I knew this was going to be a trail run, but other than that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The fact that it rained didn't help at all, and just made everything that much harder! I am not sure about the exact number of competitors for this distance, but we all took off at the same time 30 min after the long distance took off, so the trail was already warmed up for us with some nice mud puddles, and slippery single track! It was about 2.5 miles up, and 2.5 miles down! I lined myself up towards the front and was determined to stick with the lead girls! There were two girls ahead of me, one of which took off, and she was flying! I did stick to my race plan though, and as much as I wanted to stay with her, I knew today was going to be a looooong day especially with the rain coming down the way it was adding difficulty to an already difficult course, and I let her go. I kept my eyes on #2 for a while, but as soon as we hit the real single track that just went up and up and up, and heard the guys behind me say the girl in front of me won the short course last year, I decided to mind my own business, and race my own race! I was hoping she was just going way too fast, and wouldn't last! I was left with a group of guys and took the first 5 miles fairly EZ! EZ in terms of pace, as it's quite hard to take this course EZ! Never running trails in my life I sure was in for a rude awakening! I was covered with mud head to toe pretty much within the first half mile. I saw people losing their shoes in the mud, or just slipping and falling and sliding all over the place! It's FUNNY now, but climbing over the rocks, crossing little creeks, climbing over fallen tree branches, whether it was up or down was extremely challenging given the wet slippery conditions! The piles of leaves on some of the dirt roads also made it fun! Despite the rain, the first run felt good - uphills were though, and downhills felt ez, but tough just trying to negotiate where to step. The paths or tracks were quite rocky, with tons of roots sticking out all over the place. I was glad to emerge from the woods 44+ min later! I was anxious to get on my bike, and get the cyclocross like first .25 mile out of the way, followed by a pretty steep .8 mile uphill right out of transition. The downhill that followed was down right SCARY!!!!!!!

I think I did pretty well, sticking to my race plan, and racing my own race. I could have very easily blown all of my matches on the first run trying to stick with the 2 chicks that I let go, but I knew I was going to see them later! :)

Jorge was right there, snapping some pics, and of course giving me updates on my standings! I did have to win or else I was riding my bike home! :) Now that I have the exact splits, I am not quite sure what the other 2 girls were doing in transition as one spent 2:08 in there, and the other 2:44! Gotta love free speed! :)

Check out that average speed! If you are a regular follower of my bt/blog, you'll know that anything below 20mph means hills! 16.3 mph for 29 miles means some serious hills! This course was no joke, but I LOVED it! I would have loved it even more if it didn't rain, but I knew this is my kind of bike course! I could also skip the half mile muddy downhnill/uphill to get in/out of transition, but I guess at least I am ready for cyclocross! My poor DA! I loved the uphills. The first one right out of transition (well after the cyclocross part), was almost a mile long, and straight with an avg. of about 8.5%. FUN! Now what goes up, must come down! I am guessing the first downhill was good 2+ miles long, and ended with a sharp 90 degree turn! Not riding the course prior to today (we only drove it the night before), and with the wet conditions, I rode my brakes pretty much the entire time. This was a long descent with bunch of technical turns, the course wasn't closed to traffic, and simple as that, I was SCARED! Like really freaking scared, and the thought of having to do this downhill one more time was not appealing at all! I don't usually get scared, but I was today! I hit 51mph on a straight downhill at Timberman 70.3 last year, but this downhill was different! I would have honestly climbed that 8.5% 1 mile climb up one more time if I could skip out on this downhill! I am pretty sure I was going 30+ mph the entire time, riding my brakes, and if you asked me to stop on a dot - well that would NOT happen! SCARY! Once you made the 90 degree turn, it was "flat" or rolling hills for couple of miles, and then the climbing began. We just kept going up and up and up, in the smallest gear pretty much the entire time! That was actually quite fun - I kept picking of people left and right, and made sure I stayed below the 255 Watt ceiling that was highlighted in bright RED on my race plan! The back end of the ride included bunch of downhills, and once I got done through those with about 5 or so miles left, I was FROZEN to the bone! I have honestly never been this cold on a bike! I actually seriously thought about calling it quits, but I was all alone, in the middle of nowhere, and I really didn't have a choice but to make it at least back to transition. I was starting to wonder what it feels like when one gets hypothermia. I was shivering all over, and my teeth were shattering - I was flipping freezing! Another uphill couldn't come fast enough. Thank God for that long uphill back into transition! I was able to warm up a bit, and came cruising in through the mud. I barely made it through the deep gravel, and I couldn't wait to run so I could warm up. I was so frozen I almost forgot to take my aero helmet off! Now that could have been funny!

I would have liked to ridden the course ahead of time so I could have been a bit more aggressive on the downhills, but I took advantage of this on the 2nd loop.

I was now about 2:50 seconds behind #1, and like 10 seconds behind #2 - she was getting ready to leave for the run as I was coming in.

Same muddy 5 mile loop ... this time around, the uphills became a lot harder, and there were a bunch of sections where fast walking/climbing was now faster than trying to run. To my surprise, I was only 22 seconds slower that on the first run, but this speed was now coming at a much higher effort! I had girl #2 in sights for the first couple of miles, but I lost her again – she ended up running good 2 minutes faster than me, but her transitions were very slow so I saw her leaving as I was getting in. Girl #1 was now 2:45 min ... It was time to push the bike, and leave my mark!

Had a gu at about mile 3.5 ....

I think I did pretty well, actually running pretty much the same pace as the first run, even though at the time I felt a lot slower! Ha!

I had girl #2 in my sights from the very beginning! She was mine :). We climbed the first hill, and it was definitely a bit harder that the first time around, but I felt relatively good. I let it go a bit faster on the first downhill, and once we got to about mile 5 or so, there was a long, straight, gradual downhill before the long climb,and I just booked it! I flew by girl #2, and couple other guys she was riding with like they were standing, and I never looked back! I kept trucking along, and caught up to girl #1 at about mile 9 or 10 on the longest Tour de France like curvy climb. I stayed behind her for the rest of the climb, and watched her work it. She was definitely working pretty hard. As soon as we got to the top of the hill, I knew that another longish downhill was coming. She reached down for her bottle, and I went by her as fast as I could, and never saw her again. Since she put good 4+ minutes into me on the first run, I wanted to put some time between us, and I worked pretty hard for the rest of the bike to do just that. I knew that I made up almost 3 minutes in the first 10 miles, and there was still 19 to go . The fog was settling in making visibility minimal, and descending quite scary! Good thing that I have a pretty good memory and remembered the course fairly well from the first loop, so fog or no fog, I still pushed it pretty hard or so I thought. The 176 Watt avg. sure seems a bit low, but power meter doesn’t lie, and I did my best given the conditions. My effort was there, and I wasn't saving much anymore. I only had a 5 mile run left. I stormed into transition in 1st place, this time pretty warm, and ready to run! I was able to ride 3 minutes and 6 seconds faster on the 2nd loop than on the first, so that’s GREAT to see! I paced myself right, and I was able to ride 4:50 seconds faster than girl #1, now #2, and over 5 min faster than girl #2, now #3. For the first time ever, I was being the one being chased! Wow!



I again had 1 bottle of water with 4 scoops of powerbar perform, and one gel. I never felt hungry or thirsty! :)

I was the first overall woman coming into t4 ... wow! I was not chasing anyone anymore, I was being the one being chased! Very interesting feeling for sure, but I loved it! I didn't know how far ahead I was, but I knew I had to run as both girls were able to post faster run splits than me the first 2 runs.

My legs were pretty trashed at this point! I was running, but I am not so sure, it could really be called running. Things were becoming much more slippery, and uphills were becoming impossible hence I played a game with myself, and some dude who also left the transition with me. He was moving fairly well uphill, but couldn’t run downhill, and I felt the exact opposite way. I had a hard time moving up, but could block out the pain and make myself move as fast as I could downhill so we just kept on passing each other the entire time. There were quite a bit of fallen trees that we had to get over, so I ran (shuffled) from one to another and made myself run that way. I did definitely had to reserve to some fast walking/climbing at some point as my quads were just really not working anymore! I was able to keep a decent pace on all the downhills, but I was hurting with every single step. My quads were just so super trashed! I have honestly never experienced that before. I could feel my quads screaming with every single step I took, and I had to dig deeper than ever before to keep moving! And then it happened! One of the few perfectly flat sections with one lonely tree branch sticking out! I tripped over that one tree branch, and in a very slow motion, I tried my best staying on my feet but just had no quad power left and tumbled right to the ground! I really could have just stayed right there, but I got right back up and kept going ... looked behind me - noone saw me - all was good! Ha! With about 1.5 mile left when I was coming down yet another downhill, I saw someone in front of me ... barely saw, as straight vision was starting to become a problem … ha! Coach Jorge appeared in the middle of the woods to offer some words of encouragement! I should let you guess what he had to say! :) .... how about "Pick it Up" ... lol ... it was nice to see him though, as it was getting quite lonely out there in the woods, and just those 3 words took my mind off of my VERY loudly screaming quads! At least there were no girls behind me! :) The finish line really couldn't come fast enough, and then there it was! I WON my first race overall in a time of 5 hours 51 min 9 seconds and czech chicked all but 8 guys!



My last run split was 2:45 min slower than my fastest run, which all things considered is pretty descent. The girl who I was able to beat who ran 40:01 in her first run, ended up running the same exact split as me on the last run – 47:15 so she was over 7 min slower, and the 3rd overall girl slowed down by 15 min! Remember what I said in my first run? :)
Good thing, I have a smart coach and actually listen to him!!!!!! :) Thank you Jorge for your guidance! What an incredibly hard and fun race! I may just want to do it again! :)

I really didn't want to move! This was by far the hardest race I have ever done! Beautiful course, not such a great weather, but if you are looking for a challenge, this is it! I have definitely learned something new about myself during this race!


Awesome race! If you are looking for a challenge without the IM hoopla, this is a race for you!