This past week I competed in USAT Collegiate National's in Tempe, Arizona. This was a busy weekend for me, as I competed in the draft legal sprint, olympic distance, and draft legal relay all in two days! This is always such a fun race because there are tons of college kids who aren't just drinking away their college years, but balance triathlon, school, and having fun.
The draft legal race on friday was a whole lot of fun! I was stuck without a pack for the first couple laps, and tried to hold off a big group that I knew had some fast runners in it. Eventually I fell into the mix with a group of 6 or 7 girls, who all came into T2 together. I was passed by a couple good runners and ended up 7th overall in the draft legal. My favorite part of this race was having TriCats, coaches, and parents on the majority of the course! Our coach, Doug Friman ran from point to point on the course and was able to tell me how close/far away the closest packs were, which was super helpful.
This weekend was exciting because I felt like my hard work the past couple of years was finally being applied in a race. Going into the weekend, I knew I would be tired from racing in the draft legal race on Friday. Having this in the back of my mind, I had a goal to finish in the top-20 on Saturday in the Olympic. This seemed pretty lofty because last year I finished 45th on the same course in 2013, and 153rd in 2012! I was pretty surprised when I got out of the swim in the top 5.
I never thought I'd say this, but I think my favorite part about this race was the bike. It was so fun seeing my dad, grandma, and two best friends(clad in matching pink shirts, of course) cheering for me! This was the first race that I felt like I could hold my own on the bike, and not just wait to get passed. This season, coach Riccitello had TriCats doing some really tough bike workouts that really paid off when it came time to race at Nationals. The fast race wheels from Paul Thomas didn't hurt, either!
Coming out of T2, I was in 6th place. In my delirious racing daze, I somehow managed to follow some spectators onto the wrong bridge on the run course, and wasn't turned around until I had already crossed the bridge. In doing this, I added a half mile to my '10k' run. By the time I got back on the course, I had dropped back quite a bit in the field. Jimmy told me to block out my mistake and finish the run, which is exactly what I did. I finished 14th, close behind my wonderful teammate Laura. Although I was disappointed, I still surprised myself and proved that I could 'hang with the big dogs.'
Finally, the TriCats raced in the MTR. Josh Fowler, Erica Clevenger, and Nick Zalewski and myself raced the draft legal mixed team relay. The swim was more of a process of active-drowning as there were 40ish girls sprinting to a buoy that was less than 150 meters away. This was the most painful 20 minutes of racing. We were able to 'embrace the suck' and finish 7th as a team! After the relay, I was experiencing some pretty violent muscle spasms that made it extremely difficult to walk. Shoutout to my teammates for carrying me around while I had my bambi legs!
The best part about this weekend was seeing drastic improvements from everyone on my team. The top 3 women improved their times by over 10 minutes from last year. Also, the women finished 3rd in the nation!!! I'm so proud of everyone on the team for contributing to the highest finish that the women's program has ever earned. Our guys team had a great weekend as well, and I'm excited to see what a year's worth of training will do for the guys team.
Overall, I'm happy with my races and I'm excited to get back to training. I can't wait to see what next year will bring to the TriCats!
I'm slightly disappointed that we didn't make the finals of "mustachinals" with these lovely temporary tattoos!
Hitting the red carpet in the draft legal race!
My best friends and honorary boyfriends drove down from the dirty-t!
The greatest group of friends and teammates anyone could ask for!
