First, it’s hard to be upset no matter what the result of the race was when this is the race venue...
While watching all the tropical fish below during my cool down after the race, I reflected on how lucky I am to travel around the world doing what I love! I wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of my family and husband AND the understanding and flexibility of Coach Jennifer and my program directors at UF!
Last weekend Jennifer and I made a quick trip (flew out Friday evening and arrived back in the States Sunday evening) down to Barbados where I raced an ITU sprint Continental Cup. Overall I would describe the race as “good, not great”.
The women’s race started at 9:30am just after the men’s race. After lining up, we actually had to start twice since the starter blew the horn without announcing “take your mark” the first time. Once we had a clean start, I felt like the swim was over the minute it started. Most of the field seemed to be together throughout the swim with a couple women leading the charge.
I wasn’t expecting much to happen on the bike since it was 5 laps of 20km with only two 180 turns a lap, but I was wrong! There were a handful of girls that took the bike out hard and luckily right at the first 180 turn I was able to hop on the back of their pain train. Our front group of five worked together and was able to go from a 17 second gap the first lap, to nearly 1:45 by the time we got back to transition. With all of us taking short pulls, we were able to lengthen our gap more every lap while successfully combating the wind. This was great since the run was only a 5K and we all knew almost 2 minutes would be hard for anyone to make up over such a short distance.
I knew going into the race that my overall fitness is nowhere near its peak- it’s February! This time last year I still had another month before my first race and I have already competed twice in 2012. This concept is very hard to accept in the middle of the race and I quickly became frustrated with my lack of leg turn. I felt better as I entered the 3rd and 4th lap (the run was four laps of 1.66km) but then the race was over. I was able to hold onto 5th, which I am not disappointed with! It was great to have Jennifer there to see me race and to travel with.
Overall, a good trip down to the Caribbean! I hope I get to visit there again with a little more time to enjoy the country without school looming over my head!
Next stop, Clermont ITU Cup!
