SUMMER IN SPAIN

Here goes, first blog is up and running (warning in advance - sorry for any typos or cringe comments).

On June 25th I left Brasilia, Brazil on a high, after racing my first Olympic distance ITU race. I finished 9th overall and 4th U23 in the American Championships, and there were many positives to take away. I was excited to fly back to one of my favorite places - Girona, [Spain/Catalunya?] to join my team on a training and racing camp. Girona is a mecca for triathlon/cycling which makes training that much easier. My favorite rides included a 3hour coastal ride on a rolling road and riding to Sant Hilari on my last day. Most rides include coffee and croissants so can’t get much worse than that!

Mid-way through the camp I left Girona to go to Tizzy World Cup, Hungary. This race has quite the reputation and I was excited to see what the hype was all about. The town was, well… interesting and our 2 star hotel with spotty Wi-Fi made things even more interesting. Day before the race I had to take my final exam for my summer class. Hardly ideal but I headed to the one coffee shop and took my exam there. Safe to say it went horribly… knowing I didn’t answer 30% of the questions due to running out of time I was feeling stressed and upset (he then curved the exam and I managed to get a B in the exam so that was a relief!). However, after my 30min pity party I told myself to forget about and focus on the race. Taking a summer class was an experiment to see if I could handle traveling and racing abroad whilst studying and I’m glad I tried it.

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Race: the format for this World Cup was Sprint distance semi-final and then a sprint distance final the next day. I knew the top 9 qualified, and then the top 3 fastest out of the three heats qualified as well (30 total). “Unfortunately”, I just missed out and was 12th in my heat and 32nd fastest overall. Although I didn’t make the final I was extremely happy with my race. I was just off the pace in the swim and watched my pack get away only 5 seconds ahead of me. The swim course was 3 laps of 250m and the distance to the first buoy was 110m… which meant complete mayhem. On the bike, there were 4 of us working together but there was no way that we would catch back on to the leaders. After pulling the pack on the bike I just stayed positive and focused on running fast. I clocked a PR on 17:41 on the run which after a hard bike, I was ecstatic. Next day was the finals and I played coach for my teammate Ky so that she could have a good race. Unfortunately, her pack of around 8 crashed and she ended up in the hospital with a fractured radius. The men’s race was then cancelled mid-race due to freak hail storm… so quite the dramatic World Cup! I spent more time in a Hungarian hospital that I would ever want but hey ho. After that I returned to Spain for a week to train with the team before heading back home. Was an unforgettable trip all round and can’t wait to return next year!