It was exactly 365 days ago today when I won the 2007 Collegiate National Championship, and this past weekend marked the 2008 version of the event. So I was back up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with the University of Florida triathlon team to defend my national title.
I knew beforehand that the race was probably going to come down to a race between myself and Steven Sexton of University of California at Berkeley. Steven placed second at last year’s race. This year Steve was very much up for a re-match and put down an amazing swim/bike combination to cruise to victory. It was an exact reversal of last year’s result (I ended up in second).
As a small consolation I did win the undergraduate division (Steve is a doctoral student) and I tied for the fastest run split of the day. My run tied with Andrew Hodges of the University of Virginia (University of Florida Alumnus/my former training partner/the guy who taught me how to run).
This was my last time competing at the Collegiate National Champs as I graduate on May 2nd. In fact I’m going to have to cut this entry short so I can go study for finals or else I might be back again next year…