Sooner than expected, the 2013 season is in full swing. In the past four weeks, I have
completed three races; the most racing I have ever done in that span of
time! With every race comes a
plethora of lessons, but I feel the learning curve this year was particularly
steep.
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| Transition setup for Tritonman! |
My last month’s racing journey began on the sunny shores of
San Diego in the first ever “Collegiate” draft legal race. The University of California San Diego
(UCSD) Triathlon team hosted this event with a non-draft race the following
day. The idea was to preview what
Collegiate Nationals will be like with the addition of the draft-legal race. I was very impressed that this team put
together not one, but TWO triathlons all by themselves. It is not an easy task to organize
college students especially for such a logistically difficult event!
The race itself was a blast with lots of surprises! I had my first-ever run-in with marine
life—a bloom, or swarm of jellyfish floated into the bay where the swim took
place and many people (myself included) touched the tops of the jellyfish
without knowing what it was until after the race! I was glad to know later that it was not just mushy mud, but
the top of a particularly squishy lifeform that my hand brushed mid-swim. The next surprise came in T1…let me set
the stage…air temp ~50* F, water temp somewhere in the 60*F region (with much
colder pockets mid-swim)…I wore earplugs to help combat the dizziness that
comes with frigid waters, but it turns out the earplugs were almost as
disorienting to me! I ran up to
the transition area, promptly slid on my butt softball style through the grassy
transition and then struggled to yank my wetsuit off for almost a minute until
I gave in and sat down to pull it off my legs! The embarrassment doesn’t stop there…I then ran my bike out
of transition to the mount line in nothing resembling a straight line attempted
to mount my bike while it is still tilted 45* in the opposite direction from my
body…probably very entertaining for spectators. Luckily, this was the end of the major surprises (and
embarrassments J )
in the race and I was able to take a deep breath, catch the pack, and get my
game face back on! I ended up 3rd overall with lots of lessons and
excitement to take with me to the next couple of races!
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| Tricats! Thanks again for letting me tag along, so fun! |
Two weeks of training and anticipation went by before I
boarded a plane for Orlando, FL.
En route to both my first professional and ITU race, it was almost
unreal when I heard the gun go off in Clermont. First of all I couldn’t believe
the strength of the women around me and second I couldn’t believe the
speed! The swimming in a
professional ITU race is a whole different level and takes entirely different
tactics than any swim I have ever completed before. The swim at Clermont was unique in that the start was very
shallow, but the depth varied enough that you had to switch between running,
dolphin diving, and swimming. It
also funneled very quickly (because it was a sprint distance) so there were a
lot of bodies trying to share the same space. I got a hand to the mouth, tasted some blood (my own and
very little!) and realized I was in for an intense swim! I was lucky enough to
spread into my own spot and find a rhythm to finish out the swim. The rest of the race seems like a
blur…riding in my first pack of professional women, not really knowing what I
was doing at all and furiously racing through the transitions. I finished and couldn’t believe my
first pro race was already over! I
ended up 18th in a field with 6 Olympians (and a 10 minute PR from
last year’s course)…both in awe of the talent and strength of these women and
determination to finish closer to them in future races.
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| Finishing at Clermont! |
After the race, I was fortunate to spend a few extra days in
Clermont with a bunch of my teammates in the Collegiate Recruitment Program. We stayed at the AAA tri camp honing in
on our cycling skills and introducing ourselves to the unique wildlife of
Florida :) I
learned so much in those couple of days both about triathlon and about my
fellow teammates—it was a blast! (Thank you so much to John and Jodie for being
wonderful hosts to us while we were there; such a cool venue for a camp!!)
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| Real Lilly Pads! |
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| Alligator friend...I believe someone named him Brevan? :) |
To complete my trip, I traveled to Sarasota. The Scott Family was so generous to
take me under their wing for a long weekend.
Mr. Scott introduced me to all of his cycling buddies, “The Village
Idiots” and took me on a few great rides around the area (if you're from Sarasota check out Village Bikes, great people!). I felt like I was at a home away from
home, and I’d like to say THANK YOU again!!
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| Somewhere in the middle of the Bike! |
The race in Sarasota took place on Saturday and had a 2:30pm
start time. Not only was this my
first Olympic distance draft legal race, but definitely my first afternoon
start time! I was very antsy
leading up to the race…is my stomach going to cooperate? Am I going to
overheat? Is it going to be extremely windy? Lots of questions, but only one
way to answer them! Race day came
and I was surprisingly calm, and mostly excited. The weather was beautiful; cool breeze, warm sun, and clear
skies. Though the wind did pick up
during the cycling portion of the race, I was lucky enough to be in a smart pack of girls and thanks to their helpful guidance, we were able to
combat the wind to the best of our abilities. Overall, I felt really solid in the race and am very hungry
for the next opportunity. Having
double the distance and a diving start made for a very different feeling race
and I really liked it!! I ended up
15th overall with almost a 10 minute Olympic distance PR.
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| On the run! Thanks again for the cheers and photos Mr. Scott! |
After a month of racing…my lips are wet for the rest of the season, I
am hungry to challenge myself on a whole new level and I’m so excited to grow
in the sport of triathlon even more in the next couple of months!
Thank you for the support from my coach, family, friends and
sponsors…2013 has started off wonderfully, I can’t wait to see where the season
is going!!
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| Onwards and upwards :) |
Music recommendations:
Without getting too mushy…being gone in Florida for 10 days
was amazing, but I really was missing one thing…Lucas <3 …I heard this in the airport before I was going to board the plane on my way home
and it made my heart smile :) (The link below is a live version)
Some solid riding music...
And finally a little bit of bragging on behalf of Lucas...some of his music was featured on a pretty big EDM blog recently :)
