"You don't need good luck...you just don't need bad luck" -Sherpa
This was told to me by my friend Sherpa from Davis Wheelworks after my last race in New Orleans. It is something that has helped to continue to motivate me through what has been two of the most difficult races I have faced in my young triathlon career.
My 70.3 world championships qualifying season started with Oceanside 70.3 I was extremely excited to race this event after doing very well there last year in what was my first ever half ironman distance race. I felt very prepared to have a better result than I did in 2010 and was looking forward to doing my first half ironman of the season; and get some 70.3 points in the process. I won't necessarily go into too many details about this race but I ended up getting 2oth place after a flat tire took me out of the lead group of cyclists at mile 40. One good thing I can take away from this race; my half marathon split ranked in the top 10...I might be learning how to run after all!
My second 70.3 of the season was scheduled to be New Orleans 70.3. While I raced in New Orleans I didn't exactly do a 70.3. My second run of "bad luck" in a row resulted in a canceled swim the morning of the race.
(I will go on a short rant here because I truly believe that canceling a swim in the conditions that were present on race day morning for the professional field was extremely unprofessional by the race organization. As a professional athlete I have swam in some pretty bad swimming conditions and the wind created chop that was present on the lake race day morning would not have even ranked in the top 5 of my hardest swimming conditions. Many professional triathletes are competing as their means to make a living, some are competing for valuable points (myself included), and to not be prepared to host a swim in those conditions is embarrassing for the organization)...end rant
I went through a wide spectrum of emotions on race day morning in New Orleans. After talking with my coach we decided not to race, then we decided to do the race but as a planned workout with intervals, and then after passing some athletes while warming up on the bike for the first 10 miles I decided I should probably just race it. I ended up finishing 10th overall with the 6th fastest bike split and another top 10 run split. (I still think it would have been a much different race if there was a swim...especially with that obviously being my strongest leg)
I know that "bad luck" can happen in races. There are things in the sport of triathlon that are going to continue to occur that are completely out of my control. I am happy with how I was able to deal with some of these new challenges and hopefully I can take away the valuable experiences. In what I hope to be a long career as a professional triathlete I can be guarantee that this will not be my only run of obstacles...Bring on St. Anthony's!!!
