It all began on Tuesday morning at 5am! I ran, I worked, I swam, I worked, I biked, I worked, I got a killer massage that felt absolutely amazing but left bruises everywhere on my legs, I had some delicious dinner at Allen's, I packed by bags then drove to the airport at 11pm! I swore to myself after taking a red-eye flight last year I would never do it again and guess what, I did it again! I had a 1:15am flight to Hartford, CT with a layover in Atlanta. I arrived in CT at 10am. After getting absolutely no sleep, I felt like a complete zombie. I then had to find out that Southwest lost my bike and had no idea where it was and that it wasn't there responsibility to track it down or replace it because it was flown on miles...seriously? Since I wasn't going to make Boobs (Matt Boobar) and his wonderful girlfriend wait, I told them just to call me when it arrived. We then made our way to Middlebury, CT to visit Keith and the Timex headquarters. After a delicious lunch and lots of chatting, we headed down to the park nearby for the Pat Griskus Sprint Triathlon. I had every intention on racing but after not sleeping in 2 days, that wasn't bound to happen. Instead, I played cheerleader with Tristan and watched all the Timex boys kick butt. After being transported from Midway to Manchester, my bike finally arrived in CT so we picked it up along with Mr. Will Kelsay on our way back to VT that evening. It was a long and rainy drive but we finally made it. I ended up sleeping almost 10hrs that night. That never happens!
The next morning Matt and Kate showed us around the
Stratton Mountain School where they work, live and teach. Pretty cool. We then drove to Sugarbush, met up with Branden and got to preview a bit of the mudfest we were going to race in. It had been raining for the past 3 weeks and the entire course was completley underwater.
In
Conrad's post, he says he wasn't sure whether we were supposed to swim or bike on the course :) After lots of walking and playing in the mud, it took us over 1:45 to go 10K. I was not having such a good feeling about this race to begin with and this definitely didn't help. After a good dinner and another solid 9hrs of sleep, I woke up feeling much better. I went for a quick 30min jog that felt great. Branden and I pre-rode the final part of the course which was 80% ridable and actually quite enjoyable. Once we reached the ski resort, we decided to ride a loop of the run course. BAD IDEA. The entire 5.5K loop was soggy grass and mud that went up and up and up...750ft of up per lap as a matter of fact. Becaues of the steepness, we ended up pushing our bikes most of the way and by the end, my knee was in absolute agony! I briefly thought about getting a flight home but figured I'd just go with the flow and hope that my knee felt better on Saturday and even better for the race Sunday!
Just when things started to dry up, we got hit with a massive storm the night before the race! The more mud, the better...let the dirtiest person win :) After a good swim, I jumped on the bike and spent the next 2hrs hiking and falling on wet roots and giant puddles of muck. I couldn't run my bike like most people as it absolutely killed my knee so I just went with it. The run hurt even worse so again, lots of walking. I finished and that's all that matters. More on the actual race later.
Afterward, we had a great lunch with the crew at the mountain then headed down to go cliff jumping in the river. It was a bit chilly but lots of fun. Conrad even brought out his fishing stuff! We then headed to Warren for some bread, cheese and coffee. After packing up the bikes and such, we met up for a fun dinner then an early morning...we all had to catch 6am flights out of Burlington which meant 3am wake up calls...UGH!
It all began on Tuesday morning at 5am! I ran, I worked, I swam, I worked, I biked, I worked, I got a killer massage that felt absolutely amazing but left bruises everywhere on my legs, I had some delicious dinner at Allen's, I packed by bags then drove to the airport at 11pm! I swore to myself after taking a red-eye flight last year I would never do it again and guess what, I did it again! I had a 1:15am flight to Hartford, CT with a layover in Atlanta. I arrived in CT at 10am. After getting absolutely no sleep, I felt like a complete zombie. I then had to find out that Southwest lost my bike and had no idea where it was and that it wasn't there responsibility to track it down or replace it because it was flown on miles...seriously? Since I wasn't going to make Boobs (Matt Boobar) and his wonderful girlfriend wait, I told them just to call me when it arrived. We then made our way to Middlebury, CT to visit Keith and the Timex headquarters. After a delicious lunch and lots of chatting, we headed down to the park nearby for the Pat Griskus Sprint Triathlon. I had every intention on racing but after not sleeping in 2 days, that wasn't bound to happen. Instead, I played cheerleader with Tristan and watched all the Timex boys kick butt. After being transported from Midway to Manchester, my bike finally arrived in CT so we picked it up along with Mr. Will Kelsay on our way back to VT that evening. It was a long and rainy drive but we finally made it. I ended up sleeping almost 10hrs that night. That never happens!
The next morning Matt and Kate showed us around the Stratton Mountain School where they work, live and teach. Pretty cool. We then drove to Sugarbush, met up with Branden and got to preview a bit of the mudfest we were going to race in. It had been raining for the past 3 weeks and the entire course was completley underwater.
In Conrad's post, he says he wasn't sure whether we were supposed to swim or bike on the course :) After lots of walking and playing in the mud, it took us over 1:45 to go 10K. I was not having such a good feeling about this race to begin with and this definitely didn't help. After a good dinner and another solid 9hrs of sleep, I woke up feeling much better. I went for a quick 30min jog that felt great. Branden and I pre-rode the final part of the course which was 80% ridable and actually quite enjoyable. Once we reached the ski resort, we decided to ride a loop of the run course. BAD IDEA. The entire 5.5K loop was soggy grass and mud that went up and up and up...750ft of up per lap as a matter of fact. Becaues of the steepness, we ended up pushing our bikes most of the way and by the end, my knee was in absolute agony! I briefly thought about getting a flight home but figured I'd just go with the flow and hope that my knee felt better on Saturday and even better for the race Sunday!
Just when things started to dry up, we got hit with a massive storm the night before the race! The more mud, the better...let the dirtiest person win :) After a good swim, I jumped on the bike and spent the next 2hrs hiking and falling on wet roots and giant puddles of muck. I couldn't run my bike like most people as it absolutely killed my knee so I just went with it. The run hurt even worse so again, lots of walking. I finished and that's all that matters. More on the actual race later.
Afterward, we had a great lunch with the crew at the mountain then headed down to go cliff jumping in the river. It was a bit chilly but lots of fun. Conrad even brought out his fishing stuff! We then headed to Warren for some bread, cheese and coffee. After packing up the bikes and such, we met up for a fun dinner then an early morning...we all had to catch 6am flights out of Burlington which meant 3am wake up calls...UGH!
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