2008 Nationals
Spokane, Washington

All the pictures are now up!

Sunday, August 10

Last day -- 200 day. Changed my whole approach last night. Went out with the middle distance runners that Dave hooked up with and we went to an Irish pub. Had my traditional burger and Guinness. My warmup felt much worse (this is actually a good sign! -- it generally mans I'm more ready for my race). At least it was different than the last couple of days. I stayed away from my competitors and had my ipod on so loud I lost my sunglasses off my head and didn't even notce (still haven't found them). The weather couldn't have been more different that the first couple of days. 70 degrees, cloudy, spitting occasional raindrops with a little wind. Not really sprinting weather. I kept my sweatshirt on right up until the starter said "sweats off".

The race: Thanks to Heather my starts have been very consistent and this race was no different. I started in lane 3 and no one was in lanes 1 or 2 so I got to watch my competition. As usual, Karla del Grande went out fast and strong way beyond my reach. Brenda Matthews, however, was a different matter. I made up the stagger on her by the end of the curve and kept it for the rest of the race! Since Karla is Canadian that means that we both get the gold medal and I'm now the AMERICAN CHAMPION in the 200M!!!! Yipeee!

Thank you Ric. Thank you Heather. Thank you Dave. Thank you everyone!

Saturday, August 9

The latest. Ran my 100 today. Frankly, I think I like it better when I run my 100 with other races. It's just too short to hang your hopes on! It felt like I lost everything I've gained in the last few weeks. No power. Our race was into a -1.8 wind but other than that conditions were perfect, hot but not too hot, warmup was good, felt strong and fast. Everyone said I looked fast, and had a good start but the bottom line was 15.26 and third place. WAY slower than I expected. Tomorrow is the 200 and I'm gonna run it my way!

No pictures yet, I can't upload them on this network.

Thursday & Friday August 7&8 I arrived at the Spokane Airport at about 12:30pm. I figured if everything went well I could make it to Dave's 400M prelim. I got my car and they asked me if I wanted a GPS -- but no, directionally impaired Cathy can find her way around using sketchy maps. Yeah right! I bounced around long enough to miss Dave's start time but luckily they swapped some heats around and just as I arrived at the track I heard the Dave's name. I ran over to the start and got to watch the whole thing. It is so hot up here! I left Boulder just as it was starting to cool down and jumped right into a frying pan! So, Friday is my day to do the 400. Didn't sleep well, didn't eat well, just didn't feel good. Not so hot in the morning. My race wasn't until 2:30 in the afternoon so I tried lazing around the hotel. But I couldn't sleep past 6:00 so that's a long time to obsess about any race while sitting in a hotel room so I went to the track early and baked myself before the race. (It got a LOT hotter) Keeping a good thing going I started my warmup early and then the race was behind by 30 minutes. I tried to keep loose and actually felt pretty strong in my warmup. Of course I also found out that Karla del Grande has moved up to the 55s. For some reason the Canadians don't show up on the web lists. Add the world record holder Lorna Forde to the mix and I had my work cut out for me.
The race: Good start, then eased back as I watched Karla pull away and Lorna pass me from the inside. I actually ran a pretty even race (someone got me at about 36 seconds at 200), felt strong but not particularly fast and closed on Lorna just a touch before the finish. Final times: Karla 67.38, Lorna 69.97, me 71.48. My time was a season PR by about a second. Yeah me! And I got a silver.

Cross Training at the Velodrome!

I finished my training class at the 7-11 Velodrome in Colorado Springs and completed my first 2 race days. The first, was the Hammer Time Trials on May 31. Suffice it to say that it was not a banner day. I ran a 200M TT (that's running) Friday morning (30.83!) and was pretty well depleted. The first race was a flying 200M (my absolute favorite!). My time was 14.92 which at least was an improvement over my time in class of 15.02 but was only good enough to get me second to last. My second race was the 500M with a standing start. My start was pretty bad, I actually hit my foot with my front wheel but I recovered and completed my race for a final time of 49.16. Final race was a 2K, good start but not so good overall time of 3:27.4. There was one positive to take from the meet -- it should be easy to improve on my times!

June 3 was my introduction to the mass start racing. I showed up at the race expecting the female turnout to be similar to the Hammer Time Trials where there were at least 15 women. At this race there were a grand total of 3 (including myself). One B rider and 2 C riders.

So here's where I ended up -- in the middle of a pack of guys ranging from 13 to 40. What fun! That's me in the blue helmet and red jersey. I raced a 12-lap points race (stayed in the pack for more than half the race), a 3-lap scratch sprint qualifier (my best -- sprinter til the end!) and part of a 25-lap points race (hey, how many times can you get spit out the back before it's just no fun anymore.) My goal for next week -- stay with the guys and ride closer to the front!

More pictures on the next page