Team MotionBased

This one had an unexpected end... I was looking forward to the race. It is 5 weeks after IM CDA and I was feeling recovered and excited about a half Ironman. I have done this race a couple times in the past and it's always a fun time. Plus it's only a couple hour drive for me, so not too bad.. The weather was great and a relief after the heat wave the week before! The men and women pros started together at 6:25am. This is good for me because I can draft off the guys in the swim. Also, it was a non wetsuit swim which was also in my advantage. (A wetsuit helps a slower swimmer more than a faster one...) The swim was in the Russian River which is pretty narrow and only about 6 feet deep. When the start horn sounded, we headed out and I was comfortably able to get in the front pack. About a quarter of the way in, the guy in front of me started to get gapped, but I saw it with enough time to swim around him and get on the end of the front pack. We stayed this way for the rest of the swim and I came out of the water with the top 6 guys and about 1 minute on the next woman. I ran through transition, grabbed my bike and then ran to the mount line. I hopped on my bike (my shoes were already on the pedals) and then hammered up the short hill from transition (maybe 8% for a block?), then around the corner onto the flat River Road and the start of the bike. When I came around the corner, my cadence was very high because I hadn't shifted yet from the little gear for the climb. My right foot slipped off my shoe and into the spokes of my front wheel! Wow, that hurt!! I looked down and saw that the bottom of my right foot was cut, but didn't realize the extent of it. It really stung for a few minutes and then I got it into my shoe and was off on the bike. My foot was stinging at the start of the bike ride. Then it faded a bit and I just kept going. Throughout the bike I really only noticed it if I stood up and put a lot of downward pressure on the bottom of my shoe. The rest of the bike I was concentrating on pulling back and up on the pedals. This course is mostly rolling hills with one short climb. I felt comfortable on the bike and had a solid ride. I was passed by three girls and came off the bike in 4th. Typically I would leave my shoes on the bike and run barefoot to T2. I knew I had an open cut on the bottom of my foot, so I left my bike shoes on. It was tough running to transition and I could definitely feel the cut. I racked my bike and briefly looked at my foot. Perhaps too briefly. I donned my socks and shoes and ran about 100 meters before pulling off the side of the course when I saw Nicole DeBoom and Roch Frey. I took of my shoe and sock (which was now covered in blood) and really looked at the cut. Time for the med tent! Nicole walked me over there and the doctor took one look at it and told me I was headed to the ER. There were two crescent cuts. One on the ball of my foot and one on the ball of my big toe. This is when it really started hurting. I think the adrenaline was gone and it was finally hitting me! Kim, who was one of the nurses working in the medical tent, drove me to the ER and stayed with me and drove me back. Thank you Kim! It took about 2 hours and 19 stitches and then I was headed back to the race site. I hung around for a few hours and then luckily found a friend to drive me home to the Bay Area. It didn't get painful until I left the ER and the numbing medicine wore off. Then it was painful!! Today I am just sitting on the couch (with my foot elevated!!). I am not supposed to put any pressure on it, and getting around with crutches has turned out to be a real pain, so not much going on here. A big thanks to Adidas for the bright red bike shoes so I couldn't tell if my foot was bleeding and to Mavic for the flat bladed spokes on their race wheels!! HA!! Cheers, Linda