all finished in the top 10 overall...the red, white and blue rocked!
The race was a bit scary because we woke up to 60kph+ winds on Saturday morning. 99% of the race course was unsheltered from the wind...the harbor where we swam was full of chop and huge swells...we were battered by headwinds, left winds, right winds, and tailwinds on the bike (I'm very thankful that I didn't have any fancy deep-rimmed-race-wheels!)...the entire run course was on the pier with no protection from the wind gusts! Our final time was incredibly SLOW because of the uncooperative weather but you can see the top 10 results on the ITU website.
It's bike-building time so that I can get outside and do a bit of a cool-down-spin-out from the race. There's no rest for the weary...especially the weary who also want to do well at another race in 2 weeks in Japan:)

Tri Kids...I Need Your Help!

Hey kids...the next issue of USA Triathlon Life Magazine is about to be published. Do you want to help me and get your name in print?
I asked a question in the first issue..."What is your favorite Post-Race food?" We need some more answers for my next column!
Send in your name, age, hometown and favorite post-race food to Jason at USAT. His email is communications@usatriathlon.org. Make sure you put "Sara's Question" in the subject line!

Pre-Race Week

This week is my 'pre-race week'...I depart for the Wellington, New Zealand Triathlon on Thursday afternoon. The race starts mid-day on Saturday and I return early Sunday morning.
After a bit of a illness and some sore/achy muscles last week, I'm playing it safe and resting a lot!
On Monday, I woke up and the weather was just WEIRD! The wind was insane, the sky was dark, it was even cold enough to put on my PANTS to go watch a movie in town. I saw "Freedom Writers" again (movies come out about 4 months late in Australia!) and had an amazing lunch at Cafe Karma in Noosa Junction. After the movie, I had a session with Toby...he's been the team masseuse for the duration of this trip but I will call my time with him 'sessions' not actual massages b/c I'm in an unbelievable amount of pain (not pleasure) for the half hour on the table.
I actually woke up on Tuesday with the intention to exercise! I know that I am finally remotivated when I wake up before my alarm and I look forward to the group ride. I didn't stay with the team for the whole ride because everyone else was doing a long, flush-out ride after their races...my workout was 5x4 minute efforts at race pace in my aerobars! Speaking of bikes...I've got a date today with my Litespeed to give it a bit of love and maintenance before traveling to race this weekend. I think I'm going to change my rear cassette for the massive hill on the course, clean my chain, tighten my headset, put on new tires, etc, etc.
After my bike ride, I hopped in the van with Jasmine and John for a long drive to the Brisbane airport to find Jasmine's lost bike box. 90 minutes to get there, 30 minutes to find out that it is actually arriving on Wednesday, 30 minutes to grab a quick lunch, and then 90 minutes driving back to Noosa. We arrived just in time to grab our swim gear and hurry over to the pool for afternoon practice. After a few laps in the sunshine, I changed into my run gear and went for a short jog while everyone else headed to the grocery store. I knew that my cupboards had almost enough food to get me to my Wellington departure so I took a scooter to the closer grocery store for some yogurt and apples.
Last night was the 3rd day of the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne. Talk about being in the right country at the right time...they show the finals LIVE EVERY NIGHT on the national TV network. I've been cheering on all my friends and former teammates...bragging that I KNOW those guys and girls. There were 4 world records broken last night and the Americans took 4-out-of-5 gold medal up for grabs! Ryan Lochte (my DBS and Gator teammate) swam in lane 4 of the finals of the 100 backstroke...on Tuesday night he was the fastest person in the semi-finals with a new championship record. Tonight there will be more stellar swims to watch while we're eating dinner...I can only keep my fingers crossed that New Zealand will have some coverage of the meet...if not, I can watch the recaps when I get back to Noosa.

Latest Article on www.USAT.org

Last night, I sent another "Noosa Update" to the media and communications people at USAT (a.k.a. Jason) and it's already posted on the USAT website! I gave a little recap of the whole weekend of racing in Mooloolaba and Thailand. I will get some photos of Tim's sliced toe and post them soon. He's sound asleep after a big day of traveling back to Noosa and then spending the afternoon in the hospital passed out while they stitched his toe back together! When he finally got back, it was all bandaged up. I'm waiting for the bandage removal for some sweet GORE shots! Apparently, as the story goes, he was bleeding so much on the bike that it soaked his cycling shoe and it was splattering on his bike and other people in the race. Then, on the run, he was squirting it out of his soaked running shoe on every step. He's a Navy guy, that should explain it!

USAT Podcast

Last week I was in print...this week I'm being podcast! Check out my 5 minute and 54 second interview at Endurance Planet. The day before I flew to Australia (Feburary 21st) the guys from Endurance Planet (now partnered with USAT) stopped by the pool to interview a few of the National Team members for future podcasts. Sarah Korteum's interview was up last week...scroll down on the website to find hers. I will make one comment: Please ignore the amazingly awful photo of me attached to my podcast...my excuse is that I just got out of bed:)
I also admit that I sound a bit arrogant regarding my swimming ability in triathlons...but we are all guilty of that once in a while. Until Ashley Carusone graduates from UF and joins me in the tri world (hurry up Ash:), I guess I can maintain my unbeaten 'first out of the water' record!

Photo Journal from Mooloolaba Events

Mooloolaba Beach...Saturday around 11:30am...after I swam the 1K Open Water swim. It was a fun race with lots of waves to swim under going seaward and then body-surf on the way in to shore! Even with the World Swimming Champs happening in Melbourne right now and the Lifesaving National Champs happening on the West Coast...there was still some TOUGH competition!

The awards ceremony...I finished in 2nd place and won $250AUS! (that should pay for a few more days of groceries down here:) Talk about a SMALL world...the girl on my left side, an Australian also named Sara, held the 200 meter obstacle swim world record that I broke last year in Geelong!! I was the "Lane 4 timer" for her world record when she swam in Daytona Beach in 2004, then I met her at the meet in Geelong, and we ran into each other again on a beach in Mooloolaba!!

This was the start of today's EPIC adventure of WATCHING people race! Since Haven and I were the only two Americans not competing in a triathlon today, we decided to be awesome teammates and cheer for everyone else. Unfortunately, that required us to wake up at 4am to get a ride with Dave, Nate, and Mike who started in the age-group race at 6:30am. Photo above of the race leaders (Greg Bennett in 2nd place, eventual winner).

See this cafe table under the umbrella? See the chairs? See Haven sitting there? That is exactly where he and I spent 12 HOURS today! We staked out this table yesterday and claimed it at 6am this morning. It was the most perfect viewing spot in Mooloolaba: shade, chairs, food, free water, 3 steps from the bike and run race course barricades, unobstructed view of the LIVE big screen TV, hearing range of the announcer, near a 180 degree turn on the bike so everyone was going slow enough for us to cheer, front and center for great people-watching when the races weren't happening, nick-named 'home base'!!

Finally, the World Cup started! The women started at 11am (HOT!) and tore it up in the heat! That's Laura Bennett heading out for the first bike lap...she finished as the top American woman in 9th place!

People watching is lots of fun when you spot people you know! That's Yasmine and I...she's the top American junior from last year...she has been training with another group of American athletes south of Brisbane.

Mikey and Dave chowing down on some Fish & Chips...perfect refueling after a grueling Olympic Distance triathlon in the morning and good energy to run around the down-town of Mooloolaba cheering for the Americans in the World Cup!

Matty Reed and Brian Flash about half way through the run (these guys had it tough...they started at 1:30pm and raced until 3:15ish)!! Matty was our top American male finisher today!

Twilight 5K Recap

I'm a bit tired at the moment...this is going to be short and sweet. It's almost 9pm...I need to get some sleep for tomorrow's swim race!
We left Noosa at 2pm...most of the people traveling to Mooloolaba were the World Cup athletes. When we parked at 2:30, they had about 2 hours to do some training, check out the water conditions, grab some food, and then attend the pre-race meeting at 4:30.
That left Haven and I (the non-WC athletes) about 3 hours to kill until our 6pm race start. We hung out watching the waves (they were BIG...it's going to make for an interesting race start on Sunday)! We wandered through the race expo, grabbed a bit to eat, and then checked in and got our timing chip and number. I was number 24.
With about 50 minutes until race start, I headed out for a long warm up...my legs and hips have been pretty sore and I wanted to make sure they were warm and loose before I ran hard. We checked out the race course...surprise...there's a nice big hill in the middle! So we had to run up and down the hill 3 times...I planned that into my pacing strategy: "don't go too hard too fast or I'm going to die on the last lap!"
The race started on time...it was a crowded start with little kids sprinting out front like they always do. I hung back on the first lap and then started inching past people...mainly keeping track of how many women were in front of me. On the final lap, I realized that I was pretty cemented in 4th place so I mental backed off from killing myself for money (top 3 only) but finished hard enough that I didn't even glance at the time clock...I did hear them announcing me as the "Aquathlon World Champion" though:).
As I staggered through the finish shoot and kept walking down the road for a cool down, Haven was waiting and said he thought I finished at 18:0? !! Sweet! I can't believe that I ran a BEST TIME on that tough course! Big smiles here:) The 18:0? (7ish we think) has also been confirmed by my roommate Margie. Now, I'm on my computer and I looked up the results which have already been posted on the race website...and I had a good laugh because it says I finished in 16:29...haha! All the times are really weird...the first place girl apparently went a 14:55 and Haven ran a 14:21! Hopefully they will be fixed and I can see my official finish time soon.
After the race I did a bit of cool-down jogging and then showered and changed into dry clothes (even though the race was at 'twilight' it was still maddeningly hot and humid and I was completely drenched)! After a few minutes of relaxing, my appetite came back and I had time to order a chicken kebab before cramming in the team van for a ride home.
That's my story...now I'm going to climb into bed and crash until my alarm goes off for the morning group ride! I've got to bust out a 2.5 hour hard ride tomorrow morning from 6-8:30am and manage to shower, eat, pack, and depart by 9am for Mooloolaba again. The swim race starts at 10:30am...wish me luck, there's prize money and personal-body-surfing-revenge on the line for me at this one!

Weekend of Racing

Tomorrow night I am running in the Asics Twilight 5km Run in Mooloolaba. Check out the race map...it's 3 laps, about 1 mile per lap. I'm not sure what the course is like regarding hills, I haven't actually been to Mooloolaba yet. The team did a training ride to the town during the weekend I was in Geelong to race...last week the boy's bike group ended up riding all the way to Mooloolaba and back...earlier this week the Mooloolaba racers went and trained on the bike and run course...but it's just me that hasn't seen it yet! It should be fun to actually get down there tomorrow for the race. We'll be arriving a bit early (the 5km race starts at 6pm) because the World Cup athletes have their pre-race meeting at 4pm. I guess that means we will have some spectators/friends to cheer for the USA contingent in the race...me, Haven, Cliff, and John!! After the race I imagine we will grab some dinner in town before driving back to Noosa for a good night's sleep.
Saturday morning I will be up early (like normal) for the usual group ride that hauls butt down the coastal road and back at break-neck speed. After completely destroying my legs for the 5th week in a row...I'll do a quick change at the Sunseeker and then jump into a van heading back to Mooloolaba. At 10:30am I'll be running into the ocean for the start of the Peregian Springs 1km Open Water Swim...check out the race map! The course is shaped like and "M" and it looks like we actually have to run out of the water onto the beach in the middle of the race! Thankfully I've been rocking the body-surfing practice so I should be 'okay'! We might have some USA team spectators at this race...the guys racing the Mooloolaba age-group race on Sunday morning have to rack their bikes on Saturday: Dave, Nate, and Mike.
Unfortunately, my relay team didn't come together in time (the race filled up before we entered:( so I wont be doing another open water swim on Sunday morning...I'll just be training and then cheering for the World Cup athletes. Don't forget that you can watch/listen to the Mooloolaba WC race live online. I'm not sure what time it will be in the USA when they are racing (probably between 9pm and 1am on the East Coast) but if you're really dedicated you will postpone sleep to watch Team USA kick butt!

USA Triathlon Newswire

Two things must be explained, then I will show how they are connected.
First, USAT has a bi-weekly e-newsletter that they send to members...it was in my inbox this morning.
Second, yesterday I wrote and sent a short 'Noosa Training Camp report' to Jason at USAT...he is in charge of all the media and magazines.
Connection...Jason published my report!! When I clicked on the newsletter in my inbox, I had a quick flash of hope that maybe it was included. I scrolled down a few inches...and there was my report: Elite Update: McLarty Reports from ‘Down Under’

The 4th resident in Room 2 at the Sunseeker Vacation Apartments...yeah, he's HUGE and we don't know where he is right now!

We had a team BBQ on Sunday night...lots of good food and laughter in the ocean breeze. Turkey/beef burgers from the grill, salad, fruit salad, bread, hummus, berry crisp, chips, appetizers, etc. It was enough to feed an army...an army of triathletes that is:)!

Thanks to Margie for this pretty photo from the upstairs apartment at the Sunseeker...it just shows where we are in location to the beach...just up the hill. I'm just jealous of the houses that are between us and the beach!

On the return trip from Maleny, we stopped at a waterfall that was just a short hike from the road. The water was a very refreshing temperature and jumping from the rocks into the bubbles was exhilarating! The photo is Jasmine taking the plunge!

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Australia...we were rocking the GREEN...of course everyone wanted a Guinness! Becky is taking the photo, her husband Brian is next to me, then Matt, Haven, Cliff, Jazzy, Mike, and Margie.

Getting some sun on the Sunshine Beach! This is a 2 minute (downhill) walk from the back door of our apartments! First we got rocked by some waves during our body-surfing competition...then we spent some time turning the 'cycling tans' into 'bikini tans'.

Monday was a complete day-off...this group took advantage of some free time and we set out in the van to explore. Someone at a local coffee shop told us to visit the cute town of Maleny. It was a 1 hour drive from Noosa...but as you can tell, the 1 hour was spent admiring some beautiful views of the countryside, complete with stops for group-scenic-photos!

Tonight we surprised Manny with a birthday celebration!! He will be 23 years old on March 22nd...and he will spend the whole day traveling from Sydney to Bangkok for a race in Thailand. I baked a little chocolate/vanilla swirl cake...tested out our oven's baking abilities (definitely not up to par...burnt the edges of my whole cake)!

USAT Photo Shoot

About a week ago we had a 'photo shoot' for the Noosa newspaper. They wrote a short article 3 days ago about our group..."the American triathletes in town training for the World Cup." This wasn't the photo that made it into the paper, but it's a nice group shot with the big blue ocean and the cloudless sky in the background.

Noosa Photos

Haven, Jasmine, Mike and I are frequent visitors to the Cafe at the bottom of this hill..."Costa Noosa". It's nice to just get outside and take a short walk for some good coffee (or iced chocolate, which ever you prefer:)
























That's me (just stating the obvious) on the very end point of a great running trail in the Noosa National Park. Yesterday, I carried my camera with me during my easy run so I could capture the great views! Just think, across that small ocean behind me is 'home':)
























Another view from the point...this is one of the many beaches near us. You've got to hike through a bit of the Forest/Park...but it's kinda worth the trip to be somewhere this beautiful.































Just a random shot of the cool running trails that are right near our apartments. It only takes 5 minutes to get to the trail head. The only thing is...you've got to stare at the ground in front of your feet the entire time or else you are going to face plant. Lots of rocks, roots, soft sand, leaves, etc...but it is very soft and hilly...both good things for training!

























That's Haven entering the forest trails...he joined me for the 'easy-photo-taking-jog' yesterday (how else did I get the self-portrait above??:)






























Jasmine and Margie, my two roommates, returning from their own run in the forest trails. The first thing we usually do after running is dive into the hotel pool to cool off!

























An Australian Wild Turkey. They wander all over the place! Right outside our apartment, on the porch, in the forest, everywhere! I feel like I'm back at home in DeLand because we have families of Florida wild turkeys that wander through the yard (the cats are so scared of birds bigger than they are:)

























Manny on the 'community computer' in my room. It's a good thing I lugged this 10 pound thing all the way around the world or a LOT of people would be cut off from the rest of the world! What did we do before email?!?

I'm in Print!

Finally! I've just heard that my first column in the USA Triathlon Life magazine has been published and mailed to all the USAT members! I'm so excited...and the best part is...I won't see it for another month:)! Oh well, I know what I wrote so that's not the surprise. My column is in the Youth section of the magazine (so your kids/nieces/nephews/etc will probably be the ones reading it) and it's interactive where the kids can send in questions to me for future publications! My Florida friend, Carly, is officially the first 'question asker'...I got it in an email today...thanks Carly:)
Today was a tough day of training...just like most every day since I've arrived in Noosa! I was up at 5 am for some breakfast, dressed in cycling gear and set out running gear, joined the Tuesday morning group ride (very hilly), hammered it up and down the roads in Noosa Shire (a Shire is equivalent to a county in the USA), rode back to my apartment, quick change into run gear and then back out on the road for a few 1K efforts at race pace (thankfully they were on a slight down-hill course so all you've got to do is let your legs go and try to keep up!).
My 45 minute run finished with a big SPLASH...literally, into the Sunseeker pool to cool off! It's the perfect temperature to just feel good without cramping up your hot muscles at the end of a workout. I did some abs and stretching on the pool deck, facing the ocean, watching the waves crash on Sunshine Beach (yes, it's beautiful).
The middle of the day was just like most others...everyone has one main goal: try to stay as cool as possible! I hung out in my room with the TV, crossword puzzles, friends, lunch, etc. At 2:10 we were all on the pool deck for a few minutes of stretch cords followed by another big splash...this time into the workout pool for a 4500m practice. The main set was 10x150m...I lowered the interval for myself to 1:50 (no one else wanted to join me:(.
Since leaving the pool around 4pm, I have partaken in the B-Day celebration for Sarah Korteumn, played Scrabble with Jasmine, cooked breakfast for dinner (fruit pancakes and veggie omelet), cleaned dishes, watched another episode of "Hero's" (my friend Leanda gave me the DVD of the first season of the TV show and I'm hooked!), hung out and chatted with friends, typed this blog and now I'm off to brush my teeth and climb into bed.
Tomorrow is my favorite day of the week here in Noosa...Open Water swim session in the morning on Noosa Beach! What is better than getting a swim workout withOUT seeing a BIG BLACK LINE on the bottom of the pool?!?!? The wind is really blowing strong right now...if it keeps up into the morning the waves are going to be BIG or CHOPPY! I don't care which one, as long as they are not 'shark infested'!!
Speaking of wildlife...I sure haven't seen very much Australian wildlife! No kangaroos, koalas, lizards, sharks...just a lot of parrots that like making a lot of noise outside my window at 5am (good thing I'm already awake by that time!). Most of my teammates have seen something cool...Nate saw a kangaroo, Haven saw a koala, Manny saw dolphins today...I'm getting jealous!

Group Dinner on the Beach

A few days ago, the entire USAT Training Camp piled into one van and 2 scooters and drove down to Hastings Street for dinner on the beach.

























About half the people who just piled out of an 8 passenger van:)




























Brian, Cliff, Neil, Greg, Laura, and Sam digging into Edge Burgers and fries...very, very, very yummy after a killer day of training. You can't see them in this photo...but there were about 20 seagulls waiting for our leftovers...unfortunately for them, we didn't have any!!





























That's me standing on a windy Noosa Beach. The surfing competition this week is taking place in the cove on the right side of this photo.



























Check out this serious sand-castle! These guys were pros, they had photos of other cool castles and animals they had sculpted. I liked the touch of lighting with the candles...very original!

Back on Schedule

I'm slowly recovering from my race last weekend. I had some VERY sore legs from all the down-hill running...thankfully Monday was a day off and I got a clean-out massage when I got back to the Sunseeker.
Since then, I've just been getting back on track with the team. Tuesday morning we hit the group ride pretty hard...on Tuesday it's a pretty hilly route so I was really hurting right from the start. When I realized that hammering just to hang on the back was probably not the best thing for my recovery...I just let up and enjoyed the second half of the ride with a smaller group off the back. I think my legs will thank me for that in a few days when I'm still able to move:).
Later in the day we had swim practice at the pool. Since Cliff also had a 45 min recovery jog on my schedule, I ran down to the pool (it only takes 7 minutes) and after practice I finished with a 40 minute jog around Noosa. The bike hurt, my legs were hating me on the jog...but I sure had NO problems in the pool. I wasn't even breathing hard on our main set.
At the end of practice, Cliff mentioned that Wednesday morning was the open water session at Noosa Beach again. He gave everyone the option of pool swimming at 6am or open water at 5:30am...that wasn't a hard decision for me:). So, at 5:15 this morning, Jasmine and I rolled out on our bikes for the beach and joined all the locals for another killer session! There's a cyclone off the coast of Queensland right now with the wind blowing perfectly, the waves were HUGE and they were turning into beautiful barrels...of course I was just ducking right under everything...but it was still fun to watch (especially when you are under water and you look up and watch the wave curl overhead)! I always forget that Dustin gave me a water-proof camera and I should eventually take it in the water for some sweet shots in the clear-blue water here.
All my teammates are at the gym right now doing a killer treadmill workout. Thankfully, the three of us that raced on Sunday have our treadmill session on Friday. Instead, I'm waiting for the insane heat to let up so that I can get my run and ride finished. I would brave the midday sun, just have to put on some sunscreen, but the heat is sooo strong that I'm actually sweating just sitting here on the computer...same thing earlier when I was taking a nap!
My coach and I just had a short, post-race chat and we also discussed future races. It looks like I'm going to be flying over to New Zealand at the end of the month for their National Champs! I've got to get going and do some flight searching and hotel booking!

7th In Geelong

Results from the Australian National Champs...I finished 7th place, amid a strong field of women. Great swim, hard and hilly bike, great run for 3 of the 4 laps!
I'm already back in Noosa and looking forward to getting back into training tomorrow morning with a 3 hour bike ride!

$2 For 10 Minutes

And I've only got 4min 17 seconds of internet left! I'm in Geelong at my hotel. Travel went smooth this morning...I was picked up at the Sunseeker at 5am...slept for the whole drive...got to the airport by 7:30. Had a hot cocoa and muffin as I waited until 9:40 for my flight...boarded the plane and then slept until we landed in Melbourne. I got on another shuttle that dropped me off at the place I'm staying. When I was checking in, I ran into my teammate Brian so we rode our bikes down to the pre-race meeting together (thankfully, he knew where it was!). The meeting lasted less than this internet time I just purchased so I walked over to the water for a swim. As of right now the water is above wetsuit temp so I might be lucky tomorrow! I"m rooming with another of my teamamtes, Bec WAssner...we are the USA women racing tomorrow...go USA!
Other than that, I'm very excited...and I look forward to posting my first POST race blog of 2007!

End of Week 1

I've been in Noosa, Queensland, Australia for 1 whole week! Today, when I was walking out of the pool to the van...I noticed a funny thing. The license plates on the local vehicles, registered in the Aussie State of Queensland...say "Sunshine State" on the bottom!! How funny is that! I'm from the Sunshine State in the USA (Florida, duh) and I'm living in the Sunshine State in Australia...small world, maybe I should just stay here, it's karma!
Today's swim practice was a brutal one...at least that's what it looked like as I was running up and down the pool cheering for my teammates as they pounded out the yardage...I was done and out of the water after about 4000 meters because I'm racing this weekend! Everyone else was really enjoying the 5500 meter slug-fest...way to go Team USAT!
The rest of today I need to pack, go for an easy spin, check over my bike, pack my bike, go for an easy jog, pack my shoes, and basically relax and make sure I can remember everything I need for a race. It was suggested to me that I check the weather in Geelong before packing...awesome idea (thanks Greg)...and from what I remember, the weather can change from 'fall-ish' to 'summer-ish' in about 5 minutes. Maybe I'll just be prepared for anything...probably the safest bet!
Here are some sites about Geelong, the Race Site, the hotel I'm staying at, the shuttle service I'm taking from the airport, etc.