First with your head, and then with your heart.: Collegiate National Champions!

Photos By Dean Ryan

It was quite the weekend for me and my teammates in Tuscaloosa. Leaving La Jolla I was uneasy. I was traveling so far for a race after not racing well at all over the past couple of months, and honestly it didn't feel right. I knew the race could go many ways, but I guess that is all part of this game we play as athletes.

The day before the race was pretty chaotic. Friday morning found all of us trying to put our bikes together when they arrived in pieces after being driven across the country by two of my dedicated teammates (we fit 12 bikes and 10 wheels inside of a Toyota Prius!) Once they were together we rode some of the course, finding out that some bikes needed to be worked on and getting a flat in the group. After this, I was dropped off to go the the Captains meeting back at the Transition location. I thought to myself that it was pretty neat to be there sitting on a rock in Alabama representing our team at Collegiate Nationals.

I tried to stand in the river attempting to "soak/ice" my legs after being on them all day, but it wasn't cold enough to do much of anything, so I decided to swim a little instead. I swam for about 15 minutes and was quite refreshed after.

The stressful day, sporadic timing of workouts and inconsistent eating wasn't conducive to good bloodsugar control. I need to be more careful about that in the future, and figure out at what point it is better to not make life more difficult trying to fit every little thing in. My BG finally came down before bed setting me up for the next day well.

Friday:
High most of the day; 230, 237, 254, 210
Pre Bed: 97
Increased basal overnight by 0.05 units between 12-7am.

Race morning:
4:54 AM
Fasting: 220
Breakfast: 75g CHO, (Bagel with PB, 16 oz water, 6 oz. coffee drink,) 4.5 units
Arrival at race site: 298, 1 unit correction
Post 15 minute warm up run: 323, 1.5 units by injection (NOT pump)
T1: 86
Ate 1 gel and 24 oz of Accelerade on bike, no coverage, but basal rate on pump continued
T2: 75
Drank 30g CHO of apple juice in transition
Finish: 172 (after drinking 15 g CHO of gatorade in the chute)

As you will see in the above data adrenaline showed itself on race morning. Although theoretically adrenaline is a friendly thing during a race, it also makes insulin sensitivity plummet. Even after my warm-up run I was still 323 as I went to put my wetsuit on. Although I very rarely take injections I wanted to be absolutly sure that every drop of my last correction bolus before disconnecting from the pump was going to be absorbed. So, I pulled out the needle and vile for the first time in a while and "shot up" 1.5 units inside a human shield created by my parents.

Unlike in cross country and track, were I can keep my pump on until I step on the line, I have to disconnect from the pump when I put my wetsuit on even though this can be 20-30 minutes out from the start of my wave. I was just hoping that the breakfast coverage and the other corrections were enough to overcome the resistance that would come with the adrenaline and intensity of the race.

My swim was ok, not great by any means, but that is just something I need to work on mentally with racing. Physically I felt pretty good. I got into T1 and tested receiving that incredibly annoying "Err 2" sign on the tester screen. I knew it couldn't be the outside temperature this time, and knew that I couldn't get away with not knowing what my BG was and not being able to make the necessary adjustments there at Nationals. I tested again, "Err 2." My hands were still wet and I figured it must be getting a reading of mostly water. I dumped a strip into my hand avoiding getting water on the sampling end of the stick and this time got a reading, 86. So the corrections had worked as I had gone from 323 to 86. I'd spent 3 min in transition...But at least I knew what I was dealing with. Had I not tested I wouldn't have been as careful to eat and drink everything I had with me on the bike, which could have been dangerous coming into T2 any lower than I did.

The bike was a two-loop course. With the two loops and merging of 10 waves there were 15 people every 100 meters. Thus, making focusing on riding well virtually impossible while trying to maintain legal distances from everyone. (I say this now especially since I ended up getting a 2 minute drafting penalty, my first ever.) T2 was a quicker transition, my first test was fine, but I couldn't run 10k starting at 75, so I chugged the 30g CHO apple juice I had laid out in transition and set off on the run, telling myself that I was a distance runner, so I better go run like one.

The run felt pretty good. I was even able to recover from the 3 hills and somehow didn't have the stiffness I frequently accumulate quickly. Having a little more insulin on board, starting with complete breakfast coverage contributed to this. One big unknown before the race was my left foot which had been hurting for the prior 8 days. It only bothered me a little on the downhills and on left turns, I'll give the adrenaline credit for something. I am pretty sure I was not passed by a single woman on the run. I got to run with a guy from the AirForce for a while. As we came up on a pair of women who looked like they were working together he said to me "go get 'em" in an awesome southern accent. He and I picked people off for the next couple miles. At one of the turn around spots 2 miles out from the finish I saw Richard who had started behind my wave. I had told him before the race that he had better catch me as soon as he could, and that I'd be running from him. From across the street he said, "Don't let me catch you!" So I ran from him for the rest of the race, picking off more people on the way. I got a butt slap 800 meters from the finish, he'd caught me. I finished down the long chute, the announcer said my name, and my teammates were at the end to meet me. I found out that my teammate Amanda Felder had won the race, earning her a berth to the World University Games in Turkey in June. My parents were there too. They had timed the race and knew I would be happy with my 2:28:57, sub 2:30 finishing time (prior to the time penalty news...) Being able to race a good race after they came all the way out to watch was the best part for me, hands down.

We met back at the Prius to load it up so that it would be ready to leave early the next morning. Then we spread ourselves around the course to watch the US Olympic Trials, with the most elite in our sport race for a single spot on this summer's Olympic team.

That night at the Collegiate awards ceremony we got to see Amanda go up twice on her own: once for being the Overall National Champion, and again for being the overall Graduate winner. The men's team was 16th overall out of 50 teams. Although I had come to Alabama thinking we could potentially win overall on the women's side, after the race we had no idea. My teammate Darlene had gotten a flat on the bike and Lauren had a particularly rough swim. As the women's team results were announced we heard the gap between 3rd and 4th place was just 2 points, and the gap between 3rd and 2nd was only one. I would be interested to see what our heart rates were when they announced second place. It was not us! We had won! For the first time in UCSD history, our Women's team won the National Championship.

Photo by Daniel Derkacs

With a Men's score of 238 and our Women's team score of 35 we were 7th in the overall combined team competition of 45 teams nationwide!

We discovered that American Airlines will let you take a 5 foot long championship poster as a 3rd personal item.

Thank you so much to all of my teammates, Mum and Dad, Alison and Shane, Poppa, Uncle Craig, Uncle Brett, Grandma and Grandpa. Your pre-race good vibes were felt internationally. Thank you to Peter Nerothin from Insulindependence for the congrats and recognition post race.