In my last I Practice What I Preach article, I described my fifth-place finish in the Sprint event at the World Triathlon Championships in Hamburg, Germany ten days ago. Two days after the Sprint, I competed in the Mixed Relay. This event involves four teammates each doing a Super-sprint (300-meter swim, 3.1-mile bike, .9-mile run) with their combined times determining the winner.  This race was my 4^th Mixed Relay (MR) and I will say this event is the most fun and exciting in triathlon. I was fortunate to be teamed with KC Bailey (who was fourth in the Sprint two days before and who also won the Sprint event at the Multisport National Championship in April in TX where I was second), as well as Lisa Marquis and Catherine Frye, two of the top women in their age group.

As a way to moderate my outcome expectations for the MR, I researched the other teams and saw that there were a British team and a German team that looked fast, leading me to believe that a podium was a reasonable goal to set for ourselves. I was much more relaxed and positive about the MR than the Sprint, partly because it appears that the Super-sprint is my best event, having earned my first world championship podium in Abu Dhabi and my first national championship title at this distance in TX. We agreed that I would lead off, followed by Catherine, KC, and Lisa (the order had to be male/female/male/female).

Another interesting thing about the MR is that it may be the most painful of all of the triathlon events. To be sure, longer distances, such as an Ironman, are hard, but the intensity is, by definition, lower because of the distance that’s covered. In contrast, the MR is full gas, all out start to finish. It’s basically 20ish minutes of non-stop pain.

As the leadoff, the swim leg was a straight shot point-to-point. I again pushed it as hard as I could and came out of the water in a solid position. I then sprinted into T1 (the transition area for the MR was, thankfully, much shorter than the Sprint), passing people and had a quick transition to the bike.

I once again really focused on consistent intense effort on the bike. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find anyone else to draft off of, but there was a group of three riders just out of reach who, nonetheless, motivated me to keep pushing trying to catch them. I passed all of them in transition on my way to my running gear.

My T2 had two problems that, fortunately, didn’t impact the results of the race. First, I couldn’t get one of my running shoes on. Second, as I began my run, I dropped my hat and had to take a few steps back to get it. I probably lost a total of ten seconds which, again, didn’t affect the race outcome. But the three guys whom I passed in transition left the transition area just ahead of me.

The run in the MR is only .9 miles, but it was for 5:53 minutes of pure suffering for me. My legs were dying and my lungs were bursting. Here is where I was using every mental tool at my disposal to keep pushing hard to the finish: positive self-talk, controlled breathing, relaxing my body, smiling. I set my sights on the three runners ahead of me and slowly reeled them in and, with about 250 meters to go, passed them on the final straight, led my team into first place for the first leg of the MR, and tagged Catherine who began the second leg.

After I finished, gasping for air, I felt really good about my race, once again, feeling that I had given it my all. After catching my breath and drinking some water, I moved to the stands and watched and cheered as Catherine tagged KC. We were a solid third place and I spent the rest of the race next to KC’s wife who was following the splits in real time. We maintained our third place as KC tagged Lisa and was jumping with joy alongside KC and Catherine as Lisa crossed the finish line with our lock on the bronze medal.

I was so thrilled and had a smile that wouldn’t leave my face. I had accomplished my outcome goal of a World Championship podium finish. Just as importantly, I executed my MR race extremely well and simply couldn’t have gone any faster. It was an honor and a pleasure to be a part of this team with KC, Catherine, and Lisa presented the USA on the world stage.

Since returning home, I’ve had a few days to recover from the races and the jetlag, and am now back to intense training in preparation for my next “A” series of races, USAT National Triathlon Championships in Milwaukee August 5-6, where I will be racing the Olympic and Sprint distances (non-draft-legal). I have some big goals for those two races, but will wait to share them with you after the races in my next article in my “I Practice What I Preach” series.