Here’s a little recap of what happened at the US Elite National Championship last week in Portland, OR.
After the Pacific Grove Triathlon (the weekend prior to the race in Portland) I stayed out on the west coast and hung out with Steve and Ethan in Davis, California. After arriving in Portland I drove up to Vancouver, Washington (right across the Columbia River) to stay with my Aunt and Uncle. It was a mere 90 minutes from the race site at Henry Hagg Lake, Oregon. I passed the time on the long drives to and from the race site by listening to Ethan’s patented “booty mix” which generally consists of a bunch of rap and R&B music where they talk about “popping bottles in the club” and other such nonsense…the best music to listen to pre-race! It’s what Michael Phelps listens to, after all.
My Uncle Francois, cousins Emilie and Madeleine, and Aunt Bracy let me stay at their house. They came out to watch me race, too.
The course for elites was one of the hardest I have ever raced on. It consisted of a one lap swim, an eight lap bike on a hard, hilly course, and a four lap run that headed out the same way as the bike course. It made for an interesting day of racing.
The swim started and immediately two groups formed heading to the first buoy. I was in the right-most group, led by Ben Collins. Another group formed to the left led by Cameron Dye and Matt Reed. When I saw our group was losing I ditched Ben’s group and swam across the gap to the left group. I ended up at the back of the front swim pack and stayed there the rest of the time, exiting the water 21 seconds behind the leader. I passed a few guys in transition – this should have been a good thing, but instead I just found myself with a sizable gap of 10 to 15 seconds that I had to close down by myself. It became clear pretty quick that I wasn’t going to be able to close the gap down myself. My only hope at this point was Ben Collins, who was right ahead of me as I got on my bike. I thought, “He’s a strong biker! If only he would help me get up there!” Right as I thought that he pulled over to the side of the road and dropped out of the race. So, like so many races, I found myself all alone losing massive amounts of time to a big group ahead and fell back over 90 seconds to the next pack.
On the swim pontoon before the start.
Diving in.
In the meantime Matt Reed and Matt Chrabot were killing it at the front of the race. The second pack lost almost two minutes to these two. My group ended about 90 seconds down on the second pack and 3.5 minutes down on the two Matts. Per usual, my run was the only thing that saved me. I had the fifth fastest run of the day! I finished up in eighth place.
Matt Reed and Matt Chrabot destroying everyone on the bike.
Finally about to put on my running shoes.
Matt Reed won. He’s pretty much a badass.
Bracy, Emilie, my Mom, Madeleine. The sweet pics are courtesy of my Mom who flew out to watch me race! Thanks Mom!
Madeleine being silly.