Some Pics from Hamburg
My first World Championship Series race was a success this past weekend in Hamburg. I struggled a bit in the swim but felt strong on the bike and the whole race came together into one big ~40 man pack. My run was solid, too, and I ended up in 23rd place. Also, I came away with a few things I can improve on for my next WCS race which should be in London in a few weeks. Here are a few pics from the weekend:
Jarrod is the man! He won in convincing fashion and that’s the first World Cup/World Champs level victory by an American in a long time. Awesome.
The weather was pretty bad for the women’s race but that didn’t stop the huge Hamburg crowds from coming out.
The women swimming under the bridge.
Struggling to take pictures from the grandstands.
These things are delicious. I know that these are available in the United States but the writing isn’t in German so that’s not as fun.
I am slightly obsessed with Nutella.
I finally went to the Birkenstock store and got some sandals. I have meant to do that for the past three years.
San Fran (In July)
On the podium in San Fran with (left to right) Tenille Hoogland, myself, Simon Whitfield, Alexis Smith, Lindsey Jerdonek, Andrew McCartney, and a whole lot of sparkling apple cider!
I feel like I just posted about this race not too long ago. Oh wait, I did – this race is usually in November. This year, though, the race was moved to July and things were a bit different – the water was warmer, it was sunny during the race, and I showed up a lot fitter!
Dustin McLarty destroyed the swim (he came out of the water over one minute ahead of me apparently swimming ‘warm up speed’). I bungled T1 – as I exited the water I took off both my wetsuit AND race suit (not all the way, just to my waist thankfully!). I only lost a few seconds, though. Out onto the bike I found myself in the chase pack and rode 40K at a leisurely Sunday stroll pace except for a couple of unsuccessful attacks (frustrating). I came into T2 2:40 down and ran the fastest 10K of the day (Simon shut it down with a 2+ minute lead) to end up in third place. Not bad!
Overall it was a good weekend. San Fran was fun, it was great to meet Simon Whitfield, my homestay was awesome (thanks John and Lindsay!), and of course the annual Cal Berkeley tri team post race festivities were entertaining to say the least.
Now it’s time to go practice taking my wetsuit off.
Hy-vee
I just finished watching last weekend’s race on NBC – wow, what a sprint finish! Brad Kahlefeldt always seems to fall in sprint finishes, or maybe he is diving for the line? Either way he must get some serious road rash. It was also interesting to see the crash on the second lap of the bike on film. I didn’t think they had cameras around at the time. Yes, that was me doing some serious crash avoidance (I was the guy who squeezed through the middle of the two crash victims). To quote my coach: Nothing good ever happens at the back of the pack! I’m pretty lucky that I didn’t go down myself. Anyways, watching the race reminded me that I still need to post my race report! I wrote this earlier in the week but never posted it. My bad. Here it is:
Race day started out as most days do in Iowa in late June – hot and humid! I was pretty excited because I seem to do well in hot races. I should, I’m from Florida! Much to my disappointment, however, rainstorms rolled in right before the men’s race, cooling the air down by a good 15 degrees. In the end it didn’t matter – I was ready to go no matter what the conditions so I went about my warm up and soon the introductions for the men’s race started.
With race # 48 on my arm I didn’t have many good choices for start position on the pontoon. I chose a start position next to fellow Americans Ethan Brown and Brian Fleischmann, both very good swimmers, and hoped for the best. The horn went off and the race for the $200,000 winner’s check was on! The first 300 meters to the first buoy were relatively calm and fast, but the first buoy ended that abruptly. I arrived at the first buoy at the same time as about 20 other guys and got completely pummeled and found myself dunked underwater, unable to breath for what seemed like an eternity (but it was probably only about five seconds). I finally made it around, caught my breath, regained my composure and kept swimming. Despite my troubles at the first buoy I still exited the water on the first lap in the middle of the front group. I thought I was much farther back! The second lap was mostly smooth sailing and I finished the swim 15 seconds behind the leader. After sprinting to transition I solidified myself into the front bike pack in the first quarter mile of the bike.
With $200,000 on the line I knew the attacks would soon commence so I did my best to rest and get ready to respond to the accelerations. The pace remained very high in the front pack as we tried to hold off two packs behind us with some serious running firepower (Jarrod Shoemaker and Will Clarke for example). I tried to move up in the pack but with the whole pack strung out into a long line it was nearly impossible. Being at the back is very dangerous and my fears were soon realized: Two guys crashed right in front of me. A Korean athlete’s wheel slipped into a groove in the pavement and he freaked out and went down, taking out fellow American Tim O’Donnell at 30+ mph. As the Korean athlete slid to the left, Tim slid to the right and I somehow managed to squeeze through the middle without going down as water bottles and other miscellaneous bike parts flew everywhere. I spent the next quarter mile chasing back onto the front pack, eventually succeeding but not without completely red lining for several minutes. I was unsure how much of an effect that effort would have on my run, but I was still in the front pack and that was all that mattered. Eventually the second and third chase packs caught us. The pace remained high the whole bike as Matt Reed and Matt Chrabot launched attack after attack off the front. Matt Reed eventually escaped with Stuart Hayes of Great Britain, and a second successful break came from Tim Don and Danylo Sapunov of the Ukraine. I came into T2 still near the back of our enormous 44-man pack.
The little run group that formed: Halverson, Clarke, me, Ellice.
The first few steps of the run confirmed what I had hoped – I was going to have a great run. I moved up from around 40th place to 15th in the first mile. Knowing my initial pace was unsustainable for 10K I settled on the shoulders of Will Clarke of Great Britain. We were eventually joined by Gareth Halverson of Australia and the three of us paced off of each other for the next 5 kilometers. Around the 8K mark Will launched an attack and I followed. Gareth did not. Then Will launched again, this time dropping me. At this point I was paying dearly for my efforts from earlier in the run. With 1K to go Gareth passed me again and I had no response. Running in 13th place as the second American was so far and above my expectations for this race that I think I was also suffering from a bit of complacency. I should have given Gareth and Will a better run for their money (literally)! I finished up in 13th place, my highest World Cup finish ever. I also made a bit of money! And by ‘a bit’ I mean I made more than I have ever made in one day, ever! More importantly, though, I showed I could race at the highest level in the sport, and that means more to me than anything else.
I’m back to training now with two more races coming up soon: The San Francisco Triathlon on July 11 and my first World Championship Series start in Hamburg on July 26.
I never knew how good I had it in my Kiwami suit until I had to wear my old Speedo to match my World Team Champs team on Sunday! Not comfortable.
Coach said she would make me cookies for a top 10 but I guess 13th was OK, too.
