Cedar Point Pics

Here are a few pictures from Cedar Point.

1) Joking around with Kate Major at the swim start (photo by Sue Hutter)
2) Caught smiling on the bike (photo by REV3)
3) Focused on NOT getting caught on the run (photo by Sue Hutter)
4) The joyous finish! (photo by REV3)
5) The world's best cheering squad (courtesy of Betsy Evers)

Running Down A Dream: A Big Win at REV3 Cedar Point

Earlier this year I had a "good" triathlon dream where I found myself running down the finishing chute in first place for my first win as a professional at a big race. This was unusual since every single other triathlon dream I've ever had has been more of the nightmare variety where I'm late for the swim start, my helmet is nowhere to be found when I arrive at my bike in T1, or my wetsuit has inexplicably shrunk and I can't fit into it no matter how much I wriggle and suck in my gut. It's funny how the mind works when we're asleep, latching onto our deepest fears and desires and presenting them plainly yet fleetingly during our moments of repose. I haven't been able to rid my subconscious completely of these bad triathlon dreams, but I've held that one rare perfect dream close to my heart all season long; and as I watched my fitness progress through the hours of consistent hard work I allowed myself to believe that perhaps the dream could become tangible reality after all...someday.

Well, "someday" arrived on September 11, 2011 when I surprised myself by winning the REV3 Cedar Point Full Rev (iron-distance) race in Sandusky, Ohio. I'm still over the moon with this outcome! It was one of those rare near-perfect days when everything simply fell into place and it *almost* seemed easy. I had just two minor blips during the bike leg (keep reading for the full scoop) but otherwise things went smoothly and the race ended up being a great celebration of all the hard work that has gone into this year. It was actually a double victory, as fellow Purdue University grad Andrew Starykowicz won the men's race. Andrew and I both got our starts in multi-sport with the Purdue Triathlon Club, and REV3 Cedar Point was the first major triathlon win for either one of us. Boiler up!

Here's how my day unfolded: I led wire-to-wire, which was a scenario beyond my wildest dreams! I fully expected super-swimmer Hillary Biscay to lead out of the water; she is one of the strongest swimmers on the long-course circuit and has more than 50 Ironman races under her belt. I had a great start in the sludge-y shallows of Lake Erie and was able to establish an early lead, thanks to the dolphin dive training from my draft-legal racing years. I felt good and quickly found a solid rhythm. It was a wetsuit-legal swim, which honestly doesn't matter to me one way or the other as long as the water temperature is measured accurately; I'm equally comfortable in my BlueSeventy Helix wetsuit, PZ3TX, or PointZero swimskin. I was waiting for Hillary to come zooming by, but in the meantime I focused on keeping my stroke balanced. By the start of the second lap I had become acutely aware that my goggles were too tight for this long of a distance, so that was a good motivation to keep swimming fast and get out of the water and onto the bike. When I exited the water I took a peek back and was surprised to see a bit of a gap back to the next swimmer. Bonus! To borrow from Chris McCormack's book, I had built myself a nice little "margin of error" early in the race.

T1 went smoothly; my Rudy Project Wingspan helmet was waiting for me right where it should be in transition, I grabbed my bike, did a good flying mount (thanks again to my ITU days!) and settled down to work. One really fun thing about the bike is that I got to ride right by my host family's house at both the start and finish of the course. Thank you Krista at REV3 for setting me up with this homestay, and thanks to Hope and Roger for your hospitality and support the entire race weekend! I really enjoyed the bike course; it didn't have the hills that I loved so much at Quassy, but I grew up only 3 hours east of Sandusky and the gentle rollers through the cornfields feel like home to me. I felt strong for most of the ride, with just one slightly down patch early in the second loop when I wondered if I had gone too hard at the beginning of the ride.

The two blips I alluded to earlier occurred late in the first loop; neither one cost me a lot of time (maybe 30-45 seconds each) but they were momentarily jarring. Blip #1 was a right-hand turn that was marked which should not have been a turn at all; due to an unfinished section of road the REV3 team had been forced to change the course a couple of days before the race and this was an arrow from the original course that had inadvertently been left on the road. Whoops! Several of the pro men rode extra miles, and the two guys near to me at that point (as well as the camera crew) all made the wrong turn. We quickly realized our mistake and turned around to get back on track, and one of the guys (I believe it was Brandon Marsh) stopped and peeled the errant arrow off of the road to prevent the entire field from straying off course. That was a classy thing to do; I'm a bit ashamed I didn't think of it myself.

The other blip was that I was initially given a stand-down penalty for a dropped water bottle---which I didn't drop! Just past the town of Berlin a motorcycle pulled up beside me and the camera crew, and a race official called out "Number 27, pull over and stand down for a penalty!" I slowed down and asked what I had done, and he said that I had dropped a water bottle at the last turn. I looked down at my bike and saw two water bottles---which is all that I had carried the whole day! I was flabbergasted and tried to explain that despite having 3 bottle cages on my bike, I had purposefully only been carrying two bottles all day long, and seeing as I still had two bottles there could be no way I had dropped one of them. I told the official he could look at the race footage if he didn't believe me, that the camera crew had been following me most of the day. I'm not sure why I said that, considering that it would have taken them longer than what my penalty was worth to go back and review the race footage...but I'm glad I did say it because it made the camera guys realize what was going on, and they looked at their own motorcycle and realized that THEY had dropped a water bottle!!! The camera crew then came to my rescue, revealed to the official that it was in fact they who had dropped a bottle, and the race official grudgingly let me go. He even apologized a little further up the road which I appreciated. I have all the respect in the world for the race officials, and in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't have been the end of my race to just keep quiet and serve the penalty...but I knew I was not in the wrong, and that if I let a bad call like that go it would have somehow been an insult to my integrity.

After those mishaps, the rest of the bike went smoothly. I stayed right on track with my nutrition plan (consisting of Kona Punch PowerGels, PowerBar Energy Bites, and boiled potatoes). It cooled down a bit for the last ten miles or so and there was evidence of rain on the roads, but I didn't get caught in any downpours all day long. I was able to build my lead a bit more throughout the bike, so I hit T2 with a decent cushion. The big question mark was if it was going to be enough to hold off the strong runners in the field. 26.2 miles is a long way! Kate Major (a.k.a "Mrs. Consistency") has been running me down all season long, and Kathleen Caulkins was riding well and is a dangerous runner. My run splits the first several miles made me a little nervous; they seemed a bit fast but I felt good and decided to adopt my "zen running" attitude that I generally follow in training. There are a couple of spots at the far end of the run course that give you a look at where the competition is and it appeared that Kathleen and Kate were gaining ground. I tried not to panic, to instead focus on holding my rhythm and remind myself that it's a long day and you never know what might happen. My next look at these ladies was at the beginning of lap #2; Kate had just moved into second place and Kathleen was walking. Her day unfortunately ended early but Kate was still creeping up behind me. I thought, "If I don't blow up I should be able to hold on for second place." At about mile 21 that mantra surprisingly changed. I got a good look at Kate on two successive out-and-back sections, realized she was about a mile behind and losing ground, did the mental math...and that's when it dawned on me: I was going to win this thing!

The last 5 miles were a real pleasure to run. I know that's a little batty to say after already having covered 135+ miles on your own manpower but it's true. I had the best cheering squad of family and friends that you could possibly hope for yelling for me at various points along the course the entire day, plus the incredibly supportive REV3 crew, spectators, volunteers, other competitors, and the positive energy of a whole network of friends and family who couldn't make the trip but were still rooting for me remotely throughout the day. Thank you one and all for your part in making the day so special! Running down the finishing chute, waving the American flag and lifting that finishing tape up above my head was an even sweeter feeling than I had imagined in my dream back in the beginnings of this season.

The breakdown: swim 56:09 bike 5:05:10 run 3:14:12 overall 9:19:15

This is a huge breakthrough for me, with an overall improvement from my lone other iron-distance triathlon by 48 minutes. The biggest chunks of time came off the bike and run splits. I've been known as more of a swimmer/biker so it's especially satisfying to throw down a respectable run split, proving to myself and those who doubted my running ability that I am becoming what I aim to be: an all-around strong triathlete. REV3 Cedar Point 2011 is absolutely the best performance I have ever put together. The momentum is with me now, and I'm excited to see what the future holds!

Thanks to: REV3---you guys are like family to me now!; my awesome cheering section consisting of Mom, Betsy, Zach, Courtney, Lucy, Zuzana, Alex, Mishka, and Jill; Hope and Roger Franklin for hosting me; Albert for accepting the inevitability of early mornings; Rich for his company on the long brick days; and to my sponsors PowerBar, BlueSeventy, Rudy Project, Wasatch Running Center, and Maxxis for their support.

Back To The Midwest

It's funny, people out here in Utah think they live in the Midwest and that where I'm originally from (Elkhart, IN) is "back east". Little do they know! So I'm packing tonight to head back to the true Midwest for an action-packed week of family/friends time with a little bit of racing thrown in for spice. I've been looking forward to this trip all summer long and now it's finally here! Three top priorities for the week: meeting my new week-old nephew Brayden; picking my niece Maddie up from kindergarten on Thursday (she will get a kick out of that!); and venturing over to Sandusky, OH for a little iron-distance triathlon hosted by REV3 on Sunday. Woohoo! I'm currently sitting in third place in the overall REV3 Pro Series and I have a shot at moving up after this race. Can't wait to get out there and celebrate all the hard work I've been putting in! And I'll have a nice big cheering section of family and friends to help me along the way...that is always a great boost. I'm so lucky!

A Good Day At The Office

Just a quick recap of the Mountain Tropic Tri held at Bear Lake last weekend and produced by BBSC Tri. I did the half ironman distance with the purpose of using it as a final tune-up race going into the REV3 Cedar Point Full Rev (iron-distance) next month. It was low-key, close to home, and the timing was just about perfect. I have done one or two BBSC events in the past and they do a good job with race organization, and Bear Lake is simply a stunning backdrop for an event like this.

The night before the race was a little hectic. Albert and I had the dogs and were camping---as it turns out, everybody and their mother was also camping at the same campground as us. I have never before seen so many people crowded into a campground! It was a zoo, and with loudmouth Suzzie telling us whenever a little kid ran by or if there was another dog cruising through if was far from a relaxing experience. Next time we're going primitive!

The race itself went really well for me: decent swim, strong bike and run. I chose to swim in my a speedsuit rather than a wetsuit because the water temp. was just on that fine line of being too warm for a wetsuit. The men had about a 3 minute head start so there were definitely people to chase down once my wave got started. I ended up exiting the water just on the heels of another girl and with only a handful of men out ahead of us. My transition was quick and I mounted the bike in first place for the women. The bike course consisted of two out-and-back sections, the first on the busier west side of the lake and the second on the more remote (and more beautiful!) east side of the water. The nature of the course gave you a good look at where you were in relation to the other racers. There were just a couple of men up the road from me so I got to work on trying to close the gap. I caught one of them but was passed by another, so by the time I hit T2 there were still two men up the road from me, the closest one having about a 2 minute lead. I decided to "go fishing" and try to reel them in, using the game to pull me to a good run split. My little game worked and I passed both men by the time we hit mile 4. From there it was a matter of keeping my rhythm and staying on top of fueling, which was really good practice for the times in the full distance next month when I'll be spending a lot of time in my own head.

The end result was 1st place female as well as first overall, with a new PR at the half ironman distance. And it was at almost 6000ft. elevation! All in all a very successful training day and a good indication of things to come next month.

Also a shout out to my client Nate Marcotte for his stellar day, placing 3rd overall male and improving his half ironman time by a good 40 minutes. Way to go Nate, and good luck at IM Louisville next weekend!

Thanks to Albert for taking care of the dogs while I was racing, and to the Philpots for their cheers out on the more lonesome parts of the course.

Next up: REV3 Cedar Point on Sept. 11th!

Shooting the Gap

I arrived back home early this morning (the 12:30am type of early) after a quick little jaunt to Illinios/Indiana/Ohio for the Giant Eagle Triathlon in Columbus. This race caught my eye after the Battle at Midway (aka BAM, one of my all-time favorite local Utah races) was sadly cancelled this year and I was left looking for an alternative Olympic-distance event in late July. HFP Racing did a nice job assembling some great corporate support (Giant Eagle, Muscle Milk) and put together a weekend-long multi-sport festival which included a strong professional field in Sunday's race. It was kind of fun to "step down" in distance and test myself against some really speedy short-course specialists at this point of the season when most people are pretty fit.

Unfortunately I was coming down with a bug and never really felt great at any point of the race, but I was able to squeak into the money with a 7th-place finish in a respectable time of 2:01:59. It was a FAST course with the top five ladies all breaking the 2-hour mark; in retrospect I'm pleased to have been in the same zip code on an off day. My swim was horrendous, probably one of the worst open water swims I've ever had. The water was a steamy 84.9 degrees which is bad news for me; I'm not sure if it's having a lot of surface area from being tall, growing up doing 6am swim practices in an unheated outdoor pool, or if I just plain run hot in the water...but I am a much happier clam swimming in cold water.

Whatever the case, it was hot and I swam poorly. This made me mad so I started off the bike like a bat out of hell. The first section of the course was on some nice smooth rolling roads in the area just south of Alum Creek State Park, before continuing onto "The Main Drag" (Hwy. 23/High Street) for a straight shot south into downtown Columbus. It's neat doing a point-to-point course into a big city and I have to hand it to the local police department and race volunteers for doing a great job directing traffic at the intersections. There was, however, a glitch in between the intersections. While the far right-hand lane was coned off for the race the entire way down Hwy. 23, there were still some cars parked in that lane once we got closer to the downtown area. It was feasible to ride to the very left of the coned-off lane to squeeze by the parked cars, or if it was a really tight fit you could even swing outside of the cones into the left lane and still be relatively safe. The real problem occurred when a city bus stopped in the left-hand lane directly beside a car that was parked in the right-hand/bike course lane to let passengers off...at exactly the moment when I was barreling through at 24 miles-per-hour. My choices were to a) slam on my brakes, b) swing suddenly out around the bus on the left-hand side into on-coming traffic, or c) try to shoot the gap between the car and the bus. I wasn't sure exactly who/what was behind me so I made the split-second decision to stay in my lane and try to zip between the two vehicles before the bus door actually opened and people started getting off. I almost made it. No one was hurt and I didn't have to come to a complete stop, but I'm certain that if the bus passengers were not fully awake as they started climbing off the bus they surely were jolted to attention by my yelling! Nothing profane, just a string of loud "heads-up-heads-up-heads-ups"!

Once I got past that obstacle the rest of the ride was uneventful. T2 and the finish line area were in a really pretty grassy square called McFerson Commons in the Arena District. I hopped off the bike with two other girls hot on my heels so I took off hard on the run to see if I could drop them. The first one caught me about a mile in and I wasn't able to match her speed, but when the second girl pulled up beside me I pushed the pace and really raced her for a solid mile on the backstretch of the first loop. It felt good to have the mental and physical strength to be able to do that. Eventually I cracked though and she opened up a gap that remained pretty constant until the finish line.

This race was a good reminder that there are always going to be things beyond your control; it’s a matter of preparing for the more constant variables and then keeping a cool head when faced with unexpected mishaps. I can do things in training to prepare more effectively for swimming faster in warm water and for improving my ability to hang tough in a duel on the run. The bus/car incident, on the other hand, was one of those random things that you don’t ever imagine being an issue during a race. Sure, the event company could have posted “No Parking” signs the night before the race and then towed away any stray cars that were there race morning. But the fact of the matter is that they didn’t and I had to decide how to react in one of those weird perfect storm situations…and then carry on with the task at hand.

Overall it was a fun little trip to the Midwest despite having a sub-par performance. I flew into Chicago, took the Orange Line train downtown, hopped on the South Shore Train bound for South Bend, and then met my mom at the train station for the 40 minute drive to Elkhart. It was a dry run of the same travel arrangements that I’ll follow in 5 weeks when I head back to the Midwest for the REV3 Cedar Point race. It was great having my mom and brother out supporting me, as well as my dear friend Courtney and her 9-yr-old daughter Lucy. Lou---you did a great job blowing the vuvzela!

Thanks to Shannon Kurek and the HFP Racing crew for organizing this event; to Ryan and Jill Cantzler for their awesome hospitality in absentia; to Mom, Adam, Courtney and Lucy for coming out to cheer; to Nicki and Megan for the tasty post-race banquet; to Albert for tending the garden and taking care of the dogs; and to PowerBar, BlueSeventy, Rudy Project, Maxxis, and Wasatch Running Center for their continued support.

REV3 Portland

It's been seven days now and the dust has settled after my latest adventure in the Pacific Northwest. Albert and I loaded up the car with camping and triathlon gear, settled the dogs down in the way back and headed northwest for a week-long race-cation in Portland, OR. We were lucky enough to have family to stay with for the majority of the trip (спасибо Edward and Valentina!), and even more family and friends to come out and cheer on race day. Many thanks to the REV3 crew for their impeccable (albeit inadvertently so) choice in race locations!

The days leading up to the race were filled with similar activities to what we normally do at home; some swim/bike/run mixed in exercising the dogs. Our "challenged" dog does not have very nice manners around other canines but we're working on improving that flaw. There is a really great dog park close to Gresham where we took Sherman and Suzzie almost everyday for some much-need social skills training and hiking. It was just what the doggie doctor ordered! Suzzie is not 100% cured but she's doing a lot better now...it's a relief to know she's not going to eat every single other dog we come across---just the smaller tastier ones. ;)

Back to the race. I was much more relaxed going into this race than I have been for the last few events and was able to sleep soundly the night before. I chalk it up to being in a familiar place doing familiar things. For once race morning did not come early! A solid night's sleep, plus traveling one time zone west and having a rare 8:00am start time made for a nicely relaxed morning. The big question mark as everyone was setting up their gear was whether or not it would be a wetsuit legal swim for the pros. The answer was no which was fine by me; I had packed my trusty BlueSeventy PointZero swimskin just in case and I prefer a cooler swim anyway. The women's pro field took off at 8:05am, five minutes after the men. I chose a spot to the far right of the field for the beach run-in because I prefer to avoid the tangle of arms and legs and find some clean water as quickly as possible. The sprint to the first buoy was FAST. After the first turn the pace let up and I was able to swing around a couple of girls and settle into a nice rhythm in second place. The leader's feet were too far away to catch (holy smokes Meredith, that was a great swim!) but I focused on keeping my turnover up and my head in the game. Ha---keeping the turnover up is all relative of course; I saw some footage of the swim and compared to the other girls my arms move in slow motion! But then again, my wingspan is about twice as wide as any of the other ladies who were racing...that makes a difference, right?!

I exited Blue Lake about a minute behind Meredith but with another minute lead on the next pack of swimmers. The run to transition was almost a half mile long, the highlight of which was seeing my sister and her husband cheering for me somewhere along the path through the park. Have I mentioned how great it is to race in places where I've got family/friends to come out and whoop it up?! T1 went smoothly and I got out onto the FLAT FLAT FLAT bike course quickly. The original course was going to be extremely hilly with the swim/transition/finish all in downtown Portland but there were some last-minute permit issues and the REV3 crew had to scramble to find a new venue so that the show could go on. They did an incredible job bringing it all together and the REV3 experience did not suffer one bit from the eleventh-hour changes.

The bike was two out-and-back laps on a road flanked by the Columbia River on one side and the Portland Airport on the other. There was a nice view of Mt. Hood on the second half of each loop---if you had the presence of mind to lift your eyes from the road for a minute to see it. (I did.) Some people might assume that a flat course is an easy course, but staying focused and keeping the pedal to the metal for 56 flat miles is not a walk in the park. There wasn't much wind to speak of, but there was a section of rough and "humming" road that took some mental fortitude to endure. I rode a good part of the first lap keying off of two of the slower pro men, trying to control the damage that Meredith was doing to the rest of the field while increasing the gap between me and my pursuers. I knew I would need a considerable cushion going into the run because it is my weakest link and there were some fleet-footed ladies on my tail. On the second bike lap I focused on catching whoever was up the road, which happened to be a string of age-groupers on their first lap. At one point I even tried racing an airplane that was just revving up for take-off...I thought I had it for a minute but then it kicked into a higher gear and left me in the dust. :)

The run: it was probably in my best interest that it ended up being a flat run course. I've been working hard at sealing this chink in the armor but there's still a lot of work to do; at this point it's easier for me to hold my form and pace together on flat terrain. I was greeted at the start of the run by my cheering squad which was a nice boost and put a smile on my face. The first few miles ticked by pretty quickly and I was pleased to settle into a relatively comfortable 6:45 pace. If I held it together I would be able to break 1:30 which would be a first for me in a triathlon. The initial out-and-back section of the run gave me a good look at who was behind me and what kind of gaps there were. Time for some mental math! I figured it would be a real battle to hang onto second place and even third place might be questionable, so I buckled down and kept my feet moving as fast as I could. It took Kate until mile 8 to catch me which is 2-3 miles longer than at Quassy so there's an improvement! Coming back from the far turnaround I got another look at the field and knew that barring a complete blow-up I would come in third. Miles 11 and 12 were long straights that were mentally challenging, but they were followed by the nice surprise of a somewhat short mile 13. Rounding the last bend into the finishing chute was awesome and I'm sure I was grinning like the Cheshire cat. At the end of the day I ran a 1:28+ split with an overall time of 4:25 and change, both of which were significant improvements for me.

It's such a great feeling to FINALLY have gotten my act together in training and to see the consistent hard work paying off. I've definitely got some good momentum going right now and I'm eager to keep it rolling through the second half of the season. Five races down, five to go!

Thanks go to: Charlie, Eric, Krista, and the rest of the REV3 staff and volunteers for making this race happen; Stu, Jen, and the entire camera crew for the great coverage; Albert, Valentina, Edward, Val, Kira, John, Rachel, Nathan, Marie, Daniel, Dave, and Kara for all coming out to cheer; the ladies field for the strong competition; my clients/athletes for understanding the week-long absence; and to my sponsors PowerBar, BlueSeventy, Rudy Project, Maxxis, and Wasatch Running Center for continuing to support my athletic endeavors.

Results so far:
REV3 Costa Rica 8th
REV3 Knoxville 5th
REV3 Quassy 8th
Dino Tri 1st
REV3 Portland 3rd

Upcoming:
Giant Eagle Tri (Olympic)
Mountain Tropic Tri (Half)
REV3 Cedar Point (Full)
REV3 South Carolina (Half)
ITU Long Course World Champs (a really weird longer-than-half-but-shorter-than-full distance)

Getting It Done At Dino Tri

Last weekend I competed in the annual Dinoland Triathlon in Vernal, Utah. I must say it certainly is nice to do a "local" race every once in a while, with minimal travel logistics to organize beforehand. Nothing like packing up the tent, hopping in the car with the dogs, hitting the road for a few hours and voila....you're there! This race is fun to do for several reasons: it's well-organized, has a nicely challenging course with a unique finish on a high school track, and it features a bit of a prize purse which typically draws in some quality athletes from Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. This year was no exception. There were some slight changes to the bike course due to road construction and the run course was entirely revamped (which I LOVED!), but the heart of the event stayed true. So did the finishing sprint around the track!

I came into the Dino Tri in the middle of a big block of training so I was not exactly fresh on race day, but my mindset was to get out and race hard to get in a good tune-up going into REV3 Portland (on July 10th). The swim is held at Red Fleet State Park in a gorgeous little piece of water with sandstone walls. The elite men and women started together, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the size of the field. This is a smaller race so it made for a relatively friendly swim---not much clobbering going on. I was in a little pack of 3 or 4 swimmers for the first lap, then was able to build my effort and create a bit of a gap on the second lap. I came out of the water in 4th position, with two men and one woman up the (steep) boat ramp ahead of me. I peeled off my BlueSeventy Helix wetsuit and transitioned quickly, hitting the mount line ahead of the girl who out-swam me. So I was sitting in first place among the ladies, a position I was determined to hold for the rest of the day.

The first two miles of this bike course are downright tough; the climbs are reminiscent of the hills coming out of the water at Wildflower, only they occur as soon as you get your pedals moving. This was my third time doing the Dino Tri so I knew what to expect but it's a humbling experience nonetheless. I'm sure the altitude has something to do with it as well---I believe Vernal is about 1000 feet higher than Salt Lake, and coming out of a hard swim and having to tackle those hills right away on the bike makes you acutely aware of your lungs!

The other challenging part of this bike course is the false flats. After the initial climbs out of Red Fleet there is a nice bombing downhill section, then a long section where you wonder why it suddenly feels like your brakes are rubbing. Once you hit the turnaround it becomes obvious that you were actually going gradually uphill the whole time; then you can really turn it on and feel like a rockstar! Overall I was able to put in a solid effort on the bike and built about another minute onto my lead over the next female competitor. Two men had passed me early in the bike leg, so at this point I was sitting in 5th place overall.

Once I hit T2 I was ready for a good run. I had seen at the bike turnaround that my friend BJ (who is a helluva runner) was riding with the second place female; my goal was to hold him off as long as possible. So I took off like a bat out of hell to see if I could be "out of sight, out of mind". It worked until maybe 2.5 miles in when BJ came roaring up behind me. Then my strategy changed to hanging onto his coattails as long as I could...which wasn't long, but I was pleasantly surprised to keep him (almost) in sight the rest of the run. The final 300 meters on the track was a blast, and hitting the finishing tape first among the ladies (and 6th place including the men!) felt great. I found out afterwards that my official run split was 39:45---my first time ever under 40 minutes on a legitimate 10K run course. I know that's nothing compared to what the top ladies in the sport are running, but it's a step in the right direction and a good sign going into Portland.

Thanks go out to the following for this race: Mark Mason and the entire Dino Tri team for putting on a great event; BJ for the extra motivation out on the course; Albert, Suzzie, and Sherman for their cheers and woofs; my training partner Rich for humbling me into running hard off the bike; BlueSeventy, PowerBar, Rudy Project, Maxxis, and Wasatch Running Center for their continued support; and to the community of Vernal for supporting this awesome event. Can't wait to come back and defend the title next year!