Austin 70.3

I raced Austin 70.3 over the weekend - a race I've wanted to do for a long time - and it lived up to its reputation of being one of the most challenging half Ironmans in North America. The bike course was on beautiful country roads outside of Austin with an endless number of rolling hills and some short challenging climbs, and the run was a hilly 3 lap course mixed with cross country trails. Definitely one of the harder races I've done in a long time!

Since pulling my hamstring in the middle of the summer, I’ve had to make some changes to my race schedule, and so I was very happy to be back on the start line again before the end of the season. I had a good swim coming out of the water in 8^th place out of 25 pro women, and a solid bike coming into run transition in 11^th place. The lack of run training over the summer took its toll on the run, but I was happy to hang onto 15^th place with some exceptionally strong runners in the field.

Next up, it’s back to San Diego for a short off season break, and then back to training to get ready for an early start to the 2016 race season.

A special thanks to my awesome coach Julie Dibens and my training group in Boulder as well as to my sponsors TYR, Cervelo, First Endurance, Fuel Belt and Saucony.