Looking Back, Looking Ahead

 A whole lot to catch up on since my last post! 

1. Spain! 

Ok, learned a lesson here. It was an amazing trip full of great family moments. But I'd have to admit it felt like a rehash of last year in Pontevedra. And the venue was pretty much as dull as I was expecting. Rather than an ancient European city (Pontevedra), it was a beach town that looked more like Myrtle Beach than anything. I also kind of almost died on the swim so that wasn't fun. The story there was just there was tons of people, HUGE waves, and some current to contend with. And if I was totally honest, my heart wasn't as into it as last year. Bike was real good, run was decent so I did fine, but nothing to really linger on. "Ok Adam cry me a river about your multi week Spanish vacation". I know I know. But I think I'm done with the high pressure World Championship venues for a while. I had a goal for 2024, I qualified, I competed, moving on. 2023 will be the magical World Championship we all want to remember. Michael Jordan as a Bull not a Wizard.

2. Year in Review: 

Despite the Spanish race, it was an amazing year. 2024. Pretty convincingly the greatest athletic year I've had to date. Let's make the call for the 2024 goals:

A) Travel as much as possible:

Jeebus this was a check. Sure they cancelled the Key West at the end of the year but I was still able to race in:

1. Florida
2. Cuba(!)
3. North Carolina
4. Virginia
5. South Carolina
6. Texas
7. Tennessee
8. Spain
9. Arizona

B) Win NCTS for Age Group:

 Done! Had the 5th most points overall (no one in same age range)

C) Win SCTS for Age Group: 

Done! Had the 8th most points overall (no one in same age range)

D) Get USAT All American Status:

They don't close the books until February but I can say done!

E) Qualify for 2025: 

Not sure how to score this one. I guess a miss. I realized half way through year that not only was my family burned out on these mega trips, nobody had any interested in Australia. So I skipped Omaha. If there is a miss here, I didn't recognize what a death march this would become.

F)<STRETCH> #1 Ranking for Triathlon in my AG in NC:

In the category of "better to be lucky than good", it looks like (not official until February) I'm going to end up as the top ranked triathlete in my age group in the state of North Carolina. There are some better guys out there but just didn't do the minimum 3 races. But let me make my case (to myself) that I should be in the conversation regardless:

1. Within those 9 places above I traveled, I managed to do 30 triathlons in 2024. I also raced on Thanksgiving which is the tradition and managed to squeak out a win at the Reindeer Romp 5k in Cary for the second year in a row. 
2. How did I do in these 30 triathlons?
• 27 1st Place AG Division finishes
• 25 1st Place AG Overall finishes
• 25 Top Ten Overall finishes. FWIW, the race in Spain was never going to be a top 10 OA and another race I did had the top collegiate triathletes in the nation, so...
• Improved my USAT score in 10 of 14 races I repeated year over year. Of the 4 I didn't improve, 3 were before I made an early season training adjustment. The other one (and actually one of the 3 previously mentioned) had some shenanigans. Like, the swim was much further, so our times were worse, so I ended up having a lower score. This is all voodoo but I pay attention to it.
• 9 Podiums
• 2 Outright wins
• 4 2nd places
• 3 3rd Places
• Highlight Races:
• 1st AG Overall in Cuba, stood on same podium that Gwen Jorgenson was on minutes earlier at the Hotel Nationale in front of peacocks. PEACOCKS!
• 1st Overall Master at the Cap Tex in Austin (massively huge race)
• 1st AG at NC State Championship
• 6th OA at YMCA Wilmington (massively huge race)
• 3rd American in AG at World Championships
• Won a Toy Pineapple for winning Sprint of the Konas in TN and saw lions and an elephant en route to winning Miami Man.

3. Now the Hell What:

Yeah. Still working on it to be honest. Some thoughts...

First, the idea of traveling to South Carolina to win a South Carolina prize makes less and less sense. This may be surprising but, I don't like in South Carolina. I'm actually pretty freakin far from these races. And I was (not kidding) literally passing closer races on my way to these races. So I'm done with the SCTS series. I may pick up a race if I happen to be in Charlotte, but that got old almost immediately. 

Second, I probably competed in the most races in America (or close to it). I can't help but feel like my USAT scores are not being properly calculated as a result. For instance, first race of the year last year, got second, felt like I had a crap swim, got a 95. Race 19 of the year, after racing every week, training hard got second again, felt really strong. Got a 92. I've also noticed that certain races I do, tend to produce better scores than others.

Third, now that I have actually (seemingly) achieved top ranking in state, I really can't make it a stretch goal anymore.

4. Here are my 1st Draft 2025 Goals...

1. All American Status: Gunning for 3 years in a row here...
2. Win NCTS for AG: Planning on doing a lot of these, going to go for my 4th in a row (3rd in this AG)
3. Improve my overall USAT Final Score: Again, there be shenanigans afoot. But I need some measure to show progress and this is easiest. I could mention here that I want to improve year over year again but that is implied within this. Also, I could mention that I may try to hunt and find high score races. But again, redundant to the above goal. 
4. Fuck me, be the highest ranking triathlete in my age group in the state again