Last April the team and I decided to take our second trip down to the Triathlon Collegiate Nationals race. It was one big fiasco trying to figure out how we would travel down there because as most triathletes know it costs an arm and a leg to ship your bike to the destination and back. So we decided to drive. Now because I was the oldest of the bunch and the only one able to rent a car.. that is a lie, I'm 24 and at most places you have to be 25, but we found one dealer that let us rent from them.. it was Enterprise. Food for thought..
The race this year was in Lubbock, Texis, and from what I hear it is at the same place this year as last year. The Collegiate Nationals race usually takes place on a Saturday so we decided to leave on Wednesday night and drive through the night. If you haven't ever made the drive from DeKalb, IL. to Lubbock, Texas, it is a wopping 20 something hour drive.. or at least that is about how long it took us with a few short stops and a Tor.... I'll get to that in a second.
This year instead of only 3 team members going to the big dance, we took 7 and all crammed into a Honda Odyssey which is a pretty comfy van but not for 7 people. During the drive we played many games, sang songs, typical road trip things, however when we finally got into Texas and only about 50 miles from our destination; the weather made a turn for the worst. This day was definitely a windier day than usual or at least I assume, as the car was blowing all over the road.
First it started to rain, and then rain harder. All of a sudden it started to hail golf balls. Me being the driver I knew this wasn't safe to drive in, especially because the car was full of 6 other college age students, I wasn't all that pumped to be in charge of their lives in case something really bad happened; so I parked the car underneath an overpass. While we were under the overpass, many other cars joined in. It was like a parking lot, only every car under there was trying to play the wind and back up when the hail started hitting us in the front of the car and then moving forward if it came from the back.
We were of course intensely listening to the radio to try and figure out what was going on and where it was coming from. However, we didn't even know where we were so it didn't really matter. When we saw a bunch of storm chasers speed right by, we knew we were in trouble and this hail storm was actually just the beginning to a very intense and windy situation.
There was so much hail and rain now that on both sides of the road in the ditches were filling with icy water about 2 feet deep so in case of a tornado, we would get out of the car and dive into freezing water that would go over our heads. The road in front of us was covered with ice and snow. The car next to us was having a grand ol' time as this is probably the most snow that those crazy Texans see all year round. Us Illinois-ins see plenty of this white stuff.
All of a sudden, the hail stopped and you could see pretty clearly what was going on in front of us. The road was completely open, covered in hail and ice, but for the most part clear. I tried to open the driver side door and ask the people next to us what was going on. Opening the door was pretty clear that this storm was not over yet. It was so windy I thought we were gonners for sure, I asked the neighboring car what was going on or if they knew of a tornado that was near and the lady replied, "The tornado is right over there!" and I stood up glanced over the top of their suburban and low and behold, there was a Tornado about 500 yards away, not fully touched down but near.
I acted on instinct! Got back in the car and said, "We're going for it! I know this was a very risky move and probably not the smartest but the ditches on both sides of the road were very deep with water and I'm not much of a fan of being a sitting duck so I floored the pedal and we were off! Well not really I floored the pedal, but the car would not gain any traction. We were sliding all over the road. I will admit I was pretty scared at that moment. I wasn't looking for where the Tornado was, but could tell that it was nearby. It felt like it took 10 minutes to get the car to move, but finally we had escaped!! I drove way over the speed limit for a while just trying to get as much distance between the tornado and our car. Hands down, this was the most adrenalin I have ever felt, but I don't see myself becoming a storm chaser after that experience.
The race was good. It was a first race for 4 out of the 7 that went down there. We didn't plan on competing this year, just completing the first of many races. As for me, I don't think I have ever had a worse race. This was my first fall on the bike. And the funny thing is I wasn't even riding my bike when I fell. It was in Transition II while I was running along side my bike, I tried to lift up the bike to avoid a pothole but when I lifted the bike up the front wheel turned and I toppled over my bike and broke my hanger along with dented my disk wheel. I was pissed! After that fiasco I ran the worst triathlon 10k of my life.
Other than the Tornado, the trip was a success. My goal as the president this year was to inspire some new leadership for the future years and this year, they are being led by Jayme Christ who is actually the sister of the other guy I went on that Reno, Nevada Adventure with in the mountains.
Never give up!
