Starla Hits a Road Block

Today ended up being one of those days everything ends up going wrong. I can't say it was terrible, but it was definately frustrating.

Here's what was supposed to happen:

Get up and make the journey to Wellington Lake (~60 miles away) to see what my June 16 triathlon course was like. I'd get up there, bike/run the course and then get back into CoSprings with plenty of time to shower, run errands, and go to my bowling league (where I'd announce my new bowling name: Starla. Thanks Joel! Cd on the way).

Here's what did happen:

Got up to find that Lawrence Christopher (my pansy not-quite-a-mountain-bike) was having a temper tantrum. After working on him for a bit, he shaped up and started working again. When I came upon Decker (2/3 of the way there) I realized that my map is old and not up to date. Spent an extra hour looking for the road that would supposedly take me to the lake. Finally found it and traversed the pothole laden road without killing my Jane, my litttle Sentra (a major feat!). Got a map from the lady in the office which did not match up with the one I had printed out before leaving home. Spent another hour trying to figure out where the bike/run started. Eventually figured out that the bike is done on the pothole laden roads I had just come up on. A bad sign, but I figured I had trekked all the way up there and might as well give it a whirl. Bad idea. The first three miles are a super-steep downhill which left me dodging potholes at 20 mph on my pansy, fake mountain bike. Then Lawrence Christopher decided to freak out (for the 4th time this week) and I ended up pulling off to fix him. I persevered though. Got back on the road and went for a few more miles only to find myself thoroughly lost. Again. Figured that I just hadn't come to the turn off yet and kept going. A really bad idea. Ended up going four miles off course and through some serious terrain. Turned back and headed back to the lake and my car. Tackled the steep pothole laden road once again (the uphill was actually easier than the downhill). When I got back to my car I realized that I only had two hours to get back to my apartment, shower, and leave again. Unfortunately it took me two hours and ten minutes to just get to my apartment, which made showering an impossibility. Gross. Luckily I'm not trying to pick up on any of my bowling teammates :)

Result:

There is absolutely no way that I'm going to be able to compete in that triathlon. The website said it was not technical, but it's definately too technical for my pansy, no-shocks mountain bike. That keeps breaking down. I will kill myself trying to do it fast. So now I get to figure out a different race I can do in the next month so that I don't have to do my olympic length tri in August cold turkey.