No more time for thinking, I am lined up with other 40 of the fastest triathletes in America. Race starts. I think that the most accurate description I could provide for the first running lap is that it felt as if I was trapped in the middle of a bull stampede.  After the first lap the groups started to split, everybody went out too fast. I passed the first lap in 7'50'', thats the same pace for my PR in the 5km, they were 2.5km loops, so, it was fast. Nobody was able to keep up that pace because of the heat, not even the first guy. The race started at 9am, so, yeah, it was hot. For the next two laps I was able to keep myself in the second chase group, I was leading the pace until the final lap, then I started hyperventilating, it felt like I wasn't able to get enough air in my lungs, in addition my legs started locking. After this I decided to take it easier so I could at least hump into the bike. I let the other guys in the group do the pacing, I was barely able to keep going, so for the last 500m I fell just a little behind, which ended up becoming a gap in the bike. About five competitors DNFd after the first 10km of racing; eventually the heat would take its toll on about a fourth of the field.

After the first transition I decided to take it easy, for the group behind me to catch me. I was thinking that I was not goint to catch the group in front of me and I should just let the group behind catch me for not wasting any energy. Now I realized I could have bridged up to the next group, the pace set by the race leaders on the bike was not awfully fast, I assume they were trying to save energy because of the heat. Either way, I was catched by one of my teammates who was pacing pretty well, I was feeling strong, we ended up catching two guys in front of us and drove the pace for a four men group. The other two guys in our group were not working at all, eventually we were able to drop them by the 5th lap. Had they shared the work with us we may have reach the next group...

The last 5km of racing are best described as pure hell. My lungs were feeling much better, but my legs were still burned and it was getting close to a hundred degrees. At this point I was not going to catch anyone else, on of the things that kept me going was having the home crowd supporting us, it was an amazing experience, there really is nothing like racing at home with the crowd cheering on you to make you go faster, or at least during the minute they can see you.

The best moment in the race was passing the national triathlon champion for Olympic distance in the second run. He's a really good friend and it was the first time I ever beat him. He went too fast too early and essentially walked the second run. I finished 5th in the U23 elite category and 18th in the overall men's elite race, being the best U23 Panamanian. The Mexican who won went on a solo break in the bike and laped about ten guys in the bike, which by ITU rules is automatic disqualification. In short, a hell of a race, literally. It was a beautiful, yet brutal day.