Team USA

I still don't know what to do about racing in the Duathlon World Championships (WC)... After the qualifier I didn't even give it a second thought: I was not going to go to Italy for a race. To my surprise, Carin, my wife, really wanted me to. Then it got me thinking about giving it a shot. Now that I received the invite, figuring the time away from home & family, doing the math for how much it will cost, the time off, etc, is it worth it? A couple other people have said 'You have to do it. Think of what that will mean to Jace--he'll know his dad competed in something like this.' Here is a portion of the email I received from Team USA (I had to block out the links to the sign up site):

[Congratulations! You are being contacted because you have earned a spot on Team USA for the 2008 Short Course Duathlon World Championships because of your outstanding performance at the 2008 Apple Duathlon. The 2008 World Championships are set to take place September 27-28 in Rimini, Italy. For more information about the World Championships please visit the Team USA website (I had to block this).

In order to register for the team, you MUST go to the following link on the Active.com website NO LATER THAN THE END OF THE BUSINESS DAY ON MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2008: (again, I had to block this link). If you fail to register by MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2008, your spot will be given to the next person on the roll-down list.]

After doing some homework regarding pacing for my age group at past WC's, I think I can be competitive. They barely make under an hour on a completely flat 40k course--I've done 1:03:15 on my road bike on our local hilly/windy 40k course. Granted, that was without a run prior to it. Their running is around 36 to 40 minutes for a 10k on a flat course (I've done 41 on a hilly course). My 5k would suffer at the end, but still be around 20 min. But is going there based on whether I can be competitive or not? Is it about the experience, representing the USA...

I have a few more days to decide. I could register, then decide against it and lose a bit of the reg fee.

I'll have to think about it over the weekend.