2011 Race Season Recap - Part 1

Since I will be referring to some of the races I did this year through out my 2012 I figure it would be good to have a recap of all my races so that I have something to go back to. I have full RRs for all these but there are key things I learn or took away from each race last year and that is what I am looking for to reflect here.

2011 was my third year doing triathlons, and my second with a coach. Me and Sami (my husband) both started triathlons with TNT (Team in Training) and although we loved the experience and made great friendships our competitive nature wanted a bit more. In 2010 we hire our awesome coach Jeremy Sipos, Jeremy has taken our fitness to a level that we never thought possible. Our first season working with Jeremy was a success but it was this year that both Sami and I surpassed our expectations.

Our last race in 2010 was Augusta 70.3 for both me and Sami, he had a great race and placed 7^th in his age group (40-44), I had a strong swim and bike but blew it going too hard on the first two legs leaving nothing left for my run. This was probably one of those races I will never forget, it was the toughest mental wise and one experience that I chose not to forget.

We stayed for the awards ceremony with the hope Sami would get a slot to Clearwater (IM 70.3 World Championship), there were 5 slots on his age group and being the 7^th we figure he had a VERY good shot. They started calling age groups and got to F 35-39 (my age group), it was clear early on that not a lot of girls in my age group had stayed and even with a poor performance but with lots of luck I got a slot. I was standing on the line waiting to pay when they called out Sami’s age group, at that point we discover that there was one slot left but the 6^th guy took it. I felt awful, I didn’t deserve the slot, he did and I decided I was not taking mine. We headed back to the hotel and without saying much we just drove back home.

A week later we found out that there were some slots on the roll down and one of them went to Sami’s age group, lesson learned… never, never, NEVER go home if you are looking to get a slot before the announcer says is over.

From that point on we both made that our goal for the 2011 season, we wanted to go to Worlds, specially once they announced they had moved it to Vegas. Once we put our race schedule together we prioritize on our 70.3 races, I wanted to do maybe 3 this season so that at least I got one more than the year before.

I started the season with New Orleans 70.3, me and Raquel drove there for the weekend and this was going to be her first 70.3. We had a great time, girls weekend with some racing in there, what else can you ask for? Race day came and they announced they were canceling the swim due to 20+mph winds, the buoys were flying and the water was ROUGH! As the planner that I am, this was sure promising to be a downer, but as I looked at everybody else around me I realized that I still had a chance to have a good race. I had worked on my run very hard and I was looking forward to see the results.

To make a long story short I had a GREAT race, PRed in both the bike and the run and end up being 5^th in my age group. Unfortunately the top three girls took the 3 slots there were for Vegas, but I was still thrilled with my performance.

NOLA was by far the windiest race I've ever been to



If I have learned anything from my athlete career is that nothing comes for free, if you want something you have to work hard at it, and even then you still need some luck. If I wanted to qualify for Vegas I was going to have to podium at a 70.3 otherwise I was going to have to rely on other people’s decisions and I would rather have the last word.

Two weeks after NOLA we headed to St Anthony’s, this time around with the whole family which always adds some stress, but end up being a fun weekend (I LOVE that race, probably my all time favorite) and were lucky our friend’s daughter was able to baby sit while we were racing.

Once again the morning started with not so good news, they change the swim course due to the winds and with that we had a new swim distance as well (1000m. vs 1500m), GREAT! That was the first thing I thought, the second was ‘I can either be pissed off about it and ruin my race or I can do like I did in NOLA, at least we are getting to swim some this time around!’

I end up having the race of my life, the part I was most proud of was my run. The year before I was in most Oly distance races around 48min., after St A’s (I ran 43:24) I knew all that hard work had paid off and I was able to put a solid race.

Looking back these were the best 2 races I had all season, not for any other reason that I finished and I felt as if my performance exceeded my expectations, once you’ve done that you just tend to ‘expect it’ every time which means you become harder on yourself when you get anything but.

I went home for three weeks which was a nice break, training wise probably not the best but I disconnected from everything and was still able to get some good training in. While in Spain Sami did Florida 70.3 and got a slot for Vegas, so I knew I was going to give it one more shot just needed to decide when and where.

After I got back I had two races back to back, the PT Solutions Allatoona Sprint tri and West Point Lake the weekend after. I did great on the first one, had a very solid race across the board and it just helped to put my mind back into racing mood.

West Point Lake was brutal the year before, I wanted to do well and I knew there was going to be some tough competition. The swim was loooooooooooong and it didn't help the fact that when sighting the sun is just on your eyes, this is the only race I have ever had to stop in a swim. I thought I was done after realizing I had swam off course and couldn’t find the fourth buoy, but once in transition I was pleased to see I was in the same boat as everybody else. I push way too hard on the bike as I was trying to keep in sight one of my competitors who passed me around mile 15. I started too hard on the run as well just trying to close the gap on her, passed her around mile 2 and ran out of fuel around mile 4, the last two miles weren’t pretty, but I held to the lead and like my coach says a win is a win so, although I wasn’t particularly pleased with my swim, bike or run I was happy with the overall performance.

After the race w Stacers