Armed Forces Championship 2008

Team Air Force posing on the beach for one of the sponsors. I'm on the left, McCoy with his fist in the air.

This was my goal race for the year. It’s tough to peak in May when living in this climate, especially this year. On the other hand, there’s too much on the line with this race. Twelve men and six women are selected from each branch of the US military. The top eight men and four women score for their team. We also have Team Canada racing this year. The Air Force is the defending champion for the second consecutive year. It’s my sixth time on the team and was glad to have my training partner, Mike McCoy, coming along with me from Fairchild. The race starts on the California coastline near Malibu.

We were essentially paid athletes for the week, flown to the race, put up in the beach hotel, given clothes and racing gear while we did whatever we needed to do to get ready for the race. I needed rest. It’s a major perk for me to be able to sleep as much as I’d like at night. Since I was in my taper, it made for a fun and relaxing time.

A new theme for this year is time conservation. In the past, I’d get to a race site hours before the race to make sure everything was perfect. This year I get to races at last minute and enjoy a lot more of my day at the expense of a small amount of time on the race course. Our race started at 10:08, so I stayed in bed until 9:30. Our racks were numbered and I was staying at the race site. When I got to the transition area, it was absolute chaos. We race the only amateur ITU race sanctioned by USAT, so we had to follow ITU rules. We had bins instead of a transition area. They made an error and put too many bikes per rack. Brake levers overlapped adjacent brake/shifter cables, handle bars ended up locked, pedals, shoes and derailleurs tangled with the same on the next bike. I couldn’t even reach my bin with bikes hanging over it. We had pandemonium! ITU officials gave in to reason and provided another rack.

Around 70 men start packed shoulder to shoulder. We needed a lot more room in the water.

I went down to the water, lined up and waited to start. I lined up at the back and on the right side. It was a beach start against a very exclusive field. I’m normally a mid pack swimmer there and wanted to avoid the beating I received last year. Once the gun went off, I went over the start line and made my way to the far right. I plunged into the 52 to 53 degree water (not sure which ended up being official) and started swimming untouched. It freezes the hands, face and feet, but strangely, I was handling it very well. It helped that I was alone. My first thought was actually “I wish I had trained harder.” I quickly countered with “I did train harder.” I wish it helped more. The best I could manage was 21st place male with a time of 22:39.

Everyone had a beet red face and hands from the frigid water. You can see the line where the wet suit no longer covered the skin.

It’s hard to tell if it was long or short. It didn’t matter to me. I was just glad to hear the announcer call out “Mike McCoy from Fairchild AFB.” I knew he was right in front or just behind me. It turns out he was just behind. It’s a good thing too. My timing chip came off with my wet suit and I had to fish it out. T1 was 1:01, which moved me up one spot to 20th. Mike was :15 back, so I was going to wait for him. Surrounded by marines, I started barking orders to start organizing, but also that we were going to wait for McCoy. Once together, we did our best to reel people in and make them work in our pack. It was a bit of a mess having a bunch of amateur racers with a few pros trying to race draft legal. We got it done though and I was able to move up to 14th place after the bike leg of 57:53. I had a terrible T2 also. My breaks wouldn’t slide over the new rack they put out for us, so a few attempts later, I was onto the run. My split was :30, moving me into 13th place.

Three AF and three Marines trying to work together. I'm on the left with McCoy in the center. Our pack just picked up a faster swimming AF Team mate who held on for a half lap of the four lap course.

It was really windy and hot on the two loop 5K. I managed to reel one guy (David Steele) in before we completed a short dog leg. On the way back and onto the long dog leg, Steele picked up a really nice draft behind me. The wind was really tough to battle. He drafted like a champ, but I couldn’t afford to slow up enough to let him pull, even if he wanted to. I needed to be 6th. I don’t know how many times he clipped my heel, but apologized numerous times before finally telling me he’d buy me a beer. I told him that I didn’t mind and that it was just a race that I felt lucky to be a part of. OK, so I was doing a lot of gasping for air in the process, but that’s what I told him. I was pleased with myself for being a great sport while helping a Marine do better against my AF team mates. Before the second 1.5M stretch of brutal head wind, I dropped him and passed my final victims to secure the 6th place spot. I had fifth in my sights, lying to myself by saying that I could catch him from :25 back, which only made me work harder for the same place. My run time was 35:04. Like it seems every year, I had the fifth fastest run. My finish time was 1:57:11.
I never push harder than I do at this race. After a few years of finish line face plants, the docs let me know before I start that they'll be there to catch me at the finish. As you can see, there's nothing left and I'm going down, but they were ready to drag me away with my toes in the sand.

The end result assured me a spot on Team USA and an all expense paid trip to Estonia. McCoy finished 13th overall in 2:00:26, but earned a spot on the Masters Team USA. He’s one fast dude. AF men finished 2nd to Navy, lead by Olympic Trials 6th place finisher Tim O’Donnell. The AF women finished third after dominating the women’s division for years. Our top female, Jolene Wilkenson, was in an accident the week before the race and won’t be able to train/race for two months. She was 2nd last year to Justine Whipple who took sixth in under 23 worlds in Vancouver and took silver at last year’s Military Worlds.

This is my traditional pose. This time with the Red Bull arch making a nice background. I was given more Red Bull than I could drink in three weeks, but I defied the odds and finished up with a day to spare!

This will be my 4th time on Team USA. If getting to wear our national colors and have a chance to compete against top world competition, several of which have been in the Olympics, I get to miss another two weeks of work on top of the one I was already given. Of 2.69 million troops, many train hard and race hard for this opportunity. Unlike other Team USA teams and programs, we’re completely taken care of. We still get paid our wages without having to use our leave. We don’t have to buy our uniforms or equipment, pay for our rooms, airfare or food. In fact, they actually pay us more while providing us a great support staff. Between that and the Air Force Team, I get far more than I deserve. It’s a rare opportunity, so I share the details in order to better understand the experience, since it’s far more than just another race.