Armed Forces National Championships 2011

If you are going to wear the big N, you better represent!


After my last blog post prior to the Armed Force race, I had intended to get right back to writing on how the race went down. As things go, I charged full speed ahead back into life and did not kick out a proper report on our day in Southern California.

WHY I LOVE NAVY SPORTS

Armed Forces National Championships is a very special event, and is like no other race. I have done this race a number of times over the last decade and have to count it as one of my absolute favorites. The first time I ever competed at Armed Forces was in 2003; before this race was draft legal ITU. In 2002, I saw this sign over the water fountain in a navy gym advertising all the sports that take place in All Navy Sports. I was brand new in the sport and was in love with all things triathlon. I saw triathlon as one of the sports, and decided to give the Navy Sports guy a call. He was a really nice guy by the name of John Hickok. He explained the All-Navy process to me, and encouraged me to apply the following year.

I applied for the All-Navy team in 2003 with a race resume of a whopping two races- a 2:11 Olympic distance and my 10:48 first ironman. Navy sports did not select me to the team that year, but invited me down to race in the open division. I leapt at the chance, and obviously all these years later, I am glad I did. That week with the navy team did so much in motivating me to want to do more in the sport and in the navy. I was surrounded by all these young SEALs, pilots, Seabees, submariners, and divers. Among these young navy studs was a 22 year old triathlon phenom from the U.S. Naval Academy by the name of Ensign Timothy O’Donnell. Even though I was an alternate and not a “real” navy team member, I never noticed. The navy team is an inclusive deal. If you are navy-then you are a part of this team. They included me in everything, gave me free shoes, race gear and loaded me in the van with everyone else. Man was I hooked on All-Navy Sports after that! I did my part during the race and finished as the 6th overall navy guy, which got me a spot on the following year’s team. To this day I am in touch with more than half of the members on that 2003 team, and count it as one of my fondest memories in the sport.

There is a reason that All-Navy Triathlon is as strong a program as it is. It hinges on a couple of legacy players who have given tirelessly to this team for over a decade. The primary stakeholder on this team is an inspirational individual by the name of Commander James Felty, USN (retired). Jim was an elite distance runner back when Carter was president, and has been competitive since. He still winds it up in an ironman or two each year. Jim is the flag bearer of this program, and I am convinced it would not even be a team without him. Jim is easy to love and respect. I think any kid who gets the opportunity to race for Jim on the Navy team has the same opinion. Not only are Jim’s accomplishments as an athlete astounding, his journey through the navy ranks is even more so. Jim made his way through the entire enlisted ranks all the way through Master Chief (that is the top for enlisted guys), and then started on the bottom rung of the officer ranks and made it all the way to retiring with scrambled eggs on his hat (the gold braid you see on the navy hat of senior officers). Jim is even a more impressive person in his personal life as the father of four. He is so dedicated to his kids that he is bypassing the opportunity to be the All-Armed Forces coach in Brazil to take his teenage son on a coveted hiking trip.

The second pillar to the Navy Sports triathlon program is a civilian gentleman by the name of Mr. Kent Blankenship. Kent was the race director of the Armed Forces race for a decade and is also the U.S. member that travels overseas representing us on the world’s sports scene, as well as being the coach in Kona for us military types for many years. Kent has moved on to other challenges, but his thumbprint will forever be etched on All-Navy Triathlon. It has been an honor to be on 9 or so All-Navy Teams. It was the support of these two gentlemen, along with a cast of others like Mr. Bill Marx, who as an executive for the Navy Exchange, has kept us navy boys in running shoes and apparel for a decade. Former Navy Sports director Mr. Donald Golden and current director Mr. James Senn do so much for these navy kids. The details of supporting a team each year both at the ITU Olympic distance and fielding an Ironman Team, along with all the support that goes with it, is a maze of details. I have been blessed to be a part of an organization that has enjoyed the full support and dedication of these wonderful men.

As we go forward, I hope that I can begin to pay back for all the years of good racing I have enjoyed with the letters NAVY across my chest. I know for a fact that there are more than a couple of races that I probably could have been talked into walking or quitting were it not for the weight of the big NAVY on my tri kit that kept me hammering all the way to the line. I always say that when you sport the big N, you better represent.

THE RACE

As I wrote in my last post, the race week weather was cold and windy. I had very low expectations for the race weather, but we were pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t warm, but it was warm enough. One of the benefits of this race is the transition area is literally 300 meters out my hotel room door. I lay on my bed under the covers until 40 minutes before the race. I racked my bike, got marked, slid into my wetsuit and walked over to the beach. I passed on the opportunity to get in and warm up. I just hopped up and down a few times and boom, we were off. The water was the coldest I have ever encountered in a race. It was somewhere between 52 and 54 degrees. It was that kind of stinging cold that just hurts. I got out through the surf and started swimming hard. As I came around the first buoy, the cold just kind of brought my arm swing to a slow grind. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to move my arms, but as I went numb, things improved. I have to admit that I swam a terrible first lap. My navigation was terrible, my arm speed was terrible, I was just basically stinking up the place with bad racing. Fortunately for me things improved on the second lap. I got out after the first lap, ran around the buoy and then back into the surf. I was swimming right next to one of my favorite members of the navy squad, Sam Dannenbrang. Sam is a talented young elite age grouper who will go pro in the coming years. You will recognize his name before long. Sam has a perpetual smile on his face, even when he is swimming. He breaths to his left, I to my right, so we just sat there swimming along eye balling each other. It helped me to find my rhythm and I was able to get my swim mojo back. I swam a fantastic second lap and came out of the water pretty happy with things overall.

My T1 was as terrible as my first lap in the swim. I struggled with my wetsuit and lost the group with whom I had swum. For those who know ITU racing, this was death for me as I had just lost the big boy group I needed for the bike. I got out and going on the bike and bridged up to navy teammate Bill “SPIG” Reid. He, I and an army kid who didn’t want to work got on our way. I was able to gently cajole and convince the army kid that it was in his interest to go hard with us. He was slow to respond, but the beauty of being old in a young man’s world is I know how young dude’s brains work. I literally pushed him into his pull a couple of times when I needed to recover. I barked and threw out a couple of “Jonserisms” that got him thinking his physical safety might be at risk if he didn’t take his pulls. He did fine after that and my threats turned to encouragement when he started to suffer later in the ride. We continued to gobble up packs in front of us and we ended up with 4 navy dudes plus me in a pack of 10 or so. As I was racing open division this year and not a scoring member for Navy, I did my best to take a lot of pulls and make something of them so that the navy boys could come off the bike with running legs. There were a couple of Air Force guys who benefited from my bigger , longer pulls as well, but the Air Force guys took their fair share of pulls, so nothing but respect for those cats.

We came off the bike in a big pack and launched on the run. The navy boys in my pack did some terrific running to do their best against a phenomenal Air Force squad who raced intelligently and honorably all day. Air Force won the overall championship as well as the individual championship by an impressive pro named James Bales, an Air Force orthopedic surgeon. We in the navy hate to lose, but if we are going to lose to anyone, Captain James Bales, USAF, is one I like to see do well. He was the bridesmaid for a lot of years while Tim O’Donnell reigned for 5 years as the Armed Forces National Champion. James continued to race tough all those years and is the epitome of what we should be in our sport. I look forward to spending time in Brazil with James.

I got home fine and ran my standard 40 min 10k off the bike. The reality for me is in order for me to ever be successful at this distance I have to run faster. I continue to improve and am optimistic that I will. The question is will I be able to improve enough on the run to ever make the navy team again at this distance. I think I will. The reason I say this in my blog is a lot of folks who read this have the same question about their own performances. Everyone wonders if they will improve, and if so, will they improve to the point that they are truly satisfied. For me, there would be no reason for me to continue in the sport if I didn’t truly believe I could. There are a lot of choices on how I can spend my days. If I am going to dedicate this much time to our sport, I want to be the absolute best athlete I can be. With running as my limiter, I need to continue to focus on it like I have the last few years. My 6 min pr on the run in Kona prove to me that I can in fact keep getting faster.

I enjoyed this race more than I have in the past. I think a big part of it was due to the members of this year’s team. There are some extraordinary young guys wearing NAVY these days. We have some really impressive pro triathletes in Derek Oskutis, Kyle Hooker and Brad Pigage. We have a cast of spectacular age groupers to back up those boys in Sam Dannenbrang, Mike Brown, Zach Poehlman, John Marinovich, Cam Loos and Jay Calvert. There are a couple of others that I am just forgetting, so please forgive me.

I was swimming the other day and I was carrying on a conversation with myself (as I tend to do on longer, harder sets) about why I liked this year’s team so much more than normal. The answer is easy. The 2011 Navy Team is full of phenomenal athletes, but they are even better people. These dudes, by any metric you want to apply, are just amazing human beings. I loved just being in their midst, listening to their conversations and laughter. I am blessed with the opportunity.

Now as Teresa and I fly south toward St Croix, the triathlon adventure continues. Armed Forces Nationals woke up my body and my last three weeks of training have been very solid. I don’t know if it will show up this soon in St Croix, but it will be fun to race there, regardless of the result. I plan on going balls out the whole way as a good training day. I hope for good things. Teresa is starting to come right, and if her tempo run on Sunday is any indication, everybody better just stand by. The Pocket Rocket is getting ready to lay it down.

I’ll try to post some small narratives on our experience in St Croix. We had a magical time last year, and hope for the same this year.

Train with joy or not at all!

Jonser