Post La Coruna - disappointment but trying to look at the big picture

Well, how was that for a day?  Sheesh.  I woke up to it raining like crazy and a huge headache.  The kind of headache that usually means there's some bones in my neck that are out of alignment.  I did everything I could to loosen stuff up; rolling, mobility drills, everything.  But I couldn't get anything to crack.  I knew I'd raced well in the past with my neck being out, so I wasn't totally freaked out, especially since my leg length was even.  Again, I was doing everything I could to make sure my body was functioning.  I've never gone a month with three races and so much travel without seeing a chiropractor, so I was hoping my body would hold up.  Especially with a 50K in there.  The only reason I'm able to move at all is because Dave has been so awesome about working on me and me making sure I stretched and did tons of mobility drills. 

As we watched the weather forecast for the day it initially said an 80% of thunderstorms during the race.  The race started at 6:30 PM so there was plenty of time for things to change, which they did.  Later the forecast said no rain!  Hazzah! 

My warm up went okay, I felt okay, not great but not horrible.  My head was still killing me though.  But I figured I could race through head pain.  I can race 50Ks after all :)  That equals full body pain!

Right before we were supposed to start it poured rain and there was thunder and lightening!  It was nuts.  Everyone dashed for cover and tried to stay dry.  A very bitterly cold wind blew in and all the women were standing there shivering.  But luckily the "storm" passed over very quickly. 

The race went off and I knew I'd be helping bring up the end, which I did.  But I just felt off.  I hit my first K around 5:18, not at all what I was hoping for or expecting.  I thought maybe it was from standing in the cold and the next lap would warm me up.  Alas, it did not.  And with a third K even slower and my head killing me and starting to feel like I was going to throw up I decided to call it a day.  I really didn't need to race a 20K in 1:50 or so. 

So talk about disappointing.  I was really hoping to race a strong race.  I think I'm recovered from Rome, I don't think that was the problem.  After the decently fast 5K in Belgium and my workouts after that going well I don't think I can say that my legs held me back.  I'm not positive but I think it's because I really need to see a chiropractor.  I think I can still RW at a medium pace, around 5:30 per K or so, but faster may be a struggle. 

My thoughts after the race traveled all over the place.  Obviously I'm disappointed, but my brain reminded me of something...  Rome was my race.  Rome was my highlight.  Dave and I had this trip planned before I was allowed to race in Rome.  So it was never the plan to do all four of these races.  Initially when I finished the 50K I thought I might not race any others at all, but sometimes I like to think I'm supergirl and can do anything/everything.  Most of the time I can do quite a bit.  But Rome was super stressful, and I did a lot of traveling from place to place.  A lot.  which throws me out.  So while I was really hopeful that I could race well, I really should've stuck with my initial plan of not worrying about the later races, and just have fun.  Don't get me wrong, I did have fun!  It was great seeing everyone!  And meeting a bunch of wonderful new people.  But of course I always want more.

Now we have just a few days left.  We spend one more day in La Coruna tomorrow then Monday fly to Zurich and then we fly home Wednesday to arrive home basically on Thursday.  It will be so nice to be home in my own bed, eating all the food I'm used to eating and see my cats and my cows and chickens.  I still have to meet Fressen!  Our babies are going to be so big!

It will be time to refocus, start on some new plans and adventures.  For now I will look forward and just focus on training :)

Pre La Coruna

Excited to be flying to Spain!

It's nice to have more time to sit and relax!  Tomorrow is the big day, racing in La Coruna.  The start list is very impressive, with so many amazing athletes.  I definitely have one of the slowest seed times and realize that I will be helping bring up the rear.  It's both frustrating and motivating.  I really do want to be a faster walker.  One thing being here does though is motivates me to work harder.  With the wonder of hindsight I wish I had come to big events like this earlier in my career.  I think being among the fastest in the world would be a huge inspiration.  My advice to those of you out there who think you're not fast enough to race with the speedsters, do it!  Like they say, if you want to be a good writer surround yourself with good writers.  So if you want to be a good walker, surround yourself with good walkers! 

Going out and doing my workout I get to see lots of people doing theirs and it's fascinating to me to watch everyone's technique.  So much to learn.  And one thing that's been a real surprise to me is how many people seem happy to see me.  I look at all these amazing athletes and feel like I'm nowhere in the same level they are, but one thing that I love about this sport is how friendly almost everyone is.  I try my best when I go to international races (and national races too, obviously) to go out and meet new people and be friendly.  I guess it works because I have people saying hi to me before I see them. 

My second shake out workout today I got to walk with a few of the Mexicans, who are just the friendliest and most welcoming group of people. 

I haven't done a ton since the race in Belgium.  Thursday was a travel day and I took it off, just stretching and doing my mobility drills.  Today I did a 5K in the morning and felt great.  Then we did some easy sightseeing and I did a second workout of a 4K warm up and 5x200 to get loose.  We walked around a little more and I'll stretch in a bit.

Sporting some awesome tan lines with the Roman lighthouse built in the 1st century in the back.  Talk about a feat of engineering.  My engineer husband said when we were inside, "how did they do that?"  As if this music major has any clue!

My plan for tomorrow is to get up and go for an easy stroll, eat and rest and walk around, and then race as good as I can.  I'm pretty sure my legs are fine from the 50K now.  Not positive, but I'm going to act as if they are fine!  I know if it wasn't for Dave giving me massages and keeping my legs loose I'd be in one heck of a horrible position for tomorrow.  My calves keep getting so tight and they also keep swelling up, but he's been awesome about rubbing them and keeping fluid in my legs moving around.  I've been getting some good sleep and my eating has been better after the gluten I ate after the races.  And maybe a few pieces of chocolate I had in Belgium....  ;) 

So my goal for tomorrow is as always, I'm going to race as smart as I can and do my absolute best.  I will enjoy being in a race with the best in the world.  I'm going to cheer on my friends who are going for Olympic qualifying times.  And most importantly, I'm going to have fun.


“When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.” – Terry Bradshaw

And you know what, I've got something to prove!

On a separate note, I have my first international athlete!  I'm so excited to be coaching Bianca Dittrich from Germany.  She is so excited about the opening up of 50K for women and excited to race a 50K.  Very exciting!  Look for some exciting things from Bianca, she's one impressive young lady, very tough, and very motivated!

My attempt at being artsy with my phone!

Post Rome recovery and races.

So good to be with Dave again!

It's been a while since I've written.  And I'm happy to say it's because I've been having a wonderful time!  After the race I did some sightseeing with Ian and Susan and wandered (slowly!) around Rome and went to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius.  All the regular walking was great for recovery.  And I really loved seeing those amazing places.

From Rome I went to Vienna for a few days.  I crammed as much as I possibly could, walking all over the place and seeing as much as I could.  I made good use of the Vienna City Pass and spent a fantastic day at the Palace.  I got to go to a concert in the big hall in the Palace and listen to Strauss and Mozart!!!!  For the musician in me it was amazing!  The acoustics in the hall were incredible!  And to think that was where Mozart had performed, and made his debut a few rooms over!  It was great!

After that I took the train to Budapest and stayed with my friend Anett.  She is always the hostess with the mostess!  Along with some fun stuff in Budapest we went to her hometown and stayed with her parents, who totally spoiled me!  They even got me a birthday cake and some presents!  We went to Lake Balaton which was wonderful and had lavender ice cream, which was delicious.  And the best part was I started to RW again.  It was great walking with someone, it made coming back a lot easier as we could talk and giggle and occasionally stop to pick flowers.  I did a speed session with her and her coach was there.  I was moving okay, but the 50K was 7 days prior.  She told me later her coach said to her "does she not do these kinds of workouts much?  She seems like she's having trouble."  (it was 3K, 2K, 1K, 2x500)  She said "Coach, her 50K was last week!"  he said "Oh, right!  Wow, she's doing great!"  :) 

Next was traveling to Naumburg to meet Dave.  It was going to be 11 hours on the train, which was cheaper and a bit more convenient than flying.  That is true when you make all your connections.  Once I realized I was supposed to get off and didn't I was fairly far past where I was supposed to be.  So instead of arriving at 7:30 PM I didn't get in til 11:06.  Since I left at 6:30 AM it made for a super long day.  The worst thing was Dave was waiting for me and I was worried he'd be freaking out.  Luckily I convinced the people at the station I turned around at to play a message at the station telling him that I'd be late.  They did!  Whew!  He was there waiting for me!  It was so good to see Dave again.  I really do miss him when I'm gone and feel so much better when we're together!

The following few days were getting ready for the race on May 22nd.  we found a little park to train around.  I was actually feeling pretty good.  That ended the day of the race though.  I never felt good.  My stomach was a bit upset, I'm afraid I might have eaten something a little funky the night before, and I was so tight.  I think, after three weeks of racing, traveling, and strange beds that my hips finally went a little out.  So I DNFed myself at 13K.  I decided that finishing a race with an okay time wasn't what I wanted since I had another opportunity for a good 20K six days later in La Coruna.  I never like stopping a race, but I really do feel that it was the right decision.  I was able to help Dave and cheer for him which was good.  He didn't have the race he wanted either, but finished and finished as hard as he could, so I was really proud of him!

Next we took the train to Brussels.  Our first train was late and made us miss our connection (ugh) so we spent 4 hours in Efurt, Germany.  It was nice, but I would've rather been to Brussels earlier.  However we did make it and spent some time wandering around.  We were able to find a good hotel right in the center of the city and we were so close to everything.  We were going to go eat some Belgium food, but it was expensive and neither of us were really hungry, so we found a Greek restaurant that was amazing!  I miss good Greek food! 

After a little bit of a sleep in we got up and went for a training walk in the park not too far from us.  It was about 1.4K around, according to my GPS, and we had a nice shake out walk.  After checking out we did more sightseeing around Brussels.  Then we jumped on the train (again!) to Namur, the town outside Brussels by about an hour that we'll be racing in.  We checked in then went to the track where I did a little shake out walk, doing some 200s between 50 and 53, which is pretty good for me. 

Now I'm sitting around waiting for the race.  Our race starts at 8:45 (assuming the track meet doesn't run late).  I'm not used to starting so late, so figuring out how to organize my day is tough.  I think we did a good job.  I went for a training walk in the morning, then breakfast.  then we went into town and Dave got a haircut, which was sorely needed, and we saw the Citadel, which was incredibly impressive.  Then we came back, repacked our luggage, took a nap, and are now waiting to go!  I'll wait to finish up this blog post for after the race.  I'm feeling decent for it.  Dave and I have worked hard to get my hips back where they're supposed to be.  Hopefully we managed it and I'll be able to move okay!

Wow, what a night!  The weather was great for the race, but it started about 30 minutes late.  That's one thing I love about RW events usually going first, you know when you're starting so you know how to plan your warm up.  I warmed up and then tried to just stay loose.  The second to last even was the 110 meter hurdles so we could use the back stretch to do some pickups.  That seemed to be all I needed. 

After the 5,000 in Namur, Belgium with Anett.  If you look closely you can see her devil horns :)

The gun went off and I started off comfortable.  My goal was to really work on technique and not go out super hard and die.  Other than that I had hopes, but nothing I was really intent on doing.  I am very happy with my race!  I placed second behind Anett.  She went out hard and got over 100 meters in front of me.  I started closing the distance a bit, but would've needed probably another 5K to catch her :)   I don't have my official time, but I was somewhere around 24:16.  My last 500 wasn't my slowest, so I'm happy about that, and nothing was over 5 per K pace.  I felt like my arms were nice and low and I kept my head level.  And another cool thing... prize money!!!  Dave placed 3rd and had a solid race, and he also won prize money.  So going to Belgium was a huge success!

Our race swag.  Not sure why I can't get the picture the right way....

Since the race started so late and it took so long to get the prize money we didn't get back to the hotel until almost 11:00 PM.  With a shower, eating, and last minute packing we got to bed about midnight.  Our shuttle to the airport left at 4:30, so that meant very little sleep.  I slept maybe 2 hours on the flight to La Coruna.  But I am definitely ready for a nap!  When we got to La Coruna we were trying to find the bus that would take us into town and this lady came up and started translating, and helping us with where to go and giving us ideas of things to do, places to go eat.  She was so nice and so friendly!  She walked us to sight of our hotel.  Talk about friendly!

Heading to Spain!

Now comes the preparation for La Coruna.  I know there's going to be a ton of amazing walkers and I'll probably be bringing up the rear.  I hope I'm recovered enough from the 50K to do a solid time.  It looks like the weather will probably cooperate, although there may be thunderstorms, which may not be so perfect....

Once I get done with La Coruna it'll be time to look to the future and make long-term plans!  But I will say that I do have some long-term plans that are very exciting.  So if you'd like to help support me, and need to buy some training gear, I'd ask you to go to my AthleteBiz storefront here:

https://www.athletebiz.us/athletes/erin-taylor-talcott/store

you shop at Running Warehouse, buy awesome stuff (through my storefront) and I get a percentage of what you spend!  I know it works because some awesome people have already done so!  To those who did, thank you!  

For now, Adios from Spain!  I'll let everyone know how the race goes :)

https://www.facebook.com/RacewalkerErin/

IAAF World Team Championships of Race Walking..... Done!

Deep breath in..... hold it.... aaaannnndddd exhale!  Whew!  This is the first time since the race that I've sat down at my computer with WIFI for longer than 10 minutes.  Wow, oh wow, what a week it's been.

I purposely laid low before the race.  I had no idea what my reception was going to be there and was trying to keep my stress/anxiety level down.   Luckily there were some fantastic people on the team that were able to keep me laughing.  And of course going around Rome was amazing. 

An interesting side note.  A lot has been going around about how Team USA did.  I'm not going to get into that, but one thing I've been thinking about is this:  We don't get many chances to travel to race.  Sure, we race in the US, but that's a known quantity.  You know the food, you know the language, things like that.  You leave a day or two before the race, so any tapering you do is at home.  When you travel so far there's a lot more to it.  You've got the flight and the jet lag.  You've got new food to figure out if your tummy likes.  You're in a foreign environment, which for some is a small stressor.  There was a lot of concern about going out and doing tourist things before the race, afraid that we'd go out and walk ourselves to death.  I get it, I know that standing in a museum for three hours can make my feet as sore as a 50K.  But, if I was at home I would be tapering, but still doing things.  I'd be working in the garden, taking care of the animals, doing housework, doing yard work.  I'd be active and out and about.  When I'm overseas I don't have those things to do.  I personally would go totally crazy if I was sitting in a hotel all day for 5 days before a race.  And I know my body well enough to know how much I can take with walking around.  I actually think that more people who stayed in the hotel and didn't do touristy things got sick than those who went out and about.  But that's one thing that needs to be practiced, and one thing that other countries have over us, practice tapering away from home.

At the Vatican with Dee Mahoney, physio extraordinaire!

Anyway, it was great watching the juniors race.  AJ went for it and couldn't quite hold it, but still was less than a minute of his PB on an international stage.  It's motivated him to work harder, which is great :)  And it was fun cheering for all the other people I know and have met from other countries.  We had some PBs in the junior races which is great.

Very proud of this kid! 

I didn't watch the senior races, because that I knew would be too much standing and excitement.  Luckily it was on TV so I got to watch it!  Definitely got me excited for my race!

I woke up earlier than I usually would for a 9:00 race and I didn't need my alarm.  I also ate earlier than I normally would because I could tell I had some butterflies in my tummy flying around.  I didn't want any issues so I figured the earlier I could digest the better.  that was totally the right call as I didn't have any tummy issues at all.

The 6:30 bus left and arrived at the stadium about 7:00.  That left lots of time for a potty break (the porta potties were n-a-s-t-y) and getting loose.  I didn't really walk to warm up at that point, just did some mobility stuff, and was feeling nice and loose.  That's mainly due to Dee Mahoney working on me and getting stuff moving and teaching me some incredible mobility exercises that are going to help me get my full range of motion back for the future. 

It can't be all serious before the race, I'd be a mess, so why not jump on the podium?

We got called to the call room and I headed in.  I saw some people I knew and said hi.  I had some guys I didn't know come up and shake my hand, which was very touching.  No one said anything negative or shot me any bad looks, so that was really nice.  As we headed to the course there were people lining the course who were smiling at me and giving me thumbs up.  A few asked to have their picture taken with me.  When we got to the start line I did some walking and pick ups and felt great.  More people wanted photos with me, and the announcer announced me, which was cool.  I was doing my best not to get over excited, but my heart rate had been probably 15-20 beats higher than normal since I'd woken up. 

Finally we lined up.  How cool is that, we... me and the guys.... we lined up to start a 50K.  I was lining up at the start line of an international 50K!!!!!!  The gun went off and it hit me.   Look where I was!  Look what I was doing!!!! Oh my gosh!!!!  I started to choke up a little.  To actually be there, to have done it, to have made it, was just surreal.  But I threw that out of my mind and got down to business.  My plan was to go out at 4:35:00 pace, which is 5:30 per K pace.  I felt pretty unsure of pace, especially across the cobble stones, but when Ian and I got to the K mark we were at 5:32, almost like we planned it :)  I settled into my pace and it felt great.  Felt easy and smooth. 

I was staying very focused, but it was hard, because it felt like EVERYONE on the sidelines were cheering for me!  The announcer kept announcing my name and people would yell and cheer.  I couldn't help but smile.  After the race people said I got more cheers than anyone else.  Other nations were cheering, tons of Italians were cheering, the people at the aid stations for other countries were cheering for me, it was nuts. 

My plan was to get through 25K at pace and then start to kick it down a little.  As the race went on I felt like it was going to be perfect, I was on pace, a bit over, but nothing crazy.  So 25K came and I thought, yes, let's start to pick it up..... got to the next split, and I slowed down!  What?!?!?!  I didn't feel like I went slower.  So I collected myself and thought, okay, back up we go!  And was still slower.  And that's how the rest of the race sort of went.  I gradually slowed down, at one point decently slow.  It was so frustrating because I wasn't sure why I was slowing down.  By 40K I think it was just the beating from going at that slower pace.

IAAF says that you have to start your last lap by 4:35:00.  As the race was getting close to the end I started to be worried that I wouldn't make it.  Also, I didn't know exactly where "the last lap" was.  usually on a 2K course it's at the start/finish line.  It ended up that in this race it wasn't, which was a very good thing.  Had it been the 2K location I wouldn't have made it.  All the people at the lap counting area were rooting for me (and some of the officials I think)  With 3 or 4 laps to go they were cheering me on, saying, "You can make it!"  With two laps to go I was so worried, I really wanted to be able to finish.  Then one of the officials came over on the track and said, "You have 7 minutes!  Go!"  I looked at my watch and it was 4:30:00.  I had seven minutes to get over there.  Some of you may be doing math right now and saying, wait a minute, you said 4:35:00.  4:30:00 plus seven minutes is 4:37:00.  I agree.  And I don't know what made them change their mind.  I think it was just that they really wanted me to be able to finish as well. 

Tony, from New Zealand, can confirm this next bit.  When the official said I had seven minutes and I looked at the time I was still nervous.  I let out a crazy primal scream.  Mike Manozzi had just lapped me, so he was up in front of me about 15 meters.  I took off like a maniac.  The scream almost took all my air, but it got me fired up.  I took off.  I have no idea where the power to do it came from, but I brought my next split down to 5:40.  I had been at almost 6:40.  I was walking terrified. 

Some of this next bit comes from me and some from someone who was standing there, so this is pieced together.  I was coming to the lap counters looking at the officials.  I saw one walking towards me, but I wasn't really watching him.  My friend said he was making a motion as if I should stop.  But I didn't see him, I was looking at everyone else.  They were making a "calm down" motion with their hands, like I could slow down.  I yelled "did I make it?  Can I finish?"  And they said yes!  My friend said the one official looked like he was going to stop me until he saw the look on my face and then just sort of shrugged his shoulders.  I came across with one lap to go at 4:36:15!

It was a good thing they told me I could back off a little bit as the pace I had picked up to was not sustainable for me.  The last lap was fun, knowing that I was almost done.

As I came through the last time I went off the 2K loop and started up and around.  People were there yelling and screaming.  I saw Federica, the Italian girl I roomed with in China.  I said hi to her and asked her how she was doing.  She looked at me like I was crazy and said fine.  It was sort of the fine of, I'm great, standing here on the sidelines while you're racing a 50K!  I think it was partly I was so tired....  as I came down the straight to go into the stadium I started to get very emotional and almost hyperventilated myself. 

I came down into the stadium and the stands were full of people who were standing and yelling and cheering for me!  They had held the team awards so people were still there and the crowd was amazing!  I had done it! 

Coming in to the finish

I came across the line and there were cameras everywhere!  People were having me look every which way for photos.   I had I think six interviews, which was crazy.  My friends were coming up and hugging me, it was awesome.

My time was not what I wanted.  I finished 4:51 and some change, I'm not even sure.  But I never stopped, I never thought of stopping.  I always kept fighting.  I slowed down, but I was fighting it every step.  Someone said that the USA walkers don't fight for it.  I can tell you I fought for it.  I never gave up.  it would've been easy to have slowed up and not made the cutoff time, but I didn't want to do that.  I was passing guys, it just happened that once I passed them they would DNF. 

I placed 40th out of 68 starters (I think that's the right number, I may be off by one or two).  I did what some of the best walkers in the world couldn't do, finish.  And I will take a finishing time/place over a DNF any day, even for those who say you shouldn't be happy with being at the back of the pack.  I think finishing is more important than going out hard and dying and then stopping.  My opinion....

Since then I went to the athlete party, which was great.  I toured the Colesseum, which was really hard to walk around that much the day after the race.  I went and toured Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius, which was amazing.  Now I'm in Vienna for a few days before heading to Budapest to stay with my friend.  Then I will meet Dave in Naumburg.  I'm thinking/hoping to race there..... no, not 50K, 20K.  Then we go to Brussels and race a 5,000 and then to La Coruna for a 20K.  That race I will for sure do.  The walking around I've been doing has been hard but I can tell it's helping recovery.  I will probably try RWing in a few days, right now I just want to enjoy myself for a while and figure out goals/plans for the future. 

Day after the 50K, seeing some sights.

Looking down into Mt. Vesuvius

Pompeii was incredible.  They had some very cool art in the town too.

 

Thank you again to everyone who believed in me and supported me.  To those who didn't, oh well, I still made it without you! 

Oh, and our second calf was born.  Now that we have two we can announce their names:  Essen und Fressen which means food and feed in German, since that's the country we'll be racing in together :) 

It's Getting Real!

Something that even one year ago I would've never believed would be possible, I am sitting in the airport waiting for my trip to Rome to compete in an international 50K!  It's still so surreal.  I wonder if I'm going to wake up from a dream, but I know I'm not.  I'm here, I have my Team USA kit, I've gotten all the emails and I have my plane ticket.  Crazy!  Thank you to all of you who have shown support and happiness for this change. 

The last few weeks have been nuts.  It's been pretty stressful.  My body has reacted to the stress in new and interesting ways, but I'm coping and everything should be just fine!  I've learned new ways to deal with different types of stress, and been enjoying doing more fun things than we would normally do, so that's been a plus.  Sporadic comments like "hey, you want to go into town and goof around for an hour?" are things you would normally never hear at our house, but lately have been.  During some of the nice weather I've been able to get out and get some light yard work done, and some not so light.  It's been great to be outside moving and just enjoying nature. 

The baby just hours after she was born

Lunch gave birth!  It was such a surprise.  We thought she wasn't due until the end of May, but apparently we did our math wrong and forgot the bull came earlier than we remembered.  She's healthy and full of life!  She's small and was getting out of the fence, towards the road, so we strung up another strand of barbed wire at 6:00 one night in the rain.  But we don't want her getting down to the road, so it was very worth it. 

A close up of the little critter

I've had a ton of trip preparations to make.  Dave and I had already planned on traveling to Europe to race in Naumburg and La Coruna.  I had to get myself there and find things to do between Rome and Germany.  Luckily that's not hard to do!  I'm very excited after the 50K to take some time for myself having fun and relaxing.  And getting to see my friend and spending time with her in Hungary!  It's going to be a great trip and should help clear my head after all the 50K craziness.

The race was at the Agricultural college, so definitely needed cows!

Dave and I did a local 5K road race yesterday.  We love doing local races as speed sessions.  This one was small, not a lot of people.  And while they described the course as "basically flat" it was anything but.  It was a VERY hilly course.  I finally did it though, I won a running road race by race walking!  I beat the second place woman by over a minute, and she was ahead of me at the start, so it's not like I started in the lead and stayed there.  I actually started off in third.  That was fun, and while it was a hilly course it was also very scenic and the hills made a nice challenge.  I was incredibly happy with my time too.  I did a double take at my watch twice looking at splits sure it must be wrong and I couldn't be going that fast, but I was! 

I'm sad Dave can't come see me race in Rome, but I know he'll be there in spirit.  He's been so awesome and supportive and he's so excited for me to race. 

I'm planning on taking tons of pictures, and will post when I can.  I'm so excited to be doing this.  It really is a dream come true!