What to do

So I'm faced with a dilemma. I have a race this weekend. I want to do well and look good but it's definitely not as important a race as worlds or nationals. I have a clothing decision to make.

One choice is small, tight, spandex, red and blue, emblazoned with TEAM USA across the front, and much more revealing concerning ALL parts of my anatomy.

The other choice is bigger, looser, still spandex, black and red, emblazoned across the front with my name, the ITU logo, USA, and ICON ONE, my last name is tattooed across the butt. It has a back zipper, and is much more professional and most definitely less revealing.

The problem irks me. My mind cannot rest as it tussles with the matter at hand. Should I hold true to the ideals of old schoolism, stand for what I believe, and proudly bear the chaffing wounds to prove it? Or should I conform to the wave of professionalism in our sport? Embracing all that is modest, comfortable, and cool.

What to do, what to do...

Attack of the mad triathlete

Ouch. Crit racing hurts.

Thats pretty much my conclusion from this last weekend of mixing with the single sport cyclist enthuisiast this last weekend in Denton, Texas.

For the uninformed Wikipedia provides a very accurate definition of crit racing:

A criterium, or crit, is a type of bike race held on a short course (usually less than 5 km), often run on closed-off city centre streets. ...Events often have prizes (called primes, usually cash) for winning specific intermediate laps (for instance, every 10th lap).
Success in criteriums requires a mix of good technical skills — in particular, the ability to corner rapidly and sharply — and riding safely with a large group on a short circuit and exceptional fitness to attack other riders and repeatedly accelerate hard from corners.

Yup. Thats pretty much what it consists of. I did a total of 3 races. 1 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday. Saturday was a junior open event including 15 miles of racing around a 1.1 mile loop. The pace was pedestrian most of the time as 2 guys had broken away and their teamates were blocking for them. Coming into the final turn everyone was strung out and I was in 7th position or so. I decided to go for it and blasted after of the curve at around 28 mph, I heard someone shout "GO Austin, GO!" as I flew by. Down the final stretch I was sitting again pushing around 32 mph, maybe a little higher. Ausin was gaining but not by enough. I crossed the line about half a bike length ahead of him for 3rd place.

On Sunday there was a junior open and a cat 4/5 race that I did. Junior open was first and this one was a rectangular course with 4 left hand turns and 2 long straights. Only 1k or 0.6 miles long. Corner #3 had some kind of chewed up road and some manholes that were a little dangerous. I placed 2nd in the junior race and got lapped in the 4/5.

About 50 people started the 4/5 race but everyone except about 15 guys got lapped. I was doing ok about 8 laps into it when going into corner #3 a guy crashed just in front and to the right of me, he came sliding at me and almost took my front wheel off. I barely missed him but the leaders, seeing their oppurtunity, punched it up the hill. I was chasing as hard as I could for about 3 or 4 laps but they stayed 10 seconds or so up on me. Finally I slowed up to get with a group of 4 guys coming up behind me. We worked pretty well together, I won a prime that they offered to us (a vest) and we finally got pulled with about 6 laps to go. Oh well. I was so wiped from both races I didn't really care. Plus I'd won myself a vest!

This weekend I'm looking forward to doing the Cinco Ranch Tri down around Houston area. Should be fun.

Jeff, Me, Ian. Waiting to start.

Cornering.

My computer is slow and these pictures are taking forever to load so I'm gonna call it quits. Ciao.

Anniversary

On this very day, just six years ago, terrorists, seeking to destroy our country and everything that we stand for hijacked four planes and crashed them into three iconic buildings of the American skyline. Just a few days after thanksgiving this year, my dad will leave to go help as we continue to search for the evil men that did this.

We have captured many of them. We have foiled many other terrorist plots. We have captured one of the most evil and dangerous dictators of this age. And yet, there is still more to do. There are still insurgents to kill, schools and hospitals to build, people to protect, a goverment to establish. There are still those who want us dead. We are the infidels. We will always be.

And so we must fight. As long as there is freedom in this world we must fight. As long as there are people that desire to abolish this freedom that we hold dear, we must fight. We must send the best that we have. Those that have volunteered to sacrifice their lives so that we can stay here at home and complain about McDonalds not giving us enough cheese on our burger.

My youth pastor's husband is a Marine. He leaves for Iraq in less then a month. He doesn't have to. He's served his time. He's earned his purple heart. But he goes to be with the young men he helped train. He won't see his men go while he stays at home. He will take his place at the front, with his men, where he belongs.

One of my closest friends leaves this week for Marine bootcamp. He doesn't know all that he is getting into it. But he's done everything he can to prepare. He's ready to serve.

My dad goes too. Twenty-four years as an Air Force Officer. We'll spend thanksgiving with him and then he will leave for training and we may not see him again until next July. He will be leading a multi-billion dollar project to rebuild the schools and hospitals in Iraq.

"Freedom isn't free." How poignant. How true.

During the Revolutionary War, Nathan Hale was a spy for the Continental army. He was a Quaker as well, Quakers are traditionally pacifists and do not believe in warfare as a proper means to resolve any conflict. At twenty-one years of age Nathan Hale was hung by the British Army for espionage. On September, 22nd 1776, as the noose was placed around his neck, his final words revealed the core of his existence. "I only regret that I have but one life to lost for my country."

When you see what terrorist want to do to this country, when you read about the men and women laying their lives on the line every day, when you watch your friends, your father, prepare to go to war; it gives you a new perspective on those famous words. It makes it all a little bit more real.

No, Freedom Isn't Free

I watched the flag pass by one day.

It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,

And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform

So young, so tall, so proud,

With hair cut square and eyes alert

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years.

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,

When everything was still

I listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That taps had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free.

CDR Kelly Strong, USCG (Ret).

Swingin' the Night Away

Well I think I have just about recovered from the effects of jet lag. I've just been doing so easy riding and running this week including a 3 hr ride with my Matrix buddy that had us covering only 43 miles. Yeah, I think our average was 14.3 mph.

I haven't felt great during my easy workouts but I've been trying to rest a bunch and I should be ready to go come Monday. I will probably be joining the DAM swim team this fall. (Thats Dallas Aquatic Masters for the uninformed) Hopefully swimming on a real team will help kick me in the rear and get me in the pool.

About to head out for swim swing dancing tonight. The only problem is that it usually involves a somewhat late night. Oh well. I usually try to head out by 11 or so and I have tomorrow to sleep in a little.

Good luck to all the Ironman Wisconsin participants tomorrow.

American update

It's good to be home again. Sleeping in a bed that is regularly sized and NOT jammed up against the bed that my teammate is sleeping in. Listening to people speak real honest to goodness English. Eating authentic TacoBell with authentic American grease and cheese.Typing on a keyboard where the y and z are in their normal positions. You know, all those little things we take for granted.

Seriously though we did arrive home safely last night and it is nice to be back. I'm not enjoying so much having to jump right back into school but it went a lot better then I expected today. Especially for having none of the textbooks and not having studied for my biology and lab at all I was able to pass the quizzes and little worksheets we had to do. The fact that it was over the metric system definitely helped.

I'm still a little jet-lagged and my body aches in weird places but other then that I'm ready to go. Or not go as the case may be. About to go put my bike together then go to youth group. It was fun. Made some timeless memories and hopefully some friends for years to come. Now I'm looking forward to some good training to get my swim time down, figure out what happened to me on the bike, and continue to get that run time down. ciao.

Leaving Germany...

So we're here. In Hamburg. The airport to be more specific. Wakeup was way to early this morning at about 5 am. Especially considering we didn't go to bed until around 1 in the morning. Actually thats when I finally put the covers over my head and tried to go to sleep. Travis was still up packing his stuff.

Our last day in Germany was good yesterday. We did have a minor emergency when it was discovered that Travis had no pedal wrench to take his pedals off with. I have the look keo's so I have a special allen key that I use but Travis needed a wrench and the Team USA mechanics had already left. So we just hung out in the hotel lobby until someone with a Team USA jacket came in and begged and pleaded with them to borrow a wrench. They were kind and gracious enough to lend us one and a major problem was avoided.

For the last hour or so in the airport we have been walking up and down between gates scanning every face we see trying to refind the proffessional triathlete we had found. We were sitting at a little cafe place inside security eating breakfast when this really tall guy I had kinda observed dstood up and left the cafe. As he rounded the corner Travis grabbed me whispered "that was Matt Reed!" I took a quick glance and realized that was right. Yes indeed, Matt Reed, Professional triathlete, American, 14 at World this year, the very same guy who almost mowed us down on lap 5 of the bike. Whoa. We've searched pretty much everywhere but he seems to have vanished. Maybe he's avoiding us. We even checked the bathroom but he wasn't there. Oh well. We'll keep our fingers crossed that maybe, just maybe, he's heading back to the states on OUR flight. But I doubt it.

After a long day of traveling I'm looking forward to getting home around 9 tonight. It's actually kind of sad leaving and I'm NOT looking forward to all the schoolwork I have to do when I get home. Ah well. Such is life.

Germany Update #3

Well yesterday was the race. I'm sure most of you have already checked results and stuff so I won't go into great detail. Let me suffice to say that Travis had an awesome race and mine was somewhere between so-so and very poor. I'm not quite sure of the reason but my bike was way slow. Good run split for me though so that is something to be encouraged about. Travis was ninth overall and 4th American so he did really good.

In between racing we got to watch the women's pro race on Saturday which was sooo cool. We didn't get as good a spot as for the Mens U23 race because the stands were already full but we got to see plenty of the action. USA was really well represented with Laura Bennet coming so close to a silver medal. Emma Snowsill chaced her down from a minute back to pass her in the last kilometer for silver. Still bronze is really good. Especially at a world championship. Vanessa Fernandey won and she and Snowsill both ran so fast.

After our race we went over to watch the pro men. INSANE. It was so awesome. This time we got a spot right on the barricade about 150m from the finish line so we got to see them every bike lap and every run loop. It was nuts. I've never seen so many people come to watch a triathlon. Ever. The entire course was lined with people 3, 4, 5 rows deep. We cheered and screamed as loud as we could. Especially being surrounded by Germans we had to. As the athletes whizzed by on their bikes we were nearly run over my Matt Reed (USA) because we were leaning so far out.

USA did pretty good and Andy Potts was the top American in 11th spot. He had a great race and ran a 30:54 10k, but what can youd do when Gomez and Under both ran sub 30? Coming around the last turn it was Gomez in front with Unger on his heels and we were screaming at gomez because we didn't want the German to win. But no use Unger sprinted by right in front of us and the crowd was going absolutely nuts. It was still pretty sweet and we had a great time.

Then we went back to the hotel to drop our bikes off and then over to where the big post-race party and awards ceremony was. The party was definitely intense. Let's just say that on our voucher we had one meal ticket and about 6 drink tickets. And I think many people used more then that. The Aussie's were especially crazy and the New Zealanders got up and did some tribal dance without their shirts on. I would say there were probably a good 3-4 thousand people there.

A bunch of us juniors just chilled at a table and it was kinda funny to look over and realize that Andy Potts was standing about 10 ft away from you with some of his buddies. They look so different when their not in Spandex with their name across their front and backside. A bunch of people had brought stuff to trade like team shirts, and jackets, and stuff like that. If I go I'm definitely going to bring extra USA stuff so I can trade with like Japan, and Australia and people like that.

Today we just chilled and went to the mall and walked around looking at shops. Back at the hotel I think were going to pack and maybe hit the sauna and pool. We may go back out tonight to eat dinner or something depending on when our flight leaves tomorrow. I need to check that.

We should land in DFW tomorrow along with our bikes if all goes well. Its been a fun trip and you can go check results at triathlon.org. Check some of those tricast videos. If you see some young looking guys holding video cameras and leaning way out over the barricade cheering as loud as the can for whatever American is going by... It's probably us.

Germany update #2

Hello to everyone. To update you on what has been going on let me first let you know that Germany continues to be AWESOME. This keyboard continues to be annoying because the y and the z are switched and I invariably hit the z when ever I go to type the y. Every time.

Well yesterday was the best day yet. It was Friday, August 31st and contrary to the day before we woke up at the crack of dawn to get a jumpstart on the day. ok so really it was like 9:30. Nonetheless we hadn't been able to go to sleep until like 1:30 in the morning because of our late wakeup time the day before. actually it was funny because Travis and I were in the hotel workout room at like 11:30 when they kicked us out because it was closing. Bummer.

Anyways we woke up early so we could meet up with Evan (Fellow Sprint World Championships competitor on team USA) to go watch the Junior elite boys race the Junior ITU World Championshps at 11 am. Evan had pretty much scoped out the subway system and theres one about a half mile from the hotel that dumps y0u out right at the race sight. The junior men we SWEET. So fast. It was insane. We got some pretty decent seats right on the front rail where we could watch them as they went by every lap of the bike and run. Transition was right across from us and we were on the finishing stretch about 60m from the line.

Travis had his video camera going and we cheered loud for the USA. Our guys did alright and Gregory Billington finished 11th overall. The Junior World Champion from last year finished 2nd after he came out of the swim 5 SECONDS behind the leaders but couldn't transition fast enough to make the front pack of 5. This same guy from Great Britain is called Brownlee and he was off the bike about 1 minutes behind that lead back. He split a 14:56 5k to finish 2nd!! Crazy. Willy Pickhardt and Gregory Billington were in the 3rd pack and Willie pulled almost the whole bike. All-in-all our guys all finished in the top half.

Then back to the hotel where we did a 30 min run and an hour bike. It's still raining a bunch and so the workouts were a bit soggy. I think the main priority on race day is just going to be to keep from crashing. After working out I showered and stretched, my legs have been like really tight so I've been trying to stretch a TON. Then Me, Travis, and Ethan met up again to go watch the U23 men race. Awesome.

The USA didn't do to well but we had a blast. Standing in the pouring rain we got a spot even closer to the finish line this time and were right on the rail. We got to see them go by a total of 13 times. Another guy from Team USA showed up and while Travis kept the video rolling we screamed our lungs out. I could barely talk that night. Surrounded by hundreds of German fans we had to be loud to be heard. I think the four USA guys racing could hear us could hear us. :)

It is interesting to see how many people come just to watch these races. They are estimating about 500,000 spectators for the whole weekend of events. Insane. The Germans difinatily love their triathlons.

After the U23 race we wandered through the streets with some Aussie's who were also looking for the pasta party. Once we found it we ate and I got to talk with a kid from Hamburg who is racing us Tomorrow. He speaks good English and said he was a foreign exchange student in virginia last year.

Back on the subway to try to find our way back to the hotel we made it back around 9 or so. Then Travis and I just chilled in our rooms and watched some race walking. Didn't know that was a sport huh?

Today we had breakfast in the hotel and met a girl from Southlake and her dad. About 2 we're gonna go watch the pro women race and then do an open water swim in the lake at 5. Then back to the hotel to get our bikes and we'll go back to the race site to check them in. Trying just to rest today, take it easy, and get ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow my wave starts at 11:20 am, which should be 4:20 am CST. If you WANT to watch there will be live timing and video on Triathlon.org. You can probably know how I did before even I do. The Pro men race at 3 tomorrow and if the U23 race was crazy, the pro race will be NUTSS. It's gonna be awesome. Talk to you guys later