Penticton: «Race report» de Marc-Antoine Christin: Oh Well…

Voici les impressions de Marc-Antoine, suite à sa 2e place à la Série Nationale Junior de Penticton (en version originale anglaise):

I’m writing this on my flight from Penticton to Vancouver. I wasn’t planning on being on that flight, but life decided that I would.

I raced last weekend at Pan American junior Champs in Edmonton. Trican was giving there two spots for worlds so that raced was pretty much deciding how my season would unfold. Unfortunately, I had a few badlucks on that day even though the legs felt great. Went around a bouy I didn’t have to turn (like probably 20-30 other guys…), had a hard time taking my wetsuit off and dropped a bike shoe trying to pit my foot in…then my race was over. Over, because I decided it was. I didn’t have enough guts to man up and crush/solo a few k’s to get back into the pack or at least fight as hard as I could have…instead I waited for the next pack and decided that race was over for me. Thought about dropping out, but still finished. Big disappointment, I know I can do way better than a 31st place at junior PATCO’s.

After all the drama, I decided to go to Penticton. Making the worlds team has been my goal for the last three years and never made it. This year is MY shot at it. But I guess I was seeing more as a task to accomplish than a game. Triathlon is a game. And we’re just kids playing around in speedos. I felt pretty relax on race morning, but I knew I couldn’t fail and I guess once again I was putting way too much pressure on myself. I had a great start, lead for the first 350m then settled into 2nd, 3rd or 4th, don’t really remember honestly. Our lead pack of 4 did a great job keeping our lead of the bigger chase pack and I knew all the medals would be played between us. Then started the run, freaked out and cramped. I tend to freak out when things don’t go my way. I still ended up with 2nd which is great but definitely not the result I was looking for. I want to congratulate Lehm Maguire for his strong racing and his coach Kelly Guest who does an incredible job with his young squad.

It was the last race that counted for the Worlds selection. I obviously don’t know if I made it. If I don’t make it I will be deeply disappointed for sure. But this journey isn’t about making a junior worlds team in a country that has a lot of young talents. We have to look at the big picture. The road to excellence is a long way and still a lot of work in front of me if I want to achieve my goals and dreams in this sport that I love. All of this is a learning process.

I’m flying back home on Tuesday. I will be away from Victoria for 3 weeks. It will be time to catch up with friends and family and bring back the kid who liked to race and was doing it to crush, not to get results. This kid is still somewhere inside me. I guess I’ll have to grow young just like Benjamin Button.

Thanks to my sponsors: Teschner, HED, Kiwami and Trimes.org (Alex, Dave, Vince) for believing in me and also to my friends, family and coaches that are always supporting me into everything I go through.

MAC

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