Saturday, May 9, 2020

History

Seeing as the World Championships were last OCTOBER, and I still have not written about it...  this is history.


This was to be my last big race as a professional triathlete.  I love it as much as always, but I have been fighting injuries so much over the last 5 years that it has really affected my performance.  It's frustrating, and I need to take racing a step down.  I've tried retiring before so we'll see how it goes this time.

I had mounted mud tires onto my bike just incase it was a muddy course.  They are great in the mud,  and descent in the dry so I thought it was better safe than sorry.  The forecast was for a beautiful day, oh well.
As I was riding over to the race course and the sky opened up with a torrential rain.  I was psyched.  I couldn't believe my luck with  my tire selection.  I knew I had an advantage.  Fortunately, for the spectators, it had stopped raining by the time the race started.

Swim start (I'm closest to the camera in blue)

I was hoping to win this swim, but it just wasn't there.  I settled into an older race strategy and conserved energy in the water still staying close to the leaders.   I came out wanting a blistering transition, but was the first to "crash" on the entire course.  I was taking my goggles off at the exact moment there was a hidden step in the grass.  I jammed my toe on it and went down.  When you hear the crowd go "OHHH!" and it's for you, it's not good.  It hurt.
my toes days after the race


Out of (a not quite blistering) transition I was on my race plan.  My mud tires were giving me a huge advantage on the sloppy course.  It was great.  I was able to make up time lost on the incredibly steep climbs with some good muddy descending.  I was having a blast, which had been part of my race plan.

Unfortunately, as with most triathlons, the bike is too long for me.  It's definitely not my relative strength, and the course dried out for the second lap of the bike.  I lost some time, but still came into transition well.
 

Starting the run, I had my doubts about weather my toe would hold up for the run.  It hurt, but didn't
affect my speed.  It took some time to get the bike out of my legs, but once I got going, I was flying.  This is a technical run, and I loved it... until about a mile to go... where there is a climb that felt like a wall.  I turned into a fusion bomb and exploded right there.  I could barely turn my legs over.  My mind was doing everything it could to get my body going.   I was using every trick I had learned over a 14 year professional career to find some last bit of speed... to no avail.  I lost track of how many places I lost in that last mile, but each one hurt more and more.

I crossed the line with as much as I could muster and collapsed.  I tried to be positive.  I knew without a doubt that I left EVERYTHING out on the race course.

Here's a group picture of the pros recovering after the race.  This was a very special moment for me at the end of my career.


Hawaii is special.  I've only ever been there to race.  Tina and I promised each other that we would visit another island and "vacation" after the race.  After racing in Maui, we flew to Kauai and had a great time on another island.... FINALLY!
cooling my legs on Kauai after the race




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