Editor’s note — Jarrod Shoemaker was second among all U.S. triathletes Tuesday with an 18th-place finish in a field of 40 competitors at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. Shoemaker’s grandfather, Bob Shoemaker, is an Anderson resident, and his father is an Anderson native. Here is Jarrod Shoemaker’s report of the race and his observations from Beijing:

Wow is about the only word that I can write after that race. I had a very good race and am very happy with my performance. I have come a long way in four years (my first pro race, I finished 24th in July of 2004) and I am constantly looking back on how fortunate I am to be here at the Olympics. This experience has been more than I could have ever dreamed of and it has been so special, memories that I will cherish forever.

First off, I would like to thank all of my amazing family who have helped me get to this point. I never would have pictured myself as an Olympic triathlete, but here I am! I have to thank all of my coaches and teachers who helped me become who I am today. I thank all of my friends for being such great support and for helping me out. And I want to thank all of the great sponsors who believed in me and have helped me over these past years. I am so proud to be either a son, husband, relative or friend to all of you and most of all I am extremely proud to have given everything I had representing the USA.

And now the race report. We selected our start spots three days ago by doing a pontoon draw, and I selected spot 11, which was on the right side of the pontoon. It was nice to have that piece out of the way, so we just lined up and marched to our start spot. We dropped our bikes off the night before and took a van up to the course at 8 a.m. We checked in around 8:20 a.m., and I went straight out to put my bike into my transition spot. As I walked out, I checked out the scenery and the crowd and was so happy and excited to race. I took a jog through the stadium to soak it all in and then went for a swim as well and loved just taking a moment to realize everything that had gotten me to this point.

After that, we lined up and marched out onto the pontoon and were started a few minutes later. I got out well, but was immediately surrounded by lots of people and started to get banged around and got dunked by a Russian athlete. I fought to hold my spot and was concerned that I was falling too far back, so I surged up the right side. As we came past the first buoy at 560 meters, I realized that I was in good position. As the race continued, I started to move forward a few spots and ended up passing a lot more people. As we turned the second to last buoy, I once again got dunked and the guy continued to swim in the wrong direction, so I jumped over him and started to move up. At that point, I realized that I was about 15 meters back from the front and I tried to pick off another couple of spots. I exited the water in 23rd place, right next to Simon Whitfield.

As we came into transition, I got bumped around by a couple of people who had no clue what they were doing, but got on my bike quickly and got right into the front pack after about 800 meters. We ended up riding as a big pack for the entire race. It was not an easy ride, but my legs did not feel 100 percent, so I tried to conserve my energy whenever I could. I was at the back of the bike pack from most of the race, but from the back on the Beijing course you can hit all of the corners at high speed and really don’t lose any time. I felt good on the hill, but not as fresh as I did last year. I exited the bike a bit too far behind from where I would have liked to have been and ended up starting the run about 15 seconds down on the leaders.

I ran hard and continued to pass people throughout the run. I was just trying to see how many people I could pass and make it into the top 20. I ended up running hard and making my way to 18th place, and I am so excited to have finished in 18th place at the Olympics. I took in the entire race and had so much fun racing and had such an amazing experience.

Now I have tickets to table tennis, field hockey, track, water polo and baseball. I am excited to go to a bunch of other sports.

Thank you all for your support!

— Jarrod Shoemaker