I'm the State Champion is my Age-Group!!!!

Under normal circumstances I'd be pretty pleased with this. It was my 'A' race for the season and I achieved my goal. Unfortunately, the race wasn't well supported and many of the guys who could have probably beaten me didn't show up.

I think that there are four reasons for this lack of support ....

1. 3 Disciplines might declare the race to be the State Championships but, so what? It's no more of a qualifier for Nationals than any other USAT- sanctioned event. There are accredited events at regional level but there are no "official" State Championships in any State.
2. The event seems to be cursed weather-wise. In 2007, it was 38 degrees on race morning; in 2008 it rained heavily and this year it was 50 degrees and blowing a gale.
3. The day of the event was poorly chosen. It clashed with the Chicago Triathlon and with IM Kentucky!
4. If we set point #1 aside and we agree that it is desirable to have a State Championship event, shouldn't the race organization treat it as such and make it a bit special? For example, at the prize giving Eric Fernando, Kraig Schmottlach and I were all sitting at the same table. Eric won the race overall, Kraig won the men's masters and I won the men's 45-49. Our prizes were picture frames with a kind of hand-made certificate inside them .... let's say with an intrinsic value of fifty cents. Now some of the prizes in the raffle on the other hand were worth having .... heart monitors, kit bags, Hammer Nutrition products etc.. I don't think any of us really race for prizes but, it would be kinda nice if the award you got for winning was better than the one for getting lucky in the raffle!

The pity of it all is that it's actually a pretty good course for a championship event. The bike course has 3 U-turns and the run course has two, so (provided you can count) it's pretty easy to see exactly what position you're in.

I realized by the start of the run that there was nobody in my age-group in front of me. Also, although he was only a couple of minutes in front of me at the start of the run, I know Kraig is a much better runner, so there wasn't a chance of winning the master's category overall. I ended up just about running hard enough so that I didn't get overtaken and finished in 13th place overall.

It's a funny feeling when you achieve your goal in your 'A' race but feel disappointed because there was nobody else there to make a race of it.

Maybe, I'll try to peak for Ann Arbor in 2010 as that race seems to attract a higher level of competition although I'm not really a June racer. ..... might do Chicago instead, although it's a lot more expensive and I'd really rather spend the money in-State..