Monterrey World Cup

Monterrey marked the first race of the year. After a consistent winter of being pushed to another level of training I was foaming at the mouth to hear the horn.

I've learned a lot in the last 3 months. More than I thought I could. So when it came time to devise a race plan with Phil, I sat down and made it clear to myself what I needed to do to race well.

24hrs out of the race I began to execute this plan and stuck to it. Here is how it went.

For Mexican standards this race was cold. Water at 22c, air 20-25c with a cool wind made it important to stay warm at the start. I warmed up with a borrowed wetsuit, thx McCharles, and kept it on right up until they began calling us onto the pontoon.

The swim for this race was the area I had concern over. I had not been hitting the usual paces I tap out for 10days leading into this race.
All that changed though when I dove in and found myself on the hip of the leader. I then had a section where I struggled a bit and the mob was soon all over me. From there on I just had to focus on limiting the blows and contact in an effort to conserve yet still maintain contact with the group.

Have a look these swim videos to get the picture 1 and 2

Out of the water in usual fine fashion, AMac had seriously stung things out on the back half of the swim. A lead group of 8 or so joined andrew at the front. I found myself settled into the main pack of 25 I'd say. It included some heavy hitters on the bike(graves ,colucci, chrabot, butterfield) which had the pace cranked for 10k. I felt strong but still never got near the front until things settled a bit. The gap between the two groups shrunk to 30-40s and then stayed there throughout the 40k.

One engrained memory I have of the race was anticipating 4 or 5 water bottles to pop out as we rode over a large speed bump. I smiled as my $3 MEC holders did their job.

An error I made was coming into t2. I was too content and entered in near the back. This may have cost me up to 3 positions as I now look at the results.

In previous races I would sometimes dread the run. On this day though I looked at the run as my time to showcase the hard work put in and all the advice and support on running I received in the last while from all sources.

Focusing on maintaining contact with the group we set out for a fast first k. From 2-6k I felt very fluid and strong working my way up to 8th. The last lap I faded and couldn't match butterfield and a few others who came by.

Crossing for 11th I was elated and proud to have been able to express how if you stick to a process your goals can come to fruition.

Thank you Phil, my teammates, Noa, Jairus, Gibson, Dr. Guan, and my friends and family.

Next up: More hard work and the Vancouver Sun Run for a real good rip at 10k.