3 Aug:
2100: We begin tracking the weather and continue to check obsessively on both phones, hoping to see something other than 90% chance of thunderstorms all morning. Maybe we should have just not looked...
2230-0510: Pretty rough sleep. Some lightening, some thunder. Some anxiety about race morning.
4 Aug:
0515: After my alarm goes off, the adrenaline starts pumping through my slightly tired body. I get up, go to the bathroom, get dressed, wash face, brush teeth, get dogs up, make some toast with peanut butter....watch the rain come down. Watch storms on the radar, but still feel pretty excited.
0615ish: Leave the house for the triathlon...staying "hopeful." Pull into park near the transition area and see no one is near the pool, but there are plenty of people setting up in transition and running around in the rain. We park, and I realize I forgot my rain coat that I set out the night before with my tri suit. How does this happen? I have no idea. But I'm mad, haha. We unload our bikes and JUST as we do this it starts pouring harder. We throw our bikes on the rack and observe the mess of soaked gear under everyone's bikes. Although some very wise and probably experiened racers have plastic bins with lids.....noted. While we're out there, they make the announcement that transition will stay open until 710 and the start has moved to (tentatively) 0730 (back from 0640 and 0700, respectively). We head to the truck with our bags. Well, I'm soaked. So with the extra time, we drive 3 minutes back home to get a dry shirt and my raincoat.
0640: We get back and park in one of the last spots in that parking lot (otherwise it's up the block and across the street in a different parking lot). We start thinking about how this isn't going to be too much fun. Not only was it raining this morning, but it's been raining for days and there are flood warnings. All I could think about was the roads and the bike...1) Even if it wasn't storming when the tri started, what if you're in the middle of the bike and it starts? Ride faster? To get away from the lightening? I felt this was a bad idea because 2) There were probably lakes all over the roads.
0650ish: They make another announcement that they will provide an update in 5-10 minutes. We hang out in the truck until about 0700 and walk over to transition with our bags. By now, the adrenaline has worn off and I'm just feeling tired. Dave is not feeling in the mood to do it. We run into a friend of his from the base (who is already bodymarked and chipped...bringing up the same thought in my head for the 15th time....are we quitters???) and talk about the conditions.
0710: We grab our bikes and head back to the truck. I was still wanting to hear that update so we walked back to hang out in the rain and listen to the decision. We wonder....what radar were they looking at...? Then Dave's friend mentions they are looking at re-doing the bike route? Must have been concerned about water on the road. We see some others head out with their bikes, but not many overall. At this point, something hits me as I watch people dash around in the pouring rain like "hardcore" pros...with a walk that screams 'I'm doing this even if they cancel it.' I've run 5 marathons, I've done a couple tris....my ultimate goal is an Ultra distance tri....but I must not have the super crazy gene. Or my crazy gene has some sort of mutation that makes me not want to do a tri in the pouring rain/FORECASTED LIGHTENING. Would I be reacting differently or feeling more daring if I had invested more than 3 minutes travel time and more money? Yeah, it was a time of observation and reflection :)
 |
| Waiting, waiting, waiting |
0737: About 40 minutes after they say there will be another update, they announce that they hope for an 0815 start. We decide to leave.....disappointed that it wasn't rescheduled (honestly I was just kind of hoping for a couple big lightening strikes....) and that this was our last chance to do this little smalltown tri. I was mostly excited for Dave to complete his first one.
We don't regret our decision...maybe with more experience on the road it wouldn't have seemed as bad. Maybe we should have trusted the city of Derby to watch the weather for us, and maybe we just need new weather apps (but Dave has a lot of very good weather resources that are reliable a lot of the time). It never did storm badly, but as I was fixing a nice breakfast at home it started POURING more at about 8:40. I would have just been starting my bike. All of our landscaping was basically flooded and our street looked like Zachary River.
Also, when we got home, I almost fell getting out of the truck. Then I proceeded to stub my toe badly getting out of the shower. Then I tripped in the kitchen making breakfast. And then when I sat down to write, I spilled coffee on my desk.
That sealed it....I was too uncoordinated this morning to complete a triathlon and probably would have crashed my bike in the road lake :) Ok maybe not, but wow what a rollercoaster of decision-making.
So now we're having a nice family day on this rainy Sunday. Drinking coffee with the dogs under our feet and making England plans.....life is good. And I really do hope those folks had a fun race! (I assume the race happened)
Monday's update: The race was cancelled and it's not being rescheduled. Oh, weather.
Monday's update: The race was cancelled and it's not being rescheduled. Oh, weather.
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