Junior Pan American Championships

Friday morning i flew to Oklahoma City with my coach Marc for the PATCO junior championships. I was very excited to be picked by USAT for this race and also excited to compete against top athletes from South America, Central America, Carriabean, and North America.

As they called our names to the starting pontoone it sank deeper into the water with all the wieght of the junior athletes. The gun went off and we dived into the 69 degree, no wetsuit, swim. Immediately i am boxed in by all the great swimmers around me and just try to fight my way towards the front. I end up halfway through the massive pack of swimmers around the bouys. The knocking around in the water really sucks the life out of you. I exit the chilly water in about 26th position into the the first transition with many athletes around me. I run through T1 as fast i can and mount my bike to see the first pack forming about 50 meters ahead. I try and catch them but end up forming a pack of 5 with some athletes behind me. By the end of the 2nd lap of the bike im in a pack with 12 other juniors ready to head out onto the run. Unfortunetly I end up at the back of my pack into transition loosing some considerable time. I rack my bike and head out on the 2 lap 5k run and slowly reel in about 5 juniors. I finished 23rd overall and 5th American, so i am very happy with the result. I hope this is a sign for better things to come in ITU racing. Here is a link to the results http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=10777

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Lake Louisa Sprint Triathlon

I love this race! Only 5 miles from my house, a 400yd swim (mostly dolphin diving b/c its so shallow) 7mile bike with a pretty good hill, and 1.5 mile run, and its on thursday afternoons! its like a tough afternoon workout. I had alot of fun and won a $100 in the process which is sweet.

One thing that i noticed though, is the intensity. It was really high throughout the whole race. Since it only lasts like thirty minutes, im either at or really close to threshold the whole way. I think its a great way to prepare for some ITU racing this summer!

Nic

St. Anthony's

This past weekend i competed in the St. Anthony's triathlon in St. Pete FL. About 4000 people competed, so there was some great competition. Marc, Tim and i drove down on friday, to get familiar with the course and transition area. Saturday afternoon we dropped our bikes off, into what seemed like a sea of bicycles. There was at least 5 million dollars worth of bikes in transition. Unfortunatly the swim was cancelled on sunday morning for the age groupers, because of excess wind and waves, so race officials stagger started us according to race number for a bike/run event. At the end of the day i was very pleased with my result, a 59:40 for the 40k bike and 37:20 for the 10k, to win my age group. Many of the pros and even some ameatur elites were running in the low 32 range, insane! I look forward to racing St. Anthony's next year! (with a swim)