Charlottesville Olympic Tri Race Report, Preface

The Outlook
I was OhSoExcited about this triathlon. Really!
Just about an hour away from home, lake swim, trail run, small number of participants. All good criteria in my book.
After completing Eagleman a month and a half ago, an Olymic distance seemed so, well, easy! While I had been incredibly anxious about Maylor's Beach last year (my first Olympic distance,) my anticipation for Charlottesville was completely different. I was totally looking forward to it, felt extremely well-trained, and was already imagining it as a new favorite.

The Trip
Got a couple of screws loose on the travel plans. Anna's beautiful new bike doesn't actually fit on her bike rack any more, so instead of riding with her, I followed her up to the race site. My alarm went off at four am, and we got on the road about five. It was dark out for most of the drive, but it was pretty relaxing. I just listened to music and watched Anna's taillights. Much easier than on my way back home when i stopped paying attention for just a second and ended up driving halfway to Lynchburg!

PreRace MisPreparation
Here's where the pitfalls begin. This was my eleventh triathlon, and never before had I experienced any organizational difficulties, much less an Evil Triathlete. Now I got both.
I signed my waiver and proceeded through the packet pickup line. When I showed my license and USAT card, the woman checking called my number out, 220, although I could clearly see that my name had already been crossed off the list. The other woman agreed--220 was missing from the race number box.
"Sit tight," one said. "We'll straighten it out."
"Where's Dan?"
"I don't know who he is."
"He's in the canoe."
The volunteers had this conversation while I sat patiently on the bench.
Then they went back to distributiing packets.
A few minutes later, I asked if there was someone I could find or ask.
"Yes! Do you know Patty?"
"No. I'm from Richmond."
"Oh." And they continued to hand out packets.
Finally another volunteer located Patty, who said I needed to re-register.
The guy hading out goodie bags handed me a registration form. Actually, two.
"May I have a pen?"
More digging around.
I turned in my "new" registration, then waited again while a woman copied all of the information I had just written onto a blank race number, 244.
"Here you go!"
"May I have my race packet?"
The guy handed me a course map and a couple of race brochures.
"Could I get a bag, too, please?"
"We're all out."
Of course they were. Obviously they had handed out all the bags while I was sitting on the bench for twenty minutes.

I moved over to the chip line, where I had to explain my situation to someone else.
"Hold on while I go check," she said. Five minutes later she returned to tell me that my chip would now be fine, but that I couldn't use the stretchy chip band because they were only for relay teams.
"Oh."

Having volunteered at a couple of races this year myself, I appreciate that these people are out there to make the race possible for us, but this was truly a frustrating experience because nobody seemed to have the wherewithal or authority to make any decisions about a mixup, or the ability to find someone who could. Well, I thought, at least this is all out of the way before the race. I was starting to get a little anxious now, though, where I'd been calm all morning before arrival.

I got bodymarked and went back to the "festival-style" transition area, where I'd already racked my bike and set up my transition gear. A guy had racked his bike so that his front wheel rested not-so-gently on my bag.
I moved it over. "I'm sorry if that was in your way."
"Well, you took my spot."
"Excuse me?"
"You took my spot. I had my towel over here, and I was going to put my bike there."
"Well, I had no idea. There was no bike here, and there aren't any numbered spots."
"I put my stuff to the right of where I was going to rack my bike. That's the way it works."
He was being pretty sarcastic with me at this point, so I just said,
"Well, it looks like we both fit here. I didn't mean to ruin your race."
"I was just letting you know triathlon etiquette."

I didn't reply. Just finished bodygliding while I listened to him give some others around us tips on how to race and train for distance triathlon. "So you've done an Ironman?" someone asked. "No. That's the only distance I haven't done," he replied. "I mean, besides this one." Then he went on to talk about the half he had completed. In other words, this distance tri expert had completed zero Olympics, one half, and zero Ironmans. I'm glad he was preaching to me about etiquette!

At this point I realized that the packeteers had failed to give me a swim cap, so I went back over to "my" bench to retrieve it. Plus, I was starting to get worked up about the Evil Triathlete. I know I didn't make that obvious, so I thought I'd point it out!

Thank goodness for TRIgirls! I met back up with Anna, Lynn, Susie, Cyndi, and surprise entrant Mary. I vented, and then Cyndi braided my hair. I hope that was as calming for her as it was for me. Once again I took advantage of her Mom Skills. I hope this may become a tradition!

I decided that Everything that Could Go Wrong already had, so that I must be in for a great race!!! We headed down to the lake.