I have always known that Coach Cane is my biggest fan. He’s an incredible coach, and I trust his wisdom and judgment. That said, I sometimes wonder if his specs have an extra tint of rose in them. We talked about future race plans and his goals for me seemed pretty lofty. To make sure that he just wasn’t blowing smoke up my All-American butt (USAT results recently came out for 2010), I asked, “You think I can beat [City Coach teammate] Margarette Schotte?” (A little background on Margarette: she is the most humble of people. She is the type of person who could easily be asking, “Do you know who I am?” However, it’s never the people who could ask that that do. In addition to having the entire alphabet in degrees behind her name, she was undefeated in North America (not the northeast, but North-freaking-America!!) for the 2 years she raced duathlons. She was National and World Duathlon Champion as an amateur, and Canadian National Champion as a pro. And this barely scratches the surface of who she is or what she is about.)
So, going back to my question, Cane wasn’t as slack-jawed as when I told him I could be an Olympic cyclist. It was more of a drawn out, “Nooooooooooooooooo, not a chance.” And so I kissed him, smiled, and knew that his assessments remained honest and realistic.
