USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship - TriathlonOlympic

waited a long time for wave to take off..just sat around trying to calm nerves. Have never been this keyed-up for a sporting event, ever. Not a good way to get going.

I say it after every triathlon: I have to get some sort of training in the water. I have gone as far as I can with the self-taught swim instruction. After all the swim videos, books, drills in the pool, I still manage a paltry 01:39 per 100 yards? This is 10 seconds per 100 better than last year's "big" tri (Chicago Triathlon), but there has to be a better way to get better.

21 of 55 in T1; this is really, really good for me. I usually suck in T1, so I'm pretty happy with this.

I hopped on my bike and rode on top of my shoes to the top of the hill out of T1. It was a no-pass zone and I was stuck behind a slower competitor. In the interest of following the rules (and fearful of a penalty) I stayed behind her to the top of the hill. Other competitors were not so worried; they passed me and her without a problem. Maybe next time I should ignore the no-pass rule. Everybody else did.

I have never biked on hills like this and was completely un-prepared. There was a massive hill right after the turnaround (mile 6 and again mile 18) that I called "The Dementor" because it literally sucked the soul out of my body. I managed to pass a ton of people on this hill but they passed me back on the downhills and straightaways like I was a statue.

Part of the beauty of this sport is that any poor performance can be learned from, and I have a lot to learn from this shitty bike performance:

I was scared. I raced out of fear and ignorance: fear of coming in last and being outclassed by the unbelievable athletes in this race, and ignorance because I did not take the course seriously enough in preparation. On Friday, I picked up my bike at TriBike Transport (a fantastic service) and realized while racking it in transition that I had one of maybe 10 road bikes with clip-on aerobars in the entire race. No aero wheels. I felt like I was walking through the transition area naked. Lesson 1: buy speed: get a TT bike with aero wheels and get fitted for it properly.
Lesson 2: do better course homework; this course was available as a download from CompuTrainer; I could have bought time on a CT to "ride" the course before actually racing it. I did not, and paid dearly for it.

This was the worst bike performance of any triathlon I have ever raced. Disappointing.

12th in AG..this is the best T2 I have ever had. I felt very good about this. It was the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal performance.

Couldn't really do anything different here...the 40-44 AG was as far away from the Bike-out as you could get. Some guys somehow managed to ignore their placement in the rack and move to another rack closer to bike-in/out. I'm not going to name numbers, but those guys are cheaters.

This was where the wheels really fell off. I was executing very well according to my plan: 07:00/mile through mile 3 and then I grabbed a gatorade at an aid station and while drinking, came down awkwardly on my right leg. I've been nursing a calf strain off and on all year and it went into full revolt at that point. Every step from that point forward, it got a little worse, and I spent the entire remainder of the race negotiating with it to not rupture until I crossed the finish line: "just another mile Mr. Calf", "keep it together Mr. Calf", "not much longer", "there's the sound of the drums Mr. Calf", etc., etc.

When I crossed the finish line, I found my wife and cried like a baby. I couldn't do any more than I did today, but it was a bitter feeling. I was acutely aware of not having taken this race as seriously as I should have. I had raced injured all year and was not fit. More disappointing than any of it was that I was "mentally flabby": I had no "fight" in me, I was intimidated by the $10,000 bikes in the rack next to me and the 2% body fat of the guys in my age group. Pure and simple: I was outclassed because I believed that I was. My eyes were opened by this race. I have a long, long way to go.

Lesson 3: If you are going to commit to a race, you better f******g bring everything you've got. Stop being a pu$$y, grow a pair of balls or stay home.

went to aid station, got ice pack for my aching leg...looked for some sort of ego-salve, but realized that it doesn't exist in the medical tent. Turned bike back in to Tribike Transport, got my finishers jacket, limped to the bus and drove back to Portland with my wife.


The etymology of "sophomore" is the Latin, 'sopho': meaning "wise", and 'moros': meaning "fool". A sophomore is a "wise-fool" who thinks he knows how the world works, when he really doesn't know shit. As my sophomore year in triathlon comes to a close with this race, I am humbled by the fact that I don't know shit. To add to the lessons above:

Lesson 4: be thankful that you can do this at all; the day before this race, a good friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer for the 4th time in his young 43-year-old life. He has a wife and 5 children between the ages of 12 and 2 weeks old. I am blessed to be here at all.

Lesson 5: as long as you are healthy to race, there is always another race...I did not set good enough goals for this year. First I was going to make the Spirit of Racine HIM my "big" race, then I qualified for nationals and made that my "big" race. I think I do better when I set an early season goal for a "big" race and stick to it.

Lesson 6: learn how to recover. I am old. I have to figure out how to recover from injury better than I did this year.

Lesson 7: be thankful for whatever support my family gives me in this incredibly singular and vain pursuit. We are not a "triathlon" family; my wife and kids tolerate this pursuit, but don't really understand why I do it. Up until a week before this race, I was coming to the venue by myself. My wife got my in-laws to stay with the kids and she caught a flight out to Portland on Friday (my mother-in-law has told me on more than one occasion that she doesn't support this pursuit and can't understand why I do it). It was a big, big sacrifice for the in-laws, my kids and wife. I am appreciative, but also realistic. Olympic distances are all that I can ever do. I just can't ask for, nor would I be afforded the time or understanding it takes on behalf of my family to let me do a longer distance triathlon. And that's OK.


The schwag-bag was great: USAT hat, 2 t-shirts, USAT Yankz, finishers jacket, transition towel. The only beef I have with the whole event was that the food afterwards was horrible. You got your choice of a hot dog or gross bar-b-que sandwich. I'd rather have the usual bagel and bananas at the finish line than to stand in line for 20 minutes for what they had. I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony/appreciation dinner, maybe that was a lot better.