Race Reports

St. Anthony's turned out to be a very smart race--I swam ok, worked my way up on the bike to a good position, then eased off a little on the second have of the ride to set up for a fast run. I started the run off at a controlled pace and then started to build into it with each mile. I knew how far ahead the race leader, Sara McLarty, was and how long it would take me to catch her. She had a great swim and ride and was over 2 minutes in front of me. It took almost the entire 10k, as I figured, and I didn't end up passing her until the last half mile or so. I think having my new Cervelo P3 and Rudy Project Aero Helmet really helped me on the bike. Also, I wore the new Zoot speed suit which felt great in the water. What probably helped me the most though were all the bike TT workouts I've been doing on the windy country roads in New Paltz and all of the long treadmill runs.

My race in Korea wasn't so smart. Given the circumstances (not having a proper meal since Sunday night after St. anthony's - does that even count, Karl? Because we both know I didn't finish the 2 shrimp pasta!, not sleeping, jet lag, etc.), I think it was a pretty good day and most importantly, I accomplished what I came here to do: get points to qualify for the big ITU race in DC. If you get a chance to look at the results, you might notice that my swim was third to last!!! Yep, one of the very last ones to come out of the water. Even after all that fast swimming we've been putting in. I'm convinced these World Champs swims have very little to do with swimming ability and much more to do with how much beating up one can take. After a few kicks to the face, punches in the side and a few swim overs, I backed off the pace and started doing doggie paddle and looking for some open water. That pretty much sent me to the back of the pack. But, at least I survived the swim!!! Oh yeah, that's the reason I couldn't sleep all week--staying up worrying about not getting through the swim...instead of thinking about how I was going to FIGHT through it. I'm going to spend some time over the next month fixing that issue and hopefully practicing some open water swimming in the freezing cold pond.

When I got to my bike, I had to do some work to get into the pack. Once I got into the pack, I wanted so badly to catch the next one. Too bad our pack wasn't able to get it together. In the end, it seems like I didn't ride that "smart" and probably expended too much energy (compared to the others). The first half of the run was great and I worked my way up into about 24th place, looking to catch a few others. Then, on the 3rd of 4 laps, my quads started cramping. Similar to Dallas 2 years ago. My pace slowed and I got passed by 3 girls. As a result, my 10k time way off my pace from last week.

That's ok, at least I got back into the ITU racing and put together a decent race.

Off to experience real Korean BBQ!!