The Bellingham (Washington) ITU International Triathlon (see results) provided me with a race experience that I won't soon forget. I went into the race knowing that it was going to be extremely competitive (five of the top 20 women in the world were entered in this race). Despite the elite nature of the field, I was nevertheless looking forward to racing against such great triathletes. I was also looking forward to racing in a cooler environment for a change. After racing in the 95 degree heat in Clermont, Florida four weeks ago, the low 70 degree temperature in Bellingham felt almost chilly!
Since my Dad and I arrived in Bellingham two days before the race, I had an opportunity to check out the course the day before. In my opinion, it was a great course. It is not often that you go to a race and enjoy the entire course, but in Bellingham I was equally excited about the swim, the bike and the run. The swim consisted of two loops in a cold lake. We had a short little run up a boat dock in between the two loops. 
The bike was an exciting, spectator friendly six loop course (4.15 miles for the loop) with an incredible hill towards the end of the loop. The hill, apparently legendary in the town of Bellingham, was a little over a half mile long and it had an 18% grade. Needless to say, it was a hill that was hard to climb just one time - let alone the SIX times we were required to during our race! The run course consisted of two 5k rolling hill loops in a nearby neighborhood.
The only thing thing that would have made this course absolutely perfect was a warmer water temperature instead of the 58 degree temperature that it was. If I could have warmed up the water, I would not have had a single complaint. Oh well, I guess I cannot have everything in one race!
I had a little scare the day before the race when the race bike mechanic found a crack in my front race well. After being told by several people that it would not be wise to race on the cracked wheel, the same bike mechanic came to the rescue by offering to lend me his race wheel. I was very appreciative as it is difficult to find 650 race wheels and I did not have extra wheels with me. Little did I know that this bike wheel incident was just the beginning of my mechanical problems for the weekend.
Race day finally arrived! The weather was truly ideal for the race – slightly cool with some cloud cover. Everything started out pretty well for me. I had a pretty good swim. It was definitely not my best swim, but I came out of the water in a decent position. I then got out of my wetsuit quicker than I ever have before, jumped on my bike, and proceeded to pedal like crazy with my feet on top of my shoes until I was in the pack of girls right in front of me.
It took me a little over a mile to get to the pack and settle in. Once I was with the pack, I relaxed a little and went to put my feet in my shoes. The left foot went in just fine, but when I went to slip my right foot in, my bike shoe went flying off my bike! At the time, we were on a downhill portion of the course moving extremely fast. It took me a second to realize exactly what had just happened and that this was going to be a huge problem. I was now cycling with one shoe on and one foot barefoot on a tiny speedplay pedal. In hindsight, I should have let the pack go and gone back immediately to get my shoe, but I kind of panicked. I was scared to lose my pack and at that point I was still with them even without my shoe. I just kept going figuring that I would pick up my shoe on the second loop.
There was one problem, however, with my plan and that problem was the 18% grade half mile long hill. We turned a corner and I saw it looming in front of me. I will not even bother to write what was going through my head at this point. I just made a quick decision to see if I could get up the hill even without my shoe. I just did not want to drop out of the race. I was feeling too good and I had not traveled all the way to Washington to drop out.
As I began the climb, people along the sidelines cheered me on. I heard all sorts of comments about my missing shoe and that seemed to make the spectators cheer louder for me. Although I thought I was going to fall off my bike several times, I finally made it to the top where my father was videotaping the race. I yelled to him that I lost my shoe (not that he could not see that for himself). I am not sure he knew what to think! After climbing the hill, I only had a little over a mile to get back to the spot where my shoe had come off. However, I was extremely worried that one of the officials would have already picked it up and that it would be gone. I was hoping that I had not gone through the first loop for nothing. Luckily, I saw it in the road up ahead. I stopped my bike, got off, put the shoe back on and started again.
My pack was obviously long gone by this point and a few other competitors had passed me, but I decided that I was just going to do the best that I could and finish the race. I continued to bike the remaining five loops. I got a lot of extra cheering every time I climbed the hill again. People were saying things like "go shoeless girl!" The cheering helped me mentally, but physically I was pretty tired by this point. I was having to work all by myself and my left leg was pretty tired from having to basically climb the hill by itself the first time around. To top it off, I dropped my chain twice (which has never happened in a race before). Needless to say, I was so excited to finally finish the bike and start the run.
I had no idea how I would feel on the run after having had so many problems on the bike, but I actually felt great for the first four and a half miles. As I approached mile five, however, my quads had finally had enough. I did not have the greatest last mile and half, but I was able to finish the race.
I ended up fourteenth overall, but I found out that nine girls had not even finished the race. Some of them had just dropped out on their own, but some of them had been lapped my the leaders on the bike and were thus pulled off the course. On one hand, I felt really good about myself for toughing it out and finishing the race, but on the other hand I was disappointed because I really did feel strong in this race and I know I would have had a really good placing.
The race, however, was a great experience for me overall and I actually had a lot of fun despite all the problems. People were so supportive and that really made me feel good. After the race, I heard that one of the Olympic Trials races might be in Bellingham on the same course. I now have even more of an incentive to qualify for the Olympic Trials in 2004! I would love to go back and race on that course again only next time with both shoes on!
