70.3 St George, 70.3 Boulder, 70.3 World Championships, Crash, 6hr World TT Championships!

Oh boy. I somehow forgot about my blog after my first race of the season, Oceanside 70.3 in April. So to avoid writing a book, here's a short recap of my summer!

In May, I won my age group at 70.3 St George, qualifying for the 70.3 World Championships in September. I drove to Boulder in June to train for the summer with my coach, Tom Danielson and my training partners from Cinch Cycling. In August, I raced 70.3 Boulder and narrowly missed winning when I was caught on the run about 2 miles from the finish. At World Champs in September, I finished 11th in my age group, and returned to Boulder to regroup before my last race of the season which was meant to be 70.3 New Orleans in October. Unfortunately, 6 weeks ago, I had a bike crash and my calf was split open by my chain ring. I'll save you the gorey details, but suffice to say, my triathlon plans had to be put on hold for the rest of the season and instead I decided to focus on cycling as I would be off running for at least a couple of months. So I think I'm now up to date and here's a recap from the 6hr World TT Championships yesterday!

Fun day of racing yesterday at the 6hr World Time Trial Championships. I was 2nd overall clocking 127 miles in 5:50. It was a battle the whole day in hot and windy conditions, and I fought to close down an early 2+min deficit to 50 seconds by the end. A big THANK YOU to my coach Tom Danielson for getting me ready for this race after my crash 6wks ago, and to my pit crew Jay Prasuhn and Amanda Strayer!

Oceanside 70.3

“Sometimes You Kick and Sometimes You Get Kicked”. Last Saturday at Oceanside 70.3 (half Ironman), I experienced both. I crossed the finish line first in my age group by 6 minutes, and was second overall amateur female. This re-qualified me for my pro card or gave me the option of taking a slot to the World Championships as an amateur. However, within minutes of finishing the race, I found out that I was disqualified for going 27mph on a downhill which had a 25mph speed limit. Ironically, the pro’s had a 35mph speed limit and I had at that point passed 4 female pro’s who had started the race 8min ahead of me. To say I was kicked pretty hard is an understatement. 

However, I have to thank my amazing coach, Tom Danielson and Cinch Cycling for getting me to the start line fit and healthy, and for putting it in perspective that this is just a stepping stone along the way. It’s been a hard fought battle to get back racing competitively again after having bilateral hip surgeries in 2012 and a foot surgery in 2014. Back in October when I approached Tom to coach me, I was contemplating giving up triathlon after an injury plagued 2016 which I thought was the final straw. I probably insulted him when I said I wanted him to coach me because “I figured I had nothing to lose”, but it really was either that or retire from the sport. In the last six months, he has not only gotten me back racing long distance triathlons again, but he’s got my run distance and run speed back to where it was in 2011. To say “thank you” does not do justice to what an amazing coach he is and how much he has helped me over the last six months. Sometimes it’s the journey, and not the destination. Onwards and upwards through the rest of 2017!