You show up and race the competition that is there...that's all you can do. I thought the field at Redman would have been deeper since it was the qualifier for ITU long-course Worlds (hosted by Redman in 2016) but maybe not on the same scale that MKE was in 2014 for ITU Worlds in Chicago for the sprint and olympic distances. An issue may have been the timing of Redman with it being a week after ITU Worlds and a week before Kona. Another issue may be that so many racers look at 70.3 Worlds as the ultimate goal for this distance and not ITU Worlds...so, instead of going to USAT nationals those racers are focused on 70.3 qualifiers.

I'm not delusional about my OV or even my AG win at Redman. On paper, Tim (flatted), Kirk (flu) and Dave Slavinski (injured and didn't toe the line) are all in my AG and would have probably won, maybe even handedly. You always want to beat someone when they are at their best - so that legitimizes the win - but that doesn't always happen. There is no asterisk in the results that show what issues each person had that day.

I was thrilled to finally get my hands on the championship jersey because I have been a consistent bridesmaid to Slavinski and Kevin O'Connor at the sprint, standard and long-course distances for both triathlon and duathlon. I tried on the jersey as soon as I got home and quickly realized that it is not the quality to race in - or even train in. It will go in the trophy room.

Finally, although there isn't a qualifier for USAT long-course nationals (there isn't one for the sprint either) it doesn't impact the front end of the race or the podiums for each AG. It probably does water down the TEAM USA slots, especially when USA hosts ITU worlds and gets additional slots but that even happens to a certain extent with the standard-distance, which does have a qualifier for nationals! You'd probably have to go further upstream and make the qualifications more stringent.

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Straightenin' the curves; Flattenin' the hills
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Coached by Mike Plumb @ TriPower MultiSports
https://www.strava.com/athletes/1149072 - https://www.instagram.com/thoswoods/

Tom, congrats on your title! It was good to meet you in Chicago (I'm Patrick) and I was amazed to watch you absolutely fly away from me out of T2 into the run up there! I have been trying to learn from your workouts on Strava. Very interesting mix of workouts.

Again, congrats on Chicago and Redman!

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Rock Chalk!

Great points. I am not the fastest guy around, but I race the races and have been fortunate enough to make 70.3 Worlds twice and ITU Worlds this year (standard). I was lucky enough to get a rolldown spot on M40-44 but put it upon myself to prove my value and ended up 16th on Team USA and top 25% overall in age group. I never take away from anyone who earns a spot because they did everything they could to get there, stay healthy, and race the race.

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Rock Chalk!

To me ITU is losing out with the timing of the race but if they hold in in a place like OKC no one is going to want to do long distance race in June or July. They could move it to early in the year but with ITU most people are just coming out of base training in the spring. Between 70.3 and Kona you are missing out on a lot of great athletes joining. The fact that I was waiting on technical for 15+ minutes and still qualified for WC shows the strength and depth of the field. No way I would have qualified at an IM branded championship.