Collegiate Nationals in Clemson, SC

Last weekend I had the opportunity to compete in the USA collegiate nationals championships. It’s by far the biggest race I will compete in all year, and it’s the main one that every collegiate triathlete trains for. This was the most competitive race that I’ve ever been a part of, and it was tons of fun.

The venue was awesome

We left Tempe for Clemson on Wednesday Morning. After a quick swim I headed to the airport. We had already checked our bikes with Raceday Transport (clutch), so we didn’t worry about having to fly with them. Since we flew southwest, we got to check two free bags (also clutch). We arrived in Atlanta, and went for a quick run around the woods with the team. I felt pretty sluggish, but at the same time I knew I would adapt to the humid environment eventually. We finished up the evening playing some basketball at a local park. It was nice just to relax and do something non-triathlon related for a while.

That night, we finished editing our Jaybird Journey to Nationals Video. Obviously, we won the $2,500 in free Jaybird swag for the second consecutive year by a landslide.

 

Clearly the best video out there

After a quick run on Thursday morning we left Georgia for Clemson. We found ourselves stuck in a major traffic jam. Our van moved a total of 0 inches for well over 2 hours. We got out of the van to investigate, and found out that a truck had flipped, and was blocking the entire highway (including the shoulders) so no cars could go around. After what seemed like an eternity, we were finally on our way.

Once we arrived in Clemson, we attempted to check into our hotel. Unfortunately, they had lost our reservations, and we were forced to head to a different hotel further away from the race sight. This was less than ideal, but we didn’t really have a choice. We got an easy ride and swim at the beach in later on in the evening. Shout out to my parents for going food shopping and leaving a ton of food for me at the hotel. That was awesome.

Friday, my teammates Oscar and Paul were racing the draft legal, as was Steve. The race was fast, but two guys solo’d off the front for the entire bike, and some guy ran a sub 15:00 5k to take the win. Later on, we went for easy workouts and hung out, eating food. We went to a really good spaghetti place in downtown Clemson, and enjoyed a nice dinner.

Jason West absolutely crushed the run

RACE DAY

I woke up just before 5 and it was raining outside, which would make for interesting conditions on the bike. I had oatmeal for breakfast, because hotel rooms don’t come with rice cookers. We left for the race at 5:45. When we arrived, there was already a massive line to get into transition, and Raceday transport hadn’t showed up yet (they didn’t get there until 6:30) to let us get our bikes and check them into transition. A lot of people were panicking, and I did my best to stay calm and control what I could control. I got everything else ready, and once they did open up the RD transport, I got my bike, and then got into line for transition.

The weather wasn't quite this nice on race day :)

SETTING UP TRANSITION

Normally I wouldn’t make a section for this, but I had to say something about the bike next to mine. It was a Dimond. For those who are unaware, it looks like this, and it is crazy fast and awesome. I ran into my brother and David at the swim start, and after a few delays, we headed into the water to warm up.

Yeah, transition was a little awkward

My bike was looking good, too (Thanks Andre)

SWIM

As always, the race started with a sprint for position. I purposefully started myself behind the first line of guys in order to avoid the mash pit for the first 500 yards. I'm not even close to fast enough to keep up with the lead pack, so I tried to play it smart and minimize my loss. I went out pretty hard even though I wasn’t really trying to. I found myself in the third group, which was pretty good for me given the skill level of some of these swimmers. There was more physical contact and curse words than a normal race, but that’s to be expected when around a ton of college kids probably. I got out of the water in great position for me, right behind David from CSU. My swim has improved, but it still needs some work if I want to get out with the really fast bikers. The transition started down at the water, and included a huge run all the way up a hill to get to our bikes. Once I got my helmet on, I put on my sunglasses. The lenses were fogged up and blurry from the rain, so I decided not to wear them for the race.

Heading out of the water

BIKE

The bike course started with a pretty big hill. I used it to set the tone, and passed a few people on it. My goal for the bike was to keep David in sight. He is a strong biker, and if I could stay with him, I knew I would have a chance at doing well. I took too long to get my shoes in, but luckily he wears a bright orange helmet, so he was easy to spot. Once we got on the course, I made a few more passes, and then joined in with a group and we began pushing the pace.

I felt good, and did my best to use the uphill sections to my advantage. It was pouring rain, and so intense. The bike course was pretty narrow; since they only gave us one lane on the highway (1 lane – 600 dudes trying to go fast on bikes...). I took the U turns slow, because I figured if I crash that’s not going to help me at all. I felt strong on the bike, especially after taking a few days easier before racing this time. The course had a ton of rolling hills, and I really enjoyed it despite the rain. I got off the bike about 45 seconds behind David, and knew that I had just pulled off a great bike for me.

Posting this picture is probably illegal, but whatever.

Special thanks to the ASU cycling team – this wouldn’t have been possible without people to ride with and push me, and the road racing has helped me tons. Thanks again to Alec for the TT bike and Andre for the race wheels.

After seeing a few people do it at Havasu, I wanted to go under 1 hour on the bike portion of a race. I came super close, and just barely missed it by about 15 seconds. I am still happy with how much my bike has improved. There will always be another race, and bike times are so dependent on the course and conditions that it’s mostly just an ego boost to go sub 1:00. Nonetheless, it would still be pretty cool to beat that time.

RUN

After a brief detour down the “bike out” (whoops) I headed down to the main road and saw some of the leaders heading the opposite direction. I knew I would need to run faster than I did at Marquee, and I felt a lot better coming off the bike, so I settled into a (un)comfortable pace that I was confident I could negative split. I saw all the leaders, including Steve. We were wearing matching EMJ visors (I’m not sponsored by them though) and I said “sick visor bro”. We ended up crossing paths quite a bit, and the course was cool because it snaked a lot and you could see the people you were trying to chase down, and also see the people chasing you down. There was also a hill in the middle – which is very uncommon for triathlon run courses to have. I knew that a lot of people would be dying on the hill, so I did my best to maintain my pace all the way through the top.

The finishing stretch

With 1 mile to go, I was caught by a person who I passed late in the bike. He had been chasing me all run. I let him go ahead, but stayed right behind him, with the plan of sprinting by him for glory at the finish. We were going pretty fast, so I knew if I went out early I would die and he would pass me. I went way too early, died, and he passed me about 30 seconds from the finish. I came down the finishing shoot and tried to enjoy the moment. It was a race atmosphere I will certainly never forget. It’s really cool seeing all the school pride, and to top it off, my parents go to watch me go head to head (ok maybe not that close) with my brother the entire race. It was so cool representing ASU and I felt like I left it all out on the course. I had a good run, and finished the collegiate season strong.

The run course was very crowded

ANALYSIS

Before the race, my brother Steve, who has made the podium twice at this race (2013, 14) tried to tell me how competitive it was going to be. I figured “duh, every race is competitive – it’s a race”. What I didn’t realize is that in this race, every second matters. If I were one (1.00) second slower, I would have placed 95 instead of 94. The person who got 88^th was just 25 seconds faster than me. The fact that these ridiculously close times are over a 2-hour race shows just how competitive and awesome this race is.

There were a lot of people finishing with similar times - every second counts (I'm 2:04:47)

Here is a link to the full results for the Olympic distance race.

After a race this close and intense, it’s hard not to wonder “what if ___________”. Some of the thoughts going through my mind while overanalyzing splits include, but are not limited to:

·      “What if I had ran faster in transition?”

·      “What if I had gone harder into that U turn on the bike/run course?”

·      “What if I had sprinted for the finish at the end of the race?”

·      “What if I hadn’t even tried to put on my sunglasses in transition?

·      “What if I shaved my arms too? – Those dudes at specialized say it saves like 30 seconds!

Post race pic with Steve

All said and done, I had a good race and also had tons of fun competing against these incredible athletes. Our men’s team had a great showing, placing 12^th out of 120 teams. Unfortunately, our women’s team didn’t have enough athletes to qualify for the team competition. We had 4 men in the top 100 and one in the top 20, which is a great showing, especially when you consider that we only had 7 racing.

It was raining in Clemson, so we never got a team picture :(

You can check out the official highlight video of nationals right here.

WHATS NEXT?

Next up are some local races in Bend, then hopefully Lake Stevens 70.3 in August. I’m looking forward to the new environment in Bend and escaping the heat while taking in some beautiful scenery.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!