I'm Back!!!

I've been away from the blog for about a year, and this is probably were most would say how sorry they are that they haven't kept people up to date on all of there shenanigans. However, I am not going to say that. Mainly due to the fact that I'm not that sorry. I just had a busy year, but I will take this time to fill you in on what happened during the 2010 season.

It was a big year for me, I was able to fulfill a dream I have had pretty much ever since I started racing seriously in the sport. I was accepted onto the United States Air Force Triathlon Team! This meant that I would be traveling from my home in Germany all the way to California in order to race in my first draft legal triathlon. As you can tell by the picture below (taken at the Frankfurt Airport the day I left for Cali) I was pretty excited about it.

(On the way to Cali)

Once arriving in California We had a couple of busy days prior to the race to get our bikes inspected and do some training. I definitely did not expect California to be as cold as it was. I was lucky to get to enjoy the experience with my wife as she made the journey separately to watch me in the race. I would have loved to have been able to give her a good showing during the race, but that wasn't to be. I ended up getting beat up quite a bit in the swim and ended up getting taken out of the water by the lifeguards. Needless to say, that's where my race ended. I was pretty dissapointed, but the team ended up taking first place so that helped....a little. So I sucked that up and began looking ahead to the next race which was two weeks later in Baumholder Germany.

(training in California)

I was looking forward to having a good performance in Baumholder considering I was in the best shape of my life and didn't get to use any of it in Cali. So the day of the race came and I was feeling ready. The family and friends were there to cheer me on.

The race started off just how I wanted it to. I came out of the swim in 4th place and came out of transition in 3rd. I was prepared to throw down on the bike since it is a non drafting race I was ready for it to be a battle. The battle wasn't to be... I ended up having to repair two flat tires on the course which effectively ended my chances of winning that race. I decided I couldn't call it quits and have two DNF's in a row so I suffered through the bike (my tire went flat again with around 15km to go forcing me to ride on a flat front tire) and finished the race with a strong run split.

(feeling dejected after my first flat)

The rest of the season consited of racing on the 2012 Olympic course in London which was a blast, and at the ITU (International Triathlon Union) race in Kitzbuehl, Austria. The family was not able to make it to London with me which was a weird feeling. I had never raced a triathlon without them there.

I am now training for the 2011 season, I hope to be back in California in April to race with the AF again and I am training to make it to the Military World Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. I try harder this year to keep you updated on my progress towards the goal of making it to Brazil. I hope this helps get you back up to date.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!