Tuesday, September 23, 2008

What a weekend!

I'm still on top of the world after having one of my best races ever this past Saturday

Me and Sarah Groff shared 3rd place honors
Me, Matty Reed, and Ol' Umpenour sporting the American flag


The race started with a swim in Lake Hagg, which was just barely over the wetsuit cutoff temp. So the water was cold! The horn blasted and we all dove off the pontoon into the freezing water. I immediately started getting sandwiched and bumped from both sides, so I was forced to drop back a little and slide over onto someone's feet. After rounding the second buoy I saw that I was at the back of the lead pack, just a few seconds down from the leaders. It was a great position to be in. I held my place to the swim exit, ran to my bike, and easily got into that lead bike group -- not counting the breakaway that Matt Reed and Matt Chrabot had started. While my pack was losing time to the 2 Matt's, I was still very content with our position, which was over a minute ahead of the pack behind us. Looking around I saw that I would most likely be battling it out with Mark Fretta, Joe Umpenour, Brian Fleischman, and Tim O'Donnel. All of a sudden I heard this screeching noise of metal on pavement. I looked over to see Fretta fly into a ditch on the side of the road. The tubular tire had somehow come off his rim, and he had gone careening off the road. We entered t2, and I was the 4th person from my pack out on the run. I immediately moved into 4th place overall behind Reed, Chrabot, and Umpenour. I held a constant distance behind Umpenour until the 3rd lap, when he began to pull away. I thought I was a lock for 4th, but Chrabot started struggling hard on the last lap, and I passed him with 1k to go, securing my podium finish. The adrenaline was pumping. This was one of my most memorable races in the sport.


Running onto the podium.


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