I arrived on thursday afternoon and after setting up camp...yep, I still LOVE to camp in a tent...no trailers or hotels for me (at least at this race). Then it was off to pass out free gelato with Avia at the gate entrance! It was such a fun time and a really great idea from Avia to hand out free gelato and visors to race participants and their families as well as showcase their new line of shoes. When I was finished here, it was off to try and relax at camp. Relax is something that this weekend didn't offer too much of as you'll soon find out!
It's hard to sleep in when you're camping, so friday I awoke around 7am and tried to take my time eating breaki and sipping coffee. My sister Erin and I headed out for a short ride followed by an even shorter run! Erin will be competing in her first WF long course on saturday along with our mom. I met up with Rachel C. and the two of us decided to go for a swim and loosen up. The water felt great. Not sure how far we swam as we did more talking than swimming!
Friday afternoon I was once again handing out Avia gelato and then it was time for our pro meeting. I had picked up my race packet just prior to the meeting and although I had not received my new elite license from USAT, I was told that I could fill out a one day and so I did. I had emailed USAT prior to leaving for the lake asking if I needed a copy/proof of my renewal. I had mailed it in just shy of 2 weeks prior to WF thinking it would get there in time.
At 8pm friday evening 2 USAT officials find me at my campsite finishing dinner. They proceed to tell me that they gave me the wrong information in regards to filling out the one day license...that is only for foreign pros. I must show proof that I had renewed. I told them that I had emailed USAT prior to arriving and that I had not received a response. Luckily there was internet access, so I checked my email and had a reply from USAT...my paperwork had not arrived yet, so so renewal yet and my license was not valid. Next step, talk to the head USAT official. Shoz went with me and we tried to speak to the official who was a stickler for the rules. He was quite abrubt. We tried calling USAT but all we could do was leave messages. I wrote an email to USAT at 8:15pm asking if I am eligible to race and if she could call or reply to me or the head official.
I pretty much broke down after that and figured that I would not be racing the next day. There was nothing to do except wait and see if there would be a reply in my inbox race morning. I didn't do anything as far as race prep that night as I was still quite angry. I woke at 5:45am saturday morning and went straight to check my email. There was a reply. As long as the head official was okay with me racing than that would be fine. Another pro women was going through the same thing. She even received the same email as me! We proceeded to track down the head official and report in to him. He said if we filled out the pro license form and paid the fee (again) that he'd allow us to race. We went back to the computer, I printed out 2 forms and we filled them out then went to find the head official in the transition area, give him our forms and luckily he said we could race. I ran/walked back up the hill to my campsite and asked everyone there for their help in getting me race ready. At this point it was 6:30am and I had yet to eat breakfast, drink coffee, put race numbers on, etc. Thanks to mom, dad and my sis Erin, they got me ready in about 25 minutes and I was then off to transition to set up!
Not knowing if you're able to race until an hour and a half before the race is extremely stressful! I dont' want to feel like that again!
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