…anyone know how it went today at Point Mugu???
T
no—i raced the sprint (civilian) and left before the military olympic length race began----because i otherwise would have had to wait over two hours to get out.
so----if you find the results, please post them. thanks.
peggy
Found the results! Here they are for those who care:
Super fast times there today…Top 35 males all under 2 hours!!! First Female in 2:00:04!!! Way to go everyone!
Af crushed it this year.
I didn’t think a 1:57.xx at AFC would barely get in the top 30.
The WCAP athletes laid a beating on the rest of us.
It was fun though.
The Military Worlds in the mid 90s were rather competitive. One year, the winner’s name was Thomas Hellriegel…when hell on wheels was destroying everyone on the bike 
Were the bike and run courses short?
1:57 is incredible! Well done B! I guess you’re at Camp P? My buddy Cam raced for the Navy and had an incredible race as well! The times overall have gotten soooo much faster over the past 5 years (other than Tim O’Donnell of course). You should post a Race Report:)!
T
…I’ve never raced there, so I’m not sure if the course is short or not. I do know that it is flat as a pancake and draft legal…that may have had some impact on the times.
T
Were the bike and run courses short?
No, the bike course is the same every year. 4 loop course around the base. It’s accurate. It was 2 or so minutes faster than last year due to calmer winds.
Swim course was good, i swam my normal oly time.
The run course was changed this year from last years course (which i recall was long by .15mi by my measurement. This years course was short by .05mi by my GPS. So it was pretty close. The long beach run to transition makes up for it.
The guys were just really fast this year.
You have to understand that the top guys(6 this year) are part of WCAP(world class athlete program) and live in colorado springs/OTC. There “job” in the military is literally to train as a pro.
The Marines don’t have athletes in that program, it puts us at a slight disadvantage at this contest as its scored by adding up the places of the top 8 guys in your service, lowest score wins.
To put the competition in perspective, the top 35-39 AG’r from st george, only managed 18th/50 in this race with a 1:54.xx.
This is a tough race.
My short RR:
I knew i was in trouble as my swim is still piss-poor. I wanted to swim a 23 to actually come out with some company for the bike but i swam a high 24. The swim was real choppy and i just have not worked on my swim this year enough. I came out with a few of my also mediocre swimming teammates and got on the bike. Attempting to make up time and hopefully catch a small group before they got overly organized i hammered on the first lap, which dropped 2 of the initial 4 guys we started with but picked up a few guys who were in no-mans land. We actually made up almost a minute on the lead group on the first lap (coaches had a whiteboard with times) but that was all we managed to do for the whole ride. We kept catching stragglers and blowing other guys off the back the rest of the bike and expended way to much energy. We only had 3 guys (2 Marines, 1 AF) for the final 2 laps. We held even with the main groups pace, but couldn’t make up time with only 3 guys. Everyone we picked up was already blown and couldnt work, so when they tried to just hang on and not take a turn at the front we would do a small attack to drop them to not give them a free ride. I gave the bike a little too much effort and paid for it on the run. Biking is my strength and i took plenty of extended turns at the front. I ended up biking a 54:3x and started the run. I felt alright and loose for the first mile or so and then my legs just tightened up. I had to back off of my pace and gave up most of the positions i gained. I knew i was in 5th/6th pos for my team and on the last 1.5 miles i was being caught by several runners and at the final turnaround i found some legs again and really gave it all i had on the last mile. I dropped them and finished in 1:57:5x in 28th?spot and ran a 36:50 or so, about 90 seconds slower than i thought i would run but the bike really killed me. Our team had it’s fastest performance ever(top 8 guys under 2 hrs), but so did all the other teams. The swim is what really cost our team a better placing this year and will be worked on. ITU style races are all about the swim/run and it’s impossible to catch groups several minutes up the road, especially when they are WCAP guys.
Great experience again and looking forward to next years race.
Thanks for the RR and once again, great race! Every year I say, “I’m reallly going to work on my times and submit my application for the navy team” and every year the gap between my improvement and the military talent seems to widen! Oh well, the dream is still getting me out the door for those 5 am work outs!
The Marines don’t have athletes in that program, it puts us …
if you’re a marine, was greg price part of your team? i saw that he was 8th overall and with an amazing time—and recalled that he’s a phenomenal athlete. i’m assuming this is the same greg i’ve met in kona, and is over 40. really impressive.
peggy
it puts us at a slight disadvantage at this contest
LOL! You are a master of understatement. Outside of the aberation in 2001 or 2002, it means that a good year for the Marines is to not be last place.
Chad
The Marines don’t have athletes in that program, it puts us …
if you’re a marine, was greg price part of your team? i saw that he was 8th overall and with an amazing time—and recalled that he’s a phenomenal athlete. i’m assuming this is the same greg i’ve met in kona, and is over 40. really impressive.
peggy
Yep, Greg was our all-star this year.
He had a phenomenal race.
it puts us at a slight disadvantage at this contest
LOL! You are a master of understatement. Outside of the aberation in 2001 or 2002, it means that a good year for the Marines is to not be last place.
Chad
Hey, don’t forget the Coast Guard! We don’t get any cool athlete program either. Heck, our only semblance of an athletic program is a $100 grant if you get into a world championship type race to offset costs.
Thanks Peggy and Brian.
Just to clarify for the group, I’m pretty sure Capt James Bales is not a WCAP. The top 6 were pros but only 4 of them were WCAPs. In fact, Capt Bales graduated from med school the week of the race and won it. Very impressive. Air Force only had 1 pro (Bales) but they won overall. I don’t think it’s the lack of a WCAP or a lack of pros that prevents the USMC team from doing better in the team results. I think it’s because we don’t emphasize swimming enough, but that’s going to change very quickly since I hate coming in last ESPECIALLY WHEN I’M WEARING USMC ON MY CHEST! USMC is the only team that has paid coaches (Cadence MultiSport) and I believe we’re the only ones that have a training camp. Swim, Swim, and more Swim is what we need if we’re going to improve. We also need to recruit some young bloods as we had 7 Lieutenant Colonels on the team.
This was definitely the most competitive AFTC that I’ve done (2007-2010) and I have a feeling it’s going to be even tougher next year with Worlds being in Brazil. I know I definitely want to go.
Question for all of the military guys and girls who competed to or who are part of the service:
Would you be adverse to allowing military dependents race in the championship?
Fexy,
Unfortunately, I would say no to dependants. We already have an Open category for Military and I think opening it up to Dependants would take away some of the cameraderie of the race. I like the fact that all of the competitors are fellow servicemembers. The Admirals Cup is the correct venue for Dependants, in my opinion.
Sorry,
Fexy,
Unfortunately, I would say no to dependants. We already have an Open category for Military and I think opening it up to Dependants would take away some of the cameraderie of the race. I like the fact that all of the competitors are fellow servicemembers. The Admirals Cup is the correct venue for Dependants, in my opinion.
Sorry,
No need to be sorry; I asked and I have to admit, someone baited you.
I would like to counter or better yet elicit a reaction with a few questions or some food for thought-
do you not consider your family part of the camaraderie of military life? Is your family not ‘part of’ military life when they move around every couple of years with you, change careers each time, uproot their lives or watch you and your fellow service members leave for months at a time? Is it not your family and fellow service members families who bear a big brunt of your duties and also the one’s who pull together and keep everything moving when you are out serving your country? I would go as far to say that your family and dependents give up MORE than service members when it comes to sacrifices for the military and I find it hard to believe that that would detract from the camaraderie that you have at a race. One more question- by allowing family members to compete side-by-side, do you not think that might boost overall morale and camaraderie amongst the entire military as family members; similar to how you feel a bond with training partners, race competitors, etc. It might even lead to svc. members and family members training and racing together more often…
Admirals Cup is a nice alternative but also a bit different racing in an open sprint triathlon vs. an olympic distance draft legal competition. Just my thoughts… BTW- I am not just talking about triathlon here, I am also thinking about the other sports that have championships and competitions.
Just my 2cents.
Hey FeXY, good to hear from ‘ya! We ought to hook up again offline now that I’ve got a little free time.
I understand where you are coming from. This year, we actually had two sets of husband+wife racing on the All-Navy team, and we’ve had other married couples and siblings (brother+brother) racing together in the past. We also had quite a few families attend (from around the globe) to watch their spouses/fathers/mothers race. I thought that it was terrific all around to see more families at the race, whether they were competing or cheering. It does lend to the camaraderie for sure.
But Greg’s point is very well taken and I agree with it. Those who competed with their spouses earned their way onto their service teams, and for dual military couples the Open category is an option. Now, if your question is a veiled personal request (i.e. you are the dependent of an active-duty spouse who wants to race draft-legal), let’s talk offline. On a rare occasion, we’ve had individual guests in the race to help enhance the competition, and we have often had the Canadian military teams race here. One worry that I would have is that the all-service teams are competing against each other, and the teams can work with (i.e. draft off or pace off) any of these “neutral” (Open, foreign, invited) racers, with the potential of this tipping the competitive balance. As Greg pointed out, next year’s Armed Forces championship is the qualifying event for the World Military Games in Rio, and I’m certain that none of the U.S. military athletes want to get taken down on the bike course by “neutral” racers who are not eligible for the U.S. team selection. So, there is a risk that has to be managed when racers outside of the all-service teams are invited to the draft-legal event.
The Admiral’s Cup triathlon in front of the Armed Forces race is more than just satisfactory when it comes to building camaraderie between the military athletes, their dependents, and the public. I can vouch for that after racing the AC this year following multiple years of All-Navy racing and my recent retirement from active duty. There was a large amount of cheering from my active-duty friends and former co-workers, and I think that does help fire them up to race well later in the morning. I think you can see more evidence of that if you look at the race coverage from the latest edition of the Naval Base Ventura County newspaper, The Lighthouse (www.thelighthousenews.com). And I would say that compared to many sports in the armed forces (e.g. boxing, wrestling, team sports such as basketball) where the logistics just aren’t there, the Admiral’s Cup is a very dependent-friendly competition.
Actually, the “open” racers and the “elite” racers cannot draft off eachother. Men cannot draft off the women nor can the women draft off the men. Different start times for Elite men, Elite women and Open peeps. That rule was put out at the pre-race metting the day before and on the morning of the race.
Last time I did the race (05 I think), Elite men went first, Then Elite women, then the Open division. Dont remember if the Open men and women started together.
The Open division is a great opportunity for all militay persons that didnt make the cut for the Elite Division of their respective branch of service. One never knows, you could have a smokin time and due to injuries/military obligations, an Open member could be pushed to the All Military Team. Its a great race and a great time. Though I wasnt selected for the Navy elite team, the Navy side treated all of us Navy peeps like one of the Elites.
The MWR Director at Pt Mugu was a great host and did an outstanding job.