Tuesday, September 18, 2018

2018 Xterra Pan-Am/USA Championships

Two weeks ago, I started my taper for this race.... in a French jail.

It's a very long story but has to be told so I'll keep it short.  Tina and I decided to make a poorly timed vacation (racing wise) to Italy to meet up with her sister and my friend who lives in Europe.  We were going to meet in Monza to watch the Formula 1 race there.  We traveled through Paris to get there.  Well, I have an "emergency passport" due to my other job as a pilot (an even longer story).  Well, the French police didn't allow me to pass through Paris with this passport.  They put me in a "holding area" (jail) until they could send me back to the USA.  I made it back to New York and then flew directly to Italy, crossing the Atlantic three times in two days.  Not the best way to start a taper OR a vacation.

The race:
My racing goals went drasticly down from there.  I still have my swimming, so I decided to go all out for leg one of this race.  I took off in my usual fasion and opened up a gap to the lead pack:





At the turnaround bouy, I had lost the gap and settled into what I thought was a strong pace. Branden Rakita, who is an outstanding swimmer, pulled up next to me to help push the pace.  Toward the end of the swim, I retook the lead and came out of the water first, feeling fine... until I got to my bike... and blew up. 

It was the hardest T1 I've had in a long time.  I was gassed.  I had no energy for the start of the bike. 


After about 5 grueling miles (and lots of lost time, I got some somewhat of a rhythm back and started to push.  As the bike went on, though, I was fading.


suffering... suffering...

I finished the bike with Will Kelsey, and thought we could work together on the run, but then I exploded.  I was left walking at times just trying to finish the race.

The race started well enough, but finished horribly.  At least I was out of jail!



Video highlights of the race
I'm at
 -5:00
-4:15
-3:27
-3:00 remaining
Snowbasn luxury 

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