This race was such a good race for me last year that I had a lot of positive feelings coming into it. Last year I won the Elite Amateur division with a strong run to pass a competitor that I have a lot of respect for. As usual, I was nervous about the swim and not excited that the water temp was too warm for my Blueseventy Helix wetsuit, which means I'd be in my skinsuit. There was only nine of us at the start so I knew I'd have to attack the swim extra hard to stay in contact with all of these super fast pros. I started off very aggressive, usually I'm the one that is getting shoved and punched, but this time I think I was the person to avoid. I wasn't going to give up those feet for anything. I stayed in contact with the main group for the first 500 meters than found my self swimming with two others that caught up to me. I excited the water with the two other women, one ended up being Amanda Lovato, and was feeling pretty good about being in contact with others to start the bike.
I biked as hard as I could and pushed it, keeping close watch on my cadence to make sure that I didn't slack off. Unfortunately, this wasn't good enough. My bike time was actually slower than last years time by one minute and 45 seconds. This may not sound like a lot, but when you expected to be at least two or three minutes faster than last years time it hurts. I started the year off with higher power numbers on the bike than last years numbers. This was a very disappointing fact that I would examine later after the race, but I never fixate on this during a race. I consider each component to be separate on race day and once I have switched from one discipline to the next it is history and time to focus on the present.
I could definitely feel the fatigue on the run from the hard biking. I was at present nursing an injured foot from an aquaman race I had done during the week which caused a bone in my foot to shift and become painful. I honestly didn't even think I'd be able to run in time for the race so you could say this was a good little workout. I ended up 8th Pro for the day and overall was content knowing that I had given it my all and wasn't "complacent" on the swim or bike portion.
RESULT: 8th PRO
