Ixtapa Pan Am Cup Triathlon 2013

I won!! I won!!! Okay…I didn’t win the race, but it sure felt like a win for me :)

My swim is still a little behind everyone else (about 5:00min behind the leaders and 1:15min behind the next closest competitors.  Breaking my wrist and elbow just 6weeks ago, and being attacked by powerful ocean waves created quite the challenge. I swam a good time but really, it’s not a good time.

I am really happy with my bike split.  The second fastest split of the field! – because I had to cycle like a madwoman to catch not only 2 stragglers, but also the trailing pack (right at T2 – so although it was awesome to catch the pack I didn’t get to use any of them to lighten my load!).  The fastest bike split was owned by the winner, a former Olympian, in a solo break off the lead pack. 

So I got to enter the run course with 5 other athletes and passed all but two of them.  My 10k was slow and steady – steady is good, slow isn’t the greatest but good enough for the conditions: 33oC feeling hotter with the humidity.  There were 4 water stations on the 2.5k course which broke up the race into short dashes for water.  Every stop meant a water bottle dumped on the head and body with maybe one gulp down the throat.  I wasn’t sure what kind of pace I could handle in the heat but I knew my main goal was to finish without exploding.

Running & representing AIA Triathlon!

Christine :) another great Canadian superstar!

I finished 7^th – whoop whoop!!  And got randomly selected for a drug test so lucky me I got to pee in a cup.  I suppose we all are asked to do that at some point…at least I made a new friend!  A nice Mexican girl, Jennifer, had to follow me around for a few hours as I recovered, got snacks, found my I.D. and supervised me when I peed in the cup.  So happy she spoke English.

More than anything I saw answers to prayer throughout this entire race.  The waves calmed from the 15ft that they were the day before, I had a positive mantra for the entire race, my healing broken bones gave me no trouble, I pedaled fastest enough on my bike to bridge the gap in 40K between me and the trailing pack, then I ran without overheating to end up 7^th!  and again...Woop wooop!!!  :)

Thanks to my mom for being the BEST fan and support this weekend and to my new Canadian friend Christine Ridenour who was an awesome competitor and teammate.  Also thank you to my friends with AIA Triathlon, mom, and my family for praying for me :)

Mucho bueno!