A Race, A Flight, and Back in Vic

It has taken a while to get back to this blog and get writing again. Adjusting to the new time zone and training makes me tired and not wanting to spend too much time in front of a small screen typing away.

Mooloolaba was awesome. Its a small town right on the beach with great shops and cafes along the water. The race went pretty well there. The men’s race started at 1:30 to hot hot hot temperatures. The start was a beach run in with some good surf in the ocean. I had a lackluster start which saw me side-by-side with 5 guys all going nowhere fast drowning each other in our wakes. The front swimmers were pulling away to the right and the first turn was coming up so I put a surge in to get ahead of the men beside me and get a good position into the turn. I basically held onto the spot that I had coming out of that turn and tried to follow the feet in front of me to not get lost. I finished the swim in about 10th place, less than 10 seconds back from Walton and Potts who lead the swim. I had a good run up the beach and into transition, got on my bike quickly and put my head down for the first 1-2km to get onto the back of the main pack. Feet in shoes, a quick drink, and I was ready to rock. All the main contenders for the race were in this pack of 13, minus Brad Kadefelt who was in the chase pack. Our pack worked well together up and down the 16 climbs and had made 1 minute over the chase pack with 1 lap (5km) to go. Well those suckers decided to give Brad a chance at the win (how nice of them) and sat up to wait for the chase pack to merge with our pack as we rolled into transition. Run shoes on, helmet off, and I was on my way into the 10km run. I tried to take the run out conservatively knowing that 8 big hills and 30 degree heat will take its toll by the last lap. I kept my head down the whole run not knowing what place I was in. I faded a bit in the last half of the run and finished in 19th place. Maybe I should have been counting what place I was in during the turn around’s but I was just thinking "make it to the finish line strong...don’t bonk".

I was happy with my finish and how the race went. Of course the race could have been better...we could have kept that 1 minute lead over the chase pack...but having my first top 20 performance at a World Cup is pretty cool.

Now I am back in Victoria after leaving on a shuttle for the airport 2 hours after I finished the race, flying that night, sleeping on the floor in Sydney airport, flying 18 hours to Vancouver, having 30min to collect my bags, clear customs, check my bags again, clear security, and run a mile to my gate made the trip that much more enjoyable. NOTE TO SELF: NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!

Training has been going well since I have gotten back...I have been having some troubles with my calves being tight, but I am swimming good and riding ok. Just over 10 days until I am crossing that damned Pacific Ocean again for my next World Cup in Ishigaki, Japan. Hopefully I can keep this momentum going and improve on my 19th place finish