Classic Rock Race Report - Heather Diamond

Green Member:  Heather Diamond

 

Event: Classic Rock Sprint

 

Location:  Rockwall, TX

 

Class:  F35-39

 

Results:  2nd overall female; 1st AG

 

Local Knowledge and Conditions:  GREAT morning for a race!  Crisp, cool, slight breeze…

 

Pre-Race Strategy & Warm-Up:  Nothing special.  The usual waffle sandwich… yum!  Didn't want to get into water since the air temps were pretty cool.

 

Lessons Learned:  Pay attention to what I am doing, not others!  As I was coming out of T1, I see the Honorable Judge Hartley getting on his bike, ever so gracefully, performing his flying mount… I am not quite as brave, so I have my shoes already on the bike, put my left foot on top of the left shoe, push off, and swing the right leg over.  I must have stepped on the outside of my shoe because it popped off the pedal.  My weight was already on that left foot and it crashes down into the concrete.  A volunteer grabs the shoe for me, I put it back on the bike and proceed.  I noticed that the nail polish was scraped off my big toe, but thought that was the extent of the injury.  Key word being "thought".

 

Continued on with the bike course… great course… pretty good ride.  Jason Ross was able to catch some video of me on the bike course as he was in the SAG "Caddy".  Felt strong on the bike.

As I came into T2 and switched shoes, I noticed the big toe bleeding, but it didn't really feel too bad, so I continued on…

 

1st mile was good… felt really strong.  In the second mile, I started to feel some pain in the foot.  I was already half way through the run course, so what was I going to do, stop?  I tried to change my gait a little to the outside of the foot to relieve a little pressure.  It was a real shame, because my legs and lungs felt GREAT!  As the 3rd mile started, I could smell the finish, so I pushed through.  With the pain in the foot, I was happy with a 7:29/mi pace.

 

At the finish, my big toe was bleeding pretty good, so I had the EMT's take a look and clean it up.  There was a pretty good gash right above the nail.  They wrapped it up and I went along my way.

 

That night, it was hurting pretty badly, so Greg took me to the doc the next morning.

 

Diagnosis:  Broken big toe, cracked all the way through.  After hearing that, I was VERY happy with the run split!

 

Special Notes:  Billy, just as last year, you are a GREAT race director!  My coach, Mr. Michael Dawdy is the BEST in the business… he keeps me on track!  Finally, my bike caddy, best friend, and husband… thanks for caddying and thanks for taking care of me as I hobble around… oh yeah, and putting up with my mood since I can't train right now as I would like.  Good news:  could have been worse and now that the cut is healed, I can swim and do some trainer work.  I'll be back running again before you know it!