Collegiate Nationals

The first time I ever watched a Triathlon was in Tempe, when Steve took 5th at Collegiate Nationals. It was pretty inspiring to see all of the school spirit out on the course, and everyone seemed to be having a fun time. After spending freshman year partying and doing stupid stuff, I decided to do triathlons as well. One of the most appealing aspects of triathlon is that nobody can take you out of the game. It's impossible to get benched, and for the most part, you have control over how you do in the race, or at least your effort level.

Steve with Mom and Dad after nationals in Tempe

Last year, I felt like I was strong and ready to go. If you want to see how that one ended up, click here. Short version: fainted on the run course, ended up in medical tent. Since USAT allows seniors who have already graduated in December, but taken a full load of courses to compete, I decided to give it another shot this year. Post graduation in December, I hung around Tempe for a while. After completely getting crushed by a job interview, I lost interest in working for a corporate company, and decided to seek employment in Fort Collins, Colorado. The training in FTC is far superior to Tempe, and being here has made all the difference.

These sunglasses are at the bottom of Lake Tuscaloosa :(

In the weeks leading into the race, I had my confidence wrecked a few times. There were some tempo efforts that felt much harder than they should have, I got dropped like a freaking rock twice from the same group ride in a 10 minute span, and I still could barely bilateral breath in the pool (lol). Once the dust settled, though, there was a lot of fitness gained, and going into Collegiate Nationals I was stoked to have the opportunity to race a deep field.

PC: Talbot Cox

After a disappointing swim at Havasu, and a talk with my coach Elliot, I knew that starting at the front was going to be crucial to avoiding problems. To make things more difficult, the lifeguard kept yelling at us to get back to the dock, and that we needed to be touching it, while an announcer with a megaphone told us to make 3 rows in the water. LOL. I took it out with a few hard strokes just to get going, but from there, just focused on form, siting properly, swimming as straight of a line as I could, and banking on my ROKA wetsuit to get me out in a decent amount of time... My body was working hard, even if it didn't feel that way (yet). After the first two turns, we ran into some sticks and debris, but still didn't make any contact with wildlife (alligators). The front pack was visible, about 1 minute up on us heading into transition. The gap to the first dude (Eli from Stanford) was around 2:15 - he lead out of the draft legal race the previous day as well. I ran into T1 breathing somewhat normally, very happy that I hadn't completely shredded my anaerobic system during the swim.

Started front right, as you can clearly tell from this picture.

Exiting the water with Sean Harrington - he can run real quick

Right out of transition, I saw EMJ Teammate Chris Douglas next to me. It was an absolute godsend - he is a beast on the bike, and had the fastest split last year. We both put on our shoes, and then proceeded to exercise at faster speeds than we swam at. We didn't really say much to each other, but we traded working at the front for the first lap pretty evenly, leaving at least two white lines between us (something like 20m but don't quote me on that). Getting my hands on some Enve wheels also made this ride so much more enjoyable!

Eating stem

I was stoked that Chris didn't try to drop me right away, because that would have sucked, and I would have ended up riding alone (like Havasu again). We caught some people fairly early in that I didn't expect to catch until the end like Spencer Ralston, a strong swimmer from St. Michaels and a member of team Foakley. I could see that we were actually really close to the front by the turnaround, which was really exciting. Dan, Nick, and Timmy were both working hard on the front with on the way back in on lap 1, we went by Timmy Winslow from CU, stopped on the side of the road. He had a rough day with a mechanical and a penalty for racking his bike the wrong way (#notmygoverningbody), but according to Strava, he had the least moving time on the bike segment of all of us. I'm sure he'll bounce back quickly and is motivated to crush souls at St. Anthony's next weekend.

Exerciseeeee

Chris came by me to start lap two, and we continued to put it down. I was struggling hard at this point, and almost got dropped. After 5 or so minutes, I dragged myself around him to do some more work, fully ready to surrender. Once we hit the far turnaround, we were even closer to catching the front group, with the exception of a UCSB's Gordon Williams (not to be confused with Flash Gordon) up the road. As the last few miles ticked on, we could now get a visual on the lead pack up the road. Then, for a glorious moment with about a mile left in the bike, I came upon a wild gazelle - Dan Feeney - and decided to go in front of him. Mostly just so that I could say that I came into T2 ahead of the national champ. Chris proceeded to pass hard around us just before the mount line to take the bike split prime by two seconds. Chris was an awesome riding partner for the bike, without using each other to push the pace when the other started slacking (though Chris never really slacked...), getting into the top 5 off the bike would have been much more difficult. Stalk that strava right here

totally put my race number belt on the wrong way - PC: Frosty

Dan, Nick, Chris, and this random drafting french dude dude BLITZED the first mile. Like seriously, they were all about 20 seconds up the road before I could even blink. Dan Came by me pretty early on and encouraged me by saying MCTC 1-2-3 - I know it's not what CU wanted (podium sweep) but I figured it would be pretty special if we could show everyone how stacked our conference is. Big shoutout to the ASU cheering squad about a mile into the run course playing Lil Jon! Sean Harrington was bringing the heat though, and closing in on us very quickly. After the far turnaround, I was still running in 3rd, and there were just over two miles to go. I passed Chris on the downhill, and could still see Dan and Nick up the road. There was a French guy from Liberty there, but he received a drafting penalty, so he doesn't get a shoutout because drafting is a big no-no. With about a mile to go, I could hear Sean breathing down my neck. He was cookin'. I merged into 4th place and did my best to keep him in sight. Once I could see the amphitheater it was home free, and that the pain would be over soon. Running through the crowd was so cool. Finishing on the podium at Nationals was a great way to say goodbye to Collegiate racing. Last years meltdown made this even more special.

Heading down the shoot - way too stoked PC: Kaela

This is long, but I figure it's worth it, since it's been a team effort...

ASU Tri teammates - Thanks for all the cheers out on the course for the last three years. It's been a blast watching the team grow, and I think there are some great things in store for the team in the near future. Our team probably had the most fun ever in our rental home. Seriously, it's not all about exercising together - there are other fun activities you can do too ;) Also, our president Julia for everything she has done for the team in the past year. It's not easy to take a club from no funding to one of the top sport clubs at ASU - she's great at keeping things fun, and I'm looking forward to watching the club continue to grow over the next few years.

Had to get some BBQ while we're in the south!

Check out our cribs video for the rental house here:

EMJ Teammates - Nick, you crushed it - all around class act, and super humble. Give him a follow on IG @itsafternoone - can't wait to see you bike sub 2 at Vic 70.3 ;)
Chris - rounding out the top 5, so awesome working with you on the bike and I'm looking forward to the next time we get to smash guts like that again. @chrisdouglastri
Conrad - Great swimming with you, and mad impressive bike run combo. So awesome seeing you cleanly get in the top 20 and break 2 on a tough course. @everymanconrad
Mark - Rough day with a penalty, but mad respect for doing the dirty double and still working hard to the finish. Looking forward to doing more exercising contests with you @mark.kolding - also, follow @wattslayer69 if you don't already. Great account.

Remember - you can save 25% on all Every Man Jack AND OWN Beauty Products (the woman's version) - by using the code EMANTELL17 at checkout. #cleanupnice

Dan's penalty for racking his bike "incorrectly" dropped him from 1st to 5th. But we all know who won... This is why it says 3rd on here, but it's really 4th.

National champ Nick Noone!

Competitors
Spencer Ralston - you helped carry a dude across the finish line, that's dope.
Dan Feeney - You won that race and everyone knows it. Congratulations on being a two time national champion. #notmygoverningbody - read his blog here...
Timmy Winslow - Tough break with the mechanical and penalty, but at least money wasn't on the line like it will be at St. Anthony's! Everyone saw you up at the front mashing watts.
Sean Harrington - Congratulations on an amazing race! You absolutely deserved that podium spot, and easily had the best post race attire.
Josh Fowler - Awesome work out there, way to battle through two days and congrats on the draft legal podium

picture break

Support network
Elliot Bassett - it's been a great past 4 months working with you, and I am looking forward to many more! Get in contact with Elliot by clicking here!
Steve - Dude, thanks for everything.
Mom and Dad - Also thanks for the non-financial assistance, and loving me even when I pass out during the race :)
Alison - thanks for keeping my priorities straight, and congrats on the new job!!
CSU Coaches Frosty/Mace, UA Tricat Coaches Jimmy and Doug, and CU coaches - Thanks for the splits out on the course and the encouragement. You guys know what to say and when to say it, and that's probably why your teams are very fast...

Last but not least, I'd like to give a shoutout to peanut butter for always being there for me, even when I'm tired and crabby. Luv U. Up next is Pelicon Fest Tri in Windsor (EMJ CO dudes should definitely do this plz lets have some fun eh!) before heading to CDA 70.3 in June.

Havasu + Move to Colorado!

February and March have been a few pretty awesome months! Quite a bit has happened, including a camp, a race, and a move. Just a few weeks after Tritonman, fellow EMJ Teammate Conrad Sanders and I drove up to Las Vegas for Team EMJ camp. It was 110% first class.

Highlights of camp in list form so that you can truly appreciate how epic it was:
- Staying in the Las Vegas Mini Castles (Connor McGregor rents them when he's in Vegas)
- Bathrooms stocked with EMJ Products - save 25% using the code EMANTELL17 at checkout! go to everymanjack.com
- Riding red rocks, 70.3 silverman course, running to Arizona, swimming at Henderson Multigen pool (in our matching kits/roka suits)
- Meeting everyone on the team - so many people from all over the country (and Canada) came out, and everyone was very welcoming - just an all around great group of guys!
- Food - Donna Trauger is amazing, kept us full even in the toughest of times! And breakfast burritos at the pool were clutch
- How organized and smooth everything was (S/O Ritch and everyone who helped with that)
- Saturday night party bus to the strip
- Getting the gear from Every Man Jack, Garneau, Roka, Sockguy, Lululemon, BoCo, GU - made me feel like the division 1 athlete that I never was ;)
- Pictures by Talbot Cox! And videos too... Seriously, just watch these videos and then you'll get an idea of how much fun we had :)

Check out his instagram here

After an awesome weekend in Vegas, we headed back to Arizona. Since I can't seem to stay away from Tucson, I made trips down there every weekend, including an 8 day camp over spring break where I crashed on Conrads' couch. It was great to say goodbye to Mt. Lemmon (for now), ride the shootout a few times, and just enjoy the Dirty T! While it may be a little bit ghetto, the bike infrastructure is significantly more built up than Phoenix, and the people are much more friendly towards cyclists.

With a lot of training done, it was time to head to Havasu for the MCTC Conference Championships. The field was very similar to Pumpkinman, with Dan Feeney, Nick Noone (EMJ), Timmy Winslow, Josh Fowler, and Conrad Sanders (EMJ) all in the mix. One of the nice parts about being in our conference (MCTC) is that it's relatively stacked. With the defending national champs CU in the mix, it's hard to not get excited.

I packed the car the week before Havasu, in anticipation of not wanting to move for a few days after...

it was a good decision

The swim didn't get off to a smooth start. Originally, the plan was to line up front left, but a dock was definitely in the way of that, and swimming headfirst into a wood structure didn't seem very fun. Instead I lined up in the middle second row, right behind the CU train (Dan, Nick, Timmy), hoping to grab some feet. Probably the worst idea ever... If any of you were ever put into a washing machine by older siblings as a child, this is very similar to what it felt like being in the middle of 50 people trying to move their arms as fast as possible. Looking back, and after a talk with my coach Elliot, I have now realized that the second row is farther from the finish line than the first, therefore I should line up at the front in order to be closer to the finish line. Live and learn, and while I still probably would have gotten dropped hard like usual, I tell myself that with proper positioning at the start, the deficit would have been slightly less than 1 minute - it helps me sleep at night ;)

sucks that you can't use paddles in a race

After a not-so-smooth transition where I almost forgot to put on my shoes, I hopped on the bike. Dan, Nick, and Timmy had all come out of the water together, and were going to be working together to put a gap on the field. I knew that the time to catch them was limited, and that if I was going to catch them it needed to be quick. After trying to bridge up in the first neighborhood, they still held around a minute gap on me. By the far end turnaround, I realized that I was not going to catch them. The gap was around 1:20, and I was beginning to feel the effects of chasing for around 25 minutes. While my legs didn't feel great, I tried to remind myself that you don't need to feel good to go fast. After shedding a few tears, I tried to be as smooth and aero as possible heading back in to town. Some post race strava over-analysis shows that I actually made up 10-15 seconds there! Yay! Coming into transition, I could see them all running out together about 1:20-30 up. Even though it was a lonely ride, I'm still glad I went as hard as I did. No ragrets.

No race pics again, so I had to improvise

When they tell you that Nick and Timmy came out of the water with Dan and you realize you're screwed

After another meh transition, I headed out on to the deceivingly tough run course. The first mile involved zig zagging a wheelchair ramp and climbing up some stairs. I found my rhythm about a quarter of the way in I settled in, and started ticking off pretty well. The on-the-spot race plan was to build in to the run, and if I smelled blood to go for it. At the turnaround, there was no sign of any fading from the CU train. They were all pretty far ahead, and unless someone completely imploded there was no way I would catch any of them. I tried to pick up the pace for a little bit heading back in, but that effort was short lived. One of the highlights on the run course was when Conrad yelled SEND IT at me. I got pretty pumped up and almost started laughing actually. Watch this video to figure out why. At the end of the day, I realized that I could have probably gone a little bit faster if I had been focusing on myself as opposed to everyone in front of me.

Nevertheless, I still went hard, am happy with the result, and am fired up to race again at Collegiate Nationals in April! Hats off to Dan, Nick, and Timmy for showing everyone how to throw down. You guys crushed it.

After the race, we went to chipotle, froyo, and then froyo again. It was pretty lit. This week, my mom came down to Arizona to help with the move to Fort Collins, Colorado. It was a tough decision to leave Tempe during the spring, and I'll miss everyone there. But... To put it simply, Fort Collins is freaking awesome, and passing up the opportunity to move here would have been silly. If you have any questions about Colorado or want to come train here/experience unlimited froyo at TCBY in the summer hit me up, because exercising and eating are fun.

Hangin at Lynn's place aftter Havasu! She's the best

UCSD Tritonman

It's been a few weeks since UCSD Tritonman, but I wanted to have at least a few race photos to post with this blog. Unfortunately, only one picture has come up so far... This year, the race had to be held in January due to some issues getting permits, and the draft legal race was canceled. The race was a great way to get some faster exercising in after a bunch of long, slower exercising, that had taken place during the previous few weeks, in various locations (Minnesota, Tucson, Phx, ect.).

Olive Garden in Cali = expensive...

I could bore you with a lot of paragraphs, on what's happened over the past few months, but lists are easier to read (and write):
- Racing for Team EMJ this year! Use code EMANTELL17 for 25% off :)
- Would recommend the Citrus body scrub.
- Graduated college. Still working for ASU
- Snapped a fork on my bike
- New entire front end on the bike #dirtyfast
- Hired a coach (Elliot Bassett)
- Went home to Minnesota for winter break and road the trainer a lot (S/O Corey Nygaard)
- Drove the family mini van down from Colorado to AZ
- In Tempe for a day, then down to Tucson for 4 or 5 to #exercise at MCTC Training camp
- Back to Tempe for a few #moreexercise
- Back to Tucson for Bassett Training camp (learned to corner on a bike, embarrassed myself in the pool, ect.) #exercisingsomuch
- Back to Tempe
- Trying to find a somewhat real job...
- Swam a lot

biking in Minnesota

Tritonman was essentially a random test set in the middle of a bunch of exercise contest training. It is the first time I've ever actually raced head to head against a lot of the California schools other than last years draft legal race here, and man, those dudes are fast. Due to poor water quality in Mission Bay, the race was turned into a sprint duathlon (run-bike-run). No biggie - didn't really want to feel like I was getting choke slammed for 10 minutes anyways.

Race start (as you probably could tell without this caption)

Run 1: I knew that some kids were going to drop a 4:40 mile in the first run, then pay for it later in the race. Before it even began, I decided not to do anything crazy. I came through the 1 mile mark in 5:15ish, in ~30th position. In the back of my head, I knew that some of these kids were actually this fast (Sean Harrington can haul dude...) There were going to be 4.5 miles of total running, so I figured that destroying myself in the first mile would probably end up with me being really sad/full of regret during the bike and 2nd run.

Bike: After (t)rolling into transition, I took my sweet time getting my helmet on. The visor popped off immediately when I put it on, and fortunately I was ready with some #sicknasty jawbreakers to throw on and get going. Due to extreme winds (above 20mph), I knew that flying mounting wasn't necessary. I clunked over to the mount line, laughing at all the kids getting blown around while trying to velcro their shoes and combat the winds at the same time, and passed at least 10 kids within the first 5 minutes because I could actually ride my bike without worrying about losing my toes do to crashing without my feet in the shoes!

*****When nobody posts bike pics from the race****

Dealing with the headwind was interesting, and I used the first lap of the bike to try to pick out the best lines, and to test the puddle in the middle of the course. On the 2nd and 3rd laps, there were more athletes out on the bike course, and it was going to be important to make sure that I was in a safe position, not wasting extra energy spiking on passes. My legs didn't feel great, but that's kinda what I signed up for, right? As long as I could still go hard, that was the game plan. After about a lap and a half, someone told me I was in the lead. Most of the bike was spent with chewing stem and being as aero as possible. The main strategy I had was to push really hard in to the headwind, and then spin/get aero on the tailwind section. It worked pretty well, and I was please to get off the bike with over a 2 minute lead to the next guy. Unfortunately for Sean Harrington, he flatted while he was leaving the Island and had to run his bike all the way into transition, which cost him quite a bit of time. Jeremie Showa was also right with him I think, and he threw down a pretty nasty last 5k run!

Out on the 2nd run, I really had no idea what I was doing. There was a lead biker, which was super cool. I couldn't see anyone coming in off the bike, which made me happy. It's nice to have someone breathing down your throat and pushing you during a race, but at the same time, it takes a lot out of you when you have surges in pace, and it can be a much more depleting experience than necessary. Given that it's January, I'm not really looking to kill myself over a 5k during a sprint duathlon. During the first lap on the headwind section, I ran into Eric Lagerstrom and Magali Tisseyre. They gave a cheer, which was super cool. Eric usually does the draft legal race, and he makes some pretty gnarly videos that you should definitely check out. The 2nd lap I tried to push a little harder into the headwind, knowing that there was barely any running left, and that I wasn't going to bonk. On the 3rd lap, I hurt a lot, but tried to soak it in, thank the volunteers, pointers, and the lead biker. Coming down the chute, I was just happy that I didn't have to sprint, because there is a 100% chance I would have gotten dusted.

After the race, some teammates and I ran around cheering for people on all the teams. This is usually a lot of peoples first triathlon, and it's great to watch people get into it and just enjoy the experience! Later in the day, we went to Chipotle and got froyo. My two favorite things in the world. So that was #lit.

squad post race

Thanks to everyone who has helped get me through the cold winter months down here in Arizona, the ASU Triathlon Team (and all our sponsors) as well as Team EMJ (and all the sponsors). My family for helping me get through college,  Conrad Sanders (and Scott/Tyler too for that matter) for letting me crash on your couch randomly for 5 days in the middle of January, Elliot for the exercising workouts, everyone I've trained with, and anyone I've convinced to get froyo with then proceeded to silently sit there cross eyed because I'm smashed.

Cheers!

Here are some pics of... Life! Enjoy

Pumpkinman

Pre race lead up:

This past week has been pretty crazy. My homie Jesse Thomas had to drop out of the Island House Triathlon last minute, but since I interned for Picky Bars two summers ago he thought it might be a good experience for me to go down and learn about how the Island House is operated! Just kidding. School this semester has focused heavily on group projects, and I've steadily been using Picky Bars as my company to analyze for the past few years. As the ancient Chinese proverb says - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Interview with Bob!

Pic. from summer 2015 #inbend

I applied that same concept to my training leading into Pumpkinman as well. With a solid amount of fitness built up over the course of the spring and summer, it wasn't really feasible to make any crazy gains in the month following Tempe Tri. I just wanted to back up solid performances at AG Nationals and Tempe with another good race at Pumpkinman. The competition was going to be stiff with CU there, and I knew that it would likely come down to a foot race. My main focus in training was on getting in plenty of volume and varying the intensity across all three sports. I didn't do any epic weeks, my main goal was to just have my training be as consistent as possible. Training in a fatigued state has proved to be very beneficial for me. I tried to keep my volume at the upper end of sustainable, and take easy days only as needed. It's a bold approach, but I found that when hitting a ton of different intensities my body was able to respond and learned to recover quickly.

The week of the race was actually pretty nerve wracking. I was scared that I was over trained, my legs didn't feel awesome by any means. But then I remembered that nobody feels good during rest, so I just accepted that whether or not I felt good during the race my legs would still have what they needed to do in them, vs. not resting enough and feeling good, but having no strength at all. I also want to give a shout out to Nancy Dickinson and Max Jones who live in Boulder City. They let Andrew, Erin and I crash at their couch on Thursday night which saved a lot of stress. We were able to get all workouts done by noon on Friday, which is a major stress reliever for any athlete on the day before a race. My brother Steve was also coaching CSU for the weekend, so we swam together in Lake Mead the day before the race. I'm just glad he didn't wear his Maverick X, because I would have probably gotten dropped really bad. We got some food, relaxed, and welcomed the 30+ members of our team to the Hoover Dam lodge. Erin (former prez) saved the day MULTIPLE times during this past weekend, and I can't thank her enough for everything she's done over the past year that helped this team grow.

Boulder Beach

Race morning we biked down to the site in the dark. It was really, really sketchy, but everyone made it alive. We set up T1 and did our team chant. It was super loud, and the first time I've ever actually gotten pumped up from one of those. It's like there is a switch that happens when you go from having 15 to 30 people on your team. Suddenly everything is louder, cooler, and more purposeful.

Big squad pre race

Swim

I lined up on the right side, just behind Dan Feeney, mentally preparing for the shitstorm that was about to unfold. I figured that I wouldn't have the top end speed to hang with him and Dmitry to start, but might be able to hold on to some feet and get out of the water near the front. I made it to the first buoy towards the front end, before somehow getting kidnapped by a the bremuda triangle. I found myself 50 yards to the right of the buoys (and everyone else in the race), and had no idea how I got there. I tried to get back on track, but it was hard. Thankfully, my Maverick pro did it's job, and I managed to exit the water within 30 seconds of Timmy Winslow and Nick Noone - two key cyclists that I knew I couldn't let get away. We were about 1:40 down on Dmitry and Dan, which meant that there would be some serious chasing.

Bike

I felt pretty crappy initially, but my legs were definitely there. For whatever reason, my front brake would rub every time I went out of the saddle, so I unclipped and stopped to adjust the brake slightly on the hill out of T1. I was just thankful that it didn't rub for the entire rest of the race after that. Thank you based god. Once out on the main road, the watts went up on my main garmin screen and I tried to hold anywhere from 320+ and make up the time as steadily as possible. I caught Dmitry just before the turnaround, and had Dan, Nick, and Timmy about 15 seconds up the road. It took me another 15 minutes before I finally pulled them back in. After legally sitting at the back of the train and watching my watts still drop to like 250, I got mad and decided that I didn't want to play legal drafting games. Being at the front, especially on the hill, would mean that I would get to set whatever pace I wanted, and hopefully drop them.

Throwback pic - no bike pics from race :(

I put in a 4 minute surge, but nobody got dropped. At this point I decided to just ignore the group and go my own pace. I settled in, and tried to keep the power as smooth as possible, even using the little ring occasionally ;). the hill went by pretty quickly, and was spent mostly not in aero. Occasionally I would peak back, hoping that they had popped off the back, but all of them were spaced out cleanly. Even though there were no draft marshals out on the course, I was glad to see that everyone road cleanly here. By the end of the ride we had ridden a lot of time into everyone else. Coming into T2 first is pretty cool, but I almost crashed when trying to dismount and pause my garmin (#strava) at the same time. STRAVA LINK HERE

New stem w/ negative drop ;)

The entire bike leg didn't feel great, but my power didn't fade, I kept on top of my nutrition (2 bottles + gel), and was able to lead for the entire last half after bridging up. The only thing that could make it better would be a great run. I reminded myself to stay calm, and that 99% of run workouts start out feeling like S&%T then progressively get better.

Run

After getting passed by Nick and Timmy in T2, I came out with a 5-10 second lead on Dan. Would that be enough? Within the first mile, he passed me. My gps wasn't working, and I had no idea how fast we were moving. Nick and Timmy were running pretty good, and I felt like I was working harder than I should be at this point, given that the entire back half of the run is a false flat uphill.

When we got to the turnaround, Nick was about 10 seconds up the road, and Dan was ~20. Staying calm was difficult. The whole way down my gps wasn't working, I didn't have any idea how fast we had run it, and I wasn't sure how fast I could run back uphill. My legs didn't feel any worse, so I just went with it and started trying to reel Nick and Dan back in. I caught Nick after a few minutes on a relatively steep hill. At this point, I wanted to stop racing. 2nd to Dan Feeney is a good race, especially with this margin. Teammates in ASU kits (which look FRE$H) saw what was unfolding and began screaming at me to catch him. It was a super unique experience, because this was one of the first times I was actually conscious at this point of a race and had a carrot to chase.

I didn't think I was going to catch Dan until a downhill with about a mile to go, and then I pulled up beside him. Mentally, I was cooked, trying to figure out how I even ended up in this situation. I managed to drop him on the downhill, with Steve at the bottom cheering for me. On the uphill into the finishing chute I tried to sprint because I thought Dan was right behind me but my legs were jello. I checked the time and had just split a 17:10 back from the turnaround, which I was really stoked about. Dan crossed a few seconds later, with Nick and Timmy following shortly thereafter. Dan had an injury that prevented him from doing any running until about three weeks ago, so there is a major **** next to this result. Last year he crushed the course record, running a 32:56 10k in the process... This year he ran a 34:09, so I'm sure that at full run fitness Dan would have crushed me. Nevertheless, a race is a race, and we both raced hard. We all do triathlon to get the most out of our bodies, and competition is one way of doing that. Nick, Dan, Timmy, and everyone else on the course really motivated me to get the most out of these few hours, and that means more to me than any result.

Tired.

After the race, I ran around, cheering on teammates, hung out with Steve, and took some gopro pictures. It was very satisfying to have a solid year of training result in a great swim bike run performance. I owe massive thanks to:

My family: They put up with me, and have been very supportive of me when it comes to sports. This doesn't mean that they buy any of my equipment or fund everything I do, but it does mean that they are willing to listen when I'm frustrated with something and suggest ideas. Steve has been an important training partner, and getting that Estes Park 1-2 on Strava means more to me than any race result. He works really hard, and has shown me that if you can find out what works well for you, and it's sustainable, you'll get better at sports.

ASU Triathlon: Even though I only talk about sports, having people who care about other things in their life is crucial, and helps put everything into perspective. It's going to be amazing to watch the team grow even more over these next few years!
Team sponsors: TriScottsdale, One Multisport, Yoga Nirvana, Trainerroad, DK, Roka, Rudy, Kind Snacks

The NoCo tri community: I'm looking forward to ripping it around FoCo with you guys again soon!

Rocky Mtn. Multisport: Patrick is the man! you don't need a superbike with ceramic speed to go fast. Just get a Cervelo P2, a wahoo kickr, and you're good to go.

Nancy and Max: Congrats on your engagement! Thank you guys so much for letting me crash at your house. Running the hills on the course before the race really made a difference on race day, and I hope that Luke is feeling better.

Everyone who has coached me this year: Mace, Eric, JT, Tess, Danny, and Malcolm - I question everything you guys make us do because I care. Having your support as mentors makes a big difference and I am a firm believer that it's our consistent, smart training and racing over time that resulted in some great improvements across the board. There is certainly tons of room for improvement and I'm excited to see what we can make progress on in years to come.

What's next:

After the Island house tri this weekend (again, just kidding), I'm going to take some time to chill out. This part of the year is pretty school dense, and it's not important for me to be in amazing shape. That doesn't mean i'll be getting slurpees from 7-11 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day and neglecting all types of exercise, but I will not be posting on strava, using a garmin, or pace clock for a while.

After graduation, I have several options living options: The first being living in a friend's living room (for sure could be fun), the second would be finding a roommate here in AZ to let me pay rent, and the third would be to move into Steve's house in Fort Collins with a bunch of other tri geeks. I'm planning on racing Havasu and Collegiate Nationals in April no matter what (I took 12 credits this semester literally just for this reason). Hopefully I've managed to earn a wave 1 spot for this year... My plan for the next few years is to continue focusing on the olympic distance. I have a lot of room for improvement in my swim, bike, and run (and transitions), and will looking to just keep getting better next year!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Cheers

peace out girlscout