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Friday, July 24th

Our beloved brother and friend Jose Hernando passed away gently, peacefully and held in pure love this afternoon. His family had the gift of being with him at his side.

I feel sick

Seafair Triathlon

I can't believe that this was my SIXTH YEAR racing Seafair. Wow!

I went into the race this year not really knowing what to expect. I have been training less and less as I'm studying more and more. My runs have been lackluster to say the least and I've only swam open water probably 4 times all year. I still had myself placed in the elite wave and again set an (A) goal and a (B) goal

(A) finish under 1:10:00 (I went 1:10:26 last year)
(B) don't embarrass myself a la 2007 when I was the 2nd to last woman to finish in the elite wave.

SWIM

The swim was the swim. I never swim too fast and I never swim too slow. We got a little bit of a late start which sucked because it was cold standing in the water waiting. Once we went, we went hard. Even though there were maybe only 50 people in the mixed elite wave, it was so rough, everyone was just sprinting for position. I kept finding feet to sit on and then losing them.

I came out of the water somewhere around the middle of the pack, roughly 3 seconds faster than last year.

800 Meter Swim: 12:11
~1:23/100 yards

T1

I have been doing this sport far too long to still suck at transitioning.

T1: 1:31

BIKE

The bike was fun despite a minor clothing malfunction (note: try riding in your swimsuit before racing in it). It was like it always is when you're a fast female cyclist: pass dude, dude passes you back at approximately 35 mph, pass dude back 30 seconds later never to see him again.

Around the turnaround I passed some snotty 22 year old who had been rude and condescending to me in the transition area before the swim start. He was not having that so I leap frogged with him the whole way back into transition.

Also, I passed a lot of ladies on the bike and came into T2 sitting in 3rd overall for the women.

12 Mile Bike: 31:06
23.15 mph

T2

Okay, I have an excuse for this one. Someone - possibly snotty 22 year old - had racked their bike all weird and I had to do some rearranging just to get my bike on the rack.

My transition still would have probably been slow.

T2: 1:20

RUN

I saw Lucy coming out of transition and she let me know that I was in fact in 3rd. I figured I'd have to run pretty darn slow to get passed by the other 15 or so elite women behind me ... this is always a distinct possibility.

Snotty 22 year old came out of transition just ahead of me and luckily he appeared to be kind of a cruddy runner too so I just tried to keep him in my sights.

Christina passed me just before mile 1, there was no hope of staying with her. I was feeling not super great but I was actually holding what felt like a decent pace. Up the hill I felt slow, I was slow, but the people in front of me were slow too so it was all cool.

At the turnaround I saw two women right behind me, both were really cranking. I recognized one as Stacia who had picked me off in the last mile at Onionman last May. The other woman I didn't know.

About 1/4 mile from the finish, the woman who I didn't know picked me off. I knew she was coming because some guy behind me yelled "go, you can get her girl!" Thanks dude ... really. I did my best to stay with her but there was no catching her, I rolled in 8 seconds behind her for 5th place overall but a solid run PR.

5k Run: 21:41
6:59/mile

OVERALL: 1:07:49
5/16 elite women
5/720 women
48/1458 finishers

Afterward I went for another loop on the run course with my pal Carly who had a solid day with a 9+ minute course PR! Then I went home and hated life a little more.

6 days until the bar - kill me.

Not that I am capable of hate ...

Vehicle vs Bicycle Collision

On 07-17-09 at 6:36 p.m., an 06, Chevy Van, driven by a 29-year-old male was traveling northbound on Lake Washington Blvd S. approaching S. Orcas St. At the same time a 44-year-old male was riding a bicycle traveling Southbound on Lake Washington Blvd S. also approaching S. Orcas St. The Van started to make a left turn from Lake Washington Blvd S. onto S. Orcas St. and crossed the center line, when it was struck on the passenger door by the bicycle rider. Seattle Fire Department responded to the scene and treated the victim, he was then transported to Harborview Medical Center (HMC) with life threatening injuries.

HMC personnel later gave an update of the 44-year-old male’s medical condition stating; he was critical and still life threatening.

A Drug Recognition Expert Officer responded to the scene and completed an evaluation of the 29-year-old driver for signs of impairment. None were noted during the evaluation.

Traffic Collision Investigators responded to and processed the scene.

I have never hated anyone in my life. I've disliked people and disagreed with people. I've met people who have left a sour taste in my mouth right off the bat, but I have never hated anyone. That said, the closest I have ever come to hate is the feeling I get when I see or hear about careless, selfish, distracted, self-important drivers who are too busy talking on their phones to see a cyclist, who are in enough of a hurry that they are willing to take the calculated risk of taking a cyclist's life just to get wherever they are going 10 seconds sooner.

These are the only people who make me fly off the handle (Teresa has witnessed this ... I've gotten better about it, I promise). I am so disgusted and hurt by them it makes me see red.

Yesterday a friend and teammate of mine was hit and nearly killed on Lake Washington Blvd. At this point, he will be lucky to walk again. The injuries he sustained are going to change his life forever. Lucy talked to the surgeon who initially operated on him and had he sustained these injuries 10 years ago, when the technology was not as good as it is today, it would have been a death sentence.

Please, to everyone, be careful out there and look out for yourself because the drivers aren't looking out for you.

on possibly not sucking at crits

I don't have time/am too lazy to write up a real race report but basically, I raced a crit last weekend and finished 5th out of 29 giving me some small sliver of hope that I don't totally suck at crits and if I pay more attention to tactics rather than hypoxia, I might actually be okay at them.

Also, kind of a quick aside, but a bunch of people have asked me why my blog url is "jesslover."

It's actually a not too interesting story having to do with me posting on an internet messageboard using the handle "hey lover!" which is a reference to an Aislers Set song that was released on a Split 7" they did with a band called "The How." As a result of me using that handle for several years, people who I knew from the messageboard would sometimes call me jess lover.



As to "Hey Lover," I recently reacquainted myself with this awesome song and thought I would share it with all 6 or 7 of my loyal readers. I really do recommend listening to it, you're in for a real treat.

The Aislers Set - Hey Lover

Enjoy!

#1

Last weekend ended up being pretty special for a lot of reasons.

It was the final race in the Carnation Time Trial Series put on by Neal Goldberg of Footworks Cycles. I won't lie, I went into the final race with a pretty hefty lead in the points series. Since I had crashed the weekend before a bunch of people suggested I just soft pedal may way into 5th or 6th place but yeah ... that wasn't acceptable.

Long story short, I won the 27.1 mile race by exactly 1 minute taking home my biggest purse ever, $700, and a $150 gift certificate to FSA.

Here's what was really special though. Since I was the series leader, Neal gave me bib #1. It was the first time in my life I've ever gotten to wear #1. I thought this was especially cool since, at least in my experience, #1 is usually given to the male leader or the previous year's male winner. Also, I got to be the last woman to go so I had 20+ carrots in front of me to chase. :)





I cannot recommend these Carnation races enough. They are so well organized, Neal gets excellent sponsors and prizes, and he is super accommodating to any questions or concerns. The races are truly a labor of love on Neal's part.