USA Triathlon Multisport Festival and National Championships Omaha June 5-9, 2024

Four days in Omaha of several slightly different events: triathlon, duathlon (run-bike-run), Aquabike (swim - bike), Aquathlon (Swim-run) and relays! Several competitions of National Championship status and qualifiers for world championships.

For triathlon, which is my main focus, the shorter distances are covered: supersprint and draft legal sprint. But this year, I tried supersprint duathlon as well. Three hours later I did the supersprint triathlon. The distances are so short that I figured I could handle both competitions the same day.

At the duathlon start 7 am, I met some friends from previous competitions and got talking. The super sprint is a time trial with people starting every 3 seconds, and I was so distracted that I almost missed my own start and lost a few seconds right there! I also forgot to start my smart watch, so I have no recording of the race

I took up the chase and passed a lot of people on the first run which was abut 1 km, but I don't think I was closing in on the best competitors, it was hard to see. I had decided to not change into clip-in biking shoes for the 5km bike course, my thinking was that I would save time in transition. 

Bike went fine, I felt, I had good speed without being exhausted. At transition 2, I could not find my racking place immediately, despite having memorized and walked it beforehand. I ran past it and had to backtrack. A few more seconds unnecessarily lost.

Now, I could give all on the remaining 1km run. I did not have anyone pass me, but I was catching up with a few stragglers. I was running in carbon plated super shoes and felt relatively strong. The last bit was uphill, and I managed a sprint.

I did not know my opposition, as it was my first duathlon race, and I was happy to see I managed a second place in this National Championship. My little mishaps did not make a difference, I would not have reached first place. But number three was just a few seconds behind me!

Now, I had to reload for the triathlon supersprint in three hours. I drank a nutritional shake and took an energy gel, that was it. I was tired, but not too bad. I avoided the sun that was increasingly hot and rested in shade for most of the time.

For the triathlon, I had decided to follow the same formula of making transitions simple, no changing in and out of bike shoes, and no wet suit. At start I got nervous seeing that most competitors had the wetsuit, but it was too late for me to change my mind. It was quite windy, and waves were getting up and without wetsuit I can switch into breaststroke that is easier for me in rough water. I felt the swim went ok, I swam in a straight line and kept up with my start wave.

Transition was fast and bike was the same course as the duathlon, but this time we had winds that made it harder. Transition 2 went without problems this time and I now had to run the same course as previously in the morning. It felt a little slower, but I pushed to the end.

Fourth place which is what I had predicted after seeing who was in the field. My bike time was about a minute slower that in the morning, I think this was mainly due to the winds, I am not good at pushing through headwind. Run was only a few seconds slower; I was surprised as I felt a lot more tired on this race.