The 2007 season kicked off with an ITU Continental Cup race in Roatan, Honduras. Yes, I am back to ITU racing. I decided last summer, after a much needed break from the format, to come back and try to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. More than a year off left my rank quite low and my familiarity with the ITU and USA Triathlon rules outdated. Fortunately, Lew Kidder (former coach to Sheila Taormina) an ITU savant, helped me navigate the system to decide which races would best help me accomplish my goals. The first goal is to qualify for the Beijing World Cup in September, the first Olympic Trials race. Two key races would be the Lisbon, Portugal and Richard’s Bay World Cups. Only 6 people from each country are allowed to race in World Cups, so in order to gain entry to these races I needed to improve my rank.

So, it was off to Roatan. It was a whirlwind trip – we arrived in Roatan on Saturday, I raced on Sunday, and we left early Monday morning. Traveling in this capacity is quite nerve racking because it is imperative that the bike arrive with you. As I have learned from my many years of racing, even though the airlines insist you travel with your luggage, this often does not happen. In fact, the bike often likes to vacation in a totally separate city. A monsoon met us at the airport (as did my bike, luckily) and did not let up until 45 minutes before the race. This race has the reputation of being quite difficult, with a coral bed on the swim, a 20% grade hill on the bike straight out of transition, more hills after that, and a difficult Xterra type run. The race definitely lived up to expectations! The swim was amazing. The water was warm and clear. There was so much to see, it was almost distracting. The coral bed was quite large and tough to navigate. At some points I was unable to swim, I just pulled myself along the coral. My feet suffered severely. The bike course was the toughest Olympic distance course I have done yet – well, almost Olympic distance, it was 44 K. The hills were steep and plentiful. I ended up riding alone the whole time which gave me the perfect opportunity to test out the limits of my new Guru Geneo. It performed extremely well; super light on the climbs, stable on the descents and comfortable on the flats. The Guru is also my first 700c bike since 1998. I came off the bike feeling strong for about 2K. Then, I had some major asthma difficulties that led to a very difficult 8K (or maybe it was 9K, the run seemed quite long). Fortunately, I built up a lead on the bike that allowed me to still win the race. All in all, it was a fun weekend in a new and beautiful place. And, my bike made it home with me.

When I arrived home from Roatan, it was back to business immediately in my final preparations for Ironman Arizona. I was not too sore from the race, so I was able to resume training quickly and put in a hard week with some good efforts. Monday, April 26th, I received a very surprising email from USA Triathlon informing us there was an unpublished ITU rule change in 2007. Last year, only two Continental Cups counted toward your rank, whereas this year you could count three. The ITU never updated their website to reflect this change. Several American women already raced three Continental Cups this year and surpassed me in the ITU rankings, thus impeding my chance of racing the Lisbon World Cup. A quick note to Lew Kidder pleading for ideas led to the suggestion of racing the Santo Domingo CC that Sunday (with the promise of enticing rum drinks), yes, 6 days away and two weeks prior to IM Arizona. Since the big picture was the most important thing, I booked a flight to the Dominican Republic for that Friday.

Our crazy flight itinerary included a 7:30am departure from Denver and a 5 hour layover in Miami. I figured with 5 hours I could find a pool and get in a swim and a run, a perfect layover! Our plans were derailed very quickly when we got to the airport. The flight was delayed 3 hours, seriously cutting into my Miami training plan. When we finally arrived in Miami I decided I would try to run on the treadmill at the airport hotel gym instead, only to find out that the gym was closed for renovations. Ugh! Our flight was quite late leaving Miami making our arrival into Santo Domingo late in the evening.

On Saturday morning, I rode down to the race venue (about 12 K away from the hotel) with the Guatemala junior girls and an official race bus behind us blocking traffic. Given that the city is crowded and the drivers are maniacs, riding in a group is a necessity and an escort is a bonus. I have never seen drivers so totally disregard the rules of the road. Lanes are not adhered to – they drive wherever they desire. Red lights are for pauses, not actual stopping. Motorcycles seem to have their own set of non-rules. It is truly a driving free for all!

Upon arrival at the race venue, I set about checking out the course and getting in a solid ride with some race efforts. I was quite impressed with the venue – this is where the 2003 Pan American Games were held. I hitched a ride back to the hotel with some race officials and headed over to the Olympic Center for a swim and run. This is where all of the other facilities for the Pan Am Games are housed. The pool area was once amazing with two 50 meter pools and a diving well. However, over the years, the upkeep has not been up-to-par and the pool water was a color usually reserved for muddy lakes. Upon jumping in, and I did this under duress, I soon realized that I could not see anything. It was extremely disconcerting. I had to lift my head to do flip turns!

Sunday morning at 5:45 six of us met in the hotel lobby to ride down to the race with a motorcycle and police escort. It was very cool! The race went off without a hitch, and Canadian Christine Jeffrey and I made a break on the swim. We worked extremely well together on the bike to build a very nice lead of 3 minutes. After the Roatan asthma debacle I worked hard on refining my medication regimen. This worked, as I was able to run unimpeded and felt really good. Another win bumped me up in the rankings and got me into the two World Cup races, which means more travel and I am sure more adventures!

Train hard, have fun.

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