There was one race this season that I was particularly looking forward to and gearing my training towards: the USA Triathlon National Championship in Portland, Oregon. The race took place on June 30th. I had hoped of placing in the top twenty of my age group and qualifying for the Triathlon World Championship in Hamburg, Germany. Unfortunately the race did not go as well as planned and I finished second to last in a time of 2:39:33. This time was 31 minutes slower than my goal and 9 minutes slower than my first Olympic distance triathlon in 2005!
I was a little slower on the swim than I wanted, but still had a reasonable time to meet my goal. The bike went pretty well, but on the run I fell apart. It was all that I could do just to finish the race. This was particularly frustrating since my run background usually means that I make up a lot of time on the run, not fade to a slow trot. There may have been a number of factors that influenced this poor performance (such as a tough schedule in the travel days leading to the race), but I do not think it is an excuse. I was not mentally prepared for the challenging race course.
Regardless of my performance, I enjoyed the experience. It was an amazingly beautiful and well laid out race course. Not making my season goal is truly frustrating (particularly since it was missed by a huge margin), but I only look forward to the next three races of the season. They cannot all go well. I am just happy that this sour taste will not be the end of this year’s season.
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