After a month off due to injury, I came back strong with a 9th place finish at the ITU Brampton Continental Cup in Brampton, Ontario on July 2.  I qualified for the Under-23 World Championship team at this race.  This race was Canada’s National Championship so many strong Canadians showed up.  I swam really well, coming out of the water with girls who beat me by a minute in May, but my transition was a little rusty and I missed the pack on the bike.  Refusing to give in, I cycled very hard on the windy course, managing to stay within catching distance of a few of the slower runners in the group ahead.  I ran the 4th fastest run time – even with only 2 weeks of running under my belt – and set a new 10k run personal best time. 

.:Full Race Report:. .:Results:.

I had a pretty disappointing performance at my second World Cup of the season in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, which is home to the toughest course on the World Cup circuit.  The weather was cold and rainy and the water temperature was cold enough for us to wear wetsuits.  I swam pretty slow but had a great transition, where we run up a very long, steep hill to the transition area.  I tackled the extremely challenging bike course with a small group, but we still lost a lot of time to the bigger pack ahead.  I ran pretty strong but was still out of the top 20.  I will just put this race past me and focus on what’s coming up ahead in Europe!

.:Full Race Report:. .:Results:. .:Travel Log:. .:Photos:.

Only one week after my bad race in Corner Brook, I came to Manchester, England ready to redeem myself.  My two checked bags (one being my bicycle!) didn’t arrive on time, creating some very stressful days leading up to the race.  I was prepared to race with brand new equipment (cycling shoes, pedals) and a borrowed generic uniform, but thankfully my bag finally arrived 2 hours before my race started.  I had a much-improved swim, coming out with a chase group that eventually caught the huge group ahead of us on the bike – and I rode in a group with 40 other girls on the flat, technical course with several roundabouts and corners.  I ran pretty well, finishing with Olympic points and ITU points and happy to have finished in the top 30 in the largest women’s field in World Cup history.  It was especially fun for my parents to see their first World Cup ever. 

.:Full Race Report:. .:Results:. .:Travel Log:. .:Photos:.

Currently I am based in Kaiserslautern, Germany staying with an American coach, Denny DePriest of T3 Coaching.  I am very grateful to have this opportunity to not only save travel time and money between races, but to also be in a great training environment between my European races.  It’s fun living in a different country for a while, and you can read about my experiences and see photos on my travel log. 

This week I am resting up for the Tiszaujvaros BG World Cup in Hungary on this Sunday, August 13.  I am excited to be able to race on the same course as last year and see how much I’ve improved!  It will be fun to have my parents there to watch too.  You can tune into the live broadcast of the race on www.triathlon.org - the women’s race will be from 10:30-12:30 local time, which is 4:30 – 6:30 am EST. 

After Tiszaujvaros, I will come back to train in Germany before the FISU World University Games in Lausanne, Switzerland on August 27.  I will get to spend time with some other collegiate triathletes and it will be my final time racing for Virginia Tech!  I will hang out in Lausanne the rest of the week and compete in the Under-23 World Championships on September 2.  After that I will return to Germany for a few days to race the Hamburg BG World Cup on September 10.  A busy but very exciting schedule!