Tami Ritchie: Clearwater World Championships

Clearwater!! Last race of the season. We shipped our bikes Fedex to try and save money. Turned out to be about as much to ship them down there (because we waited too long so we needed to ship a bit faster) as to fly, but we saved a bit on the way back. I packed all the rest of my stuff on a carry on. Matt had to check a bag. I pride myself knowing that I (the female) was able to pack light. Notice the bag size difference in the picture below.

Once we finally arrived in Cleatwater it was beautiful. A bit breezy, but highs around 80 and sunny!

Friday I did the normal day-before-the-race routine. Was feeling really good and getting really excited.

Friday night we ate at Olive Garden. It was an interesting meal. I think it took us about 2 hours. We had a waiter and a waitress that did not communicate one bit, but between the two we still couldn't seem to get more drinks or breadsticks, or anything for that matter. Then Matt got a kids meal, I got only a dollop of sauce with a mountain of pasta, the bills got messed up, you get the idea. It was all good though, at the end of the meal we got the little mints!

Race morning finally came! Even though it was Florida, I was SOOO cold. I stole my dad's jacket muhahaha.

I was in wave 15 of 17. Pros started at 6:45am, I started at 7:50.

Started in the front of the wave. One girl, who must have been 7 feet tall, was out in front right away. Right behind I was in a pack of about 6-8 girls. Dropped that group about half way out. Ran into the prior wave about here too. It got pretty wavy as we got out there! Swimming in the ocean was crazy! You have to time your sighting, if you sight while you are at the bottom of the wave, you won't see anything but water! And salt water makes my mouth taste like vomit. Fun times! I thought maybe I would catch less people on the swim, being a world championship and all. But I don't think there was much difference compared to the other 70.3s I have done.

Came out 2nd in my wave in 25:38 or so.

The bike was, well, a draftfest. Big surprise I know. Some drafting is unavoidable due to the shear number of people on the coarse. But there was tons of blatant drafting. I only saw one penalty given out. I had to pee really bad on the bike but couldn't. I slowed down a couple times to try, but no success. So into T2, grabbed my bag, switched gear, and headed straight to the port-o-potty. It was a struggle to get to the potty from the tent because I was in so much pain-I had to pee that bad. I really need to figure out something different for next season so I don't waste time on the bike or in T2. Bike split was 2:25 or so.

The run was pretty disappointing. I felt so sick. I felt like I ate Thanksgiving dinner followed immediately by Christmas dinner, then tried to a half marathon. Not cool. Had a few puke burps. Then I had shoe issues. Had to stop to fix it 3 times. Just a frustrating run. For the last 3 miles or so I could see a girl in my age group a little ways up. I really made a move to catch her in the last quarter mile or so. With about 100-150 yards to go I started sprinting (I mean seriously sprinting like I've never done at the end of a race before). Then I passed her with about 25-50 yards to go. Yay! But she saw me, sprinted herself, and crossed 1 second before me. Boo.

Here is where I pass her.

Sorry, no photo of the counter pass.

Run split was 1:32ish. Right around where I have been. I know in perfect conditions (not feeling sick and no shoe issues) that I can do better, but given the circumstances, I was okay with my run and total time (4:29:29).

Ended up 6th in my age group and 10th overall. Not like I have a tough age group or anything!

It was a little disappointing to finish up the season like this, but I know I've had a pretty good season. Both performance wise and pretty free of incident (crashes, cramps, etc). But I think this will also help keep me that much more motivated for next season!

The beach after!