FROST YER FANNY DU

Today was the Frost Yer Fanny Du up in Leander, Tx and yes...it was cold. Brandon and I woke up this morning to about 25 degree temperature. I asked Brandon if they were going to cancel the race because it was so cold out. He basically just laughed at me and said that it's not called Frost Yer Fanny just for the fun of it. So, I bundled up with all the clothes that I own and headed out to the race.

When we got to the race site I was surprised to see about 200 or so other not so smart people out there in these cold temperatures getting ready to race. I stayed in the car as long as possible before I had to take my bike to transition. I did a quick run warm up and headed to the start.

The gun went off and I felt as though I was running backwards. For the first 1/2 mile or so my legs felt heavy or maybe they were just numb...I don't know. Anyways, once I warmed up the legs started to roll and I was feeling good. I was first to T1 and was excited to get on the bike. I've been biking well lately and was ready to go hard on the bike. This was the first race that I was using my handy SRM so I was interested to see what my watts were when I finished.

I was almost to the finish of the first loop of the bike and BAAM...I got a flat. I couldn't believe it (especially after I've already had 2 flats this week on training rides and Brandon has had about 4 flats this week)! I slowly rode my bike a little ways until I came across two volunteers (Maggie and Joey). I told them that I had a flat and didn't have any spares with me ( I usually don't carry anything if it's and Olympic distance race or shorter). I started talking to Maggie about my options. Maggie told me that I could ride her bike but she didn't have the same pedals that I have so my shoes wouldn't fit. She then offered her bike shoes to me but unfortunately she wears a size 7 and I wear a size 9. I then had this brilliant idea that she just let me use her front wheel!!! I have no idea why we were having this conversation about switching bikes and everything when the most logical answer was to just borrow the stupid wheel. I think my brain was just frozen at the time so I didn't know what was going on. I grabbed the wheel, changed it, and was off riding again. As I was riding, I looked down and noticed that my front brakes weren't even touching the wheel. I thought that was weird but just figured I would use my back brake if I needed to.

I have know idea how long my pit stop was. It felt like an eternity but in reality it was probably only 4-6 minutes or so. I figured in that time I was probably passed by a couple of people so I just put my head down and pounded on the pedals. I eventually passed back two girls that had passed me and was first into T2. I was so glad to be off the bike!

Onto the second run...I felt a lot better and just pushed all the way to the finish. I ended up first overall and was pleased with the effort. I really wanted to finish the race so I was glad that I ran into Maggie. She just happened to be in the right place at the right time...so, THANK YOU MAGGIE!

After the race I went back to transition and told Brandon about my flat. He noticed that the wheel that I had borrowed from Maggie was a 650c and I ride 700c! No wonder the brakes weren't even touching my wheel. I guess you could say I was a little more aerodynamic with a 650c front wheel and a 700c back wheel!

Also, congrats to Derek Yorek (fellow Source Endurance athlete) for the overall men's title.

-acm