5430 Racing…

Yesterday was the last of the 5430 series (5430 Sports in Boulder is the name of the race series – 5430 for the elevation), the long course race at which I placed 2nd (behind JZ) in 2006. This summer I have had the huge privilege of working for 5430 Sports as the manager of their expos and sponsors. It’s been a different view looking at races from this side of the fence.

Additionally, what an HONOR. Last month I auditioned for and was hired to be the commentator for The Peak (Olympic) race, which will be broadcast on OLN at the end of August. It was a BLAST and I had such a great time doing it. I’m uncertain how the broadcast will turn out, and we’re always our own worst critics of our work, but hopefully I did a decent job. Mostly I wanted to honor the athletes and speak well about their efforts at hand. I hate hearing race commentators who don’t know triathlon – sometimes they say things that are soooo bizarre — and any triathlete watching it catches it. It was funny to be interviewing and commentating on my friends, too! It was difficult a few times not to throw in some inside jokes…. but I was good, I kept it professional.

So… yesterday was the Long Course race and I deliberately kept myself very busy at the expo so as not to think about the race I wasn’t in. With the expo duties and with tons of my friends racing, I decided to just focus on these things. Sometimes it is good for all of us to take the attention off ourselves. ‘There is definitely something bigger and better than YOU’, I say to myself almost each day.

JZ led the race from start to finish. I was out on a mountain bike during the run to give encouragement to all my friends who were racing. That was FUN! Man, I saw so many people, most yelling hello to me during their race! I would laugh each time and tell each person to shut up and do their race! Poor Gollnick got glass in her foot at T1, pretty severely it sounded, and had to dismount during the bike to get medics to help her remove it. You should have seen the pain on her face during the run – you knew each step was killing her, but typical Big G, she never quits. Right around mile 12 I gave JZ a split that 1:30 back no one was in sight; knowing that she could ease up if she wanted.

She had crashed on her bike earlier in the week and I could tell that her ribs were hurting, so I decided to try to take her mind off the pain. Since her win wasn’t in jeopardy and I know how great her sense of humor is, I biked in front of her by about 40 feet and dropped my shorts so my bare butt was hanging off the bike seat. I was totally embarrassed to do this but for comic value, I’ll do most anything. EVERYONE ELSE around Joanna saw me – spectators, age groupers on loop 1 (“Hey, great ass!”, someone yelled) …. I was so embarrassed, but for JZ, it was worth it. I looked back expecting to see her falling over with laughter but she was stone-faced. She had to be in a lot of pain, I thought.

I continued to bike but pulled over when I saw her husband Mark (my shorts pulled up by then) and told him I had just mooned Joanna. A huge smile came to his face and he put his arm around me while shaking his head and laughing.

After the race I asked Jo what she thought of my ass and she didn’t know what I was talking about. ??
“COME ON!! Are you serious? I mooned you right around mile 12!!”, I screamed.
” Oh, dammit! I missed that!”, she said.
“Great. Every other fricking person at the race saw it except you. Nice!”

She thought it was hysterical, and went on to tell everyone, “Carole mooned her huge white ass at me during the race and I missed it!”
Probably not the notoriety I need, but what the heck. ?

Later that day I went for a lone bike ride along the race course, imagining the pace of the leaders just 10-hours earlier compared to mine right then. I am a faint shadow of the athlete I was in 2006 when I did this race …. but in other ways I am a much better and much different person now. That’s a comparison of two different things, but it’s a distinction I’ve noted inwardly.

I’ll be heading back to Atlanta in a couple weeks and I’ve been very touched and flattered by how many of my friends out here have told me they wish I was staying. I had lunch today with Stoner and he told me he thought I’d be surprised by how many people have made comments that they wished I wasn’t leaving, etc. That’s so nice. I’ve had the opportunity to make some good friendships, and enrich others that were budding. I’m glad for this, and glad in some ways I was forced to be out of triathlon this year.

I’ve loved having a social agenda this summer that’s been full, a stark contrast to my normal summers of living the life of a monk with the discipline and constant training. This time, I’ve met friends for dinner or movies or just hang-outs almost every night and weekends the whole summer. It’s been fun! Early in the summer I started seeing a guy named Dan who still completely cracks me up, mostly with his ability to stand right up to my alpha-self with refusal to be streamrolled by me. We are constantly in wars of sarcasm and who can out-wit the other — I’m amazed by his ability to emerge the victor – some of the time. I laugh as he still constantly says, “God, you’re a train wreck!”, referring to my energy, zooming all over the place, never sitting still, never shutting up, etc. A while back when I told JZ that he called me ‘a train wreck’, she laughed to say, “Wait until he meets your friends! You’ll seem normal!”
Funny!

I see how self-absorbed and manic busy I was now that I have all the time/energy that triathlon used to take from me. I’m not complaining, I had to devote that and will have to do it again if I return, but it certainly doesn’t allow someone to really nurture friendships – or anything else. So…. it’s been nice to be out here and just support other people, and I think I have become a much better friend, and better person, because of it.

I hope I keep these lessons learned close to me as I prepare for the impending next chapter. Is this life chapter #263 for me? It seems like it…

Thats ok. Lots of chapters in a life means a life lived fully. If nothing else, I hope I’m doing that.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 8:55 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.