Sober to work on ‘head games’ before making China debut

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Sober to work on ‘head games’ before making China debut
Deep Creek Lake triathlete qualifies for U.S. team

By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Oct. 3 – By her own standards, Jen Sober had a bad day at the office.

But the 37-year-old Deep Creek Lake resident isn’t your ordinary triathlete. On Sept. 25, Sober proved as much by competing in the USA Triathlon 2010 National Championship in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The event included a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40K bike and a 10K run.

At stake? The top 18 people in each of 28 age divisions automatically qualified her to represent Team USA in the 2011 Short Course (Olympic) Triathlon World Championships on Sept. 10-11, 2011, in Beijing, China.

It didn’t start out so well for the Team Saucony athlete.

“I went there to just get the experience in a field of the best of the best of non-pros,” Sober told TriStateRunnur.com afterward. “It is the ‘Super Bowl’ of triathlons for non-pros.”

Sober figured she “would be a small fish in a very big pond. Turns out I did much better than that.”

Did she ever. After an admittedly dreadful swim – slightly more than nine-tenths of a mile – Sober moved up in the bike and run and took the 18th and final Team USA spot in the 35-39 age division for women among 49 competitors. It was a crowded field. Sober placed 537th overall among 1,497 athletes.

“I choked in the swim, as I have always had mental/emotional issues there,” Sober said. “I guess the nerves and the amount of people got to me and I just went through the motions. Racing at nationals went out of my head and I was just in ‘get to the end of this swim without drowning’ mode.”

“Ha! Well, I thought it was all over I swam about 8 minutes slow than that I know I can do, and probably about 10 minutes slow than what I am capable of doing,” she said.

Sober made up for lost time quickly. After taking 1 minute and 41 seconds in the transition to change and gather her composure, Sober pedaled off to what she figured would be a ho-hum finish. It was anything but. She came out of the water in 46th place among 49 in her age division, but made a beeline for the middle of the pack by finishing the 40K bike in 67 minutes and 26 seconds – 15th out of 49 competitors.

Sensing – and seizing – momentum, Sober took just 74 seconds in the transition and finished with the third fastest 10K time of the day. With a time of 43 minutes, she was one of just three athletes to break the sub-7:00 pace barrier.

“Had I (swam) my normal swim, I would have been fifth or sixth (overall),” Sober said.

Already, she’s looking beyond that dismal start to bigger and better things.

“I will have to do some fundraising over the next year to help me get there, but as long as I can get the funds, I will be working on my head games with the swim and going to China in September of 2011.”