My legacy

While I was competing as a Lumberjack for the NAU Cross Country team I worked hard. I had big goals coming into college, and after a few years, it became clear that some of those goals were just too lofty for me. I kept my head down and plugged away, putting my heart and soul into every race, workout, and run out on the trails. Each year I got stronger, faster and ended up with what I consider a pretty successful career. With the help of Coach Heins, I felt like I did everything I could to reach my potential. And that was enough for me. I was always a team player, but deep down inside I did all this for me. I put in all the hard work so my future self could look back at it all with an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction. In the words of Quenton Cassidy’s, “I discovered early on that the truly great advantage of going all-out every time is that later you don’t have to waste a single instant second-guessing yourself.” It really is a great way to live.

Then my girlfriend Mo showed me this article, a Q&A with Tim Freriks in the Lumberjack newspaper:

LJ: From an athlete’s standpoint, there have been a lot of teammates, mentors and coaches that have influenced you as a player. Out of all of them in the past or present, who has influenced you the most in your career, or as a person?

TF: There are two big ones. One of which was my high school coach. He really influenced the mentality that I have now, working hard and grinding through it. And also Jason Pedersen; he’s a graduate assistant coach for us now. His mentality and work ethic is like second to none. He was running 110 miles a week, he ate right, slept well, [and was a] straight-A student in mechanical engineering, so it was a template I wanted to follow. He did it right and it paid off, so I want to do the same thing.

Suddenly I feel a new feeling. After reading those words from Tim, I no longer just feel satisfied of my running career at NAU. My efforts, my daily sacrifices, my commitment to myself meant something to someone else. And more than that, it has left an impression. If I had more accolades to my name I would call it a legacy, but my victories weren’t the kind that you could hang on the mantel. It means so much to me that someone else recognizes that.

Myrtle Beach ITU Part 2

My first professional race. In any sport. I always assumed it would be on a track or road race, not jumping into muddy water. Saturday night before the race I went to bed anxious. Sunday night after the race I went to bed with a smile. Sunday was a dream come true.

–

I arrived at the race site just after 7:30 am. The women’s race began at 7:30, and the original instructions to the men were to check in your bikes in transition before the women started. At the briefing on Saturday night, many of the more experienced men voiced there opinions of arriving 2.5 hours before their race began with several loud grumbles.

“How much time do you normally show up before a race?” the ITU official asked. “Two hours?”

“75 minutes,” one guy replied. To my surprise the official caved in quite easy. He said we could check our bikes into transition anytime before the 9:00 swim warm up began as long as we watched out for the women as they rode through transition during their race.

Since this was my first race I didn’t want to see how far I could bend the rules, so I showed up while the women were in the water and finished before the leaders got to T1. I was shocked to see guys nonchalantly rolling up at 8:45. Maybe this is normal? I guess professional triathletes are used to getting their way.

At about 9:00 I did a short jog with fellow Collegiate Recruit Dan Feeney. We ran down the run course and it was fun to see and a cheer for some of the women that are also in the program. At 9:20 we jumped into the water to get in a swim warm up. When I watched the pro race in San Francisco back in July I noticed how much more of a warm up they do than I had seen in an age group race. I tried to follow the trend and spent a good 15 minutes swimming and getting a feel for the pontoon dive start. The water temperature was 73F, making it a non wetsuit legal swim. DANG IT!

Twenty minutes before the race was to begin they close the warm up. It was already pretty windy at this time, and not too warm, so most of the athletes put on jackets and pants to keep warm. Just before the race starts they do introductions with the top ranked guys getting a little bio. Where you start on the start line is your choice, but top ranked athletes get first pick. I was #58 out of 65 numbers (34 total) so I just picked the first spot that was open.

I stood there for what felt like an eternity. To top it off, they played pretty much the most intimidating music I have ever heard. Still, I was super pumped to get started and see where I stacked up with these guys. Here’s a video of the intros and the start of the swim…

Swim

28th in 21:26, 3:33 behind the fastest

I dove into the washing machine and tried not to get too banged up. I was quickly spit out the back and was swimming at the back of the large pack. The first turn buoy was about 170m out. Being at the back of the pack already it wasn’t too messy, which was nice. We took a left and swam downstream for about 200m. Then we took two rights and swam back upstream. Somewhere during that section I lost the feet of the swimmer I was drafting on, and ended up swimming the rest of the race alone.

The course was two 750m laps so we had to come out on the dock run around the corner and dive back in. I think this makes for more entertaining spectating and it beaks it up for the athletes. You can see this in the video above.

The rest of the swim I felt pretty good and made sure to keep telling myself to go faster. You are in a pro race now! I came out of the swim with a large gap ahead of me and one guy, Rusty Pruden, a few seconds behind me.

T1

26th in :18, :05 behind the fastest

“What are the two most common penalties in ITU racing?”

“Not putting your cap and goggles into your basket.”

“And mounting the bike too early or dismounting too late.”

This was the conversation my coach Ian Murray and I had the day before the race. So as I exited the swim and came into transition, I was focused on getting my cap and goggles in the basket and mounting after the mount line. It never occurred to me that I needed to put on my helmet! As I grabbed my bike, in hot pursuit of the riders ahead, Rusty yelled, “Helmet Jason!” to me. No you didn’t. Yes I did. Forgot to put on my helmet before grabbing my bike. What a rookie.

Bike

23rd in 56:16, 1:22 behind the fastest

Rusty and I quickly grouped up and went to work. We were both doing about half the work and started catching a few riders. As we caught riders, the group began to swell. At first this was great, I thought, because we were all doing less work. There was a nasty headwind for half the lap that really zapped your legs if you were leading into it for too long. As we got closer to the end of the bike leg, our group had become about 9 riders, and people stopped working together.

I was so concerned that we were losing time to the front group that I found myself near the front. As we headed back toward transition on our final lap, I got stuck in the front battling the nasty headwind. To add insult to injury, when I finally decided to take my feet out of my shoes, the whole pack went around me and, just like in the swim, I was shot out the back. Although I was with a decent sized pack, I was effectively last in the race at that point.

T2

29th (out of 29) in :25, :11 behind the fastest

Last in T2. My transitions are awful, apparently. Not much to say here except for that I should be faster.

Run

11th in 35:10, 2:29 behind the fastest

I ran through most of the group fairly quickly and had my sights on Sean Jefferson (a sub 4 minute miler from Indiana University). About 3k into the race, just as I had caught Sean, I started to feel a pulsing in my left hamstring. I tried to keep my stride nice and smooth, but couldn’t keep my pace up without my hamstring cramping. I slowed down, stopped and stretched a bit, and tried to pick it back up. Sean had opened up a large gap in that time. I looked behind me and saw James Bales running just behind me. I decided to run a bit easier with him for a while.

During the bike leg I noticed that “58″ was listed on the white board at the “penalty box.” Because of my helmet mishap coming out of T1 I had been given a 15″ penalty. Race officials wrote my number on the board indicating that I had to serve the penalty at some point during the run.

Before the race Ian and I had talked about if I do get a penalty to serve it before my last lap. I was still running with James when I took my 15″ penalty after the third lap. I stretched my hamstring, and when the time was up, took off. I was able to catch him with about 300m to go. There was a decent downhill heading into the finish, so I thought I would just hang behind him and try to make a quick move just before the line. I was worried if I went too soon my hamstring would cramp again and wouldn’t be able to continue kicking. I started to coast down the hill pretty good and was opening up a gap on him without pressing too hard. I decided to keep pushing and set my eyes on Nathan White. I was kicking pretty hard and really closing the gap, but ran out of real estate.

I finished in 20th place in 1:53:35, 5:42 behind 2008 Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker. I was really happy to hear that I was 20th because top 20 earns ITU points which are important in moving up to more competitive races in the future. I read the rules more carefully and realized that you have to be top 20 and within 5% of the winner’s time. 5% off of Jarrod’s time is 1:53:30, 5 seconds faster than I finished.

Regardless, it was a successful first race. What Ian and I wanted to get out of this race was to get a benchmark of my swim, get draft legal pack riding experience on the bike, and to experience the hoorah of ITU racing before I head into the off season. With this race under my belt, I will be ready to get after it in my first ITU race next season without experiencing all the first-time-jitters.

This was my last race of the season, and I will have a season recap up this weekend or next week.

Results

Myrtle Beach ITU Part 1

The Myrtle Beach ITU Pan American Cup weekend festivities began on Thursday night. Mo and I drove down the mountain to Carefree where we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Carefree Station. I have a general rule that when duck is on the menu, I order it, and Thursday was no exception. It did not disappoint.

Duck at Carefree Station

We spent the night at Mo’s aunt and uncle’s home in Scottsdale which made our early morning travel on Friday a little more bearable. I had a flight at 7:05, so we woke at 4:30 and were out the door before 5. Once I got to the Delta terminal I saw a huge line to check my baggage ($150 bike fee for the loss). I got through that line and I figured the long lines were behind me. I then got in a long security line, only to be told about 10 minutes later that the line I was in was for first class passengers only. Seriously? The TSA officials rallied on my behalf and had a real sense of urgency, only giving me two bag checks, and got me to my gate with several minutes to spare.

The rest of my travels were less notable and I met my mom in the Myrtle Beach airport. My mom conveniently had some business meetings in Charlotte, NC so she decided to make the quick trip over to Myrtle Beach. I am always happy to have her, or any of the rest of my family, there with me for races, and I am very lucky that this is the standard and not the exception.

My mom and I are staying at a beautiful Marriott right on the ocean.

This morning I met up with fellow USAT Collegiate Recruits Dan Feeney and Natalie Kirchoff to check out the bike and swim courses. The roads are very clean and smooth. There are a few inclines and declines on the course, but it is for the most part a very flat course. The swim will be in some very “rusty” water, as Natalie described it. Rusty? Dan and I thought. Once we jumped in we saw what she meant… the water is very brown and visibility is about two or three inches probably. We aren’t 100% sure of what the swim course will be, but should know those details after the elite athlete briefing in a couple of hours.

I have spent the rest of the day laying low, feet up, watching the Ironman World Championship coverage, and drinking lots of fluids. No cramps for me tomorrow! I am now heading out for a quick run, a little stretch and then off to the briefing. Nerves are OK, for now. But with each hour I am getting more and more excited.

USA Triathlon will have some live coverage of the race tomorrow on their live twitter feed @USATLive. The women’s race begins at 7:30 am and the men’s race is at 10:00 am EST. (If you don’t have twitter you can still follow along here: http://twitter.com/usatlive)

Family weekend at sea level

On Friday I went home for some family action. My Great Uncle Niller had flown all the way in from Copenhagen, Denmark, which doesn’t happen very often. I spent the majority of the weekend at my aunt’s beautiful home in Northridge with my cousins, brother, sister, mom, dad, sister-in-law, Farfar (father’s father in Danish)…

Those that know me well know that I’m a family guy. I love it in Flagstaff, but I do miss my family a lot while I’m here. I’m lucky enough to have my own travel agent (mom) that gets me home once or twice a semester. Guess who is the favorite child?

Another perk to going home is sea level! I took this opportunity to do a little swim marker to see where I am at. USA Triathlon has a swim test that they use to evaluate potential Collegiate Recruits: 200 all out, 1 minute rest, 800 all out. Last year I did the test several times, putting up my best time in July. On that occasion I swam 2:13 and 10:10 for short course yards. At the time I was ecstatic with the result, especially the 200. I had rested up for the test and it was my last hard swim before turning my focus 100% on the cross country season.

Swimming has been going very well up here in Flagstaff. I hit 30,000m in one week for the first time a couple of weeks in anticipation of my first ITU triathlon coming up. I didn’t taper at all for the test, but I knew with my new swim fitness and a little extra oxygen I was ready to swim a good time.

Coach Ian did some filming of the swim. My form has improved, but I need to bring my arm underneath my body to really get the most out of my stroke.

My triathlon coach Ian Murray met me at CLU and took me through a good warm up. I got myself pumped up and dove head first into the 200. I swam a 2:10, which was a little bittersweet because I thought I was ready to break 2:10. I tried to enjoy all the extra oxygen during that short one minute rest, and then set off on the 800. I hit 9:41 — a 29 second improvement!

While the 200 wasn’t quite as fast as I was hoping, I surprised myself in the 800 and I can see that all the hours I am spending at the pool are paying off. I spoke with Barb Lindquist yesterday and we agreed that if I can keep this regimen up, I will be an entirely different swimmer come next Spring.

My swim will really be put to the test this weekend at the Myrtle Beach ITU Continental Cup. Lots more to come before and after that race.