Sunday, June 29, 2008

Natalie takes One on the Toe...

The post after this one has my full, exciting, race report from Rochester.

Short version: Swim=45:53; T1=4:34; Bike: 1:44:09; T2= 1:34; Run=1:12 Total: 3:48:06. (I may dispute the swim time. My watch had me at 39:53 and there was a mixup with my swim cap being a different color from my wave. Don't know if my chip was attached to my actual wave or my chip...)


I've included some interesting photos: Including the one above of poor Nat's toe, that she stubbed after the race, after we got back home, as we were trying to reassemble her bike carrier and get it back on her car.


She basically tore the toe nail off and actually had to have her boyfriend drive her to Urgent Care tonight to have it removed....(yech).




Here is another blurry (thank heavens!) of it:
She is out of commission until a scab forms on the toe -- should be a couple of days at least.

Here is the "pre-toe incident" story: we got to Rochester about 5:30 pm on Saturday -- just in time to pick up our race packets. Got to the hotel, checked in, made two trips to the room with all our STUFF.


We were both amazed at how much stuff we needed to bring with us for one night at a hotel to take part in a little Olympic distance triathlon!


And the stuff didn't really include all the FOOD we brought:




Even with all that food available to us above, we wanted to have a a nice pasta dinner so we went to a restaurant called Victoria's. Quite yummy. Then back to the hotel, then to sleep.


We got up at 4:45 am and got ready to get to the race.


It was cold (60 degrees), cloudy, drizzly and windy (17 mph) when we went to get in the car. I know the exact wind temps because I looked them up on Google after the event. This was just the beginning for us!


We were not particularly psyched about doing the event in the cold and the rain. I'm sure if we weren't with each other, we would have turned the car around, gone back to the hotel and ordered room service...

By the time we got to the park, the weather had not improved at all. Now over 400 triathletes were contemplating joining us for room service.... (Note grey skies in the photo.)


Then, miracle of miracles, 20 minutes before the race started, the clouds parted -- the sun poked its head out and the temps came up.

"Windy"decided to keep "kicking around the streets of the city" though: by the time we were on bike course, winds were NW at 25 mph, gusting between 30 and 32 mph. YIKES!

Combine that with hills and it was one tough, but beautiful course. (see comments in Race Report below).

Suffice it to say we both finished the event. It was a challenging course, but very well organized and a lot of fun. We even got medals, which is always a nice touch.


We drove back to Minneapolis -- stopped at DQ for a little treat. (Gotta love the crunch cone...) and then home.


And then Nat stubbed her toe....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to go, Nat & Amy! I'm glad that weather come through for you - if you don't count that blasted wind!

Steve Stenzel said...

Nice job at the tri!!

And I'm SOO proud of the gross photos!!

On our way back from a weekend of training in WI, Pharmie and I stopped at a DQ too - best stop on the way home from ANYTHING!!

Sunshine said...

Pictures of Nat's toe absolutely sends pain to my bones.. and feet. I get shivers.
So sorry .. and just when it all seemed over.. then the injury.