This is the true post of Little 500 riders picked to have their lives surrounding America's Greatest College Weekend posted to the web. To find out what happens when the IDS stops just reporting and starts getting real...check here for The Real Ride -- Little 500 style.
I'm officially in Lubbock, Tex. for Saturday's 2010 installment of the USA Triathlon Collegiate Nationals. Yesterday was a long day of travel that started early. I woke up before the sun, loaded my bags into my car, picked up Dave Rich\0x2010Ross (of Delta Upsilon Cycling) and we embarked on our trip to Lubbock. As we were driving to the Indianapolis airport, we were met with the beautiful sight of the sunrise from the east. Once we arrived to the airport, we were lucky enough to not have to deal with any pesky long lines and were able to walk straight through security without having to wait. In short, we were money on time and efficient traveling. We flew from Indianapolis to Houston, and after a half hour layover in Houston we boarded a new plane and took off to Lubbock. As we landed in Lubbock, we were met with rain.
Dave and I took a cab from the airport to the Holiday Inn Express. We were pleasantly surprised at how choice our accommodations were. Since we didn't have a car, we thought it best to order out for lunch, so we found a nice McAlister-esque place called Jason's Deli. I called and placed our order and the nice woman on the phone said that they would have our order out to us in about a half an hour. An hour later, our food still had not arrived, so I called back and asked what the problem was. The manager sincerely apologized and told me that our meal was on him. As it would turn out, because of all the rain, our delivery guy got his car stuck in a mud puddle, but finally after an hour and a half delay, he delivered our lunch to us.
Rich\0x2010 Ross and I tried to wait out the rain before we went off onto our scheduled run; however, the rain never subsided, so we dawned our running gear and headed out. I actually had a pretty good time running in the rain; moreover, I was super stoked for my legs to be feeling so good even with the four plus hours cooped up in airplanes. By the time we were finished, both my uncle and mother had arrived in Lubbock from Las Vegas and Indiana respectively. My uncle told me that the Stanford Triathlon Team was on his plane to Lubbock. Funny story: he said that before they had taken off, the airline asked the passengers if anyone would be willing to be compensated for taking a later flight due to the fact that they were unprepared for the extra weight of fourteen bicycles.
Last night, the four of us had an amazing dinner at Las Brisas, an authentic southwest steakhouse. Naturally, I ordered a 16 oz ribeye, and it was definitely one of the best steaks I have had in at least three years.
Literally since our plane landed, it has been raining. It rained the whole day yesterday and into the night, and the first thing I did this morning when I woke up was open the drapes, and yes, it was still raining. I will leave you with a quote that comes to mind about Forrest Gump's experience in Vietnam:
"One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We've been through every kind of rain there is: a little bit of stinging rain, and big old fat rain, rain that flew in sideways, and sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night."
Jordan Bailey is a junior majoring in History. He rides for the Black Key Bulls.
