Friday Rain

Live Finish coverage of my race is at:

http://live.triathlon.org/2010_dextro_energy_triathlon_-_itu_triathlon_world_championship_grand_final/

I expect you all to have popcorn. I hope to get through by 8:50am Budapest time. That's 11:50 Pacific.

Man what an absolutely miserable day weather wise. Cold and rain all day. So a more serious post. Night before the race time to suck it up and pay attention. The ITU has a ridiculous amount of rules and is about as organized as the DMV. Actually checking the bikes in today was a bit like going to the DMV only with rain and cranky europeans. My favorite rule is that if you have a zipper on the front of your uniform and it comes down at all, even by accident, it's a red card. Yes the ITU wants to be professional football (soccer for you yanks) so they have red and yellow cards and a penalty box that you go sit in during the race to serve your penalty. The kicker, showing a little belly or chest hair is an immediate DQ, where drafting on the bike is a 1 minute penalty. Have you ever seen German television? And they say Americans are uptight about nudity.

A few of us rode over from the hotel and then stood in the poring rain for 45 minutes to check in. Yep the bike made it yesterday. Here's what it looks like. It's kind of an odd looking thing, but I love it. And I get lots of compliments on it. I think the ratio is 1 Wilier to every 8.5 million Cervelos.

So the DMV checked our bikes, inspected our uniforms and helmets, and asked us if we understood all of the rules. (When will the rest of the world learn that most Americans only speak English. And not very well. )

After that fiasco, we racked the bikes and headed for the bus, but I decided that I was soaked already and went through the transition as best I could even though it was still raining. The transition area is grass and and average of two inches of water. If you listen closely to the video you can hear my feet squishing.

It's still absolutely miserable out right now but I'm hoping it clears up by morning. I have a 7:45 start and it looks like a 30% chance of rain for but either way it will be wet. The course is really fast and narrow with 3 turns on each lap. Fortunately two are 180 degree turn-arounds and not something someone should miss and crash on. I'm just worried about being in the eleventh wave on a two lap course. It will most likely get congested especially when it's wet. I'm told in these amateur ITU races that drafting is illegal but somewhat tolerated so you either ride with a pack and draft, risking the aforementioned yellow card, or forget the podium. We'll see how it goes and I tend to be a draft kind of guy but it will be wet and my recent medical issues may come into play.

My typical race happens like this. I lay low on the swim and see if I can stay within a minute of the leaders, then hammer them on the bike course and hope to either get a bit lead or fight people off on the run. I have a feeling that's not gonna work. :) This will be the fastest race I've ever done and the best competition.

I look OK by the rankings, but It's hard to tell because although the bike and run are consistent distances for these races, the swim is often anything from 400-800m in varying conditions. And of course you could be comparing a flat bike course with wind and hills. They take your pace and calculate what you would do on this course based on the qualifying performance. So it's fun to look at but just about worthless.

So off to bed and my next post will be post race. With the inability to really train until two weeks ago, I'm not expecting or hoping for anything other than a solid well run race but I still feel I have as good a chance as anyone in my age group.

Good night! Here are some extra clips: