End of Season/Year Update

Since my last post in July many things have happened. A few of the highlights are my last couple races of the season that I never got around to writing....sorry. First, was the Eugene Triathlon that was on August 25 and the second was Best in the West on September 7th & 8th. Amongst those events I also had my 25th birthday on August 17th. I had the most amazing cake. My mom and I made it. It is suppose to be the cat bus from the movie My Neighbor Totoro; one of my childhood classic movies. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watching it. 

Originally, I did not have the Eugene Triathlon on my schedule of races, but getting injured earlier in the season made me miss a few races, therefore, cutting my season short. Plus, a friend asked if I wanted to race it since he was directing it. Eventually, I agreed to race as I was helping with setting up the venue for the race. This was supposed to be a triathlon but ended up being a dualathon due to a blue green algae bloom. I did the sprint which was the normal bike and run distance. I don't remember what the distance was for the first run, but I'm thinking it was probably about half of a 5k. For this race, since there wasn't a lot of participants, they started all the guys at the same time followed by the women at a 5 minute lead. Before the first part of the run was done I had already passed quite a few men and just continued to pick them off through the bike. By the time I got to the final 5k I was in first place over both men and women. I ended up winning by 6 minutes. I was unsure of this when I crossed the finish line but I must say it was a great confidence booster to beat everyone with even a 5 minute handicap.

My family was unable to get any photos so I had borrow some
 from the event site. Credit goes to the photographer.

My last race of the season was Best of the West. I ended up racing both the sprint and the olympic. Saturday was the sprint, which is always a fun race, plus I had to keep my title :) I was about 5th or so coming out of the water but passed quite a few of them through transition. My swim was a little slower this year but I made up for it on the bike bettering last years bike split. The run went well and it's always such a nice run. I also bettered my run split from last year by knocking off about 37 seconds. I won with a time of 1:06:12 and placed 4th overall men and women. 

The following day, Sunday, was the olympic race. This is the first time I have raced it, but since I live so close to the venue I am able to get some training in on the course. I was a little tired before the race started but I didn't think much of it and figured I would do just fine. The swim felt great but was a little slower than I wanted. I knew I had to make up time on the bike in order to be a top place contender. When I was about half way through the course I could really start to feel my legs fatiguing a lot faster than usual. I tried to push through for the rest of the course to catch the last two that were ahead of me but I couldn't get my legs to spin any faster. So I figured I still have time, I am a strong runner and should be able to catch them on the run. As I was coming into transition off the bike I fell right at the dismount. At that moment I think I was more embarrassed than anything, but everyone was so helpful and made sure I was ok. As I went through transition I felt like I was moving so slow, but my results don't show that. When I was about 300-400 meters in I had to stop for a couple seconds to regain my composure. I was a little shaken up after that and was about to cry. Not because it hurt (which it did sting a bit) but I think more of a natural reaction. Once I got going again I was fine because I was now focused back on racing and not on the blood running down my leg. Although, it didn't really help when I passed several people and they asked in such concern if I was ok. The rest of the run went alright. I gained quite a bit of ground on the girl in second but just like the bike I couldn't get my legs to move any faster. I ended up finishing 3rd overall in a time of 2:25:20. Was not my best performance but I'm still happy with it after racing the previous day, falling, and volunteering all weekend. 

The lovely road rash. I couldn't sit normal for probably about a week.

The most amazing face cutout ever made by my sister Cassandra!

Overall, the season was a great learning experience. I wasn't able to do all the races I wanted to due to injury and other events that were out of my control. Seeing with how I somewhat sabotaged myself in a few of my races I know that I need to develop a tougher mindset and know that there will be obstacles. I should already be a master at this with being a competitive athlete for so many years. Alas, learning how to handle them, I feel will be one of the biggest keys to having a great season. Knowing that, I am super excited for the 2014 season. I've already picked the races I want to compete in and am also planning on going to a training camp in Mallorca, Spain with Joe Friel as the coach. He is one of the sports best coaches. I can't wait to go on that trip and see what advice he gives me.

We got a bunch of snow a few weekends back, which of course always means I have to go out and play in it. I also like to include everyone in the family....including my pets :) Here is my cat, Jasper, playing in the snow.