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Jim Wenckus goes to the Worlds
by Dan Fontanini

Who:  Jim Wenckus
What:  World Age-Group Triathlon Championships
Where:  Queenstown, New Zealand
When:  December 6 & 7, 2003
How:  Place in the top 10 in your age group at the USAT National Age-Group Championships.

But wait! You can’t just go to the national championships. First, you have to finish at least 5^th in your age group in a USAT sanctioned Olympic distance regional championship event or at least 3^rd in a USAT sanctioned Olympic distance event. Or you can do what All American Jim Wenckus did – win every event you enter, and in the process beat everyone in the two age groups below yours (read 5 to 10 years younger).

On August 31, 2002, Jim competed in the USAT National Championship in Coeur d’Alene, ID. It’s a beautiful and breath-taking venue for a triathlon. First you have a 1500-meter swim in Lake Coeur d’Alene. Then it’s into transition one (T1) to peel off the wetsuit, put on cycling shoes, helmet and sunglasses and run your bike to the mount zone. T1 is a great place to watch a triathlon. It’s a very intense place as athletes are often falling all over the place trying to do the simplest things.

This event attracts the best triathletes in the country in all age groups. Many were collegiate All American swimmers and runners. You cannot believe how intimidating it is to walk around Coeur d’Alene the day before the race and see your competition. It’s a little humbling and frightening at the same time if you’re there to win. There were 32 athletes in Jim’s age group. And Jim comes out of the water in 22^nd place. Remember, you have to place 10^th or better to go to the World Championships. Jim was having the dreaded "BAD DAY".

Now it’s on to the bike. The bike course is very hilly and technical at Coeur d’Alene. The first and last portions of the course follow the lake but the middle part climbs up the cliffs above the lake and includes several steep climbs and descents. It’s a beautiful but tough course. Jim logs the 5^th best bike split in his age group and is back in contention. The second transition (T2) from the bike to the run is a little easier to negotiate. It’s just a matter of racking your bike (if you can find your spot amongst the thousands of bikes), changing shoes, ditching the helmet, pouring sports drink all over yourself and heading for the run start.

Ok, the weather is great, 84 degrees. The run course is as flat as a pancake. All set for a fast run, right? Wrong! It’s hard to explain to runners what it’s like to run after a very hard bike ride. Sometimes the run just clicks. Other times it does not. Your brain is saying one thing and your body is doing another. It is extremely frustrating sometimes, because you can tell it’s not going right, but you are helpless. So, Jim is slogging through the run course. But one thing all the best athletes do (no matter what the sport) is never, ever, give in or give up, never! You just never know what will happen. And as it turned out on this day, everyone had a pretty dismal run. Go figure, it had to be the difficult bike course. Anyway, Jim finishes with the 7^th best-run split and ekes out 10^th place by 48 seconds. You just never know.

So there you have it, a pretty good "BAD DAY" all in all. Good enough for a spot on the USAT World team and an age group All American honor.