Dam Tri

Sunday was the Dam Tri in Meadville, Pa. We stayed at Doug's Cabin in Utica for the weekend and had a blast. My brother and I traveled down the French Creek in the canoe for some small mouth fishing. The fishing was frustrating for me though, because all of my line on my fishing rod kept tangling up and I lost a few spinner baits because I kept on casting into trees or sticks on the side of the water. Nick caught a very nice small mouth bass though. He is seriously a Master Fisherman. After the fishing, we had some good food and FRESH carrots and beans. I only ate the carrots because I don't like beans at all.

After an early wake up, it was hard to get into the race mood. I was very tired from the night because it poured rain for the whole night. But when the sun came out and the heat started to kick in, I started to wake up. I raced the Olympic Distance which was a mile swim, 24 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run. I felt pretty good during the swim. I had to stop a few times towards the end of the swim to see where I was going because the sun was shining right in my eyes. I finished the swim in 25.27. The bike was very hard. The 24 mile course consisted of lots of hills. There were really no flat sections on the bike. But, I felt very strong and gained a lot of my time on the uphills. The heat really kicked up during the bike. After my second transition, I was off for the 10k run. It was about 85 degrees at this time which was not good at all. Around mile 2, I was running on the Dam which is about 3/4 of a mile long one way I would have to guess. While running on the Dam, I felt like I was going to pass out because of the heat. I started to get the goosebumps and was craving lots of water. At around mile four, I stopped sweating a little bit. I was getting worried because this is a sign of heat exhaustion, and after heat exhaustion, is heat stroke. The next aid station, I grabbed five cups of water and downed them and grabbed more cups and poured it on my head. I ended up making it to the finish line in one piece. When I was finishing, I saw my Dad at the finish line. He started 5 minutes behind me and I knew something was wrong. Come to find out, he was running into T1 and noticed he had a front flat which ended his race. But, he ran the 10k course and felt good he said.

In the end, this was the hardest triathlon I have ever raced. I am very happy with my placing though. I finished 9th overall and 1st in my A.G. I also had the 7th fastest bike split, which I am very happy with. Doug raced the Sprint and finished 3rd overall and 1st in his A.G. Awesome job Doug!! This weekend was great and the next triathlon is the Xterra Tri in Westbranch. I'm really excited for this race and I'm excited for the mountain biking and the trail running again to train for this race. Thanks for reading.

Later!

Tapering

This week is a Taper week in training. We are leaving Saturday morning for P.A. for the Dam Tri. and racing Sunday morning. We are going to stay with Doug at his cabin in Franklin and I'm looking forward to the food over the campfire and the fishing with Nick. ALSO..... Today is my Dad's birthday! So yesterday was a Happy Father's Day to him and today is a Happy Birthday. I've also been watching the FIFA World Cup lately and Brazil looks like they are unbeatable. Other than that, everything is going well with the training and hopefully the training in the past two weeks will help us finish with a good result this weekend.

See ya!

O.N.E Kickoff Tri at Clay's Park

Sunday was the O.N.E Triathlon Kickoff at Clay's Park. We raced this race last year and told ourselves we were going to bring our road bikes instead of our TT bikes because the bike course has a lot of hills in it. Dad's 35+ wave started first and he blazed out of the swim in 3rd place. My wave started 10 minutes after my Dad's wave, so now I know how he feels when he is waiting to get the race going. I felt like I was wasting my energy being anxious and nervous waiting for the gun to go off. About a minute or two after Dad came out of the water, our wave started and we all ran into the water. I felt like I had a good swim. After a couple of kicks in the face, I luckily escaped some of the chaos and held a fast pace to put me and a couple of racers ahead. I made it out of the water in either third or fourth place. I had a fast transition time I'm thinking, and then I was off on the bike. I felt like I had strong legs on the bike, but I've felt better before in races. After the hilly/windy bike, I sped into transition and my transition time I felt was again pretty fast. During the run, I tried to run with a racer that was ahead of me but his pace was greater than mine. He told me to stick with him but I was going to blow myself up if I would have tried. That racer ended up winning overall. BAFF team member Christian finished 2nd overall, and I finished 3rd. Dad finished 9th overall and 1st in his AG. BAFF had a great showing yesterday and we all had very good results with four of us finishing in the top ten (Christian, Me, Frank, and Dad). After the race, the team drove over to Steve's RV who is a teammate. There we had some burgers and hotdogs along with some healthy dishes such as fruit, and a very tastey rice/pasta salad that Christian made. Great day yesterday and this weekend is the GCT training day #2 at Headlands Beach so Dad and I are not racing. Next week is the Dam Tri. Lots of training ahead of us in these two weeks. Everyone have a good day.

Late

H.S. No More

Well, I graduated yesterday. Also, that morning, Dad and I raced the Twinsburg Duathlon. It started off as a completely horrible morning. Rain, lightning, thunder and heavy winds were making it seem like there was going to be no race. But thankfully there was a long break in the weather and the race was on. I felt good throughout the whole race and finished second overall. Dad raced great as well, finishing 6th overall. The whole BAFF team had awesome results and we all had a nice showing. After the race, I received my High School Diploma and that's that for my High School days!

Good Weekend Ahead of Me.

I am very excited for this weekend for a couple reasons. One, I'm racing the Twinsburg Duathlon early on Sunday morning. I'm feeling great lately and I feel like I can finish with a good result. After the race, we have to head back home so I can get ready for Graduation. I'm very excited to finally be finished with High School. I am also currently working for the Lake Metroparks now. I am life-guarding, working a tiny bit of maintenance and staffing in the recreational department. Going back to the High School theme; the thing that is confusing to me is that most seniors are so excited to leave High School and never come back. Today, the seniors thought it would be "FUNNY" to have a cookout in the High School parking lot. I don't know why anyone would want to go back after they said they were never going back. O well. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and hopefully I'll post a pic or two of me receiving the wonderful piece of paper I've worked so hard for in the past 12 years.

HaVe A gOoD oNe!