USAT Collegiate National Championship - TriathlonOlympic

I was wave four so I watched the 3 waves before me go off. Usually I am extremely excited and have a good amount of adrenaline going but for some reason i was extremely flat going into this race. I was hoping that once i got into the water I would get focused/excited/pumped up. I hopped into the water which was a comfortable 68 degrees and waited for them to send us off. They shot the gun and away we went. Now, this is my 5th triathlon and i'm used to mass starts. In fact, usually I am the guy who dominates other people and gets my way. However, perhaps due to the competitive nature of this event i got the sh*t kicked out of me this time. I was punched, kicked, swallowed water, and got my goggles kicked off all within the first 200 meters. I am a strong swimmer but because of the beating I took i was not able to get into a good groove. Finally i got away from the back after about 500 meters and was able to settle into a nice stroke. Even though i wasn't pumped up like i usually am i felt extremely strong in the water. I was having very good catch and pull and felt like i was glidiing effortlessly. I thought that i was sighting extremely well the entire time. I would look up every 15 or so strokes and make sure that i was going straight. However, it seems as if i was sighting at a slight angle to my left since i breath to my left side. By the time i hit the last turnaround buoy i was about 100 yards off course and had to make a really wide turn and back track. This made me extremely upset since i was feeling so fast in the water. I was expecting to come out around mid 24's but ended up mid 26's because of the extra 200 yards I ended up swimming.

I ran out of the river pulled my wetsuit and goggles off and started running towards transition. This transition isn't set up like a normal one in that there is about a 300 yard run up a hill out of the water to transition (Thus my long T1). I pulled my wetsuit off my legs put on my helmet, sunglasses, and shoes, and ran out of T1 without a hitch. I hopped on my bike and started the 25 mile grind. The course was composed of 3 main hills with straightaways in between. Going to the turn around was mostly uphill while coming back was mostly down hill. Also, when going to the first turnaround there was a pretty strong (10-15 mph) headwind, while coming back there was a much smaller (5-10 MPH) tailwind. I crushed the straightaways averaging about 23-24 MPH and basically stalled out on the hills, which was expected. I finished my first lap a hair over 35 minutes and was happy with that. Once i hit the turnaround I noticed that i was fading fast, luckily i looked down and realized that i had not yet touched my 2 GU's on my bike. I grabbed one took it down and was almost immediately reenergized. My second lap was about the same time as my first except the wind picked up a bit so I went a little slower I cruised in on my bike spinning out the last mile getting ready for my run. At the bike dimount line you had to unmount then run the whole entire way around transition, which was about 100 yards. So my bike split was actually a little faster than my timing chip states.

I racked my bike, switched shoes, grabbed my race belt, and took off again with no problem. When i left T2 I looked down at my watch and saw that it was right around 1:45. That's when I put on my game face and decided to go for it. i would have had to run a 45:xx to break 2:30 which would have been my fastest 10k ever and this would have to be after a bike course significantly harder than i've done before and on a run course harder than i've done before. I cruised my first mile at a little over a 7 minute pace feeling okay and crushing the most daunting hill on the course. My second mile I blew up at little (probably because of the hill) and ran a hair over 8 minutes. After that I settled into a strong pace and consistently ran 7:10-7:20 miles. Around mile 3.5 my abs cramped up. Now this wasn't a stomach cramp or a stitch in my stomach or ribs. My abs on my right side actually were cramping up like a charlie horse. I've never experienced this before and it was quite painful so i tried to stretch them out by leaning back and to my left while i ran (I must have looked ridiculous). At this point I was too determined to stop so i just kept running without slowing down. At the next aid station i grabbed some gatorade which helped. I had a GU in my race belt but i knew that i wouldn't be able to get it down/stomach it. Around mile 5 the cramp just went away and I knew that if i wanted to break 2:30 i would have to sprint the last mile. I checked my watch again at mile 5 and it read 2:23. I had 7 minutes to get to the finish line so i just took off as fast as my legs could carry me. I probably ran those last 1.2 miles in the low 6 range but it wasn't enough. I crossed the finish line at 2:30:32 saw that i didn't break 2:30 let out a loud F-explicative and collapsed. Luckily there were finish line catchers and they caught me before i hit the ground and took me to the med tent.

Now i don't want to sound like I'm super upset. This is my best olympic time by 3 minutes on a course much much harder than the course i set my previous PR. However, I've never laid myself on the line and emptied my tank like that ever before. Having the race coming down to the wire like that and failing to reach my goal was just a huge huge disappointment. The worst part is i think back on the race and see all the parts where i could have made up those 30 seconds. My swim should have been 2 minutes faster, i could have ran to transition faster, i could have bombed down hills faster on my bike. In the end i didn't make the cut and i'm just going to have to try again. Other than that my race nutrition and warm up seemed spot on. I'll add thoughts and such as we go. but this is the breakdown of my race this weekend.