After fundraising for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, CAF, the last two years and participating in the San Diego Triathlon Challenge, SDTC, I decided this year I would do some races with athletes who are trying to win and not just participate. The SDTC is a challenging course with a 1 mile swim, a hilly 44 mile bike, followed by a hilly 10 mile run. My first year of completing the course I had the 4th overall time and the following year i was 15 minutes faster finishing 8th overall. Realizing these events were challenging yet enjoyable I wanted to compete in something that was a race to win and not just a race to finish. While I will continue to raise money for CAF and participate in SDTC for the following years to come, I am extremely excited for the future of racing and the lifestyle I never dreamed of living.

I competed in my first Sprint Triathlon on Sunday, July 27th in Solana Beach California. Hosting a 1/4 mile swim, a 9 mile bike, and a 3 mile run, finishing the course in 53:59.5. I started the day with a 6:15 swim, 2:16 T1, 23:49 bike (not happy with that after having rookie errors that slowed me down) .58 T2, and 20:39 run finishing 22nd overall and 5th in my age group. The experience was great, I’m happy, but I know I can go faster. With my all over the place non structured coachless training I think I did alright for my first real race.

I was in the first wave swim start with male 29 and under and all Male and Female Elites and all junior racers, the future of triathlon. I was quick off the line and made it into the lead out swim. I felt good swimming, took a couple kicks to the head and a few blows were thrown, a couple of mouthfuls of salt water for hydration were key, fail, but I made it out of the water with the lead out group. I had the support of my dad who let me know I was 15th out of the water as we all ran up the hill towards transition. I seemed to have support all through T1 while Zephyr, friend and YMCA spin teacher screamed out your in 15th Toph, and a hundred yards later, legend Dano Rock, friend and best bike mechanic in the biz screamed out the same while I just tried to focus on my breathing and stay focused.

I made some rookie mistakes on the bike, cleats were clipped into pedals but the velcro straps weren’t looped through the metal hinge’s and took me ages to relax and properly strap in while being passed by a few competitors. Lucky for me I was strong enough to make up some time over the duration of the course but I was annoyed with myself. I had one bottle of water with me just in case mounted on my frame, I had a quick drink half way through the course and I am usually good at getting my bottle back in my cages, but I was a little disorientated which caused me to struggle and slowed me down for a moment to get my bottle back into the cage. On loop two of the bike course I was lucky to have my dad road side who gave me a heads up before a sharp turn that I had my head down for that I would have crashed with out the heads up and I was just able to slow down to make the turn. Ended up 10th into transition off the bike and had a quick T2 although I felt like I was dicking around a bit… Maybe I wasn’t that quick…

Headed out on the run feeling like a ton of bricks just trying to slow down my heart rate. I started out slow and had a nice reminder from my dad to ease into it. Had a few competitors pass me at this stage, had a nice high five from a fellow age grouper going by. I have to say the most exhilarating part of the run was feeling anaerobic the entire run just trying to fit in a decent breathe while making animal noises because the hurt was so good. Passing some of the duathlon competitors while I moaned and groaned was either entertaining or scary for them. I had some push coming up behind me from friend and Pro triathlete, Katya Meyers, in which kept me going strong and fighting through the pain. She was making the run look effortless with an injury and she’s the reason I went under 54 minutes by .5 of a second. My split was 20:39, average of 6:53/mile and I know i didn’t start at that pace so I had to end pretty strong considering where my heart rate was at.

To sum up the race, I am happy with the results and I am looking forward to the future. The pro field wasn’t far out of my reach but in reality they were miles ahead but it only makes me want to work harder. Next race is Tri Rock San Diego Olympic distance September 21st and I am looking forward to inflicting more pain upon my body. Thank you to Dano Rock at Revolution Bike Shop for believing in me, gearing up my bike and making it race ready, wheels, tuning, cleaning, tubular teaching, your the man Dano! Special thanks to my family, especially my dad saying all the right things at the right time, girl friend for support and all these awesome photos, girlfriends parents, David & Rebecca, John Duke for always hooking me up and being a second father, Clem, Zephyr, New Friends the Gough’s, Ray Kelly for his wealth of knowledge and good times training together, Evan Luth and his pre-race “your going to crush it,” Everyone at Revolution Bike shop for always hooking me up! Hope I’m not forgetting anyone. If I did, Thank you!

22/639 - overall
5/31 - age group

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Solana Beach Sprint 22/639