Failure in Omaha 2024

It’s one week out after the 2024 Duathlon National Championships where I competed in the Olympic Distance. To sum it up simply, I failed…

This is a humbling sport. Coming off my best year where I placed 2nd at the race last year and following it up a week later placing 11th at the World Championships and 1st American, I failed quite well. I recorded a post race recap that afternoon. It’s quite raw and I’m including that here if you care to listen. Sport is full of highs and lows and you will see and hear the low in the video.

I did want to wait a bit before writing my recap and I’ll keep it brief as I believe the video captures what was real post race. Now a week out I have a couple highlights to share. Going into the race I was not ready. I developed a leg issue 3+ weeks prior to the race and tried like hell to treat it and I just could not get my body ready. From the start of the race, I just didn’t have it. I battled mentally but I just didn’t have my legs in the game. I hung in for as long as I could before they completely failed me.

This is a hard sport and we all battle stuff throughout the year, years, races, etc. Last year I was ready to race and this year I was not. That is on me and only me. With that said, even if I had my ‘A’ body, I would not have cracked the top two as they simply were incredible.

Like any failed attempt, I reflect, take what I can learn from the experience, and try to get better for the next time. That next time is only nine weeks from yesterday at the World Championships in Townsville, Australia. As I noted at the end of the video, after coming off of a race like this, the first thing I want to do is get back to train – harder, smarter, and race again to shake that horrible feeling.

In this case I simply can’t do that. During final three weeks leading up to the race and this week I have been treated to heal and that is my focus for the next week as well. I need to get to the point where I can start a hard training block leading to Australia. Right now in my head I am planning on one thing and that is to get through this hurdle and head to Australia. If I don’t progress in the next week I will need to reconsider the trip…but not yet. This will make me stronger as an athlete, coach, and person…

On the plus side, I had my team and friends around me so after the post race reflection by myself, I snapped back at dinner and the following days enjoying everybody’s stories and races. On the final day I participated in two quick relay teams and they were fun to do. They were super quick, ‘Super Sprints,’ and were a blast cheering our teammates on. We placed 2nd in both relays to finish off the championships in a nice way.

– Add Health to Your Life