Before I get to the long overdue WF race report, let me just say that I don't do very well with the blogging thing. Hopefully, I'll do better. Brandon keeps telling me that the only way to get better at something you don't like is to practice. He's smart, but annoying too! By the way, this report has been saved for about 3 weeks now...I'm just now publishing it.

Wildflower

I finally feel recovered from last weekends Wildflower race. It was probably the toughest race I have ever done in my short 5 year triathlon career.

The swim felt good. I was able to hang on to the front pack just before the turnaround and then they started to gap me by quite a bit. I was alone for the remainder of the swim. I feel like I'm getting closer to staying with that front pack every time I race. I ended up out of the water in 3rd. I wore my new 2xu wetsuit and it is definitely the most comfortable wetsuit that I have ever owned (and I have owned a lot of different wetsuits).

Out onto the bike. Brandon and I drove the course they day before the race. I was pretty excited about the course because I really like hills and this couse was HILLY. However, the hills definitely seemed harder on the bike than in the car ride (and where did all that wind come from?)! I quickly got passed by 2 girls right out of transition. I need a little work getting my feet in those bike shoes. I just tried to keep the girls in sight as long as I could. I felt o.k. during the ride but not great. The wind was pretty tough and I just couldn't seem to find a gear that I was comfortable with. A couple of more girls passed me on the bike and I ended up in T2 in 7th place.

I was glad to finally get off the bike and out on to the run course. The run was about 60% on trail which was pretty cool. Everyone that I talked to that has done this race before has told me how hard the run is. So...I was prepared for it to be hard but not THAT prepared. The first 5 miles were the toughest and I even had to walk some of the hills. Yes...I said walk. I never thought that I would have to walk during a race but the hills were one right after another and I just needed a break. I saw other people walking so I kind of thought it was o.k. for me to walk. Anyways, I think walking some of those hills was probably faster than if I tried to run them! By mile 7 my legs started to feel much better and I felt like I had a good pace going. There were a couple of more hills at the end and I actually ran those hills. I just tried to put one foot in front of the other and finish. I ended up 8th overall so I was pleased with another top 10 finish.

My legs were cramping at the finish and all I could think about was how I was never going to do that race again. Well...a couple of days passed and I realized that I really would like to go back to that course and give it a good race.

Next up is the World Championships of Austin. aka CapTex triathlon. After that a real world championships in France at the ITU Long Distance World Championships in July.