With the 2010 WCS season now in the rear view mirror most athletes are heading out on a vacation of some sort (or a holiday if you’re from Britain). But not me! With the Pan American Continental Championship still ahead on October 17th most athletes in the western hemisphere are probably continuing their seasons. Here is what lies ahead for me:

First on the schedule is a trip to the dirty south for the U.S. National Championship in Tuscaloosa, Alabama next weekend. It will be my fourth year in a row racing in Tuscaloosa. It’s a hot, challenging course so I’m looking forward to it. However, I won’t be wearing my UF gear quite as conspicuously this year.

Second is a trip even farther south for the Pan Am Champs in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. One of my goals as an athlete is to avoid racing in Mexico if at all possible. So…fail.

Lastly I will be contesting the 70.3 World Champs in Clearwater again this year.

Did I say lastly? Because Clearwater actually won’t be my last race – I will also be toeing the line at the Turkey Trot World Championship in Orlando on Thanksgiving day. Unlike years past I will definitely be showing up with my A game (or whatever game I have left after Clearwater since training in Orlando always leads to an excess of Chipotle burritos and Krispy Kreme donuts). Either way a 5K on Thanksgiving morning is a great excuse to eat way too much the rest of the day!

So this is what it feels like to have a good result! I haven’t felt this good about a race in a long time (since November 14th, 2009 to be exact). Of course I prefer the top step of the podium but Mark Fretta stole the race with a blazing fast bike split (on a borrowed bike no less). The Chicago Triathlon isn’t a race to go to for fast splits but I managed a solid swim, a breakthrough bike, and the fastest run of the day, so I consider it a breakthrough performance all around.

The race started with an in-water start (not my favorite) and I got beat up a little bit more than I envisioned. I lost some ground but was able to swim my way back up to the front of the main pack by 400 meters in. Cam Dye was off the front (as expected) and I just sat in for the rest of the swim. I exited the water in seventh and during the half mile run to T1 I moved up to third.

After fumbling around with my TT helmet for far too long I made it out onto the bike. Cam Dye was way up the road and Mark Fretta and Matt Reed were about 50 meters up. Mark got away from Matt and I eventually caught and passed Mr. Reed myself. At the 20K turnaround I was third on the road about 1.5 minutes down on Cam Dye and 45 seconds down from Fretta. For the last 20K I made sure to stay focused and tried to minimize the time gaps. Starykowicz passed me in the last 10K but he was the only person to get me – definitely a good sign to only get passed by Starky over 40K! I entered T2 almost two minutes down on Dye, 1:20 down on Fretta, and 25 seconds back from Starky. Filip Ospaly was right with me and we headed out onto the run together.

At this point I should probably mention that it was 95+ degrees with no cloud cover – it was hot!! I tried to run with Ospaly but he dropped me quickly as I was incredibly tight from holding my TT position for so long. I caught Starky and Dye by mile two so again I was third on the road. I could see Fretta on some of the longer straightaways but I was just trying to keep Ospaly within reach and not succumb to the blistering heat. Finally I started to loosen up around mile three and noticed that I was starting to reel Ospaly back in. I really started flying around mile four. I re-caught Ospaly and cut Mark’s lead in half during the last two miles but it became obvious that I was going to run out of room. I finished comfortably in second (comfortably meaning that Ospaly was almost a minute back in third. My physical state was nowhere near comfortable – ‘impending heat stroke’ seems like a better description).

I would normally post a glorious picture of me on the podium but the awards ceremony was canceled. Mark and I have a theory that we ruined the Chicago Triathlon by beating all of the ‘standard’ podium finishers and thus the awards ceremony was not necessary…but in reality the USADA anti-doping control just took too long after the race! Either way, Mark and I pretty much own the city of Chicago Michael Jordan style at this point. I’m sure next time I show up at O’Hare I’ll be greeted with a limo and swept away to the Imperial Suite of the Hilton Chicago. Or not…

Overall it was an excellent weekend in Chicago with lots of deep dish pizza and OTC athletes occupying two out of three podium spots in both the men’s and women’s races (virtual podium spots of course. Did I mention that there was no real podium? Well there wasn’t). Now I just need to rest up and stay sharp for Budapest!

Fretta was probably more surprised than anyone else about his win. Yep this is the same guy who told me he expected to be fifth at best!

I’m not going to get into too many specifics about my race in London as it was another not-so-good result, but I can say that at least I made it to the run this year! The field in London this past weekend was loaded with talent and I simply wasn’t prepared for the intensity of the bike, specifically the accelerations out of the turns. I did, however, swim faster than ever before as I exited the water 19 seconds down with some serious big names. I think I lost 15 of those 19 seconds in the first 300 meters…yep, I need to work on my top end speed in all three sports!

The trip to Europe was by no means a waste as I gained invaluable experience and even a few Olympic points (you can never have too many Olympic points, right?!). I roomed with Ben “I went to H&M and bought a bunch of shirts so now I look super-Euro” Collins – our names are similar so the hotel staff thought we were one person that went to the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet two times every morning. This resulted in a 40 quid bill on our room at checkout. After presenting conclusive evidence that we are in fact two separate people, they didn’t charge us. Oh and one quid = 1 pound. I really just wanted to somehow use the word “quid” in my blog.

Thanks to our team doc Andy Gerken for taking some of these pics:

We had a team photo shoot near Westminster Abbey. This is Jarrod and his wife Alicia with Big Ben in the background.

Laura Bennett by a typical red London phonebooth.

We were all a little embarrassed to be standing around in our race suits on the busy sidewalks of London, but some cool pics came of it.

I was right next to the younger Brownlee in transition.

On the bike in the race. It might not look like it but I’m suffering pretty badly!

Things went decently well in Hamburg this past weekend. My only complaint is that my efforts only netted a 37th place. I swam well – I was pleasantly surprised to see names like Docherty, Ben “I only packed one shirt for this trip” Collins and Mark “I own a hamster named Hunter Kemper” Fretta in front of me as I exited the water. I felt great on the bike and easily chased onto the second chase group out of the water. We then caught the front pack and I was feeling great about things – if our pack of 25 or so athletes stays away then I’m looking at my best WCS finish ever! I stayed near the back of the pack trying to rest from my chase effort – BIG mistake!!! My TT ability on a bike is pretty good but my sprinting ability is pitiful at best and I was unhinged from the group as we accelerated out of a few tight turns. I commit the error of riding on the back on a regular basis but never has it resulted in such a huge penalty. I think I can truthfully say that never again will you find me at the back of a pack! The good news is that the group I was dropped to eventually made contact with the front group again, but not without a significant amount of effort on my part along with a few other guys in the pack. Despite my tough bike I still ran decently. If you take into account the fact that the course was lengthened from years past by 30 to 40 seconds then I ran just as fast as last year. The only problem is that last year I got 23rd place and this year I only got 37th. I think I have more in me, though. Going into London I’m going to try to ride smarter and get to the front and see how I run then!

I got the strong arm from Bevan Docherty on the first lap of the swim. Bevan is known for being one of the nicest guys on the ITU circuit but also as one of the most cut-throat racers out there. According to Manny Huerta I’m lucky he didn’t just shove me back in the water while using me as leverage! Photo courtesy of Andy Gerken.

The women on the run. We used to turn around at the big beer but the course was lengthened using these cones after being criticized for not being a true 10K in years past.

I rarely appear in the ITU’s race photo galleries but I finally made it in one. I was the first to rack my bike in transition before the race – for this I received a round of applause from the grandstands and a couple of photographers documenting my every move!