A lot has happened since I last sent an e-mail out to everyone.



I guess the first thing I should mention is that I ended up not going to San Francisco for my scheduled last race of the year. I wont bother you will the details here (go here if you want more information and check the blog articles), but I will say that there was a huge mess-up on the race directors end out in California that would have resulted in my trip costing ~65% more. As a result, my coaches, parents, and I decided that going to the race was not worth the increased cost and hassles associated with those costs. There was no benefit to racing besides increased experince as there were no worlds spots or other advantages from the race that justified the costs associated with it.



On another note, I just recently joined up with an Elite team (formerly Riptide Multisport) that is based in Arvada, CO (just outside of Denver) and recently merged with MultiSport Madness, the name the new combined team will retain. The two primary leaders of the team are Sean Wendt and Kieth Dickson. They are supported in large part by Coach Reese from Austin, TX swimming who writes our swim workouts.



As a result of joining MultiSport Madness, I will be racing at nearly all Pan American Cups in the US barring any injuries. I will also be racing in Mexico on April 19th at the U23 PATCO race instead of Collegiate Nationals. I have also been invited to train in Colorado with Sean and the other PROs on the team this winter break. The PROs that are living out in Arvada, CO are all over the U23 age category and have longtime experince in ITU racing (some of which is on the World Cup circuit). It's a high powered team that is well equipped, funded, and extremely well organized.



So, since I am now in my "off season" for the next week or so, I'll be relaxing and enjoying the short break from intense training. Take care everyone, and stay in touch!

Well, to be honest, I can’t remember the last time an athletic season ended this way for me. In fact, I’ll wager that it never has (though, I must add that I could very well have pushed such a situation in the depths of my mind to rot and be forgotten).

End of my season you ask? Yep, that’s correct; it’s over without a capping race. I was, as you all know, supposed to be in California for a race this weekend. The Treasure Island ITU Pan American Cup to be exact. Instead, I am still here in what is starting to shape up as a normal, freezing cold winter for Wisconsin.

The story goes like this. I had been promised a home-stay out in California by the Race Director back at the beginning of September (the 8th to be exact according to the e-mail records), or, over two months before race day. That never happened even though I continued to check in with the race director on this topic over and over. There is a string of over 23 e-mails on the topic. With two weeks to go, she just stopped communicating with me. I had no details as to where I was going to be staying. We began looking for hotels as a safety net at that point…they were all full or costing over 140 per night at the least. Long story short, I never got a home-stay and couldn’t justify spending 140 per night for five nights. The race wasn’t a qualifier for anything, and spending that much on a hotel alone (I needed to get a car, food, and plane tickets in addition to that) for one race. I could’ve spent a good chunk of time in Europe for a race at that price.

After talking to my coaches—Jude, Sean, and Keith—it was decided that the trip was not going to be worth the effort, or the cost. So, I pulled out. I tried calling and e-mailing the race director once more to inform her of this decision…apparently she never got it. At 3:50am on the day I was supposed to fly out to Cali, she e-mailed me telling me (who she called Adam) that a place had been found. That’s great…telling me this 2 hours before my plane is set to depart. It didn’t matter though; the tickets had been changed to another event I am going to in December. In short, Tri California has some pretty poor management, or just very poor communication skills.

Well, that’s pretty much the story. The season is done on my end (without a race, booo), and I now get a little relaxation time before starting back into it for next year. (And a VO2max test next week.)

But, stay in touch, and good luck to all my summer swimmers who made it to the WIAA meet this weekend (and my little sister!!!).