A lesson in humility

As you know this past weekend I was fortunate enough to get to race with the best young triathletes in the nation. I have been competing in triathlon for about 2 years now but I have yet to compete against such a group of competitors. It was evident after arriving at the site of the race Friday morning that this was no Virginia Tri Series Event. The athleticism that surrounded us was amazing. You could feel the excitement and the nerves in the athletes as they embarked on their pre-race workouts, shaking out the nerves and the cobwebs. After being at the race site for approximately 2 hours, picking up my race numbers, going to meetings for the Mid Atlantic conference, and getting in a swim in the ice cold Black Warrior River, Evan and I decided it would be best to stick to the cool air conditioned car to scope out the bike course and then head back to the room for dinner before we psyched ourselves out by over analyzing. That night we met my family for dinner and in typical Greg fashion, had quite the delicious feast with good conversation. Heading back to the hotel room I watched a few youtube videos before nodding off to sleep.

The alarm came early the day of the race. 5:15 never feels as early though when you are about to compete so Evan and I both jumped out of bed. My nerves were quite apparent as my hands begin to shake with everything I do when I get nervous. We got to the race course at around 6:10, thinking wed have plenty of time to check in our bikes before the race. HA, wrong. The line to get the bikes into the transition was awful. The worst thing about this was I knew it would be critical to get the bike into the transition area in enough time to get in the water before the swim wave went off or I would not have time to acclimitize to the water. Fortunately after waiting for nearly an hour we got into the transition area at about 6:55 (swim w/up was from 7-7:20)

After quickly setting up my transition area I ran over to the area to put on my wet suit. Like a dumb ass I brought my backpack so after taking my wetsuit and goggles out I had to sprint back over to the tent area to throw my stuff under a random tent since the W&M club is not funded at all as of yet, something we will be working on. Running back I put on my wetsuit and got in water. With my mind on the race the 59 degree water did not feel nearly as bad as it had the past day. After realizing that I may actually make it through the swim (thanks Bert so much for the wetsuit!) I got out and congregated with the athletes of the first wave. After being called we made our way down the dock the camera in our face, the athletes from all the schools screaming loudly. I jumped up and down a few times to help relax myself and keep myself calm. Jumping in the water I was focused and successful in creating my own place, serene and with only my thoughts before the horn went off.

The beginning of the race was a RUDE awakening. I surged forward off the dock and was nailed in the junk by a swimmer in front of me. Arms flew like clubs as we battled to get off the crowded wall. Trying not to panic I tried to find a hole and get in it. Having to resort to doggie paddle to get the river out of my mouth I finally was able to stretch out and begin my swim. As the swim went on I surged from group to group, this is proof to me that I am probably better than the time I swam. About 150m from the end the 2nd wave began catching me. One dick-wad decided it would be cool to hurdle me so after being dunked underneath him and through his legs I resurfaced. Fun. To bad I cant try to knock him off the bike gladiator style, maybe contact should be instituted as part of the bike leg. Getting out of the water in 23:45 I remembered my plan to really put the hurt on people in the transition. Unfortunately my plan to run hard to my bike was not about to happen. I thought for sure I was going to vomit as I ran to my bike, whydoidothistomyself?!?!?!

I put my shoes on in the transition area this week instead of opting for the flying mount and ran to the bike start. Immediately I passed about 10 idiots struggling to get their shoes on. If you are good at putting your shoes on while on the bike Im sure it is faster, but most of you are not and should just take the 5 secs in transition instead of struggling for the first 5 miles of the bike. On the bike I caught a good number of dudes. 4 people got penalties for drafting off me. 1 was on a Trek Speed concept with a disc and two others were on cervelo p3's, HA, fearmyroadbikebitchzzzz. I am interested to know the damage I could do if I were on a TT bike and my goal is to try to find one. Such a mission is about as rough as any James Bond has ever encountered however because I only have about 200 bucks ilovebeinginkollege!

Getting off the bike it was running time. Time to hurt. At the beginning of the run 2 guys passed me. Jesus your kidding me right? I dont mean to sound cocky but I NEVER get passed on the run. They had to be going to hard right? Fortunately they were. My strongest asset is my understanding of my body and the pace that I can run. I dont know how but I have gotten incredibly good at finding a pace I can maintain and sticking to it. The first mile was uphill and i hit it in just under 6. The second was mostly uphill, 5:55 and by now I had caught the Oregon State guy who had passed me in addition to about 10 other people. The third mile 5:51, 10 more passed dudes. God I love being a runner. The next miles went by about the same as they flattened out, passing about 5-7 guys per mile, to bad I cant dunk guys as I pass them on the run ay? In mile 5 someone went by me pretty quickly wearing an orange Saucony loose jersey. I figured out after the race that he would go on to run one of the fastest spilts a 34 mid and was an ex-UF runner who now ran for Saucony. The last 200meters I saw a VERY familiar site of tech's Grayson Cobb. Grayson and I have been friends since this summer and were immediately bonded by your intense passion for competition. We have very similar overall times as he is stronger on the bike and the swim but my run balances me out. Catching him with about 100m left he surged ahead and cross the finish line 2 seconds infront of me. Crossing the line he collapsed and I felt like I was going to. The intense heat (approx 86 degrees) made the run extremely rough as we had not had heat like that all year.

My overall time 2:06. Going into the race I was hoping for top 20, I got 41st. That said I am NOT disappointed. I raced hard. The competition was unbelievable and a big eye-opener for me. I was able to beat many outstanding athletes and was humbled by 40 others. It is no secret that success in this sport is determined by perseverance and work ethic. We all have set-backs and good training periods. It is dealing with these and moving on that make us successful. This past weekend I learned ALOT. I need to work on my swimming. I also need to work on my biking and running...theres always a bigger fish in the sea, the question is how many? The answer that I discovered this weekend is alot. Good to know, back to the grind. Time to get faster.

Famous Last Words

So tomorrows the big day. Im nervous as hell, it would be a lie to say otherwise. Its unfortunate that it took till my final year of my undergraduate career to participate in this event, but better late than never right?

The drive was very long. Like 13 hours long. Thankfully my teamate, Evan Fulton's parents drove us while we got to chill out in the back of the roomie Chevy Tahoe. I owe them huge. We left yesterday at about 2 and drove till a little after 11, stopping at a hotel in Tennessee over night. We got here pretty early this morning, a little before 10, just in time for the open water swim. We walked down to the water and congregated with the masses, putting on their wetsuits and joking with one another before giving their wetsuits a try. JESUS CHRIST that water was cold. As soon as I jumped in I tried to swim a few strokes but I realized I couldn't breathe deep enough to get in a full stroke with my head underwater. Finally after paddling around and attempting to get warm I was able to begin to swim. The temperature will, without a doubt, serve as intense motivation to swim fast to get out of the water.

The transition area is a huge plus for runners. After exiting the swim its probably about a 400m run to the transition area. Time to dig back into the days of the track and pull out some quarter speed. This will definitely be a good place for me to make up some time on the faster swimmers.

After the swim Evan and I rode around a bit before going for a quick, and separate shake-out jog. The bike course seems like it will be pretty fast. There are some rolling hills that go on for maybe a mile or so. They appear fairly gradual but Im still banking on them working to my benefit to slow down the bigger, stronger riders on tt bikes (assholes and rich-boys =p). Not that im jealous because I can run and will look forward to smanging them in the run.

The beginning of the run looks brutal. The first 1.5 miles go uphill. It will be extremely important to drink on the bike, which I neglected to do last week, because the weather is really hot and humid here, especially compared to Williamsburg. The rest of the run is really flat though and goes out a bike path and then back down the road.

If you had told me back when I was 12 years old, that in 10 years I would be competing among some of the most fit college athletes in the country I would have called bullshit. I was the kid who would hide behind the fence and eat dominos during pre-season soccer runs. How much I have changed. Over the past couple of weeks alot of people have asked me what my goal is...to be honest, I dont know. Would I like to win? Sure. Do I have a chance to win? You bet. But none of that matters now. What does matter, is that in 12 hours I plan on laying it all on the line. Punishing my body and asking it to dig deeper than I ever have before. If I do this, then I will have succeeded. Then i will be satisfied.