The race would be wetsuit illegal which I was actually looking forward to. Being able to breathe and feel more comfortable in the water although not having the speed boost was what I was hoping for. I got to the swim start and tried to loosen up my arms without getting any warm up in. We were starting with a standing in water start with the water up to our waists. I seeded myself in the front row due to all of the swim training I put in this week about swim starts I felt I could get a good position.
When the start sound went off (seriously, it was like a police siren) I dove right in and swam strong. I felt great as I had open water and the front pack of us weren’t making too much contact fighting for position. We were all moving well and the pace felt great for me to draft with. This stopped after about 100m as people from the back made their way up to the front and contact began. People were swimming on top of me, stealing my drafts, and I had one person punch me in the jaw which caused my teeth to give a good cut in my upper lip.
The rest of the swim was a little slower pace and more open. I had a few swimmers come past me and I would draft off them. With the last 500 I caught a decent group and drafted in with them. One of the swimmers would keep stopping to look around and get going again. He also, lost track of sighting and swam completely off course for a while which allowed me to come out of the water up ahead of him.

I feel to move up more in the swim I have to become more aggressive and fight people off who try to take my draft. I'm not sure whether this is right or whether I want to race that style.

Coming out of the water there were volunteers helping to pull us onto our feet. I actually got myself oriented really well and running right out of the water. I made my way passed a few racers through transition and onto the bike. Trying to mount I could feel uneasiness in my stomach so I was scared to jump onto the bike. I made a clean mount and quickly got my shoes on and out on the course. My T1 time was the fastest of anybody in the entire race!

Nothing.

The bike course was mapped out to be flat. Not any hills and no turn arounds meant it would be a good fast bike. I got out onto the main drag and started eyeing riders up ahead. There was a pack about half a mile ahead of me that I set myself a goal to chase down. A few miles into the bike a bad realization hit me: exhaustion. Whether it was from the heavy training from Wednesday or the lack of sleep the night before my legs were just aching to not give me 100%. I knew the course would call for a fast bike split and I wanted to make that happen so I kept fighting on. The flats were consistent of false flats so that you had to shift into an easier gear but not enough of hills to get you out of the saddle to climb. I was working my way past racers but never felt that extra gear that I know I have to just tear apart the course like at Kansas last month.

I think I need to dilute my fuel for the course. I eat too much on the bike and I just feel logged on the run because of it.

As I came into T2 I started eyeing the racers out on the run. There were a good 10 guys or so ahead of me which would give me some feet to chase on the run. The dismount line was difficult to see so I wasn’t able to hit it as fast as I would have liked. Going through T2 I had a little difficulty putting socks on but otherwise it went smooth as I headed out to take on the run.

Nothing I could do really. The dismount line was difficult to see. Possibly use sighting of landmarks to know where it would be like in swimming?

Heading onto the run I had a few guys right with me to make for some good pacing. We got our legs moving right away and I felt this was going to be a good run. Within about a half mile the exhaustion of my body hit again. We hit the main road and suddenly my mind lost it. All I wanted was to stop and be done. It took a lot of mental fighting to keep my legs going. We turned onto the first of two out and backs and it was probably the worst part of the run. The mile out was just a false flat out and things were dwindling in my hopes of having a good day. Slowly, I got the cramping in my body to go away and keep moving at a decent pace.
Once I hit the 2nd turn around I tried to pull some positive thoughts into my head with only two miles to go. I told myself to think about something that was going right and focus on that. My arms felt great so I thought about keeping them pumping and consistent. My body started working better and my pace felt stronger as I focused on closing the gap between the racers ahead of me. With a mile left I was depleted of energy. I thought about one of my friends watching me and how I needed to set a good example for them as they head into cross country season so I fought for a pace for the last mile.
With a half mile left I saw that I was close to one racer ahead of me and I had to decide whether I would try to catch him or not. If I caught him, we were going to sprint to the finish and I did NOT want to sprint at this point. I had to convince myself that I needed to do this; I couldn’t just sit back and let him hold me off. I picked up the pace and with 150 meters to go I passed him and pushed, hoping he wouldn’t try to fight me back. I was able to break away and finish a good 15 seconds ahead of him.

More brick work. Injury as of late was a limiter.

Coming across the line my feet were hot. A little boy came to take off my chip and give me water and Gatorade and I found the nearest tree to cool off under. I threw off my shoes and just laid there for a while. I can’t believe I was able to keep moving after all that was going on leading up to the race.
Looking at my performance I feel it was a great showing for my first attempt at racing in the Elite category. I started strong on the swim, pushed hard on the bike, and remained positive on the
run. Being better rested would have helped my performance a lot. For the swim I feel to stay with the front group I would need to be more aggressive and get more physical to hold my position but I don’t want to turn into that type of a swimmer. For not it is time to get back to the pool and keep moving on up!


Rest & Recovery.