Well that was a
rather successful weekend my friends! Now, before I get to the racing, I have
to dive into the events that preceded what was one of the most hectic, extreme
and incredible weekends of my entire life.
So, instead of
one enormous, overwhelming, short-novel-like blog post, I decided to break this
bad boy up into Part 1 and Part 2.
I originally
thought about giving the short version of our travel-troubles, but that simply
would not give it due justice. I could not simply let this one go! (Needed a little
bit of writer’s outlet here!)
Feel free to
skip over to Part 2 of the blog that focuses more on the racing. But, if you’re
interested, stick around for the breakdown of how I painfully made it cross
country to compete in the 2013 Collegiate National Championship in Tempe,
Arizona.
Wednesday,
April 10th- Travel to Tempe (Take 1)
Teammates Alex
Libin, Allison Kindig and myself were all slated to compete in the Draft Legal
event on Friday morning. This meant leaving Iowa City one day earlier than the
rest of the crew to get situated and prepare for the race. We rolled out of
Iowa City and made the quick 75-minute drive to Moline, IL where we had a 5:45
PM flight, connecting in Dallas and then flying into Tempe somewhere around
10:00 PM. It would be a late night, but we would be there and would have all of
Thursday to relax and get ready for Friday.
Now…. I could
sit here and spell out the shit-storm of events that occurred over the next day
or so, but you have stuck around thus far and I think it may be more time efficient for me/ less whiny to you if
I put this in highlight-chronological-order form:
- 5:45 PM flight is delayed to 7:00 PM due to bad weather in Dallas
- Miss original connection due to the delay
 |
| Snack supply quickly depleting.... 2 hours into the trip! And yes, that is a pre-microwaved sweet potato that made it through security. |
- Plane arrives in Moline at 7:00 PM, quickly board
- Pilot comes on the microphone and explains what he calls an, “anomaly” in their tuning equipment
- Pilot calls maintenance
- Maintenance nothing wrong with the tuning equipment
- The next piece of equipment that is needed to test the plane is in Knoxville, TN
- Deboard the plane because we are not in Knoxville, TN
 |
| Can't say this dude is happy |
- Flight is cancelled (sort of)
- Stand in line for about an hour, trying to situate new flights
- Get on a flight for Thursday morning out of O’Hare at (9:30) AM
Well, that
sucked. 8 hours after excitedly departing Iowa City, we had gone a total of 63
miles… in the wrong direction!
Angry and
exhausted, we ended up getting a voucher for a hotel and rented a car
to drive to O’Hare in the morning.
 |
| Wondering what kind of hotel we were set up in when we stayed in Moline? Well, that is a stuffed bear behind a broken down karaoke station. |
 |
| And at least I got to sleep next to this gem.... |
Thursday,
April 11th (Travel to Tempe take 2)
The initial plan
was to wake up Thursday, in Tempe to a: luscious breakfast, lazy pre-race preparations and a proper shake down workout. Well,
now that that plan was out of the window, it was a 4:30 AM wake up call to make
the 3 hour drive from Bettendorf, Iowa (where the voucher hotel was located),
in the pouring rain, to O’Hare.
 |
| Chicago rush-hour traffic... Sweet! |
Next round of events (actually moving somewhat smoothly!):
- Return rental car at the airport
- Take shuttle from rental car drop to airport
- Check in and go through security
- Grab breakfast at Chili's (using $57 of vouchers we got at the Moline airport- very nice!)
 |
| Somehow, I made this..... |
 |
| Turn into this! |
- Hit up the United Club
 |
| Super pro traveling. |
- Load up on United Club amenities
- Wheels up at 10:00 AM (30:00 delay at this point didn't phase us one bit)
 |
| Arizona is cool |
It would have
been nice if we could have gracefully flow into the race site around 12:00 PM
and still have plenty of time before the mandatory pre-race meeting at 5:00 PM
but that would have made things much too easy for the three of us! There were
actually no direct flights from Chicago to Tempe, which meant we had to fly
into Tucson and then make another 2-hour drive to the hotel….
 |
| At least the drive was pretty scenic! Not to mention 80 degrees and sunny... |
Around 3:00 PM,
we finally rolled into the hotel in beautiful Tempe, AZ. We dropped all of our
gear, got directly into our kits, pumped up the tires and hit the road to check
out the race site and get in shake out ride. We rolled around for about an
hour, trying to get a feel for the technical bike course. I obviously did not
feel all that great getting started but felt better as the ride went on.
 |
| Finally made it, finding solitude on our bicycles. |
After finishing up on the bike, we cruised back to the
hotel, put on the run shoes and got in a short shake out jog with a few shorter
efforts in an attempt to open up the hips and prepare for what would be 1-hour
of all out racing in the morning.
Again, things
were pretty smooth from here through the rest of the night:
- Quick shower
- Bolt over to the mandatory meeting at 5:00 PM
- Get back to the hotel
- Shave body
- Prepare gear
- Have dinner
- Foam roll/ stretch
- Have snack
- Get distracted watching UFC
- Asleep by 10:30 PM
Well that wraps up the 27 hour trip to Tempe. Thanks for sticking around.
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