In another update from Tulsa, I have discovered something about Carol. She sleeps like she races, with extreme dedication and focus. Yeah Carol, champion sleeper (it's 10:30 am and she is still asleep).

And for today's adventure your cruise director will be Carol the Hurricane Hutton.

Last night was the first race of the Tulsa Tough and I don't think any one on the team had a good day. I crashed, Jenna crashed (but I provided a nice soft landing for her), and Carol and I played tailgunners for most of the race.

I'm on the road again today. This time I've got the company of the twins and their matching tye-died t-shirts. Who knew that Dead Dog had tye-died shirts every year.

We're racing the Tulsa tough this weekend. Races start tonight with a twilight crit.

So a final note on the race in Belize. How do I know I'm famous in Belize, well after the race we're surrounded by fans and Belizian press. We're interviewed for radio and TV. I guess the whole race was commentated on live on the radio, so everyone at the finish knew just what I did all day in the race.

I also had to take the trophy home. I was going to leave it there because it would be a hassle to take home, but apparently that would have been a big insult. So I carry the trophy with me on through the airport and every local person stops me and congratulates me on the race. I get up to the ticket agent and he says "Hey, you dat white girl who do so good in the race." It was kind of fun to be famous. I also found out that no matter where you go in the world that carrying a big trophy around is a good conversation starter. So now I am famous in the Huston airport too.

Oh and one other update on the prizes. In total Shini and I took home $6000 Belize in cash plus a bunch of other prizes. My cash prime total actually came out to about $1,900, not the $1k I thought. You know what the wheel sucker brought home... like $700 Belize for third and a $50 prime for fried chicken. Ha, karma!

Since I've been without internet for a while this post will probably be like my longest ever with a lot of updates from my trip to Belize.

First, I'll start at the end.



This is the real reason you come to Belize to race, the vacation afterwards. Eventhough we just had one day, we drove 150 miles down to Shalini's village which is just a 10 min boat ride from the peninsula. So we got to hang out on the beach a little bit. This is her brother's bar right on the beach.

We went out on the boat and did some of that famous snorkling, and got to hang out with her family who were very gracious and fun to hang out with. I had a great time. If fact, I think I am a famous in Belize now. They even had a little parade for us when we got back to the village after the race. Well the parade consisted of us riding on the roof of the car holding our trophies and doing laps around the park while people cheered.


Let's back up the story a bit. The Cross Country race is a pretty big deal in Belize. I mean we were in the news, on the radio, and even interviewed for TV. On Friday before the race we did what I would call the Belize version of the Today show full on with their "Meredith" and "Matt" interviewing us and having us talk about the race.


They even had us ride a parade around the city 2 days before the race with full on with police escort and team cars behind.


The riders made an appearance at the special Olympics on Saturday to hand out medals to the kids competing. Everywhere in the city everyone seemed to know about the race and to wish Shalini luck.

So before I get to the race summary, a few random notes.

The bike shop in the village on the way to the race start.

Some of the villages have the internets; however I think there's a hamster and a wheel running the signal strength.

The village of Cayo where the race started. The race basically was 76 miles going east from the border of Guatemala to the coast in Belize City (hence the title "cross country")

We were going to stay in the village, but someone down the hill decided to have a Belizian house party, so Shalini got authorization to move us to the hotel resort in town. This was full on Mayan hut tourist trap. It was cool place though. Shalini's sister also has a restaurant in the village and she was nice enough to have us for dinner and the best beans and rice I had all week. By the way, I had beans and rice every day, and they were good (and now I am 5lb heavier).

So, I'll give you a little race summary now. Be warned if you hate reading race summaries. This will probably be my longest, and I'll not even get to the whole thing because this was like bizzaro race.

Why did I go to Belize in the first place? Shalini Zabeneh invited me to come down and race with her, and was the nicest host I can imagine. She's someone I met through CTS, she's actually one of our coaching clients (although not mine).

The start was like some sort of Chinese fire drill with people running around and a lot of yelling. They like to yell and argue down here, as evidenced by the technical meeting before the race. The big controversy was that you had to have at least 2 Belizian riders on your team in order to have just one foreigner on the team. Our team, Sagitun, had two Belizian riders registered, but Jamie, Shini’s teammate, dislocated her shoulder the other week and wasn’t able to ride. They tried to get me thrown out of the race on that technicality (since only one Belizian was going to start), but we got around that by having Jamie officially start the race. So all she did was take her arm out of the sling and ride across the bridge for the neutral start. Then she promptly dropped out. Problem solved.

We really lucked out with the weather too, it was relatively cool at the start and still a little foggy from the big rain the night before. I was really relieved because on Friday it was 95 degrees with the feels like temp at 107 degrees. Rog and I went out for a ride and I thought I was going to burst in to flames.

In the race there were over 40 prime sprints. Usually we only see primes in crits, but here because the roads are so straight and flat that they need to do something to spice it up. It was hard to know when the sprints were coming up because none were marked by mileage in the race bible. It was all stuff like Bob’s Bar and Grill, bridge in Tayo, or really vauge like 3rd banana tree after the rock. Oh and the crazy thing was how they marked the primes. They’d have this guy on a motorcycle ride a head of the field, stop on the side of the road and wave his flag at the sprint point. Sometimes when the sprints were pretty close together the guy would just ride slow next to the field and wave his flag, then it was like sprint past the motorcycle. It was so crazy.

With all those primes and a name like Sparky you can imagine what I did. At the start I led us off the bridge and just started ramping up the speed. There were like 3 primes within the first 2 miles. I let the first prime go, then went hard for the second prime, which was like for a $100 and it was all fun and games from there. I got a gap after the won the 3rd and stayed away for the big $500 one at like mile 5. It was so much fun because honestly I think I scared those girls. Apparently no one attacks in Belize. They just ride and sit the wheels.

So after much attacking and sprinting from me going for about dozen primes we got a group of 5 going by about mile 10 or 12. It was a perfect group, me, Shalini, two American's on "different" teams (not really), and one other Belizian. The Belize girl refused to work, so we had a bit of a "discussion" which started with me taking her off the back of the group and ended with me attacking the group to hopefully shed her. Anyway, that put me off the front pretty quick and I had a minute gap within a few miles. Then I hear Rog on the radio telling me to stop working and I'm like, phew, because I still had almost 50 miles to go and I definitely didn't want to ride that alone.

In the move the the day Shini and one of the other Americans in the race bridge up to me, that's why Rog told me to stop working. And then there were 3.... I mean and then there were only two people doing work in the race. Long story short the other American who we'll just call "Sucky Suck" just sucked wheel for 40 miles on our break and never took one pull, not once. Several times when Shini just tried to get behind her, the girl freaking slowed down to practically a stop not to let Shini get behind her. She wouldn't even come off the back let Shini go behind to the support car for water. So I admit I probably put the girl in the gutter once a bit too enthusiastically, and that maybe wasn't the best tactic my part (but I was warned by the official so I stopped). But she made me so mad, who flippin' rides like that? I understand sitting on tactically, but that was Bush league.

Long story short, the next 40 miles involved me setting the much of the pace in to a 15-20 mph headwind back to Belize City. Shini helped out a lot too, but this was her race and the other girl knew that, so I worked the best I could. That's basically why I got the rest of the primes too. I was on the front so much of the time.

Anyway, we finally get to Belize City and we have about 3 miles to go to the finish. The other girl finally attacks as we take the turn in to the city. Without hesitation promptly get on her wheel and say to her “You sit on for 40 miles and that’s the best you got? Come on, can't you ride faster than that!” He, he. Badgering is so much fun! Anyway, she attacks once more, Sheni counters, and I counter hers with a mile or two to go. I get like a 10 sec gap immediately? Turns out the other girl has now come to a dead stop with Shini. She's willing to lose the race at this point. She really didn't think I would take the win from Shini, but I totally would have if for none else to make sure she didn't win. Anyway, Shini attacks her when she stops, gets a gap and gets up to me with about 1000m to go (I had sat up to wait). I pull Shini the best I can but with 500 m I just scream at her to go. The other girl is coming hard though so I dig to find one more gear. There's no way I tow someone who sits on for 40+ miles and let her beat me with those grade school tactics. So the race ends with Shini first (now the pride of Belize), me in second (a new hero in Belize), and the wheel sucker in third. It just goes to show you folks, you suck the wheel and karma will get you, and if karma doesn’t then I will.

Mission Accomplised!


Sorry for not keeping up to date on my big trip, but the internets are hard to come by in Central America.

I wanted to update quick on the result from yesterday. I came down to Belize to help my host Shalini win the biggest race in her country. It's a really big deal down here, and I'll tell you more about it when I have more time. But the result couldn't have been better. She was 1st, I was 2nd ,and I also took the queen of the hills and about 90% of the primes. Yah, they have primes in road races down here, I guess because the roads are so flat and straight. There were 36 primes, most of them cash, and 6 queen of the hills sprint. I made over $3,000 Belizian, which is about $1,500 US. Yah, it was a good day.

So just a quick update. Here's the view from my hotel room. Bonus part is the race finishes right on that street in front about 500m down the road.

(p.s. Carol, when make our accomodations for Tulsa, I hope they are as good as this)

Roger took me out for a little ride today, and I have only two words to say... HOT!!!! It's like a million and two degrees out here. I think I may melt in to the pavement. So Rog took me out on the road we'll be racing in to Belize City on. This is it... about 70 miles of straight, flat, windy, and hot. Except the hot part, it should be right up my alley.

There will be more when I get a chance to update, which who knows what that will be.

Here I am, off on my big trip to Belize.

I'm racing on Sunday and this race I guress is a pretty big deal in Belize. Since Belize is about the size of Massachusetts, I'm not really sure what that means.

I'll keep you posted.

I had another good weekend of racing and hanging with the Farkingtons.

Beth and I went out for coffee this morning. Here she is enjoying her 2nd to last official bike ride before the baby comes. We went on the last official ride later in the day, and that wasn't as much fun. 8 months and still riding is pretty impressive anyway.

We also went bargain shopping at McGuckin's Hardware. Apparently it's the place to get your hard wares in Boulder.

Then we did some racing. Here you can see me getting passed at the finish for another 4th. I'm like perpetually in 4th place this year. I was 4th yesterday too. Oh well, we had fun racing, especially yesterday.

Dinner with the teammies and teammate-in-law Tim (well he will be officially in August anyway).

8:20 and still light out. Sweeeeet (said in Cartman voice)

Today's geography quiz:

Where in the world is Belize?

Oh, there is it, right below Mexico. Figured I should look at the map and figure out where it is before I go there next week.

What is the deal with iced coffee? (sorry I've been watching a lot of Seinfeld lately)

You know when you're drinking your coffee in the morning and it sits there a while, then by the time it gets tepid you don't want it anymore because it's too cold. That's funny because iced coffee is always good; however, if the ice melts, your iced coffee is no longer any good. So at what temperature is hot coffee no longer hot? and on the flip side at what temperature does iced coffee become too warm?

That is the puzzle I will be trying to solve today.

Yesterday was such a good day it deserves another blog post.

Since Beth was nice enough to drive up to the race, I took the opportunity to get my training in by riding back from Ft. Collins to Boulder the back way. It's about 55 miles, so it looked like a perfect traning ride.

I took the back way around Horsetooth Reservoir along the foothills. It was one of the best rides I've done in a long time. Not only was it a pretty ride, but it fun to be on roads I've never been on and training with a purpose and destination. I had to make it back to Boulder and I couldn't doddle all day. It was just a great ride, and really nice weather too. I also was reminded of some lessons.

Like, for one, you should put your sunscreen on before you put on your arm warmers. So you don't forget to also put sunscreen there. That's cuz when it gets hot later and you pull your arm warmers down to ride for 3 hours in the blazing sun your arms turn in to something that later looks like Neapolitan ice cream.

I went up to watch Collegiate Natz up in Ft. Collins today.

There was a Unibomber sighting. Just kidding, it's just Beth. She likes to pretend she's the Unibomber.

We got to watch Carol and Amy D. race. (Sorry for the blurry pic, but the only time I got both in the same one).

Unfortunately Amy D had a mechanical and needed a free lap. Lemme just say this, she was P-I-S-E-D (quick, what movie is that from?)

The second unfortunate part of the race was that is was really, really negative. I was about ready to bust out my bike, enroll at ITT tech, and get out there and make that race a little more entertaining...

but then this guy did it for me, so we were all set.

Went up to Boulder this weekend and spent another fun filled weekend with the Farkingtons.

We went out to see a movie and dinner at Noodles.

You gotta really appreciate the movie theaters that have reserved parking for the police.... and I thought Louisville was safe. (note that is "Lewis-ville" (Colorado) not Loo-uh-vul (Kentucky)).
We saw Baby Mama. I'll tell you the truth, I was disappointed. There were some laugh out loud moments. Unfortunately there was too much plot and story line in between those moments to make it a non-stop laugh fest.

Oh yah, the reason I was in Boulder is because there was a "race." I put the word race in quotes because the race was a hill climb and I refuse to recognize them as valid form of road racing. They are dumb, there's no strategy or tactics, there's often dirt involved (that's mountain biking), sometimes there's snow (that's cyclocross), and you have to ride back to start and freeze your ass off. All you do in a hill climb is ride uphill as hard as you can and the one with the best power to weight ratio wins. Power to weight is not a skill! Since I don't recognize hill climbs as racing I refuse to "race" them. I mean I have to do them sometimes because of my team, but I chose to ride them, more like an unpleasant group ride. Hence why I never do well in them, or so my story goes.

Now, you might be asking yourself "But Renee you race time trials and there's no "strategy" or tactics, why do you recognize that as "racing?" Well, at least time trials require expensive specialized equipment, so there is a strategy of whether or not you want to look like a doofus wearing that time trial helmet around or not.

So Collegiate Nationals are this weekend up in Ft. Collins and I'll be rooting for Carol to unleash the hurricane of pain out there.

Since Carol is a teammate and friend, I'll definitely be sporting the TEAM CAROL apparel.

However, my good friend little Amy D will also be racing collegiate nationals. So I feel a little torn between camps. TEAM AMY or TEAM CAROL. How about TEAM CAMY?

Well I wish them both good luck. Woot!

I've got nothing to blog about today. I did some work, rode my bike, ate some dinner, and that's about it. Not very amusing.

I'm free!

Today was the first day this year that I was able to ride in shorts and short sleeves without even packing arm warmers or a vest in the back pocket. It felt so liberating. I like it!

Too bad it will be 50 degrees and pissing with rain tomorrow.

Although Carol is very fast on her time trial bike (as evidenced by her smoking us all at the Rabbit Mtn TT) she still is not above getting cat 4 marks on her legs. I do have to admit that this was probably the most perfectly placed cat 4 mark I've ever seen. Good job Carol.

So after the individual TT, we did a Team TT at the Rabbit Mtn. I will tell you that doing that last 500 m climb once was enough. But we did win... well we had a 50/50 chance of winning because only one other team showed up. At least we had more competition than the men's team, who had no other competition.

As a side note, just to let you know how fast Carol the Hurricane was yesterday, it took the power of 3 plus Carol to beat Carol's individual time by 1 sec in the TTT.

Done. That's right, 4:40 pm on Friday and my inbox and task list are empty.

In like a lion, out like a lamb...

No wait, that's March.

April showers, bring May flowers...

No wait, it's May.

Happy first day of May. Welcome to Colorado.