Traditionally, the night after a race, I have an impossible time sleeping for an uninterrupted 8 hours. Since I am wide awake right now and have given up on sleeping for the moment being, I thought I would review yesterday’s exciting events.
We awoke to another chilly and overcast day in Hamburg. The local ‘Hamburg City Man’ Triathlon was held in the morning. I watched and cheered for some of the thousands of athletes on the soaking course as I was out doing my own run warm up through the pouring rain. How many triathlons have you participated in were the bib numbers go into the tens of thousands?? I’m not kidding….these people were running by with numbers like 14,374…15,829! You could barely read the actual numbers because they had to be so small to fit on the bib!
Around noon, we started to see blue skies and the rain disappeared. The total change in weather brought all the spectators out of the wood-work and the Elite Women’s World Championships race was watched by the traditional hundreds of thousands of people. Personally, I had no complaints about being dry and comfortable as I prepared my transition area and completed my pre-race warm-up:). I chatted with some of the other athletes (friends from the World Cup race circuit) and wished all my American teammates good luck.
Laura Bennett was so ready to race. I could tell because she couldn’t stop smiling and laughing before the race…when she knows that she is going to have a great day, her confidence just shines through. Sarah Haskins was ready for another fast swim on my feet to break the field apart …I think that tactic has come to be expected when we show up to the starting line together:)! After racing with her in Rio for the Pan American Games, I was not surprised to see Julie Swail wearing a suit that read “Ertel” as her last name. She is newly married and it will take a few races for everyone to get comfortable with seeing a new name on the race course…I still do a double-take when I see her. Sarah Groff was one number behind me (27 and 28) so we chatted as we set up our race gear and laughed at how slippery the blue carpet was going to be for each of the eight times we had to bike through transition area.
As for myself, I was unexpectedly nervous for my first Elite World Championships race…there were 78 of the BEST triathletes in the world out there. I knew that nothing gets handed to you on a silver platter today…every minute is a hammer-fest and there is a race for every finishing place. After spending a few days under-the-weather, I volunteered to take more of a supporting roll for the American team. We all benefit from having USA finish on the podium and in the top 10…through funding and publicity…so there are huge reasons to make sacrifices.
Remember all that cold rain I’ve been writing about...well, it brought the lake temperature down a few notches and when I dove in for warm-up, it took me about 5 minutes to get my face underwater with out having an ‘ice cream headache’! When the gun went off, I bet no one even noticed the temperature…at that point all that goes through our minds is sprint! If you don’t get a clean start with that many competitors on the line, it’s going to be a long and violent day in the water. After the race, Julie was explaining how she used all her skills from days as a water-polo player to find some clean water and swim up about 40 places.
As we exited the water, peeled off our wetsuits, and jumped onto our bikes, it was obvious that the American women were well represented in the lead group. Haskins, Bennett, Groff, and McLarty were all visible on the butts of our Speedos. Cheering was pretty easy…our huge coaching staff, friends, and fans just had to scream “Go Sara(h)! Go Laura!” and that covered all four of us:). I guess I will have to accept only getting one-third of a cheer…and it will be like that for plenty of races in the future!
The pace was kept at an incredible speed for all 40 kilometers on the bike. With all the turns, cobbles, and paint that exist on this course, there were not two seconds to take a breather or loose focus…let your mind wander and you might find yourself getting up-close and personal with a course barrier! We all kept the ‘rubber side down’ until dismounting for the run when Haskins lost control of her bike and took a butt-slide through transition. (The only thing she hurt was her pride…two years in a row she has met the pavement during dismount:).
Our lead pack gained a one minute lead over the chase pack which contained the amazing Emma Snowsill from Australia. Unfortunately, one minute would not be enough time. She ran right through the field and past Bennett in the final kilometer to grab the silver medal. But, if you read between the lines in that last sentence, you should figure out that Laura ran in for the bronze medal! An America on the podium again…plenty of reason to celebrate when I crossed the line seven minutes later! My training partner, Sara Haskins, finished in10th, her best place at World Champs…more reason for celebration!
The day ended with a fun team dinner at a local German restaurant. We had schnitzel, bratwurst, pretzels, and made lots of toasts with tall glasses of warm beer! Tomorrow morning 250 American triathletes will compete with thousands of other competitors in the Age-Group and AWAD World Championships. Later in the afternoon, the huge weekend of triathlons will finish with the Elite men contesting the same course we raced today. Our six American men will show the world how it’s really done! Good luck to Andy, Matt, Jarrod, Joe, Mark, and Tim!
Cliff (and Haskins) on the bike in the rain. We are climbing up the big hill on the bike course behind the reservoir. (That big wall in the background is the other side of the dam.)
