I am so happy this race is over and Patricia ended up on the podium. I really have never been more nervous for a race.
Race day was a little weird since the start time was 3:45. I did a short run in the morning to loosen up and then we went to a pool to finally practice swimming with the tether (nothing new on race day, right?) The swim went surprisingly well which gave me a little more confidence about the day. After a team lunch we boarded the bus and headed to the venue.
The race site was incredibly pretty and we had perfect weather. The one thing I have to note about this race was the complete lack of organization. I am really surprised that a World Championship event can get away with such poor planning and execution.
After waiting in a long line to obtain our timing chips and then waiting for transition to open we were finally allowed in at 3pm. The race start time was 3:45! Not a lot of time to get settled and Patricia and I still had not practiced running together with the tether. We quickly tried to get settled, figure out the course (which we never actually did) and get in a quick run. They hustled us out of transition at 3:30 and lined us up for the swim. Each athlete was introduced by name and country (i.e. Patricia Walsh, National Champion from the United States), which I thought was pretty cool. We were told the water temp was 82 so we chose not to wear wetsuits, but probably 80% of the field still wore wetsuits. I think the water temp was in the high 70s but for such a short race it didn’t seem worth the time and effort to wear a wetsuit. After some incredibly ominous Chinese music that sounded like we were marching to our death, the gun went off and the race was underway.
Patricia had warned me that she still suffers from panic attacks in the open water, as many athletes do. I still can’t imagine swimming in an open body of water in total darkness. After what seemed like a good start, Patricia’s head popped out of the water and I knew panic was setting in. There was nothing I could do to help (the rules are very strict to prevent a guide from giving an assistance or “towing” an athlete). It was so hard for me to watch her in this state and not be able to help. I wanted to just put my head down and swim as hard as I could to pull us through the course, but I couldn’t. To Patricia’s credit she never stopped moving once, we simply swam water- polo -style for about ¾ of the swim. Eventually she was able to put her head back in the water and swim the last portion of the course. We had a speedy exit out of the water and a fast run through transition.
Now it was time for the bike. The part I had been dreading for weeks and was still scared out of my mind about! Before the race I had countless athletes tell me they had no idea how I would ride a tandem bike on such a technical and hilly course. This was not helping my confidence. The look on people’s faces when I told them my first time on a tandem was the day before was priceless. My goal simply was to get us through the bike portion in one piece. Not only was I afraid of turning the bike but I was even more afraid of having to make a U-turn. I honestly still have problems with U-turns on my own bike let alone a tandem. I was told there were no U-turns on the course so I quit worrying about it and we never practiced it. We mounted the bike on the first try (which was a huge success for me) and then they directed us in the opposite direction that we were told was the bike out. The first thing I noticed exiting in this direction was a U-TURN!!! WHAT??? NO!!! I seriously thought I was going to puke. We were still in front of the stadium so if we wiped out everyone would see us, not to mention I didn’t want to wipe out in the first 30 seconds of the race. I took a deep breath and went for it and we made it! I am sure it was ugly but we did it. I was so excited and full of adrenaline that we took off. I figured I just conquered my biggest fear so the rest of the course couldn’t be any worse. We had 2 loops on the bike and now I wanted to catch all of those girls who were ahead of us in the swim. The course was really challenging but also really fun. We had a long, steep hill right out of transition where we passed about 10 people. I have to admit it was pretty fun barreling up the hill on this huge bike. After that climb it was non- stop hills and turning. In fact for one of the turns they had taken blue gym mats and taped them to the trees! I had to laugh at that one. Just around one of the first really tight turns I saw a tandem men’s team from Great Britain had crashed! I took a deep breath and tried to shake it off but I have to admit it freaked me out. But I couldn’t dwell on it, as I knew at this point the race was more mental than physical and I couldn’t let my confidence waiver. We continued on and I tried to focus on the locals who had come out to cheer us on. I do have to point out that we never saw 1 race official, nor were there mile markers or volunteers telling us where to go. At one point I came to a T where I had to pick left or right and there was NOBODY there! I don’t see how that’s possible in an event of this caliber. I had to make a split second decision and thankfully it was the right one. After completing the first loop I knew we were in good shape and had to be gaining on the girls in front of us. The second loop went by pretty quickly and the moment I had been waiting for was upon us-I WAS GETTING OFF THIS BIKE! We rolled up to the dismount line and clipped out (without falling over which again was huge for me) but as we started running to our rack a race official chased after us and told us that we were being given a penalty for dismounting over the dismount line. WHAT?? I had been slowing that bike down 100 yards out from the line-there was no way. I stood there arguing as Patricia and I got ready for the run. I was pissed and I knew this was 100% my fault and I didn’t want to let Patricia down. I will admit I am not used to racing ITU and all of the strict rules that come along with it. In transition we were given a box that we had to put all of our gear in after each leg of the race (again a new rule we were not used to). This seemed simple enough but we were only given 1 box and we are a team of 2. As we transitioned from the bike to run and threw more stuff into the box it was apparent everything was not going to fit. Patricia started to take off on the run but I noticed a bunch of things had fallen back on to the ground and an official was calling us back! Seriously??? I was not about to get another penalty so I made us turn back. Just as I started to pick up the stuff that had fallen another official waved us on. So, we had 1 official standing there yelling at us and another official telling us to go. It was ridiculous! I decided we should just go and deal with the consequences later.
As soon as we started running I knew this was Patricia’s time to shine. She is a great runner and we were hoping to run down our competition. The run was only a 5k but we had to complete 4 laps of the same out and back loop in front of the stadium. I felt like a hamster in a wheel but oh well. As we rounded the corner to finish our first lap the officials yelled out our race number and pulled us off the course into the penalty tent. I was freaking out thinking I did something wrong on the run (we can be penalized if my feet are ever in front of Patricia’s which is actually hard to always be aware of while running). It turns out we were serving our penalty for the stupid bike dismounting issue earlier. Thankfully it was only a 15 second penalty so in the end it had no bearing on our results but it was still stressful and I felt badly! We had 3 more laps to go so again we just had to shake it off and not worry. I have to admit running with the tandem was harder than I thought. We didn’t practice it at all before the race but I wish we had. I think we were fumbling and bumping into each other more than we should have been. Despite all of these obstacles, we finished in 19:34, which was a PR for Patricia and the second fastest female run of the day!
We were done and I was so happy! I knew Patricia would be disappointed that we didn’t win but a team from Great Britain had a 6- minute lead on us out of the water and we just couldn’t catch them. Had the race been longer I know we could have run them down. Our bike splits were only seconds apart and we smoked them on the run. I mistakenly thought we got 2nd as did everyone else on our team since we passed a second team from Great Britain on the run. It turns out they were a lap ahead of us. So even though our bike split and run splits were faster the swim proved to get us in the end. I felt horrible having to tell Patricia that we were actually in the 3rd but she took it well. She was still on the podium at a World Championship!
The award ceremony was really nice and not only did I get to stand with Patricia on the podium but I was given a bronze medal as well. That was a great surprise!
As soon as the award ceremony was over we started packing up for the long walk back to the bus (about 1.5 miles). Just then all the lights went out and we were left to navigate in the dark without volunteers. Another example of how poorly this race was organized. As I complained that I couldn’t see where we were going Patricia said, “hey welcome to my world.” She was right! She just did an entire race in the dark (which I can’t imagine) and I was complaining about walking back to the bus in the dark.
In the end, I think the race was a great success. Patricia is of course beating herself up about the swim, as I think most athletes do, but I keep trying to remind her how much she has accomplished. A year and a half ago she didn’t even know how to swim! Now she was in China representing her country as a National Champion. This was also her first Sprint distance race (she is a distance girl too) and this was the first time she and I had raced together. I think that’s a lot of “firsts” in a big race like this. She was also the fastest woman on the team that day and I think to come out with a bronze medal is fantastic!
I am honored that Patricia let me come along on her journey and hope she is happy with where the journey took us!
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