First off I must give a WAHOOOOO to the following athletes who did the Florida 70.3 race.
As expected, it was hot and it was humid but they all endured and finished strong and some with new PRs.
Congratulations to:
Erin and Marc Seaverson. Erin posted a new 70.3 PR and Marc (coming off of a stellar St. Croix race) came close to cracking the 5-hour mark. Hard work paid off for you two so enjoy some down time!!!
Chuck Kemeny who placed 5th in the uber fast AG of 30-34 and got a golden ticket to the Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 World Championship. This was a primer for his first Ironman coming up in August.
Karen Alderman for a strong day! Although it was not exactly we had hoped she is on track for a very strong performance in July at Ironman USA. 8 weeks to go Wonder Woman!
Unfortunately I did not get to see them race as I packed my bags and headed to Oklahoma City for a rare opportunity to watch and support a promising young professional triathlete compete in his first ITU Pan American Championship (PATCO) race. I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Kevin since 2006 prior to becoming a pro. Let me tell you, he has come a long way since the first rinky-dink amateur draft legal race he won in St. Leo Florida.
So with PATCO being his early season A race, I wanted to see up close how he would do racing against some of the U.S. “big dogs” in the sport (Matt Reed, Hunter Kemper). I could easily make this topic a lengthy blog post of its own but will sum it up by saying he finished top 10 (9th), which was satisfying but the process by which it happened was frustrating. If interested check out Kevin's blog race report. Also at the end of the blog is a short video clip of the Men's swim finish.
The PATCO experience overall was good for both of us and has allowed us to redirect our attention on areas that need to be strengthened so he can perform to his potential. Draft legal racing is a dynamic racing format. Unlike non-drafting races where you (for the most part) control your own destiny, draft legal racing can be lost a variety of ways. A sub par race outcome can start with a poor position coming out of the swim and / or stupid mistakes or complacency by others in the chase group on the bike and miscalculating your effort and blowing up on the run. Every race is an opportunity to learn and refine your arsenal of tactics. From what I can tell, those that excel at the ITU format not only have superior conditioning but are also very skilled, smart, aggressive racers who are where they need to be going into the run.
So eight days after the PATCO race, Kevin went down to Austin to race the Cap Tex Triathlon, aka ITU Austin Pan American Cup (draft legal). Now this is a race I WISH I saw up close!!!
According to Kevin, he had an awful swim ( 4th pack, ouch) and found himself in a less than desirable position starting the bike. The good news is he used the bike power he has worked hard to develop and managed to get a couple other guys (New Zealand) to work with him on the bike. Kevin's group worked their way up to the main chase group who had over a minute gap to the small group off the front. Once on the run, the time gap closed fairly quickly and Kevin and a swift footed Kiwi ran together until the finishing chute....now the battle for the big W. I would love to say Kevin can home the victor but he got pinched by 3 seconds and came in a hard fought but highly respectable 2nd place finish. Guess who is going to now be working on his race end speed? :-)
Once again lessons learned but this time Kevin got to stand on the podium and have some celebratory champagne to boot. So a huge shout out to KC on bringing that one home!! Next up for him is altitude training in Colorado Springs and on to the Hy-Vee Triathlon (an ITU World Cup race), which is KOABD (kind of a big deal). Prize money for the pros is CRAZY!!
To round out the month was the Madeira Beach Triathlon a race hosted by one of the largest tri clubs around, the St. Pete Mad Dogs. With close to 900 athletes doing this race, I must say the race organizers did a VERY good job and weather was perfect!
Last year I did this race and it came at a low point in my training. That morning in 2008, I sooooo did not feel like racing but did anyway and hated every minute of it. Quitting once I started was not an option (although I wished I could have just gotten out of the swim without anyone knowing). Lesson learned was if you are not “feelin it” then don’t start it. Triathlon should be fun whether as an age grouper or as a pro.
This year, I was in a much better state of mind and Mad Beach was FUN. I felt good for the most part but the run just is not coming back around the way I had hoped. Such is life and I was satisfied with the end result and will stop at that.
The best part of the Mad Beach day was hearing how well some of my ladies did.
Michelle Small has been training so well and it paid off with another PR for her and AG hardware (think it really was 4th AG 40-44 and not 5th like my twitter post said). You go girl!!!
Then there is up and coming Youth Elite racer Taylor Scott. This 15 yr old young lady dominated the 15-19 AG with a 1st Place finish and even would have won the 20-24 AG. Amazing work!!!
It was awesome to see some of my former athletes out there racing too so I have to give a shout out to David, Z, Heather and I even think I caught a glimpse of Phil!! Hope you all had great days too.
Whew my fingers a pretty pooped now! June is also a busy month. Time for me to get focused on my Hawaii preps and get set for the USAT Junior Camp. Will have another update towards the end of June but will keep the Tweets alive!
~Jennifer
This is some raw video of the swim finish at the PATCO race. Kevin exits in back part of the first swim pack......you can hear my big mouth screaming towards the end.
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