Lucky 13?

Grrr....13th! I know...I should be happy, I am but not fully! Funny how quickly ones expectations change! Actually, I think it because this year I know I've put in all the work and that a top 10 should be there....be patient, I know!

Here's how it went:

Well I arrived in Ishigaki on Thursday afternoon, put my bike together right away and went out for a ride. I noticed when I was assembling my bike that the derailleur wasn't screwing on quite as tight as it usually does, but I went riding anyway...after about 25min of riding I noticed it wasn't shifting quite as smooth as I like. I stopped and just touched my rear derailleur and it fell off--my hanger was stripped!! Oh Crap (well, other words were used..)!

I happened to be across the street from the local Ishigaki bike shop, with all the cruiser bikes out front, I was confident that they would stock parts for a Spanish bike. To my dismay they did not! But the guy offered to "make" a temp one for me but "it might take a few days". I came back to the hotel and put in a frantic skype call to Richard in Noosa and sent an e-mail to Coach Paul....What do I do?? Now this story is getting a little long, so I will try to condense it. I ended up going to the Japanese Triathlon Union (JTU) mechanic, I think he saw the panic in my eyes, so he made a call to a buddy on the Mainland....Orbea Japan (thank you!) was sending me a new hanger but it wouldn't arrive until Saturday afternoon from Kyoto. Just in case the part didn't make it, I also arranged for a back up bike (thanks to Marc Jenkins for volunteering, well, I think he saw the panic too...). To wrap this novel up, the part came at 3pm the day before the race--thank goodness! Heads up to the Speed Theory guys (Dale and Greg)...the bike is in major need of an overhaul when I get back in May, slot me in!

Now the race: The swim: went really well. I was just off the front couple girls going onto the second lap, so I put my head down (literally--right Coach?) and bridged the gap. Too bad it didn't really matter as the girls behind us in the water eventually caught us on the bike.

The bike: went well too, I felt really good on the bike. Although the group didn't really work well together, so we were caught after the first lap. I also pulled way too much. Then I went for the 'prime' on lap 6, which I didn't get, and expended WAY too much energy to be second across the line. I can onto the run in first place (for a fleeting moment--Hey, the Aussie's can run 33min, I knew it wouldn't last long!).

The run: I just didn't feel super great. I tried to run with other girls but got dropped going over the bridge--the hills weren't working for me today. I managed to move from 15th to 13th in the last 2k and for an 'off' run day, my run split was okay--much better than last year!

Now, I am heading off on a long journey back to Australia for a week of training and then back to Korea for my top 6 finish.

Phew, that was a long one! I'm sure there are many spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in the is one Dad!

Later,
LM

Pics from NZ

New Plymouth World Cup swim start--3rd from the right.

T1--this time I got my helmet on the first try!

This one is for the NuVistites reading...I do occasionally still think about oil and gas! I had a great view of an offshore platform for the first 3.3k of the coastal run during the race!
The rolling hills of Taranaki...all volcanic deposits...makes for some great biking!
A clear view of the dormant Mount Egmont/Taranaki from my homestay's house. Very cool, they have a ski hill on it in the winter.

Oh So Close!!!

Hey Guys!

Well, I had another solid race in New Plymouth yesterday. I had a start # of 15 this time, which was nice not to be the last to line up for the swim start! The swim was a bit chaotic as usual, but a good wetsuit swim for me (I've had problems with the wetsuit in the past!). The bike ended up being a pack of about 20 girls and I stayed up at the front and out of trouble into the corners. I managed to come off the bike into T2 first this time (see the new pic above!), learning from my Mooloolaba mistake!! Onto the run, I was slightly off the pace the first 3k but bridged the gap upto 3 girls--Hewitt, Davis, and Tucker--and ran with them. This had me running in 9-12 place at the 6.6k mark. The last 3.4k were 3 short loops by the stands. Since I was running with a Kiwi, we had lots of crowd support (well Hewitt did and I pretended they were cheering for me!), Richard and Adrie were also on the course in their Dutch Orange, so I never missed them! To make a long story short, I was passed by an Aussie and Hewitt made a break that I didn't match and I had a sprint finish with a Japanese girl for 11th, with a 36.55 run split on a hilly course. It was just shy of my top 10 needed for Beijing qualification--but 2 more races to do that!

I'll take an 11th place though! Next up is Ishigaki on April 6th and I intend to beat my start # there too (it might even be in the single digits there!!)

Thanks for the support!
LM
--PS--my current World Cup ranking is 17th!! Nice!