A long overdue race report

In my last post, I promised that I would write a post-WCS finale race report ASAP. I lied, so please accept my most sincere apology. Truthfully, I suppose that I have been a bit reluctant to write about my race, as the experience was somewhat mixed.

My goal was to finish top-15 in the race and I accomplished that with a 13th place, a result that landed me in 17th place in the series. The windy conditions worked in my favor, as the choppy water helped break up the field on the swim. 7 of us headed out onto the bike together, working well enough to gain a 45 second lead on the chasing athletes going into transition 2. After the bike, however, I was pretty flat, however, and my race became more of a struggle to hang onto a top-15 placement on the run.

While I am by no means unhappy with my results, I do find myself a bit unsatisfied with my ITU season. I went into the season with high expectations, but realized after the first WCS race that my preparation, especially on the bike (leading to lackluster runs), was insufficient. While I had hoped that I would be able to fix the shortcomings in my training as the season progressed, I was only able to address a couple of the oversights in my program and not all. Thankfully, this is 2009 and I still have time before 2012 to turn myself into a finely tuned triathlon machine!

Overall, I had a great experience in Australia. One of the best parts of the race was that I was able to spend some time with my Uncle Richard, who volunteered at the various races in the lead-up to the women's event. I was also fortunate to have additional family member fans at the race, as my cousin Mike made the trip up from Adelaide with Cass and their insanely cute kids, Cosmo and Argyle (I still get a kick out of the fact that there are red-headed Groffs with Aussie accents!). My family is incredibly supportive of my career- I am really lucky. It was also a pleasure to get to know some of our talented Junior and U23 racers better throughout the course of the week, as well as meet some of Team USA, our athletes who competed in the ITU Age Group World Championships. I look forward to seeing all of these folks compete again in the World Champs next year in Budapest.

Currently, I am in New Hampshire at Adam and Tricia's house (remember what I said about my supportive family?) getting ready for the last two races for the year: the US Open in Dallas and th 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater. I've been putting in some good saddle time with Mugatu, my TT bike, and have been enjoying New England in the fall. More to follow...