Me and Boulder Peak have had quite a journey to say the least. It's been five years now, and I have just completed my fifth Boulder Peak race. I remember the first time I was preparing to do this race my coach had me come up to Boulder, probably a month prior and ride the course. I made it up Old Stage Hill swearing at him and on the verge of puking. I wanted to get off my bike and walk, but he wouldn't let me. Don't you people know there are no hills in Iowa where I am from? Ok, so it's not so bad now, I can ride up it swiftly.Coming into this race I was pretty nervous. I had alot of expectations for myself and to be honest, I wanted to win- BAD. Just some history of me and Boulder Peak- in 2007 I placed 73 overall Females in a time of 2:42:27. In 2008 I was 25th overall females in a time of 2:31:28. In 2009 I was 24th overall in a time of 2:35:00 (long swim). 2010- I was 12th overall in a time of 2:25:47 and not far off of a top finish.
Before the race I was warming up and spotted one of my rivals, a girl on Team Timex. A girl that had recently beaten me at 70.3 Kansas. Last year she won pretty much every race she entered and beats most of the pros. So she's pretty good....So I do my best to shake it off and pump myself up and mentally tell myself that she is about to have a very bad day. I gather my wetsuit and head down to the swim start to shake off some nerves and get ready to battle for the day. There is a lot of joking around in the water as the Elite Amateur wave is treading water getting ready to start. The swim went by with not much event. I had a hard time seeing anything, including any other swimmers with the sun at its worst glare of any start I've been in. I couldn't even see the shadow of the buoys. Finally I was out of the water and my Mom was yelling minute and a half down from first female. I thought ok, I can handle that.
On the bike I work hard getting to Old Stage and sure enough, I caught some girls before the hill and passed them on the way up. Once at the top I pass yet another female, the last one that is ahead of me. Now approaching the descent and the speed limit of 35 mph, a girl flys by me going definitely around 50 mph. Frustrated, I watch her pull away until she is just a speck in the distance. With no one around me to motivate me it was hard to push hard on the bike. Soon enough a guy passed me wearing the CTS kit and yelled some encouragement!!
Finally into transition the announcer is yelling second female in and she has some catching up to do. He gives the spectators a play by play of me pulling on my socks and taking my helmet off-which I found a bit bizarre but also motivating. Off on the run, I can sorta see first female in front of me with the lead bike escort. I keep trying to pump myself up and tell myself that I can catch her but things are looking down. Slowly but surely I keep getting closer, until at mile 3 at the turn around I pass her out of necessity because she was about to get her first glimpse of me chasing her. For the next mile she stays on my heels and keeps trying to challenge me for the lead, but slowly drops off a bit. By mile 5 I had built a gap of about 15-20 seconds on her. But I'm starting to not feel so awesome, I'm getting sluggish and can feel a bonk coming on. My legs are getting heavy and I'm getting sleepy. I keep thinking get to the pavement and the crowd will pull you in. It worked, into the chute and breaking the tape for my first time ever!!!! While I won the Elite Amateur wave, two age group amateurs edged me out of first. I lost second overall by a mere six seconds. While disappointing I have to be ecstatic by the performance. One of my toughest races yet.
Results: 1st place Elite Amateur, 3rd Overall Boulder Peak
Overall Time: 2:22:13
swim: 23:55
bike: 1:14:51
run: 41:10
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