The title for this blog could be an assortment of subjects, "New Triathlon Venue, Leon's Tri in Hammond, IN, hosts Armed Forces Triathlon Championships" or "It wasn't quite Southern California but it was great" or "Patriotic-themed well put on race was a pleasant surprise for all" or "Epic Rain during the race wash away Navy's hope for Gold" or "Air Force Women battle it out for hard-earned Silver" or the slant I almost chose of getting selected for the once-every-four-years World Military Games in South Korea in October "Mason wins Master's Division, still can run for an old guy!" However, the reason we all train for this race so much is to be on the TEAM. To be one of the 8 guys selected to represent the Air Force no matter where the venue may end up. Seeing this young group change and evolve each year is really fun to watch. Being with each other in a 5-day break from the real world is amazing but seeing how they lay it out their on the line to dig deep and help each other out on the bike and run really motivates me.
Navy the last three years have beat us by 1 and 2 points respectively, VERY CLOSE! This year both teams knew going into race week, it would be much the same. It didn't disappoint! Top-6 score, I happened to be that 6th place athlete and I was running up the standings on a miserably wet downpour of a course. As we got to the out and back at mile 5 to 5 1/2 with less than a mile to go, I saw Ian King (Team Navy whom I coach...yes, long story). He was the athlete I figured it would come down to and I also had Pat Dougherty (Navy) also breathing down my neck. Suffice to say, in the past Ian's run has always been his weakness but he's been doing some major work and I've put in some key focus workouts for him where huge progress has been made. I laid it all out there but couldn't make up that much ground to pass him even with Spence our Team Office-in-charge yelling at me "if you pass him we win Gold!!!". Mad props to Ian for having an amazing race and keeping on moving up in the standings each year.
So...quick calculations after the race in the downpour showed real no clear delineation of who won. It ended up being a tie with the tie-breaker being the 7th place athlete for each team. So Brett King won it for Team Air Force.
Little bit about the upcoming World Military Games. 7000 athletes, 110 countries, all of the Olympic sports every 4 years the year before the Olympics. So pretty much the little brother of the Olympics. I qualified as the first place Masters (40+ years old) and feel like maybe putting in some quality Olympic distance training focus (instead of Ironman) may put me fairly high up the standings. The two weeks I would be out there occurs during Kona week, so I have some decisions to make, but this occurs every 4 years and who know where I'll be in 4 years :) I don't know how I'm going to attack Ironman Boulder in August, but will go into this fall with plenty of base/volume.
A huge thank you goes out to the Armed Forces Service Representatives and Leon's Triathlon staff for all the work and research that went in to changing the venue, all the logistics of adding a Draft-Legal Military Championships race to an amateur Olympic Distance race. The facilities were great, the course was superb, and the venue having hundreds of people there watching along with the patriotic theme, will make me train with a purpose again throughout the year.
Navy the last three years have beat us by 1 and 2 points respectively, VERY CLOSE! This year both teams knew going into race week, it would be much the same. It didn't disappoint! Top-6 score, I happened to be that 6th place athlete and I was running up the standings on a miserably wet downpour of a course. As we got to the out and back at mile 5 to 5 1/2 with less than a mile to go, I saw Ian King (Team Navy whom I coach...yes, long story). He was the athlete I figured it would come down to and I also had Pat Dougherty (Navy) also breathing down my neck. Suffice to say, in the past Ian's run has always been his weakness but he's been doing some major work and I've put in some key focus workouts for him where huge progress has been made. I laid it all out there but couldn't make up that much ground to pass him even with Spence our Team Office-in-charge yelling at me "if you pass him we win Gold!!!". Mad props to Ian for having an amazing race and keeping on moving up in the standings each year.
So...quick calculations after the race in the downpour showed real no clear delineation of who won. It ended up being a tie with the tie-breaker being the 7th place athlete for each team. So Brett King won it for Team Air Force.
Little bit about the upcoming World Military Games. 7000 athletes, 110 countries, all of the Olympic sports every 4 years the year before the Olympics. So pretty much the little brother of the Olympics. I qualified as the first place Masters (40+ years old) and feel like maybe putting in some quality Olympic distance training focus (instead of Ironman) may put me fairly high up the standings. The two weeks I would be out there occurs during Kona week, so I have some decisions to make, but this occurs every 4 years and who know where I'll be in 4 years :) I don't know how I'm going to attack Ironman Boulder in August, but will go into this fall with plenty of base/volume.
A huge thank you goes out to the Armed Forces Service Representatives and Leon's Triathlon staff for all the work and research that went in to changing the venue, all the logistics of adding a Draft-Legal Military Championships race to an amateur Olympic Distance race. The facilities were great, the course was superb, and the venue having hundreds of people there watching along with the patriotic theme, will make me train with a purpose again throughout the year.
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