I've been to Karel's races (and ran before he started) and Karel has came to my races (either biked before or biked to the race). A dream of mine was that Karel and I would both be racing together on the same weekend, in the same area. When we were in Georgia last summer for one of the GA cup races, I decided to race Cat 5 Women during one of Karel's road races. It was a great race (I was 3rd even though I lead the whole race!! hey, I wasn't about to draft for the 28 mile race, I'm a triathlete!) and I finished just before Karel started hi 80+ mile race. Karel and I will be heading up to Albany, GA tomorrow for the first GA cup race of the season. We both LOVE georgia and love the cycling up there (especially the mountains!). When I heard about Karel's race I did the same thing I do for all of his races that I attend...check the web for running races or triathlons. I have never found a race close to one of Karel's races (besides the 100K classic in Atlanta which I didn't do the 10K because I was still training "long" on my weekends for Kona) and I have been waiting to have a weekend where we can both race. Well, this is the weekend! Karel and I will BOTH be racing this weekend. The Snickers Half Marathon and Marathon is on Saturday March 1st and Karel will be starting his 3-stage race on sat. I will be running 13.1 miles at 7am on saturday and Karel will be warming up for the 3.6K all out prologue TT (12 turns, totally technical!) which starts around 8am. I will be running on the same roads as Karel's race sat afternoon (crit at 4:30pm) and I will be running on roads right next to the TT while he is sprinting it out for around 3 minutes. How exciting is this!! Not sure how many people can relate because some people are in relationships where there is only one athlete. That is totally fine and probably a little more relaxed than our situation. I always knew that I couldn't spend my life with someone who didn't have a similar lifestyle as me (it's fine to have different likes and passions but it is most important to share a similar healthy, active lifestyle). So when I met Karel, I knew racing, traveling and traveling to race would be in our future. So now I question myself...how is tomorrow going to play out???
Tomorrow morning we will both wake up early to warm-up. Karel on his bike as I head to the Y treadmill and then a jump in the pool. We both packed tonight so after a good complex carb breakfast (oatmeal for both of us...there is no question with that one!) we will be on the road for our 5 1/2 hour drive. In my racing world, I go to the race site EARLY and just relax. I am an awful traveler and I don't relax until I am at the race site...with my race packet. So in my mind, I need to travel 5 1/2 hours for my race (which I am not really racing, just participating and hoping to have a decent time for my first event post kona, after 6 months of dealing with my leg injury), check into the hotel (days inn baby...2 nights, less than $100!!!!), walk to the race site (Days inn but we are 1/2 mile from all the action. Both of our races are on the same road!) and pick up my packet and then try to find an outback for my ritual pre race meal of bread, sweet potato (everything on the side) and a salad (w/ the cinnamon pecans..yum!). Then to bed! Oh, it is freakin' me out already!! As for Karel, he is easy. He just takes his time (Oh, he just told me he will finish packing in the morning...errrr...hehe), stop in Jacksonville on the way to pick up some free stuff from his team (free is good, I can deal with that) and then get to the hotel when we get there. What about dinner, what about my race packet, what if the outback (that I already mapquested) is busy, what if something is wrong with our room...oh jeez. So now, two athletes who love each other, are in their own world. How will this play out? I can only imagine when Karel and I both do an Ironman together one day in the future...I think I'll plan on booking seperate rooms for that event!
I will try to keep my blog updated this weekend. here are the links to the events...