The experience of a LIFETIME

As most of you know, this past weekend I competed in the biggest completion of my life, the Duathlon World Championships in Edinburgh Scotland as a member of Team USA. A year ago when I begun the sport of triathlon I did so for the same reason everyone else does, to push myself and test some new waters (hahaha). Okay, that was a bad one, but you’ll just have to live with it. Anyway, a year later I found myself toeing the starting line in Holyrood Park at the biggest Duathlon competition that one can compete in. Before I recount my tale I feel as though I need to say HOLY SHIT I AM SO INCREDIBLY BLESSED IN SO MANY WAYS IT IS UNBELIEVABLE. Alright, now that’s said let us move on.
All of my life I have loved to compete. For me, there is no greater satisfaction then testing my limits and seeing how far I can push myself. Let us go back to the lima bean bet of my younger years. One day at dinner as I refused to eat my lima beans my dad bet me 20 bucks I couldn’t eat 3 spoons of lima beans. We made the bet but I told him I would do it in a few days before I had eaten supper. That night he came home with the LARGEST spoon you have ever seen in your life. I HATE lima beans, they are the most repulsive food known to man (and I am NOT picky, just yesterday I ate Haggis and LIKED it, and for those of you that don’t know, Haggis is sheeps stomach stuffed with organs). After choking down the beans I went up to my room with my 20 dollars sick out of my mind, but oddly satisfied with myself for rising to the challenge. A love for competition or possibly a masochist/idiot? You decide for yourself.
My mom and I were discussing the reason for my obsession with competition and I still cant really figure it out. Fast forward to last week and an entire WEEK before DuWorlds I was already nervous as ever. The desire to feast that typically plagues me hourly was no longer present and sleep began to come in shorter and shorter intervals. Yet, for whatever reason, this is what I do. I spend all this money to make myself sick out of my mind. The days before the race I swear I was more moody than a pregnant woman on steroids (thanks mom, for putting up with my bs). I did still manage to enjoy Edinburgh the week before, however as the race grew closer and closer my enjoyment began to dull. The night before the race with the help of a beer I managed sleep about 45 minutes, and I thought Christmas eve was bad when I was 5….
Race day did come, but there were no boxes or bags, just a whole bunch of incredibly nervous athletes crowded in the metal confines of the starting box, waiting anxiously for the gun. 10 minute delay….great, 10 more minutes of anxious waiting. Everyone makes nervous casual conversation in the box, a little different when its in about 5 different languages and a lot of different accents. The gun goes off and we begin making our way up the 1200 meter hill before the turn around, which we would do 4 times for the first run. Not even 25 meters into the race a lad from Great Britain falls over and eats shit directly in front of me. I am no steeple chaser but fortunately I manage to hurdle him. The first 2 laps go by and the 3rd lap I know will be the hardest. I grind through this lap, the slowest one of them all, and before I know it Im on the bike with a new 10k pr.
My legs are fried. I desperately hope that power returns to them soon. Fortunately after a couple minutes they begin to feel rejuvenated. I get to the climb, which we will do 5x and immediately begin to reel people in, god I love being a skinny bastard in times like these. Not before I got to the end of the first of the five laps I feel my calves begin to cramp. Fuck, this has never happened to me during a race. I try to stretch them out a bit and keep the crampinig at bay. The first 3 laps go by rather uneventfully. I didn’t get caught and managed to catch a good amount of guys. The fourth lap though both of my hamstrings turn to pretzels at the top of the climb. I stand up and lean back trying to stretch out the monstrous knots in both of my hamstrings. The unrelenting cramping continues and negative thoughts about not finishing begin to creep into my mind. I am only moving forward at about 5mph, and people begin to go by me. A man from Australia in the 25-29 encourages me as he flys by me. Finally I felt that I could pedal and began to slowly turn over the pedals, I feel the micro-seizures of my hamstrings with every rotation, but fortunately I was able to hold off disaster for the rest of the bike. I knew this may plague me in the run so I finished my water to attempt to rehydrate.
My flying dismount went epically and my transition felt fluid and smooth into the second run, just 2 laps this time. The first lap hurt. The 1200m uphill teased me with the fact that as I ascended it I would only have to loop around and do it all over again in less than 9 minutes. An 800m hill workout I did over the summer at Occoquan Park began to creep into my mind and I focused on staying smooth and working my way to the top of the hill. On the final ascent I cruised to the stop and tried to open up my legs into the final downhill. My quads had different ideas however and were not pleased with the pounding they took as I tried to open my stride to coast down the downhill and pick up speed. As I approached the finish line I heard the announcer through the loud speaker “And here comes Grosicki of the USA, the Mens 20-24 Gold Medalist” my mind immediately went nuts, I looked backwards and saw that no one was close and through my hands up as I crossed the finish line. My state was shock and disbelief as I gasped for sweet air in the finishing area. Overwhelmed with emotion I was stuck between disbelief and sheer joy. Tears began to make their way down my cheeks, what a bitch I am I thought to myself. I went over to the fence and hugged my mom and called my dad.
Before I left, everyone told me I was embarking on the experience of a lifetime. Everyone told me how sure they were that I would do well, but no one, not even I, expected this. For days people asked me if I was still on cloud 9, the answer is yes I was, to be honest its almost a week later and I still haven’t come down. Just typing this up has got me all worked up like a mom watching her kid get on the school bus for the first time. I can’t put into words how lucky I am. I am so blessed. So blessed to have such a great family that has supported me and been with me all of my life. So blessed to have the BEST friends in the entire world, and lots of people say stuff like this but I know theyre full of shit because I really do have the best. You all are fucking incredible, thank you so much for being there for me and encouraging me. So blessed by the lord to have all that I have and be able to do what I can. Thank you everyone so much for all of your support, especially the past couple months. What a gay way to end a blog right? Could I possibly have been more trite? Maybe…but I am the champion of the world in the duathlon not JK Rowling, so if you were expecting wizards, thats your fault.