Huatulco World Cup

Start/Finish line

I assume that most of you reading this already know the result of my Huatulco race. For the first time in my life I DNF'd. Even through flat tires, bad days, and some pretty serious medical issues in college, I've managed to drag myself across the finish line. I just wanted to start off by saying I don't take this lightly and it will take me a while to come to terms with it.

Recently I've been reading some books on the mental side of sports, which indicate that athletes at the highest level (world champion caliber) are accepting of the fact that they could fail, and that it is part of the process. It allows them to fully put themselves out there rather than holding back just a little because of the fear of failure. It's harder than it sounds and it still doesn't mean that the failure hurts any less when it does happen.

To give a quick insight into the Huatulco race setting, I have to state some facts for those who don't know.

Weather: 95degrees, typically 90% humidity
Course: Considered to be the toughest in the World. Big hill at 23% that is done 8 times, plus a roller that is done 8 times both directions.

I went into the race fairly confident, as I consider myself a strong cyclist and I thought "the harder the better,

Swim exit

it will sort out the weak swimmers and cyclists." As it turns out, I was among those that got sorted. I had a great swim start, and didn't hold back at all, putting the "don't be afraid to fail" mentality to work. This paid off with a great position near the front of the race, which I maintained through both laps. Running out of the water, right away I could tell something was off. I felt like I was running in peanut butter and as much as I thought "sprint" and tried to move my legs quickly, they were non-responsive. Think about those bad dreams you have when you're running away from something scary. The feeling persisted, but I decided to just force my way through it to hang with the leaders over the roller both ways and to the bottom of the big climb. This proved to be just a little too much for me in the "faking it" phase I was in and I lost contact with the leaders on the climb. Things just got worse no matter how much water I dumped on myself or how hard I pushed. My legs were useless pieces of meat spinning below me and my day ended a little over halfway through the 40k on the side of the road.

It is particularly difficult to deal with a day like this when my preparation has been so strong. Coach Paulo told me before I left, "Racing is a chance to express fitness." I was (and still am) very excited to show off all the hard work that I've put in over the last six months (and ultimately my whole life thus far) and it is especially painful to miss out on that experience for any reason, let alone one that is a bit of a mystery.

Overall, I'm glad that I made the trip. I may not have had the race that I wanted, but I opted to try and make the jump to the World Cup level at the toughest race there is and the lessons I learned coupled with the fire from failure will be valuable as I continue my career.

Next Race in two days: Lifetime Fitness CapTex