race

It was quite stressful leading up to this race. Two weeks out, my body abandoned me and went through a state of fatigue. One week out I got sick and was put on antibiotics and told by my doctor to avoid the sun. I wasn't sure if I could race but come Friday, the weather turned to rain and cloudy skies, thus my doctor said I could race as long as I covered up. I drove down with my buddy Eric with an open mind. Race morning, I didn't feel so great warming up thus, my plan was to race smarter, not harder. This was my mantra the entire race. On the start list of my age-group were three guys that I've never beaten so I prepared myself to take 4th place, maybe a 3rd and podium if the planets were aligned. I sprinted the first 100 yards as I usually do to get away from the field, but unlike all the other times, I was actually successful this time. Why? Because I was cheating, or at least I felt like I was cheating by wearing the amazingly fast Sailfish G-Range wetsuit. The entire swim, I felt like I had an unfair advantage on my competitors by wearing this wetsuit. I came out in 5th swimming a 19:56 even though I'm in 21 minute swim shape. The lesson I learned is that yes, fast swimmers can benefit from wetsuits, but only if the suit is a Sailfish. T1 was smooth, methodical, and quick, a good sign that I was on. Climbing Lynch Hill, I kept telling myself race smarter, not harder. This meant spinning more than I'm used to (I'm usually a gear masher) and pacing myself. A guy with big ole quads went by me coming out of the park on one of the climbs and I decided to target myself off him. He slowly pulled away but rather than racing out of my comfort zone, I stuck to my mantra. Just before the turnaround, I had pulled him back in. As I went by him, he called me a cheater and a drafter. As we were turning around I turned to him and said, "you can't be any more wrong buddy". I never draft because my main reason for racing is to test myself not to defeat my competitors. I told him that he was stronger in the flats and that I was stronger on the climbs and that's how I pulled him back in. I rode away from him and about 10 minutes later he came back on me and apoligized and said indeed I was stronger on the climbs. I didn't have any more time to chat so I rode away on the next climb. About 6 miles from T2, I passed another guy from my age-group. He passed me back on the flat section but I knew I could get him on the climbs leading back to T2. I made my final pass with 3 miles to go and thought to myself, where are those three guys and why haven't they come up on me yet. I expected to be out of the water before them but no way can I hold those guys off on the bike. Starting the run, to my surprise, the legs felt good which meant I was indeed racing smarter and paced well on the bike. I focused on deep breathing and keeping my turnover going without soaring my heart rate too high. Usually, it is during the run that I have low points and struggle with my attitude. Going into this race, Charisa made me realize that in the last couple of years, I've had somewhat of a bad attitude when it comes to racing. Rather than focusing on how much I lake to race, I focused on the suffering. My goal for the run was to not focus on the suffering but why it is I enjoy racing. I never went through a low point in the run and for the first time in a long time, the run seemed to go by really quickly. Still waiting for those guys to come up on me, I decided to run steady through the first 6K, saving a bit so that I can react to a pass from behind. Since no pass came, I decided to put the hurt down at the 8K mark and readied myself for the quad buster of sprinting down Lynch Hill. As I ran down the chute to the finish, I became really emotional. I found myself pumping my fist in the air and feeling such relief that my body and mind came through and allowed me to execute. On day that I least expected, I PR'ed by 4 minutes. Later, I found out that the three guys were a no-show. I think I need to race scared more often. PacWest ended up winning both the long course and olympic team titles. The crowd support was amazing this year, I felt like I had fans lined up along the entire course.