My Parents and My Bike Test

My parents were here this weekend for a visit. Because of scheduling snafus, I planned to up get early Saturday morning and do my bike test. I told Mom & Dad about it as they would hear the whirring of the trainer and my heavy breathing at 6 am. They know that I participate in some hobby called triathlon (Mom still can't pronounce it), but since it has nothing to do with Medicine, the Stock Market, or the possibility of me having children they've not taken much interest in it. They found the whole affair of Ironman amusing and had some curious questions about it such as "What will you eat during the day? Can you stop and have soup noodles for energy? Why don't they start everyone at the swim lined up in a row so it's fair? (not such a bad idea, Dad!) How do you know which bike is yours?"
This visit is the first they've heard that there was testing in triathlon. For my entire upbringing, my parents have pushed me to excel academically--which means doing well on tests. They've always driven me to "score the highest/get a 100%". Their curiousity piqued, they ask about the bike test. Mom immediately jumps in," Is this that test that will rank you nationally?" I explain that it's not about qualifying for Half-Ironman Nationals (I neglected to tell them about my run-in with heat stroke at Eagleman. oops.) Then Dad wants to know,"How are you scored? Where will you take this test?" I explain to them the concept of training with watts, FTP, and long course pacing. Mom, apparently bored, interjects, "Yes, but will you PASS this test? Have you practiced enough to pass your test?" Sheepishly, I admit that I haven't really practiced much and she gives me that look---that tisk tisk look of you should've studied harder. Ugh.
Instead of scolding me (about not riding enough?!) the night before my big test, she distracts me by asking about the small collection of triathlon age group awards on my end table. She wants to know which are mine vs. Kevin's. Blessedly, we have 3 each. She looks at my age group "1st place" plaque from Finger Lakes Sprint Tri and remembers when they called me just before the awards ceremony. They had some question about surgery and I had to interrupt them to get my award. They paused and asked, "You got Number One? Wow!" I explained that it was an age group award and not overall first female, but they didn't hear a word. They were just so happy that I "got #1" in something.
So the next morning, I got up determined not to disappoint them with any low test scores. My dad sat with me until about half way through the 20 min time trial. He didn't cheer or have words of encouragement--he mostly talked to me about my surgery practice and some natural gas stocks. When I couldn't speak from the exertion, he got bored and left. I still rode my little heart out and nearly puked when I was done. *Sigh* 6 watts less than 6 weeks ago. I'm not too disappointed as I mentally and physically took an off-season after Eagleman that I went into undertrained. Actually, I'm surprised that it wasn't 10-15 watts less. When I was all done, my mom asked, "So did you pass your bike test?" I chuckled, "Yes, I did."