So this is obviously my race report of the Twenty-12 Talent ID race that took place yesterday (April 18th). I had a good taper week and came into the race with my legs feeling fresh and ready to fire. I got to the race site at about 11:30 AM (i know your all jealous that i got to wake up nice and late for a tri), and hung out in the hospitality tent for a long time, because Collegiate Nationals was still going on. The race course (Buffalo Springs Lake in Lubbock, Texas) was probably one of the most challenging race courses I've ever raced on. I got my transition ready (it was a nice looking transition with a nicely padded red carpet covering the entire area--no rocky area!). Everything was set in place and i was good to go. I had a gu with some water and walked over to the lake with all the other competitors (41 males).
The water was FREEZING. In the morning it was 53 degrees, but luckily it "warmed up" to a still chilly 57 degrees. We all started our warm up swim and I practiced some running into the water off of the mats on the beach. All of us got announced to the line and I took my place. The announcer called us to the line and blew the airhorn. I sprinted in, but still got stuck in the back of the pack for the first 30 seconds or so. This was a very very rough swim start, but i used my agressive personality to get past the slow pack. Worked hard for the rest of the swim against the unexpectedly rough swells in the LAKE (the winds were that bad). Finished at the head of the middle pack, which wasnt unexpected because i'm not the strongest swimmer. Had a very fast T1 and hopped on the bike.
I knew that I was going to have an edge on the strong swimmers because i'm a pretty good cyclist. There was a climb right out of transition, and right there i caught 3 guys right away. I caught up to a pack of two guys and hung with them for a bit, and the winds once I got out of the hills were brutal. I've heard stories about the winds in hawaii, and they cant be MUCH worse than these. I was on a road bike and i was getting blown across the roads pretty badly. But since this is ITU-style, there was 3 loops, so the winds would carry me down the hill after the wind. I hit 52.5 mph down one of the hills (new PR!). Broke away from that pack and worked on catching another. Only caught up to 1 guy, and we worked together for a decent amount of time. On the windy flat a guy caught up to us and we hung on to his tail. We all finished within 10 seconds of eachother on the bike, me being in the middle of the 3 man pack.
Had a 20 second transition (also a new PR) to the run.
At this point i was feeling VERY confident about this race. I knew that I couldnt get 1st place overall because there were some legit professionals in this race (Mark Van Akkeren won overall if anyone knows him), but I couldve possibly won the 22 and under division. Started the run feeling GREAT (and running is my big strength), because i knew that i was probably one of the best runners out on the course. My legs didnt even feel like i had just biked as hard as i did, so i was looking to really hammer the competition at this point. I started passing people about 2 minutes in and as this was happening, i got a side stitch out of nowhere. It couldnt have been that I was working too hard because i had trained at this intensity many points during my training. This side stitch was by far the most brutal i've ever experienced. I worked hard to massage it out, but eventually my body couldnt take it and i started to puke from the pain (not too much though). I stretched it out and tried but couldnt run any more. I grimmaced to the finish line with a mix of walking, stopping, and incredibly slow running. I made a last effort sprint to the finish, but the stitch stopped me in my tracks and i walked across the line, but i did finish at least.
Overall it was a great experience because the whole draft-legal style of racing is exhillarating, but i wouldve loved to see what i could have thrown down in the 5k if Iwere healthy. Talking with my coach, we think that I probably got the stitch because of all the water that I swallowed during the choppy lake swim. Sorry for writing so much, but I just wanted to put it all out there.
Just from seeing my fitness in this race (at least in the swim/bike), I'm going to be looking for some serious results this race season (possibly some 1st place overall finishes). thanks to everyone who had the patience to read everything!