NEVIS CYCLE & TRIATHLON CLUB

A number of mishaps did not stop this girl from racing in, Salisbury Vermont amongst 250 international participants.  First race away from home and support of the TNCTC alerted me to the fine details of race organization that need looking after.

I arrived to a rainy, coldest summer remembered in Vermont, having forgotten my pedals, wheel axles, Allen key, and flat fixing supplies in Puerto Rico. I sent an email to the race director asking to borrow some pedals and hoped for the best. I borrowed some axles from my family and early the following morning drove out to the race, arriving to discover that my wheel had fallen off somewhere along the way!

The race director made an announcement to all the race participants that I needed both a wheel and pedals, and luckily someone had found my wheel on the side of the highway and brought it forward. Moments before the race start, a kind man decided not to race as he was competing in the lake placid ironman and lent me his look pedals. However, these did not fit with my cleats. While the participants began to gather at the lakes edge, this same kind man went through the trouble to take his new cleats from his shoes and transfer them to mine! I quickly snapped the shoes in place and head to the race start.

The water was cold! Daggers at my skin, my body felt numb, as I tried to stay calm as my heart beat from the shock of the cold. Thankfully it was just a sprint, I ran into transition grabbed my bike, ran out, jumped on, and as I was gathering speed began to slip my numb feet into my shoes only to discover that I had clipped the left shoe in the right pedal, and right in the left! I figured it would take too much time to change them and made the decision to ride the course barefoot above my shoes! All that work in vain! As biking is my best discipline, the scores of people I passed must of noticed it absurd that I cruised past them barefoot. Ha! My legs stayed numb from the cold the entire ride and I never did warm up. They felt like cold Popsicle sticks. But no matter, after my usual last out of water I came out 3rd female on the bike. And the 5k was a fast rolling shaded route in which I finished 5th female overall of 111 female participants.

FEMALE OVERALL WINNERS

Place No.   Name                        Age Hometown                      Final  
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1   216 Amy Miner                   30 SOUTH BURLINGTON VT     1:12:55
2   262 Jessica Gerhart           28 WOLCOTT VT                    1:13:58
3   231 Brooke Jette               40 MIDDLEBURY VT                1:14:24
4   212 Erin Giaccio                 37 REDDING CT                     1:15:28
5   246 Kristina Stoney       29 HEINSBURG VT               1:16:29