#TriathlonTuesday: Clermont Race Recap

I raced the ITU Clermont CAMTRI Continental Cup last weekend in sunny Clermont, Florida. Luckily for me, it wasn't all that sunny and the weather was agreeable for a northman like myself...

For some reason (probably because I hadn't raced ITU for 8 months... and even then not that well) I was stuck seeded dead last... 57 of 57. That meant I got to pick out my starting spot on the beach last, which is almost always a big disadvantage at a race. Basically, I got the worst line available as a result. Also, the water was choppy and we swam in wetsuits...

Now, I am a huge fan of the show "Bar Rescue." Jon Taffer is the man, and as a long-time service-industry guy I love his insights. One of his sayings is "I don't embrace excuses... I embrace solutions..."

The fact that I had a bad line is an excuse. Wetsuits and choppy water are excuses. A solution would've been to B-Line it to the buoy and just be the swimmer that I am. It just wasn't in the cards today, so I wound up farther back than a 4th year pro should have.

The bike was decent, I found my way into a pack and we worked pretty well together. I tried to be vocal and get the guys moving, which worked. At one point, I'd finished yelling at a Mexican athlete in Spanish, yelling at a French athlete in broken French, when a Canadian athlete was up. For some reason I continued yelling in French (I assumed he was French-Canadian, I guess?) to which I got a blank stare and a "Dude, seriously??"

We got off the bike all bunched up, and it felt good to show off the legs a bit and dust up some of the younger kids... I haven't done a ton of speed work this year, so I felt super-strong but not very snappy... I ran decent, but it felt like I ran a lot faster. That will come though with some sharpening up!

This race was mostly over-shadowed by some glaring negatives. A bad swim, atrocious transitions, and rusty bike handling are all some things I need to dial in before next weekend. That's right, I race again in 5 short days at the ITU Sarasota Continental Championships on Saturday! Hopefully a week of training with the boys will get me sharpened up!

Until then, wish me luck and FOLLOW THE PACE RABBIT!