USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships

My first outdoor triathlon this year happened to be the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships event in Milwaukee, WI. In an ideal world, I should have done at least 1-2 races prior to this race but because I was traveling so much this year and was out of the country for 2 months from May to mid-July, it was impossible for me to do any race before this one. 

I came back from Thailand about 3 weeks prior to this race and had been really busy with other #life and #work stuff that I did not really pay much attention to the training. I qualified for the nationals from my sprint tri at Tri Cle last year and my coach said it would be a good experience for me to go to the national championships event. I agreed with him.

I signed up for the olympic distance, which was on Saturday, August 5th. We left for Milwaukee on Thursday. The event was so much fun and it was a 3-day event. What's so special about this year is that they also had the PTO US open race (for professional triathletes) on Friday (men's race) and Saturday (women's race). I got to watch the pros like Jan Frodeno, Kristian Blummenfelt, Sam Long, which was pretty cool to see in person. They were really fast.. especially in T1 and T2. 

On Friday, I went to the packet pick-up super early and did the swim familiarization after the open water competitions started. The water temp was 70F and I was glad that I did the swim fam because I realized that the water was too cold for me (I am used to swimming in 78-80F water). I only had a short sleeve wetsuit and the water temp at IM Mont Tremblant will be approx the same (if not colder). So, after the swim fam, I went to the race expo and bought a long sleeve wetsuit (just in case). 

The water was perfect - calm and cool. 

We had to rack our bikes before 4pm on Friday (no race day racking). 

After the packet pick up and swim familiarization, we went to lunch at a brewery where I had my last beer before the race. 

Race day:

Chef P. drove me to the race and I set up the transition area around 6:20am (transition closed at 6:55am). The first wave (Male 30-34) started at 7am and luckily my wave was pretty early (7:52am). I was really really nervous because it was my first tri race this year. Normally, I would have done one or two tri races by this point.  

They let each wave in the water about 5-10 minutes prior to the start time to do a short warm up and get some water in the wetsuit. I was hoping that with the swim fam yesterday and the pre-race warm up today I could stay relaxed and calm during the swim (I had a short moment of panic attack in the water during the swim familiarization). Well, it turned out that I wrapped the collar of my wetsuit too tight and had another panic attack in the water about 50m in :( I had to stop to figure out what was wrong and decided to loosen up the wetsuit, which did help. After 250m in, I was able to get into the rhythm and keep swimming (and stay relaxed). 

[Here is a funny side story at the start line]

While we were waiting for our wave to start (after the swim warm-up), the announcer casually announced that there was an athlete with an interesting job profile at this year's race. I thought to myself "wow, that person must be an aerospace engineer or have a high-profile job". 

Then, he said "This athlete is a professor" (I thought..oh nice, someone with a similar profile to me. I must go to say hi to that person after the race). 

Then, he said "Professor Sydney Chinchanacha;sdkaw;er [of course, he butchered my last name], can I see where you are?" (I thought... oh shit. That person was ME!!!). By that time, I was already in the water holding onto the platform ready to start the race. I raised my hand and everyone around me looked at me and said "it's YOU????". I nodded. Then, everyone was pointing at me trying to help the announcer locate me in the water. He came to me and gave me a fist pump. He then talked about my profile for 5 minutes saying that I'm a professor at the University of Akron. He went to my ratemyprofessor.com to read students' comments about me as he was curious (according to him, many professors had bad reviews). He also read some of the students' comments about me and my classes to the whole race... then, he concluded that I am a good teacher based on my students' reviews. Yep. That's my 5 minutes of fame at the USA Triathlon Nationals. Not because of my athletic performance but because of my job profile. I guess there were not many professors who were triathletes and qualified for the Nationals? (the only person I know would be Matt Evans, a professor in Physics at the UW-Eau Claire. He was my inspiration to get into running and triathlon).  

I knew that this distance was not for me in any way. Historically, I have been training for long long races and I am not a good sprinter. I kept reminding myself of my coach's words "just enjoy the race and have fun. This is a good experience for you". And it certainly was! 

Despite the panic, I was pretty happy with my swim time (not fast). T1 was again rusty. Then, I started biking and everything felt right. I was able to pass many people on the bike. The bike course was windy and we had to bike up a long bridge (my favorite section). Thank god the rides around the airport in Thailand for 2 months trained me to deal with a strong headwind. The bike actually ended too fast for me as I was having a really good time passing people :) ...

T2 was pretty smooth. I went in and out fairly quickly. During my training runs, I always go slow and aim for a consistent, sustainable pace because I knew I would not be sprinting in the Ironman. So, I told myself at the start of the run that I would jog at a consistent pace that I felt comfortable with. I was looking for consistency, rather than an all-out sprint. I was not going to win the race anyway. Three miles in and I still felt pretty good. So, I sped up a bit and was able to keep that pace until I crossed the finish line. And yes, when I crossed the finish line, the announcer said "There comes the Professor - Sydney Chinchana!!! (and again talked about how good of a teacher I was)". 

I saw Chef P. before I crossed the finish line. He managed to capture this photo of me (I look fast in the pic). My result was better than I expected (I had a low expectation to start with). Most importantly, I had fun at the race and enjoyed every moment of it. It was a privilege to have an opportunity to race among very good athletes from around the country.  

I could not resist the urge to knit in public at the USAT Nationals in my tri gears LOL 

After the race, we went to breweries because this was the main reason why my sherpa (Chef P.) was there. He even said that my olympic tri was too short (only 3 hours). He prefers that I do very long races like an Ironman so he has time to go back to the hotel and take a nap (and get some work done). My races are also limited to only locations where my sherpa wants to go (e.g., somewhere in Europe). This time we visited Pabst historic buildings and beer hall. It was nice to drink beer and talk to the locals who love the Packers. Overall, it was nice to be back in Wisconsin again after 7 years. 

Well, that's a wrap for my USAT Nationals experience. While training for races is a lot of work and time-consuming, I feel like it also makes me whole. It makes me who I am and is part of my identity. I cannot imagine myself NOT being active and staying in front of the computer/binge-watching Netflix for the whole weekend. The next race is in 2 weeks and I have so much to do before then. 

Sydney