I'm certainly proud to coach THIS 2012/13 Colorado State University Triathlon Team and will hate to see a few of them leave to graduation next month. This year we REPRESENTED at USAT Collegiate National Championships in Tempe, AZ! Due to months and months of preparation and hard work, the results were our best showing in CSU Tri history, 9th Overall Combined Men's and Women's out of 100+ schools represented. Competing with and edging out teams like Stanford, Michigan, UCSD, UCSB, THE Ohio State, and Arizona State put us on a whole new level. Top 10 collegiate programs in the nation! Now the hard work begins on keeping that disctinction, but also achieving our next goal of Top-5.
A wise man once told me... "in racing, it's better to be "odd" than "even". I had to expand on that statement quite a bit after the race with my athletes. Bailey achieved an amazing 7th place overall Woman. But like all driven Type A personalities, she wanted a little better placement and was dwelling on her transitions of all things. "So Bailey, if you crushed your transitions what would you have placed?" Sixth! Well, would anyone of us been happy with a 6th place finish, one shy of overall podium at the Awards Ceremony? 6th or 4th depending on awards is the WORST place! Be happy with that 7th place Bailey! You earned it. It's better to be Odd than Even. It also works the other way. Steve and Chris each earned an Odd... with a 5th and 9th place overall respectively. Great job guys. Steve you can bet is happy with that 5th place overall podium spot. Yeah, he would also liked the 3rd place he was in with one mile to go. But 4th? Not much difference. 6th, NO WAY.
So...Odds was the theme for us last weekend. 11th Men's Overall, 11th Women's Overall, 9th Combined overall, Bailey 7th Woman, Steve 5th, Chris 9th. Much better than a bunch of 4ths and 6ths right? So everyone's happy? Not in the world of sport...too much work to do to prepare for next year!
A wise man once told me... "in racing, it's better to be "odd" than "even". I had to expand on that statement quite a bit after the race with my athletes. Bailey achieved an amazing 7th place overall Woman. But like all driven Type A personalities, she wanted a little better placement and was dwelling on her transitions of all things. "So Bailey, if you crushed your transitions what would you have placed?" Sixth! Well, would anyone of us been happy with a 6th place finish, one shy of overall podium at the Awards Ceremony? 6th or 4th depending on awards is the WORST place! Be happy with that 7th place Bailey! You earned it. It's better to be Odd than Even. It also works the other way. Steve and Chris each earned an Odd... with a 5th and 9th place overall respectively. Great job guys. Steve you can bet is happy with that 5th place overall podium spot. Yeah, he would also liked the 3rd place he was in with one mile to go. But 4th? Not much difference. 6th, NO WAY.
So...Odds was the theme for us last weekend. 11th Men's Overall, 11th Women's Overall, 9th Combined overall, Bailey 7th Woman, Steve 5th, Chris 9th. Much better than a bunch of 4ths and 6ths right? So everyone's happy? Not in the world of sport...too much work to do to prepare for next year!