Be the Beast Triathlon Coaching

Yesterday was actually one of the more relaxing days I have had in a while. I woke up at 5:20 to pick up Keith who was helping me as race director for race day. I think he thought I was nuts for wanting to get started so early. As I waited for him to walk out of his house I looked at the time of sunrise (6:44) and thought maybe he was right. When we got on site it was still pitch black and cold. Set-up went quickly and I was glad it did because then people started showing up. I talked with traffic control, medical, officials, volunteers, mechanic, and racers who showed up early to register. That was probably the most chaotic it was for me all day.

When the first wave of racers started it was a sigh of relief. We had enough lead and follow cars and registration had been successful thus far. It was another relief when the racers came flying through after their first lap. Nobody had gotten hurt. When the first wave of riders began finishing there were all the riders from wave two arriving. People congregated all over and were hard to herd off the road. Luckily a few stern, loud volunteers stepped up and handled it well.

Later in the day I got to drive the course with the chief referee to see what was actually happening. Once you got away from the start/finish the course was really calm and peaceful.

It was really fun to catch up with people who were helping and meet people I had been talking to on the phone for days, weeks and months in advance of the race. I am excited to continue working with the people I met in the process to promote some other greats events.  The feedback from racers was really positive and that is enough to make you want to try again.

I made a lot of lists to stay organized for this event. To keep the tradition strong I’ll include a few more for you:

My list of concerns:

• Having someone die on the descent (it happened in the past on this race course)
• Not getting permits because I didn’t understand traffic plans
• Weather
• Angry course residents interfering with the race course
• How to notify such angry residents that the race was going to be held
• Not having lead/follow car drivers on race day
• Moving the start/finish
• Parking
• People crashing in the feed zone (the first time I had feed zone’s explained to me I heard about someone who crashed so bad it ended her triathlon career. Thanks for the stories Kim!)
• Getting in trouble for having beer without any permit
• With the exception of the beer, repeat all of the above at least 3 times.  Put #1 in the back you head continuously.

My list of foods to fuel me through the final week of race prep:

• Rice, beans, summer sausage, eggs, and avocado on a tortilla for lunch.  You need to have proper fuel when you need to be concentrating and multi-tasking for hours upon hours.  It was like I had to eat for a 3-hour training day. All for answering phone calls, sending emails and clicking the refresh button to see if anyone new pre-registered online.
• Chocolate chips with cashews.  Sometimes if I felt health conscious I’d throw in raisins.  Kennett said that Steven, who announced for the race, should have said, “This race is presented to you by Gebhardt Automotive Cycling Classic and the chocolate chips that fueled your race director.”

My list of amazing milestones along the way that made this race totally worth putting on:

• Getting Gebhardt Automotive Cycling Classic as the title sponsor.  It made the race sound official and gave me the finishing touches for my flyer.
• Having my logo, website and flyer put together by iSupportU.  I love my logo! It was also awesome that two of the people from their office came to watch on race day!
• Having Pearl Izumi sponsor the race.  Not only was my contact amazing to talk with; he got me a jacket that I embroidered with my logo and race director.  I felt so professional.
• Getting the permits. Traffic control is tricky people.
• That not one of my concerns became reality.