So, in keeping with tradition, after racing Kona Ironman, I went down to the ocean, and took my finish line lei and went to toss it into the ocean. The darn flower petal broke off in my hand and the lei went backwards and landed in the grass behind me. I, of course, picked it up and tried to give it a good toss again. This time, a good gust of wind came along and the lei landed on the rocks at my feet. At this point, my friend walked out (with a huge smirk on his face because he knew that my karma was shot!), balls up the lei into a fist size lump of flowers, and told me to throw it as hard as I could to get it in the ocean. I mumbled to him that I thought my next race might be doomed if this was any indication of it.
Two weeks later I found myself at the starting line of Xterra World Championship triathlon. It was the quickest two weeks ever. I had spent most of the two weeks laying on the couch with no motivation to do anything except watch tv and feel guilty about not working out. I justified my lack of working out by paddleboarding, jogging 3 miles, and hike-a-mountain biking on one of the saturday mornings. I worked a ton, did a tv interview, a newspaper interview, and did more running through the water for a photoshoot than I did in most of the two weeks between the races.
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| Newspaper article by Cindy Luis in Honolulu Star Advertiser |
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| Interview with Guy Hagi on KHON/Hawaii News Now about Xterra with Amy Eck who has done the double too (and won!) |
So here I am at the start line for Xterra and one of my friends from Oahu who has raced these events in the past pulls me aside and says "Kathryn, go get blessed!" I then realized that she was referring to the Kahu (leads a hawaiian blessing) who was personally blessing racers with the ocean water and tea leaves. I of course, needed all the help I could get for this race and ran over to get this Hawaiian prayer before the race.
Anyway, the cannon went off for the females in Xterra 2 min after the males. Before the first buoy I had already caught the first males who were surprisingly super nice and not even trying to be competitive on the swim. My timing chip slipped off and when I headed back into the beach run portion of the swim... I told one of the race directors and he told me not to worry about it. I'm still not entirely convinced I have the right swim split because I had no chip on when exiting the water... but who knows. That wasn't my concern of the day... it was the bike.
Sooo... I ran into transition for the bike and they were handing out chips like candy. Literally, two gals were standing there asking me if I needed a timing chip? Sure! So, I now had to put on a new timing chip in T1. Think hospital bracelet... I had to put it through the hole and snap it on. Definitely a little loose but at least I had something so my parents back in Colorado wouldn't think that I DNF'ed the swim (which later they admitted that they were a bit worried when I didn't have a swim time).
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| Hope you didn't want this tri kit back Sandy...? I slightly broke it in with Kona sweat and Xterra mud! |
Anyway... coming out of T1 I saw someone I knew to be a top mountain biker. Oh goodness... I thought, if he is just now exiting the swim that means I have TONS more of mountain bikers like him behind him! I started getting passed right away on the mountain bike. I quickly caught on that people were going to pass me on EVERY side... sometimes 2 at a time and that I would have to just simply realize that I would need to try my best not to fall at the time someone was passing me. Well... it's really hard to keep it calm right at the beginning of a race when this is a new concept and you're a newer mountain biker. So at mile 1.75 on the bike... I was going down a slight downhill single track-ish section and had a lot of fast mountain biker guys behind me that wanted to pass. So I didn't break... and then hit some sand (at least I think I did), and started to slide out and then missed the turn and slammed too hard on the brakes and went over my handlebars and into the tree.
My first thought was ... wow, my head. My head hurts. And then I kinda looked and realized that my bike was still in the middle of the trail and moved it to the side to assess. It survived. Ok... I looked down at myself. I seemed fine. Nothing seemed to be bleeding. Just my head took a really hard hit. Good thing I was wearing a helmet! I then tried to get back on my bike. My chain had been knocked off. It's super funny how you don't think too quickly in these situations, because all I could think was- I can't fix mountain bikes. The funny part is... I can fix a mountain bike just as well as a road bike. The chain thing is super easy to get back on... I just wasn't thinking clearly! So I stood there spinning my pedal forwards and backwards for a few times before realizing that I needed to simply lift my chain to put it back on. Situation solved. Back on the trail going A LOT SLOWER than before. I was simply just going to try to finish the race now. Game plan changed.
And that's how the rest of my race went. I kept having people ask if I was okay. Maybe I was going really slow. I honestly was in a bit of a daze for the rest of the course. I realized 2+ hours later that I was missing my right lens from my sunglasses. Apparently it popped off and I had no idea until I went to rub my eye.
I finished the bike with a big sigh of relief. I was alive and only had the run to do. I knew then, that my knee was having some issues but I could manage a 10 k even with knee issues. I had fun on the run. As I said, I was there just to have fun and to finish the race. It was a tough course.... finishing it was just an accomplishment.
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| I'm smiling cause I'm almost done... but I'd much rather be swimming in that water rather than running by it! |
Post Race:
Soon after I finished the race I realized that my knee was pretty swollen. The med tent guys made me come check in when a friend tried to grab ice and explained that I had hit a tree. They declared my knee stable and said I didn't need x-rays. They made me scrub my already dirty wounds with iodine and put some neosporin on them and sent me on my way!
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| Yay! 6 days back in Maui! |
I did win the double and now have a lovely 6 day vacation to use in Maui. I do have some lovely plans for this trip already... and no, it doesn't include: training, a boy, or whales. But it includes: vacation, family time, and R&R to look forward to.
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| Oahu Xterra Athletes |
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| More amazing athletes and support! |
What Now?
So I am currently experiencing some post-race relaxation on the couch. My knee is doing a lot better and I have been cleared to exercise in a few days and can now decline the MRI that was scheduled. My neck is still giving me pain, but should hopefully clear up soon. I had my neck x-rayed for damage too... but nothing was seen and it is mostly muscular and is mending on it's own also! So with any good luck... I will be back in action and running the Honolulu Marathon in my best (running) shape ever!
More updates on future plans will be coming soon....
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| Always having fun....! |
Oh yea... and post-Xterra... I did go throw more leis. I'm happy to report that they peacefully drifted back into the ocean waves.
And one more thing... For those of you who were tracking the double like the head guy at Xterra... He did the math for me and wanted to let me know that if I kept the same pace that I did for my Xterra race- that I would be doing a 25 HOUR Ironman. Feeling better about yourself now? Okay, I'll leave you with that thought because even I like to see the humor in it too ;-).
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