Daniel Wells: Finally a good run

Musselman ITU Pan American Cup
July 14th, Geneva NY

I got to Geneva Thursday evening after spending the day at my buddy Greg Danner's place. Check into the free athlete accommodations I had, and then Greg and I grabbed some food before he headed back to Rochester.

I was roomed with Eric Limkemann who I used to swim against while I was at St John's. He was a 4 time Big East Champion in the 1650yd Fr. This is Eric's first year racing as an elite, and he is doing real well.

Race Day:

finally woke up around 8:30, and headed out for a short morning jog to wake the body up. Back to breakfast, and gather around the communal TV to watch the Tour. My dad, sister and her bf showed up around 11am, and I loaded my bike box onto the roof of the car before they headed out for a wine tour before the start of our race at 315pm.

We ended up with 50 men on the start line for the race. It was an in-water start, and we all were lined up on the dock according to race number before jumping in the water and making our way over to choose our start spot. I used stealth like maneuvers and rather than jumping in where I was on the dock and swimming over, I ran down the dock and jumped in beside Doug Friman who had #1.

As a result, I had a good line to the first buoy, and was leading the group coming from the right side after the gun. I came across, saw the feet I was looking for (Limkemann) and settled in for the swim. I knew Eric would set a great pace on the swim, and decided to let him (and later John Kenny) break through the choppy water in Seneca Lake.

A group of 5 of us had roughly 15" out of the water on the main part of the field. I had a quick T1, and jumped on the bike ready to go. Cameron Dye got away at the start of the bike, and Doug Friman and I started to work together to try and bridge, but I soon sat up as we had other riders coming up from behind and I figured it would be easier to go with a larger group. Ultimately we caught Friman and Dye, and we were joined by other groups from behind. By lap 6 of 8, our group numbered roughly 20-25 I'd guess.

A small break by Sean Bechtel and 4 others happened at the start of the last loop, which resulted in them having 10-15 sec on us off the bike. I was starting to worry on the bike when our group was so large, as I knew there were a bunch of guys that I would have a hard time running with if I wanted to score some decent ITU ranking points.

I managed to work my way up to the front of our group as we entered T2, and had a quick transition, heading out onto the run in the top 5 of our group (top 10 overall). I was able to hang with Chrabot, Orton and Green, and Collington for the first mile, but then contact with them, running about 10 seconds behind Collington the whole way. I faded slightly in the last half mile of the run, getting caught for 9th place by Yoni Doron.

I ended up in 10th place overall, earning some valuable ITU points in the process. The race was a good confidence booster for me coming off of the Edmonton WC, as I was able to have a solid run split here in Geneva. I was randomly chosen for drug testing after the race, which was a bit unlucky, as my dad wanted to get on the road ASAP to drive 4.5 hrs back to our house that night. I headed over to Doping Control, where I proceeded to drink water, water, and more water.

After 2.5 L, I thought that I would be able to provide the necessary 80 mL sample, but I could only muster 50 mL. I went back downstairs, and proceeded to drink another 1.5 L. Finally I produced enough urine, and hustled out to the car, back to the dorm for a lightning quick change, and onto the road heading home. It ended up taking me 2 hrs to pee after the race and 4L of water!! Needless to say, we had to pull over on the side of the Hwy a couple times on the way home......

1	Plata	Victor	USA	01:50:21	00:18:08	00:01:01	00:58:27	00:00:24	00:32:20
2	Friman	Doug	USA	01:50:29	00:17:38	00:01:00	00:58:57	00:00:27	00:32:25
3	Fretta	Mark	USA	01:51:10	00:18:08	00:01:01	00:58:25	00:00:24	00:33:12
4	Messenheimer	Dave	USA	01:51:22	00:17:56	00:00:58	00:58:18	00:00:24	00:33:43
5	Orton	Michael	USA	01:51:36	00:17:51	00:00:59	00:58:45	00:00:28	00:33:30
6	Green	Will	NZL	01:52:19	00:17:49	00:00:58	00:58:45	00:00:30	00:34:13
7	Chrabot	Matt	USA	01:52:45	00:18:09	00:01:01	00:58:26	00:00:33	00:34:37
8	Collington	Kevin	USA	01:53:10	00:18:05	00:01:01	00:58:30	00:00:25	00:35:05
9	Doron	Yoni	USA	01:53:25	00:17:52	00:01:01	00:58:41	00:00:26	00:35:23
10	Wells	Daniel	CAN	01:53:36	00:17:36	00:01:00	00:58:59	00:00:26	00:35:33