US Para Triathlon National Championship

US Para Triathlon Nationals were awesome!  There were close to 60 para athletes there and a huge support staff.  With this post I'll focus on the race itself, and talk later about the connections I made with people in the Para Triathlon world who were really interested in my story.

It rained race morning, hard. When we left the hotel there was water all over the streets, including some huge puddles.  I was not really ready for a wet race so I was praying for the rain to go away.  When we got to transition it had started to rain again.  At about 5:30am the rain stopped and did not come back all day.  However, it was super humid.  We walked about a mile up river to the race start and were able to bypass all the age groupers trying to get their timing chips and  body marking.  We had ours done at the pro/para athlete tent right by the start.

The race was a water start and the current was really strong.  Holding on to the rope to stay in place I was fully laid out in the water.  The swim was super fast.  I got a little off course a few times but finished in 20:01. I've been swimming about 35 minutes, so you can see the current was a huge help.  The run to transition from the swim was really, really long. In transition all the arm guys bikes were together so I was able to see how I was doing.  One of the bikes was missing so I knew I was in second place but did not know how far back I was. 

I heading out on the bike there were a few technical turns and steep short hills.  Once I was on the highway, I was able to start picking up speed and picking people off.  The course was pretty crowded.  There were a lot of female athletes from previous waves.  Six miles into the bike course I saw Sam, the only arm guy ahead of me.  I picked up the pace a bit to pass him quickly and not give him a chance to respond.  At the first bike turn around I clocked the next arm guy at 3:30 behind me and at the final turn I didn't see any of the arm guys by the time I turned off so I figured I had about a 5 min lead. 

The run was hard, harder that I thought it was going to be for sure.  The heat and humidity zapped me, and it took until mile 2 to really get my legs under me.  There were people all over the course cheering us on.  The first few blocks we ran on 72nd towards Central Park the spectators had formed a tunnel about two or 3 people wide that we ran through. Every one of them was cheering, yelling, ringing cow bells and holding signs.  I kept an eye out for any of the arm guys on the run and did not see any of them.  I finished in a time of 2:27:16, my fastest time ever, over 5 minutes faster than the next arm guy who came in at 2:32:43.  You can check out the full results here.  Filter the Para Triathlon results by category "M PC 4" to see my race.

After winning Nationals I have the opportunity to represent the US at the World Championship September 12th in Gold Coast, Australia.  The cost is about $4000 which I can't afford.  So I'm asking all my friends, family, and blog followers to help me out.  Use the button on the right to donate and send me to Worlds.  Please donate $5, $10 or whatever you can.  Thanks for the support.

Photo Credit: Dad :)