Rev 3 Knoxville

    Knoxville Olympic distance was my second race this year with Rev 3, and I love their organization and attention to detail. You can always be assured a practice swim the day before, which I especially appreciate. Although one of my downfalls and biggest stresses is racing urban triathlons. It also seems that every time I do an urban triathlon I am without my "pitcrew."  When you have no family or support at a race it makes it a bit weird to finish and not really have anyone to high five or hang out with.  Fortunately I was rooming with another pair of pros and got to know them on this trip, which added a fun element to this triathlon.
    The swim was in a river, we swam up current and than back down and had to pull ourselves up and out onto the dock. I had a much better swim here than I have had in the last couple of races this year. It was a wetsuit legal swim for the first time this year and I go to wear my new Blueseventy Helix wetsuit and I think it made all the difference. I came out of the swim in 14th place out of 26 pro females, so I was feeling pretty good about the race so far. Anytime your not last as a first year pro you're doing well!
    The bike was actually pretty hilly and a more technical course, which is usually more of my style. Usually. I managed to lose contact with other riders in the event and found myself out on the bike course unable to see anyone, which sometimes makes it hard to push the pace and see where all of the turns are coming up at.
    Onto the run I pushed hard trying to catch other athletes and my perseverance paid off! I caught three girls by the end of the run. A new thing that Rev 3 is trying this year are tubes of water on the run, and they are amazing! Its like being given a superlight bottle of water to hang onto and drink during the race.  I wish every race had this as an option. I finished the run in 39:57, not a bad time for an early triathlon, thank you to Alaina Case for pushing me all the way to the finish line. My overall place was 18th out of 26 Pro Athletes.  Overall the bike course was really pretty and the run was on a peaceful bike path, I would definitely go back next year!

The transition area featured banners of every Pro in the race, super cool!

ITU Draft Legal Clermont Triathlon

This was my very first ITU style race and I was really excited and probably the most nervous I've ever been to do a triathlon. This was also my very first Pro race and my Aunt, Uncle, Mother, and 88 yr old Grandmother were coming along for the trip! Unfortunately, the lake was extremely dry this year and that will forever be the talk of THAT triathlon. They lined us all up and than had us walk about 250 meters out to the start line in knee deep water to ensure that we "swam" the full 750 meters of this sprint triathlon race. This made it pretty interesting when it came time to exit the water! Anyways, the gun went off, and me being all the way on the right side of the line immediately fell into last place, after all the dolphin diving ended and we began our actual swim. It was fast, furious, and all I could think was oh my God, I'm in last place and it's only 15 second into the race. 

The starting line, pretty much all of this water that you see was higher than knee deep!

It was an interesting swim, everyone swam in one straight line as you can tell by how we came out of the water. I ended up gaining two positions and didn't come out of the water last, but came out too far back to make the first bike pack or the second. I ended up chasing for the whole race with two other girls. 

A picture of me exiting the water at Clermont. 

After getting organized with two other girls we attempted to chase down the bike pack, but only had about 12.5 miles to do it. We were definitely gaining on them, but frustratingly never quite caught up. I also ended up working alot harder on the bike than other girls that were in larger bike groups and able to save more energy for the run.  Never the less, I loved doing this race. The tactics involved during an ITU draft legal race is definitely exhilarating and makes for a more fun race. 

Onto the run, which is my strength, I was able to pick up at least five positions and finish the 5K feeling strong. 

I definitely encourage every athlete to run with their tongue out!! (really it was just great timing)

My Uncle, no doubt, sharing his wisdom and perspective on how the race went, lol (it was his first triathlon spectating). Also my Grandmother and other members of my family hanging out post race.