Transition
Page 90
“How do you account for that, Cindi? Is Sunshine O’Malley getting tired? Or is she just pacing herself? After all, she’s way out in front – close to two full miles, at this point.”
“I hope she’s just pacing herself, Dave. But I don’t know. For one thing, have you noticed how she keeps looking over her shoulder? Just in the, what, three or four minutes we’ve had her up there on the screen, she’s glanced back over her shoulder twice, maybe three times. I don’t think she knows how far in front she really is. That’s one problem with leading the race: You don’t know how the women behind you are doing, whether they’re closing in on you or not. On the one hand, you don’t want to knock yourself out if nobody has any chance to catch up with you. But on the other hand, you want to know who’s back there because it can be awfully discouraging to blow a big lead. But I don’t think Sunshine knows how far in front she is, so I don’t think she’s slowing down on purpose.”
“So you think she’s getting tired?”
“I think it’s pretty obvious that she’s getting tired. She’s not a very graceful runner to begin with. I don’t mean to disparage her, because she’s obviously a strong runner. She’s faster than I ever was, that’s for sure. But she doesn’t seem to be a natural runner. She’s not exactly what you’d call fluid, her style’s real jerky. I see a lot of wasted motion there. And when you’re running a marathon, you just can’t afford to waste any motion. And she’s passed up a couple of aid stations. That’s not a good idea. She may be getting dehydrated without realizing it. And that can be a killer. I learned that the hard way, believe me.”
“Well, Cindi, if Sunshine’s slowing down, does that mean that someone else has a chance to catch her?”
“Well, Dave, I’m glad you asked me that question, because on my next chart…”
6.1.12: Tanami
Cindi Peet is right. Sunshine is tired.
In fact, Sunshine’s condition borders on exhaustion.
But what Cindi doesn’t know is that Sunshine is also in a great deal of pain.
Somewhere between mile ten and mile eleven, Sunshine was rounding a curve when her right foot slid ever so slightly on a slick patch of asphalt. The barely visible motion twisted her right leg in a direction that it didn’t seem to want to go. A stabbing pain tore through her ankle. For one devastating instant, she thought that she was going to have to drop out of the race. But although the sharp pain subsided almost as quickly as it had appeared, the dull ache left in its wake has been throbbing insistently ever since.
And for the last mile or so, her left knee has started to twinge, perhaps as a result of the fact that she’s probably unconsciously favoring her right leg. And now, every time she pushes off on that knee it responds with a grinding sensation, as if two of the bones in her knee joint are somehow rubbing together, like sandpaper, slowly wearing each other down.
Worst of all, Sunshine is now experiencing searing pains in her lungs every time she takes a deep breath. She’s trying to breathe more shallowly, which reduces the pain from sharp all the way down to dull. But it’s always there. She thinks that she might be slowing down, but to run any faster would require more oxygen, which would require deeper breaths. Which would generate more pain.
So she struggles on as best she can, hoping that she can stay on her feet for another eleven miles. Hoping that she’s built up enough of a lead so that nobody can catch her. Praying that she can keep running fast enough so that no one can run her down.
Although she tries to hide from it, her fear actually has a name.
Jill Kendal.
So she keeps moving forward in her herky-jerky style, not lifting her knees high enough, leaning her body too far forward, letting her arms hang too far down by her side.
And no matter how hard she tries to fight the urge, she can’t stop glancing over her shoulder and dreading that she will see that someone is gaining on her.
6.1.13: Tanami
“On my next chart, I’ve added the Russian women, Konuszenka and Patrushkin. They’ve been right next to each other for the entire run leg. In fact, I think they’ve been together throughout the entire race, the swim and the bike legs as well as the run leg. They were about five minutes behind Sunshine coming out of the water, but they made some of that up on the bike leg. You remember that their teammate, Mosbek, was letting them draft off her on the bike leg, which was really unfair to Sunshine, who didn’t have anyone to draft off of. Don’t let me get started on that again.”
“For the benefit of anyone who’s just tuning in, I should mention that Cindi Peet, my associate here in the network booth, has uttered a few mild statements that might lead one to believe that she’s not entirely in favor of the practice of allowing drafting in the bike leg of the triathlon.”
“Thanks, Dave. It’s one of my pet peeves, as you know. I guess I better get back to my chart.”
KONUSZENKA
O’MALLEY
& PATRUSHKIN
1
6:34
6:34
2
6:21
6:20
3
6:17
6:29
4
6:09
6:28
5
6:15
6:31
6
6:08
6:36
7
5:56
6:26
8
5:57
6:21
9
6:01
6:27
10
6:04
6:29
11
6:00
6:33
12
5:58
6:33
13
6:09
6:32
14
6:16
6:29
15
6:21
6:26
AVERAGE
6:10
6:28
“As you can see, the Russians started out the run leg at about the same pace as Sunshine; but while Sunshine speeded up, they’ve maintained pretty much the same pace throughout the entire run leg. In fact, Dave, they’ve been remarkably consistent. They’re averaging six-twenty-eight. Their slowest mile was their first one, six-thirty-four, and their best mile was six-twenty, a difference of only fourteen seconds. That’s the kind of consistency you look for in a long race like this.”
“And they don’t seem to be slowing down.”
“No, not at all. If you look at them – that’s them there on the screen now, Konuszenka’s the tall one on the left, and Patrushkin’s the shorter woman on the right – if you look at them, they’re perfectly relaxed, very strong, great form. They sure don’t look like they’ll have any trouble keeping up this pace for the rest of the race. In fact, they may be holding something in reserve. If Sunshine starts falling back, we may see them turn up the heat a notch or two.”
“And because Sunshine’s ahead of them…”
“Because Sunshine’s ahead of them, they have some idea of the distance between them. But Sunshine may be entirely in the dark. If Sunshine continues to slow down, they’ll probably find out about it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they started moving a little bit faster to try and close the gap.”
“So, if anyone has a chance to beat Sunshine O’Malley, would you say that it would have to be the Russians, Patrushkin and Konuszenka?”
“Thanks for the set-up, Dave. No, even though Patrushkin and Konuszenka are the closest women to Sunshine right now, if you look at my next chart…”
6.1.14: Tanami
As Cindi Peet says, Olga Patrushkin and Marta Konuszenka are running easily, their graceful strides almost languid in comparison to Sunshine’s forced, awkward gait. The two Russian women look like well-oiled running machines. They’re eating up the ground with effortless ease, as if they were born in running shoes. As if they have lived their entire lives with their feet flying over the pavement.
And Cindi
is right about one other thing: Olga and Marta know exactly how much distance separates them from Sunshine O’Malley. But whereas Cindi believes that they are garnering that information from helpful spectators and volunteers at aid stations, in fact they have the benefit of a well-organized team of spotters, who have been using coded hand signals to relay to the women precisely how long it’s been since Sunshine passed their station. They know that they’ve been losing ground to Sunshine. They know that, if Sunshine doesn’t slow down, she’ll win the race. But they also recognize that they’re simply not capable of running as fast as Sunshine is now, not for any sustained distance. So they’re biding their time, running at a comfortable pace, waiting for Sunshine to slow down.
And at this point, they know that that’s exactly what Sunshine is doing.
6.1.15: Tanami
“… on my next chart, I’ve added the only other woman who appears to have any chance at all in this race, and that woman is, of course, Jill Kendal.”
KONUSZENKA
O’MALLEY
& PATRUSHKIN
KENDAL
1
6:34
6:34
6:18
2
6:21
6:20
5:54
3
6:17
6:29
5:38
4
6:09
6:28
5:33
5
6:15
6:31
5:33
6
6:08
6:36
5:35
7
5:56
6:26
5:29
8
5:57
6:21
5:22
9
6:01
6:27
5:27
10
6:04
6:29
5:27
11
6:00
6:33
5:31
12
5:58
6:33
5:33
13
6:09
6:32
5:30
14
6:16
6:29
5:28
15
6:21
6:26
5:28
AVERAGE
6:10
6:28
5:33
“As you can see – and believe me, Dave, this is so amazing that I’m… well, I’m just in awe – as you can see, as a runner Jill Kendal’s in a class all by herself. With the sole exception of a six-eighteen first mile, she’s turned in every mile at under six minutes. Under six minutes. If it were anyone else, Dave, anyone besides Jill Kendal, I’d think that there was something wrong with our computer. I mean, look at it: The slowest mile that Jill has run is better than the fastest mile that the Russian women have been able to put together. And she’s averaging almost a full minute a mile faster than they are. And remember, their times are very good. But Jill, with her marathon background, is on a completely different level from anybody else. There just isn’t any triathlete in the world today, male or female, who you could even put in the same category as Jill Kendal as a runner.”
“It’s a good thing that she’s such a poor swimmer, Cindi. I mean, it’s a good thing from the point of view of the other women. If she were a good swimmer, this race would really be for second place.”
“You’re right, Dave. And in fact, that’s exactly the way it’s been in women’s triathlon for the last three years: In any race that Jill Kendal’s been in, the rest of the women are simply there to fight it out for second place.”
“Before we break for a commercial, I guess the obvious question is: Does Jill Kendal, as phenomenal a long-distance runner as she obviously is, have a chance of overtaking Sunshine O’Malley and winning the gold medal?”
“I’m glad you asked that question, Dave, because Larry and I have one more graphic – do we have time to show it before the break? We do? Okay, take a look at this one.”
PROJECTED
PROJECTED
SWIM
BIKE
RUN
FINISH
O’MALLEY
41:58
4:35:17
2:41:34
7:58:49
KONUSZENKA
& PATRUSHKIN
46:38
4:33:00
2:48:45
8:08:23
KENDAL
58:03
4:34:26
2:25:25
7:57:54
“So what this graphic says, Cindi, is – and we’ll discuss this more when we come back from the break – but what you’re saying is that it could come down to the wire between the two American women, Sunshine O’Malley and Jill Kendal, and that the Russian women may not be a factor in the outcome of this race at all, other than fighting it out for the bronze medal.”
“Well, Dave, you need to remember is that we’re showing the projected time for the run and the projected time for the finish. And those projections are based on all of them continuing to run at the same pace. But that’s not what’s happening. As we’ve seen, Sunshine’s starting to slow down, while Jill Kendal seems to be getting stronger. In fact, she’s about to catch up to Konuszenka and Patrushkin. And who knows, they may not want to let her pass, they may be holding something back, they may try to keep pace with Jill to prevent her from passing them.
“And one more thing that I need to say before we go away: Until Jill Kendal entered her first triathlon three years ago, no woman had ever completed an Ironman-distance triathlon in less than eight and a half hours. And yet today it looks like we have four women who could break the eight-and-a-half-hour barrier, and break it pretty handily, at that. Shatter it, in fact. It just goes to show how far women’s triathletics has come in just a few short years.”
6.1.16: Tanami
Just as she passes the aid station at the seventeen-mile marker, at the point where the course makes a ninety-degree turn, abandoning the two lane-blacktop that it has followed for more than five miles and joining the east-bound lanes of the General Tanami SuperHighway for the final nine-mile push to the finish line, Jillian catches sight of Olga and Marta for the first time.
The two-lane blacktop has wound through lush vegetation, over humpback hills and through verdant valleys, never straightening out enough to offer Jillian a clear view of the road ahead. But the General Tanami SuperHighway has been cut through the gentle hills rather than around them. The curves have been straightened out. The elevations have been leveled. And as she makes the turn, Jillian can see all the way to the peaks of the towers that jut smugly into the cloudless sky of downtown Tanami, their edges dulled by the ever-present layer of smog that clings to the city like a brown wave.
And there, not a quarter of a mile ahead of her, she sees them. Even at that distance, she recognizes them immediately, the lanky Marta and her more compact comrade.
Now that she has a quarry to chase down, her adrenalin begins to pump faster. She increases her pace, lengthens her stride. And just before she reaches the nineteen-mile marker, just as the sparse crowds that line the road begin to thicken, Jillian catches up to them.
Olga glances over her shoulder, then turns back and says something to Marta. At first, Jillian is surprised that they make no attempt to pull away. They seem to be running easily, surely they can make a race of it.
Then she recognizes the easy confidence in their stride. They’re not afraid of me, she realizes, with a start. They’re not over-reacting. They’re just waiting for me to make my move.
As they approach the aid station, Olga falls in behind Marta. Jillian, in turn, takes her place behind Olga. They run past the mass of outstretched arms in single file, grabbing at cups of water and Powerade, drinking some of the fluid, throwing some of it on their heads. Then the aid station is behind them. Olga pulls out to Marta’s left. In a few moments, Jillian pull
s up beside Olga.
“Hello, Jill,” Olga says. “How are you?”
Jillian is surprised that Olga – and, beyond her, Marta as well – seems to be pleased to see her. From the look of concern on her face, how are you is not merely a polite question. Olga is genuinely inquiring about her welfare.
“I feel great,” Jillian says, simply. “How’s Karl?”
The smile fades. “Not so good,” says Olga. “Doctor say he will be okay, but he is not so good now.”
“Is he still in the hospital?”
“In Russian hospital. He fly in plane to Moscow, yesterday.”
“When you see him,” Jillian says, “tell him how much I appreciate what he did, will you?” She wants to say more, but she also wants to conserve her breath. While her sprint to catch up has not exactly left her winded, she has no breath to waste.
Olga nods. “I tell him,” she says. “I am happy you are okay,” she adds, with obvious sincerity.
“Thank you,” Jillian says, genuinely touched. I needed that, she thinks. After the way I treated Sunshine, it’s good to know that somebody is still glad I’m okay.
The three women run together in silence for a minute or two, Jillian slowing to their pace in order to marshal some strength for the final push. “How far ahead is Sunshine?” she asks. “Do you know?”
“Sixteen hundred and fifty meters,” Olga says. “We will not catch her.”