After Auckland, I made the quick trip to the Gold Coast for the next round of the WTS series. I was pretty psyched about my last result, and was looking forward to racing again. Recovery was tough after a course like Auckland, and I really dug deep to put up a good result there. Nonetheless, I slowly but surely recovered, and was ready to go by race day!
I can’t possibly go on with this blog until I mention how awesome it was to see the US girls sweep the podium! Congrats to Gwen, Sarah, and Katie for such great races! It was a great experience to be there and witness it!
The swim was nuts. There was a crazy right to left current that pushed the whole field and clogged up the first buoy. It did not help that I had a bit of a late start, and I was already a step behind diving into the harbor (it was a beach start, but only a couple of steps). I found myself fighting the first lap to get into good position, but saw I was a good bit behind the leaders. Thankfully, I started close to the right hand side, so I did not have to fight the current as much as some people did on the left! Somehow, I found Tommy Zaferes’ feet and hopped on those. We managed to move towards the front of the field, but were about 10 seconds behind the lead group of four containing the Polyanksy brothers, Jonathan Brownlee, and Richard Varga.
We had a solid group ourselves, and I thought we would pull back the group up the road no problem However, it took too long for us to organize. We lost a couple of people, and just didn’t work that well through the first couple laps. So I decided to sit at the back and wait for the chase group to catch us since we were not making up any ground on the group in front and the pack behind was closing. Then it became a game of stay near the front and out of trouble. The pace was quick and the accelerations around the corner were pretty full on. I was excited because I usually enjoy running off hard rides. Coming into T2 I was a bit complacent thinking that everyone’s legs would be hurting and came in near the middle to the pack of the group.
I started the run feeling pretty good. I let some of the guys go up the road and just tried to run a pace I thought I could sustain for the 10km. Even through the first lap I thought I felt alright, but the gap was growing up the road, and people were coming up from behind. From there, my legs just did not give me what I wanted them to. Overall, I ended up 31st and felt it was a very average result. At this level of racing average performances mean poor results.
Right now I am in Wollongong prepping for my next race in Yokohama. I am excited to put in a good bit of training for the next few weeks, and it gives me time to refocus and really get ready for what will be some fast racing in Yokohama!