The month of June has been a very fun few weeks of racing. I was fortunate enough to be invited to compete in the 35th annual Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. This was my second time competing in the race and I was excited to use things I learned from my first attempt. The field was small with only 10 women but had a ton of talented athletes with big resumes. I love racing shorter distances. To be honest, I really miss the non draft Olympic races.
The swim in Alcatraz is so unique. We all take a boat out to Alcatraz and then jump off into very cold water. I had a pretty average swim start and got clobbered by the masses. I swam the entire swim on my own sighting a red and pink cap about 10 meters in front of me over the 1.5mile course. I managed to catch the two caps by the end of the swim and exited the water with Sara McLarty.
I had a decent run to T1 and got on to the bike in first place. My hills were strong on the bike but on the descents I struggled. Leanda Cave caught me about halfway through and I rode with her until she dropped me on the final descent into town.
Onto the run I started out pretty fast to catch Leanda. I knew ITU star Ashleigh Gentle would be charging from 15 seconds down. Ashleigh and I ran from mile 2 until mile 7 together. I put in a surge to drop her and it didn't work! She surged right after and dropped me. I ended up crossing the line in 2nd only 13 seconds down. I was very happy with the result. Of course, I would have loved to have won but I was happy with my run effort and to run with one of the best short course runners in the world. I loved the race in San Francisco and I hope to be back next year!
After the hard effort I had a really hard time recovering. Alcatraz is a very demanding course and presents challenges that I am not normally faced with- hard ocean swim, steep hills, the sand ladder, and trail running. I got a few solid training days in before heading to Queretaro, Mexico for the Challenge San Gil half distance race.
Queretaro is at 6500ft and the bike had almost 2000ft of climbing. Before I talk about the race, I just want to thank everyone at Challenge San Gil for providing such a fantastic race experience. The swim venue was held in a calm lake on a golf course so the conditions were not the challenging part. The altitude really hurt me in the swim. I thought I would be fine coming from 5200ft but the hard anaerobic effort at the swim start really hurt me about 1k into the swim. I was able to exit the water in 1st position but then I literally slogged my way to T1 which
was about 800m.
On to the bike I felt a little flat at the beginning. The bike course is 10km flat, 35km climbing, 35km descending, and then the final 10km flat. At 20km I got a 4 minute drafting penalty off of a PRO male as we were yo-yoing back and forth. I was very frustrated as I am always mixing it up with the PRO males and it is hard to pass them once they see you are a female. I served my penalty at 35km and got back on the bike. I caught the same PRO male who was hugging the left side of the lane and I was forced to pass on the right. I received a stand down penalty for passing on the right that I had to serve before entering T2. By this point I was really struggling mentally to stay in the race.
The woman in 2nd place, another ITU runner from Mexico, exited T2 with me. She started with a very fast pace and I just could not match it. I was unsure how I was going to do on the half marathon. My body did not feel great but it also was not terrible. At 10km my legs came around and I got into the lead. From there I did not look back and held a steady pace that I knew I could maintain at 6500ft. So after a very emotional 4hrs I crossed the line in first. A win is always awesome, but I think the big take away from the race was overcoming adversity. I finished the weekend with tacos, churros, beers and the company of my awesome homestay family.
I am now back in Boulder for a solid training block. I will be racing again mid July. Thank you to EVERYONE who follows my racing and supports me. I am so grateful to all my sponsors who allow me to race my best!
