The Sun and the Run Make an Appearance!

What is that bright object in the sky...it hurts my eyes...After ~3 weeks, the sun came out for almost 2 days!! That was AFTER the race of course!
Me on the run course in Holten, finally a decent run time!
Riding Tandem with Om Fred!
I raced in Holten this past weekend. It is a town in the east-central province of Overijssel. Since we weren’t racing until 12:45 we drove to the race in the morning. The race start was ~10k away from the town and T2, making for some complicated logistics with respect to gear and transportation!

The swim start was another interesting one in a narrow channel, I didn’t even here a horn/gun for the start just felt everyone swim over top of me! I managed to recover from the horrible start and get into the lead pack of girls on the bike. I tried to organize the group but the effort level wasn’t there and we were caught by 4 more girls after ~15k. I stayed in the front of the group and had a solid bike, coming into T2 second. Onto the run, I stuck to the plan of going out fast and strong and hanging on! This actually worked, I’ve had a hard time getting my legs going the last few races but I was happy how the run went in this one. After running in 5th place for 8k, I was passed by a couple of fast running girls from the chase pack (including Vendula Frintova-the top ranked Czech athlete) in the last 1.5k and lost out in a sprint finish with 2 others to finish 9th overall but with a 37.42 run split (my fastest this year!).

After the race I spent a relaxing couple of days with my relatives Fred and Marian (thanks for the pictures) out in Lemelerveld. The sun actually made an appearance for 2 whole days!! I even climb the mighty Lemelerberg (berg=mountain in Dutch=79m elevation gain) by tandem bike with Fred and then reached the summit (3 times) the next day on my run!

Next up…2 weeks of solid training in Aalsmeer and then off to Kitzbuhel, Austria on July 20th for the World Cup on the 22nd!!!

Tot straks!
Lisa