13 July 2009

Good Day In San Francisco

In 1974 the wonderful sport of Triathlon began in Mission Bay, Southern California. So it is only fitting that I have my seasonal best performance thus far, here in San Francisco, California. I had the absolute pleasure of rooming with Whitfield, with a last minute decision to race in San Francisco. It was a great opportunity to watch and learn from someone who knows exactly what to do and without being too much of a backpack I hope, I soaked it up.

Race morning, I kept it simple, ate rather light, had my coffee and found ways to distract myself as to keep my nerves and anxiety well in control. I warmed up running early for 20min. Swim warm up was no more than a minute but was good enough. I was introduced to the start line as, "Andrew McCartney, ranked 8th in the world cup Series." Ha ha ha. (I was ranked 8th in this race)


On the line I had Whitfield on my left and Collington on my right. A little bit of a slow reaction rate but all in all a good start. I saw Dustin McLarty to my right. I worked my way over to him and we were off. First lap, we stuck rather close. Second lap he would put in an effort in and gap me out into T1. Boy those McLarty’s can swim. On to the bike with a good transition McLarty and I began riding together, holding steady with Kyle Leto and Whitfield close behind. The 4 of us started working together narrowing down to Leto, Whitfield and I. After a strong pull around 4 of 6laps, I had a moment of weakness and a lapse of concentration. So for the final 2 laps I made things pretty hard on myself, trying to hold off the second pack and to keep in contact with Whitfield and Leto. With a fast transition, my legs were there right away. Finally. Although the course was flat, the winds made for an extra challenge. (explaining the slow run times all around) I set my eyes on Leto about 40sec ahead of me and ran myself into 2nd, while running scared due to the charging chase pack behind me. I held it together finishing 2nd to Simon with Kevin Collington in 3rd, James Elvery in 4th and Kyle Leto rounding up the top 5. I am quite pleased with the final result and feel this is a start of something good.

Hesults Can Be Found Here.

Well racing to come is a bit up in the air, which makes training a bit up in the air as to whether I focus on a good training block or rest up for more racing. I will keep you updated.

Hope all is well.
Ciao for now,
Andrew McCartney

2 comments:

Vincent said...

congrats on the race! Great to have a big confidence booster regardless of when your next race is. Good luck with the recovery.

Derek WL said...

Congrats man!

Maybe I'll see you on the strizzeets of Victoria! We can have a bike duel which of course I will come Victorious from!

BAHAHAH!
Sweet job man!