Never give up!

These past few weeks have been absolutely crazy! I've finally found time to update my blog!

Nationals in Ottawa was the first Canadian junior race and there was an automatic Worlds qualifying spot up for grabs. The day before the race we went to do a swim course familiarization but the officials said we couldn't get in the water because the water quality tests weren't back yet. They told us they would be in by the end of the day... they weren't. By the time my race came around the water results came around and the water was fine to swim in! I had a good swim and a good first transition... unfortunately I was about three or four seconds off the two leaders and couldn't catch up to them :( I rode solo for the first two laps of the four lap bike course. The second pack caught up to me by the end of the bike and my legs were so tired from biking alone for quite a while. Onto the run I knew I just had to run as I could. After the race I had heat exhaustion and I don't remember much about the after race. I ended up finishing 5th which I was quite happy with. I gave everything I had and learnt a lot from that race.

Onto Montreal...

I hadn't planned to race these races but in order to be considered for Worlds I had to go. I booked a last minute flight and stayed with team Sask while I was there. The first race was in the Old Ports of Montreal. This race was really cool because we got to swim beside all the big boats and ride on the cobblestones. My swim didn't get off to a very good start and I had to swim around a lot of people to find clear water. There were two girls ahead of me who had really fast swims and I managed to catch them on the bike. We worked well together on the tough hilly course. On the run my legs so were tired from all the hills and they started to cramp up and I'm very glad that I was able to finish the race without that happening.

The next race was also in Montreal and was only a week after the first race so I stayed and trained in Montreal with team Sask. This race was in a different part of Montreal but was still within biking distance of the house that we were staying at. We went and previewed the course and even got up at 5am to be able to go on the bike course without many cars. The course was beautiful and very flat. It would be a fast course. The swim course was in the St. Laurence river and so there was a slight current but when we swam in it I didn't notice it at all. The night before the race it rained the whole time and unfortunately the morning of the race the dock down by the water was flooded and all the rain had made the current stronger and we were no longer allowed to swim.

They had changed the triathlon into a duathlon... Run bike and then run again. We started with a 5km run. I was unsure of my running abilities as I have only been running for about an month and i knew that if I wanted to make the from pack I would have to run super fast. As we started I focused on my own run and not going out too fast. I was in the first third of the girls for the first quarter of the run and slowly started passing girls who had gone out too fast. After 5km I was 45 seconds down from the front pack and the next pack behind me was 45 seconds down as well. I was all alone once again. I started going hard on the bike as I saw two girls that had gotten dropped from the first pack. I was gaining time on them but so was the large pack of girls behind me. We all formed a large pack by the end of the bike. I ran the last 2.5km as hard as I could and managed an 8th place finish amongst 50 junior athletes and 7 under 23 athletes.

After I got home from Montreal I got an email that informed me that I had been chosen to represent Canada for the second time at Worlds! This year Worlds are in Cozumel, Mexico and I am super excited to go make Canada proud! These past 5 months have been quite a challenge, coming back from injury and not even knowing if I would be able to race this race season. I am so thankful for all the support I have received and I am super excited, that amongst all odds, I was chosen to represent Canada at Worlds! These months have taught me never to give up on what at the time seems impossible and with hard work and dedication you can accomplish anything!

A big thank you to Princess Auto for continuing to support me and my triathlon dream throughout my injuries and for helping me attend all these amazing triathlons all around North America!