After swimming in the Hudson River in New York, swimming in a lake filled with pig manure in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, and then riding up a half mile long hill without one bike shoe in Bellingham, I truly expected my 2005 triathlon races to be pretty uneventful. After all, I justified my earlier decisions to race in such conditions by telling myself that these were the things I needed to do if I wanted to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the Spring of 2004. Even my Grandmother used to say that if you want to reach a high level in triathlon, you are going to have to take some risks! Well, after my race in Tempe, Arizona this past weekend, I am now truly questioning my sanity!

I arrived in Tempe on Thursday afternoon. To be honest, I was just excited to even be in Tempe for the race, as I have had an extremely tough time health wise ever since the Hawaii World Cup Race a month ago. I won't bore everyone with all the details, but the gist of it is that I still have some pretty bad breathing issues. My doctor thinks it may be something other than asthma, so I am going to have some tests done in the next two weeks. I should know more soon. On top of the breathing problems, I managed to strain my calf and had to take a couple of weeks off from my normal run training.

Since this was a required race for Team Aegis (the new professional triathlon team that I am on - http://www.teamaegis.org), I was not about to miss this race. I explained my situation to our team manager and he was extremely supportive. He just told me to focus on trying to help the team on the swim and bike. I could decide on race day whether or not to attempt the run.

In my haste to pack for the trip, I forgot to check the weather forecast for Tempe. Needless to say, I was quite surprised to walk out of the airport into 100 degree heat. As I waited for my father to bring the rental car around, I started talking to a local couple who wanted to know what was in my bike case. When they found out I was there for a race, the first thing they asked was "you are going to race in this heat?" They followed that question up with, "where does the swim leg of the race take place?" As I answered, I did not even have to guess what their response would be as it happens almost every time I tell a local where I am going to swim. Sure enough, the wife said, "Oh, I would never swim there!" In all my races, I can only think of five or six where the locals think it is safe to swim in that body of water. It is clear that only crazy triathletes dare to enter and swim in many of these lakes!

The race was not until Sunday, so I spent the next two days doing some very light training, hanging out with my new teammates, and trying to keep cool! Tempe certainly does not have the humidity that Atlanta has, but there is no way around it. 110 degrees feels hot!!!

During the Saturday afternoon pro meeting, the race director emphasized the importance of using extreme caution during the race the next day. He said that Tempe was under an extreme heat advisory and that basically everyone was being advised to stay inside and to refrain from exercising outdoors. However, the race was going to go on as normal and the only change was that we would start an hour earlier (9:45am instead of 10:45 am). I was not sure that one hour was going to make a difference as we would still be running the 10k leg around 11:00 and by that time the predicted temp. was well over 100!

I know this probably sounds crazy, but I was actually kind of excited about the challenge of trying to compete well in such extreme heat. I wanted to see if I felt better racing in the dryer heat than in the typical humid heat that I usually face. I made sure to hydrate very well, so I was actually feeling pretty good as I approached the race start.

Despite getting knocked around a bit at the beginning, I ended up having a really good swim. I exited the water with seven other girls who are known for their swim ability, so I was thrilled to be up there (thanks to my swim coach, Tim, I am in great swim shape). There were only two other girls ahead of us as we started up the hill out of transition. We quickly merged into a group of seven. I was excited to see that one of my other teammates was in the group with me. I was really looking forward to working with her, but before we could do so, she had a mechanical and had to drop out of the race. Going into the second loop of the bike course, I realized I was on my own as the rest of my teammates were in the bike pack behind mine. Little did I know at that moment, but the rest of my bike ride was going to prove to be very eventful!

As we were heading downhill at the start of the second loop, the girl who was leading our pack at the time thought she saw the cop (who was supposed to be managing one of the intersections) motion for us to turn right. In reality, I think he was motioning at a car, but at the speed we were cycling at it is not easy to tell what is going on. We would later find out that the cop did a very poor job directing traffic anyway, so I would not be surprised at all if he had motioned for her to go right. Unfortunately for her, the rest of us continued straight on the course to continue the loop. She ended up turning right into my back tire and going down hard! I am not sure how, but I managed to stay up. When something like that happens it is always hard because all of us want to go back and see if the other cyclist is okay, but since it is a race we have to go on and leave the officials to take care of it.

By the fourth loop, my pack was down to four. We were headed down the same hill again and as we passed the cop, he motioned for a red car to turn right near us. At first, it appeared that the car would stay on the other half of the road, but at the last minute it started heading right through the cones marking our bike course and headed right at us. We all swerved a bit and while the car came pretty close to us, we did have some room to spare. It was, however, a bit unnerving.

Our pack continued to be a bit conservative pace wise because of the heat. I think all of us were a bit scared to push really hard in the extreme heat. We were losing time to the two girls out in the lead, but we were able to hold off the large pack of twenty or so girls behind us.

On the fifth loop of the bike, we had what was by far the scariest incident of the day. We were headed down the hill again and as we approached the SAME intersection with the SAME bad cop, the three girls in my pack started screaming. I looked up to see the cop once again motioning a black SUV across the intersection. I have no idea what the cop was thinking as we were almost there and we were coming fast. The first girl in my group made it through with just a second to spare. The two girls right in front of me were passing as the car was trying to slam on his brakes. Thinking that I was about to go flying over the hood of the car, I slammed on my brakes (creating a nice fish tail of my back tire). It all happened so fast, but by the time it was over the car was right up to my leg and if I had not been gripping my breaks so tightly I could have just reached over and touched it with my hand! I thought the ambulance that came at me during my Clermont race earlier this year, was bad, but that was nothing compared to how close the car was in this race. I am still not sure how the car stopped in time or how I stayed up once again, but I thank God and my guardian angel who I must have been keeping very busy during that race yesterday! I am also very thankful for the bike skills lessons that I have been having the past two weeks with Bruce Erskine. They definitely paid off in ways I could never imagine!

My pack was pretty shaken by this point and we slowed a minute to regain our composure. My heart was racing pretty hard and it was not from the pace on the bike! Fortunately, we finished the bike without anymore incidents (although I thought about stopping a couple times thinking I should probably stop while I was ahead - three near misses was a bit much for me).

Overall, I was pleased with my bike leg. My new purple Aegis bike (our team bike) felt awesome and I am really looking forward to racing on it the rest of the season. It is so comfortable and it feels so fast! Thank you Aegis! I also really appreciate Aaron, James and Matt from the Bicycle Link (www.bicyclelink.net) here in Atlanta working so hard to build the bike and get it ready for me to race on so quickly!

The run turned into a bit of a struggle for me. I have a history of struggling in the heat and I am still trying to figure out why. I really was as hydrated as I could be for this race, but my body still shut down completely during the run. I did have some problems with my breathing, but it really was the heat and some bad stomach cramps that prevented me from running well on Sunday. I fought through it as best I could and tried to focus on the fact that up until a few days before the race, I was not even sure if I would be able to do the run anyway. However, it was not a fun run at all. I think I went from 4th to 9th place by the end of the run, but I was so out of it by that point that I am not sure it really mattered. I was just trying to get the best place I could for my team.

I think the scary incidents during the bike also put things in perspective for me as a bad run did not seem all that important when I compared it to the close calls I had during the bike segment. I was just happy to be alive, unhurt, and able to finish.

Overall, it was quite an experience for me. Just when I think I have had all of the experiences I can have when it comes to triathlon races, more are added to the list. This sport certainly is not boring! My team and I did not have quite the day we all wanted, but I really think things will come together for us as the season progresses. We have a great group of girls along with awesome managers and coaches, so I am very excited about the rest of the season for all of us.

Thanks to all of you who were praying and thinking about me during my race on Sunday! As you can see I needed it! I truly feel blessed.

Next up: I plan to use the month of June to get healthy, train and do a few local races. My next Team Aegis race will be in New York in July (back to the Hudson River I guess) and then on to Edmonton, Canada for another World Cup!

All the best to everyone!

Happy Memorial Day

Kelly