Even though I have raced and traveled to south america on my own, the trip down to Argentina this past weekend was like no other. The race itself had incredible support (although hot with a high of 97 degrees for our 2pm start time). The streets of La Paz were lined the entire way spectators, some places close to the finish line were at least three people deep! The swim consisted of a 1.5 loop course, one direction directly against the strong river current. When I was swimming the course the day before it took me almost 10 minutes to get to the far buoy and barely over 4 to get back! To get to the swim start, we had to climb into small, personally owned motor boats that took us down river about 600-700m. I was able to make the front pack of women coming out of the water and into transition. The nine lap bike course was mostly out and back with two moderate hills per lap. There were children and volunteers holding water out as most of the women tried to keep our body temperature down as much as possible. A couple women fell of, but for the most part group stayed together and was able to put a 2.5 min gap to the next pack. The run was a very hot 4 lap course with 1 moderate hill per lap (one of the ones we also biked). With it being so hot I tried to start a little conservative and was able to work my way from about 12th to7th, but couldn't close the gap to 6th.
The travel was a bit crazy. I started the trip by driving 5 hours from school in Gainesville to Miami so I could have a direct flight to Buenos Aires. After the 8 hour flight, I took a 30 minute shuttle/taxi to the bus station then it was another 8 hour bus ride to get to La Paz. The community of La Paz was very welcoming of all the triathletes. I had no idea that this race started in 1984, and the entire support staff, medics and law enforcement are volunteers. This is a huge event for their city, with over 1000 age group racers onSaturday followed by a huge party until 2am. Although the travel was rough (including some food poisoning on the return flight), I really enjoyed my experience in La Paz!
