The Road to Pumpkinman.....Apparently Never Ends!

Alas, I am back from out trek out to Nevada. Let's end the questions now: NO! I did not gamble, and NO! I did not go into Vegas. I was closer to the Hoover Dam than I was to Vegas, and WOW it's amazing over there. If you can get yourself out of a Casino smelling of stale cigarettes, stale booze, and lost dreams and make it over to the Lake Meade National park...DO IT! The beauty there is just something that one must witness first hand to appreciate. Now on with the tale of Pumpkinman:

We pulled into the Loew's Lake Las Vegas around 2:30pm on Thursday, and at that point I was ready to put my running shoes on a run far away from my child. The whining she managed to produce all day long on Thursday was one for the Guinness Book of World Records. So much so, I called room service for dinner, she fell asleep around 8:30pm, I fell asleep watching "Fringe" (shhhh, don't tell me the ending. I recorded it) and called it a night. The next day, Friday, all three of us packed into the car. Warren wanted to see Hoover Dam, and I saw it when I was seven years old and that was enough for me. My fear of heights knows no bounds and driving up there was terrifying for me. He saw, I shut my eyes, and then it was over. On to packet pick up we went.

Now, people, I'm from the "big city" and Boulder City is very small. So, when you tell someone like me that there is a "large expo" I think "ooooh, 100 vendors of things for me to buy!" So when I show up and big expo is about 7 booths, well, you could imagine the letdown, and the relief. That meant I couldn't spend money! This makes two expos in a row that I managed to escape without spending a dime. I go up to registration, check in....and then it happened. The seven words no woman ever wants to hear outside of a doctor's office "Could you please step on the scale". The dreaded weigh-in. Another motivator to stop racing in the fat girl, ehem, "Athena" division. Dear Jeebus, it that doesn't give you a complex then I don't know what will. So, i get past the proving I'm fat enough, and we grab lunch. Then, back to the hotel....after we drive the bike course. BAD MOVE!

Ladies and gentlemen I would like to make a public apology to my friend, and race director of the Pasadena Marathon, Israel Estrada. For a year now I have given Israel so much grief on the fact that the last 6-7 miles of the Pasadena Marathon are mostly uphill and it was mean. Well, after this weekend, I now know what a mean course truly is. You look online and the description of the Pumpkinman bike course is lovingly called "rolling hills". Well, I call BS on that! Rolling my ass. PEOPLE! DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE! The bike course is 90% UPHILL! Yes, you read that correctly, I said UPHILL! Hell, the final climb into Boulder City is the worst part! Allow me to give an example: When you leave Lake Meade which sits just above 1000ft in elevation, you will go out on you 90% bike ride and 12 miles later end up at an elevation of over 2500ft...WTF! Yes, I was wondering what they were smoking the day they determined that was a dandy idea. Off back to the hotel for me.

We go back to the hotel and I realized I had some unfinished texting business, and that I needed to text a couple of people to express my deep concern over the mental health of the race management company and their decision that this was a good bike course. After all was said and done I sided with Monica in determining that this was actually funny and going to be just fine....but I never finished my discussion with Mat who now has concerns over having a few glasses of wine and dinner prior to running (er, walking) the Nike Human race at midnight this Saturday (he really thought I was kidding about the midnight start time....I never kid about those things. Many, many other things, yes, but a start time, not so much).

I awake at 5:10am, totally pumped. I go downstairs and sit and wait for the coffee place to open. I cannot function, much less race, without my coffee. Virtually impossible, believe me, I've tried. It gives a whole new meaning to "bonking". I an driving in the National Park, enjoying the sunrise and then I see it....the Road To Pumpkinman. People, I have never seen so many headlights in a row in my life except leaving a Phish show. It was truly amazing (photos to soon follow). Apparently, triathletes are smart peeps. You know when you go to park on a lawn or some other make shift parking lot and you have that guy that points to exactly where to file next to the car next to you? So not needed for triathletes, like well programmed cult members we all filed in right next to each other...all by ourselves. I get out of the car and head to transition.

This was the longest transition I have ever seen in my life! Being as this would have been my 25th triathlon just with racing (I have volunteered at many) I've seen a lot of things and nothing like this transition. I put on my brand new wetsuit, never before worn and very stiff. You know how they tell you to never try something new on race day? This includes wetsuits. I put it on, walked down to the water with some people I just met, and splashed around getting a feel for the water and BAM! The pain set in. My wetsuit was pressing against my incision, and well, I've been healing too well, and the nerve endings are all getting feeling back at once. The wetsuit was putting so much pressure on me that the pain was shooting down my legs. Fortunately, one thing went through my head "Train Smart. Race Smart". Thank you Coach Steve for saying that over and over....You became my voice of reason in a time of need. I got out fo the water (not after I got a photo in my new wetsuit. It's a great wetsuit. I should have that in a few days), went to the volunteer coordinator to give her my timing chip, explained what happened and told her "I want to volunteer. Can you use me?" She asked about my triathlon experience, I gave her the rundown and put me with the USATRI Officials. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I was assigned to help point out race violations, which mostly added up to headphones and little more. I cheered people on, helped a few people with slipping gears and spent a lot of time talking to the Las Vagas Triathlon Club President, Dave Carlson (who was one of the Officials). Let me say this: The Las Vegas Tri CLub has some of the nicest club people I have net outside of the Pasadena Tri Club which I belong to. They are like a family).

At the end, i gave the other official a ride to T2 (it was a point to point race), volunteered a little longer and headed back to the hotel. I need not share the rest of the weekend as it added to nothing more than walking up and down the numerous amount of stairs with Emily that this hotel had. We did this for HOURS. Then on Sunday we were in the car at 9:08am, and with a stop for gas before getting on the highway, a stop in Baker for iced tea and OJ as well as some beef jerky from Alien Fresh Jerky ( http://www.alienfreshjerky.com/ ) for my boss, a stop at Zankou Chicken in Pasadena, and home by 1:38pm.....when I drive, you get to places very fast. Besides, cold beef shwarema is not awlays as tasty as it sounds.

In all, I will go back next year, and now that I know about the crack smoker bike course I will train for that in the Olympic Distance. No more of this mansy pansy sprint distance. OH, and after I get my USATRI coaching certification I am totally going to get my Official certification. I think it's the mad need for power in me...

Next up: Nike+ Human Race at 12:01 am, Oct 24th (see, totally not kidding about the start time. it's for a good cause.)sign up and join me: http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikerunning_humanrace-en_US/?tags=race_day