Later in my career I developed a more pragmatic approach. While outcomes or results are always attractive, they are at the same time difficult to handle emotionally, because they are basically out of your own control. You never know if someone on the line is stronger and you can’t do anything about it if they are. There are always a thousand ways for a race to pan out and it is impossible to predict the actions of others, the weather etc. Instead I shifted focus to the things I could control. If I executed my race strategy perfect and gave absolutely everything I had in me, feeling completely empty at the finish I would have succeed no matter the outcome. - Torbjorn Sindballe
This quote is my favorite. It pretty much sums up my race this year.
Here are my quick thoughts on the race. The venue was absolutely fantastic!
I drove the bike course the day before the race and I was really excited for the challenging terrain. I thought the hills would really split things up and keep things honest. Unfortunately, that was not the case. There were some sections that were really tight. This caused things to bunch up and it seemed like there were not enough officials.
I went out on my bike to preview the run course later in the day on Saturday. I was equally encouraged by the hilly terrain. However, as I was riding the course I made a very lame move to jump a curb and ended up eating asphalt.
This resulted in some bruises, road rash, and a broken hanger that was holding my rear derailleur. I was extremely lucky that I was going pretty slow at the time, so the damage was pretty minimal. I was even more fortunate that Mark Andrews from Trek was attending the event. He was able to fix my bike right away and I was able to get it into transition before the cutoff time.
Race Day: Hanging in the RV with friends prior to the swim start
I was able to get in the water and get a really good warm up in prior to my swim wave starting. It was a beach start this year. This enabled the vertically challenged, such as myself, to get about 2-3 strides in before doing few dolphin dives.
I got about 2 strokes into the swim and felt myself being pushed under the water from behind. This is part of racing, but it's just not fun going under water at the beginning of a race. I attempted to relax and slowly moved my way out to the left. This strategy worked for me and I was able to get clear water. I was avoided anymore incidents the remainder of the swim. I came out of the water in 27:53, which put me in 31st place in my age group. It wasn't exactly where I was hoping to be, but I didn't waste anytime running the long transition to my bike.
Once I got on my Trek Speed Concept 9.9, I was really excited to push the remainder of the race. I went right to work. I felt really good the entire ride. I worked really hard and had my highest power output in a race since last year's 70.3 World Championship in Vegas. The only negatives of the bike segment was seeing several large packs form on the highway section and then seeing things bunch up when the coned off sections became to tight heading back towards transition. The course itself was beautiful and very challenging. I knew I was racing against some really good runners, so I just tried to ride my own race. I pushed all the way until T2 and managed to come off the bike 1st in my age group with a 2:15:03 split.
My 2nd transition was a little sloppy and I lost 2 places before I hit the run. I could see my competition in front of me, but I just could not bridge up. My quads were feeling the fatigue of the bike. I knew I had to find my own rhythm or I would risk blowing up. I ran the hilly course as well as I could. However, I was losing ground on the runners ahead of me and getting run down from one behind. I had fueled really well during the bike and the first half of the run. I did need to grab some cola for the first time this year at mile 10 as I felt my energy levels starting to drop a bit. The simple sugars did the trick and I was able to pick up my pace a little bit as I headed for the village. I crossed the finish line with a 1:22:36 split. I was completely spent. I left everything I had on the course.
Results: 4:10:44 4th M40-44 / 64th Overall
I drove the bike course the day before the race and I was really excited for the challenging terrain. I thought the hills would really split things up and keep things honest. Unfortunately, that was not the case. There were some sections that were really tight. This caused things to bunch up and it seemed like there were not enough officials.
I went out on my bike to preview the run course later in the day on Saturday. I was equally encouraged by the hilly terrain. However, as I was riding the course I made a very lame move to jump a curb and ended up eating asphalt.
This resulted in some bruises, road rash, and a broken hanger that was holding my rear derailleur. I was extremely lucky that I was going pretty slow at the time, so the damage was pretty minimal. I was even more fortunate that Mark Andrews from Trek was attending the event. He was able to fix my bike right away and I was able to get it into transition before the cutoff time.
Race Day: Hanging in the RV with friends prior to the swim start
I was able to get in the water and get a really good warm up in prior to my swim wave starting. It was a beach start this year. This enabled the vertically challenged, such as myself, to get about 2-3 strides in before doing few dolphin dives.
I got about 2 strokes into the swim and felt myself being pushed under the water from behind. This is part of racing, but it's just not fun going under water at the beginning of a race. I attempted to relax and slowly moved my way out to the left. This strategy worked for me and I was able to get clear water. I was avoided anymore incidents the remainder of the swim. I came out of the water in 27:53, which put me in 31st place in my age group. It wasn't exactly where I was hoping to be, but I didn't waste anytime running the long transition to my bike.
Once I got on my Trek Speed Concept 9.9, I was really excited to push the remainder of the race. I went right to work. I felt really good the entire ride. I worked really hard and had my highest power output in a race since last year's 70.3 World Championship in Vegas. The only negatives of the bike segment was seeing several large packs form on the highway section and then seeing things bunch up when the coned off sections became to tight heading back towards transition. The course itself was beautiful and very challenging. I knew I was racing against some really good runners, so I just tried to ride my own race. I pushed all the way until T2 and managed to come off the bike 1st in my age group with a 2:15:03 split.
My 2nd transition was a little sloppy and I lost 2 places before I hit the run. I could see my competition in front of me, but I just could not bridge up. My quads were feeling the fatigue of the bike. I knew I had to find my own rhythm or I would risk blowing up. I ran the hilly course as well as I could. However, I was losing ground on the runners ahead of me and getting run down from one behind. I had fueled really well during the bike and the first half of the run. I did need to grab some cola for the first time this year at mile 10 as I felt my energy levels starting to drop a bit. The simple sugars did the trick and I was able to pick up my pace a little bit as I headed for the village. I crossed the finish line with a 1:22:36 split. I was completely spent. I left everything I had on the course.
Results: 4:10:44 4th M40-44 / 64th Overall
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