It Must Be the Booties

by Raja

Today turned out to be a bootiful San Diego day. Sunny, no wind, nice temp.. and perfect for a bootilicious time trial at Fiesta Island in the middle of Mission Bay. I had just realized that once you get in line, your nerves escalate exponentially the closer you get to that guy straddling the bikes. “It must be the booties” said the guy 3 up from me. “All the fast ones have the booties” he joked. It was his first TT, as it was my first as well. I replied, “yeah, I don’t have one of those crazy helmets… but I got booties!”

Whitney DeSpain had just finished the first of her 5 loop course and looked great. So Cal Bella’s got to stick together, “Go Whitney!” I screamed. All you bellas out there… Whitney is the BEST support and cheering squad one could ask for -Bella Extraordinaire- she attracts energy and happiness, what could be better???

“Twenty seconds…” said the voice behind my left ear, “you have twenty seconds.” He kept speaking but all I heard was “blah blah blah.. blah blah…” and all I could think about was “OK, I have lost the ability to clip into my pedals…” He said something about laps and finishing and luck. I’ll take some of that with a side of fries please!

And I was off, my first TT now under way. Having a triathlon background, I’m a little more familiar with racing TT than road racing, having said that, I haven’t owned a bike for year yet…so “familiar” is a relative statement. I was however pretty familiar with that ache in the legs left over from the half IM 2 weeks ago. Yesterday I hopped on my bike for a couple of hours to wake up the legs – thought perhaps that would be wise…Eh, ache, smake… whatever.. right??!? Laps 1 & 2 felt nice and smooth. Lap 3 errr… and lap 4, well.. not so much. Lap 5, you can feel the finish… my bum hurt, my legs hurt, heck, even my arms hurt (???). I’m still getting used to aerobars… I finished in something like 33:17, happy for my first TT. Lots of improving left to go. Whitney looked at me sideways – “THAT’S GREAT!!” she said… “you should stick around.. your new fiance just may be a podium boy!”

Here’s the REALLY interesting and important part of the day… A woman walked up to Whiteny & I and smiled a great big smile, “you have the best looking [kit] out here.” Really she said that! Then a guy from Pez Cycling seemed to agree and took our photo (so look online on their something or rather “distractions” part of their website!) for their cycling news website. VB making the news! (well, not really, but I can dream can’t I??). So Whitney & I made a pact… more flair next race!! We’ll show ’em “distraction”!

Results came out, and my new fiance, Dave, did indeed become a podium boy and I placed second behind the Master aka Yvonne. Can I tell you how EXCITED I am??!? Whitney gave me a huge hug and said, “you realize the only one to beat you was Yvonne?” Now I don’t know Yvonne personally.. but let me tell you.. she makes the guys look slow. Not only is she wicked fast (like 3 minutes faster than me!).. she’s pretty too! Ugg! So jokingly I replied to Whit, “well, I’ll just have to catch her now won’t I!”. (I stress jokingly!) So on to the next race. I doubt I’ll catch Yvonne… but the good news, in 2 years she’ll be on to another age group.. so there’s hope!!

That’s it from bootiful Southern California. It was the new VB booties, I swear!

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