Wildflower has amazed me. It is the kind of race that will chew you up and spit you out. I strangely enjoyed its level of difficulty. For much of the race, I thought I had taken myself out of the equation of being competitive due to the fact that first I had mechanical issues on the bike and then come the run portion, I was moving slower then molasses.  I learned late in the race, roughly around mile 8 of the run where a woman on a relay team told me that she believed I was one of the top female competitors as I passed her. I was being severely challenged by my mental demons until this lady told me I was still in the race.  I immediately was shocked to hear this and felt a wave of energy as hope filled my heart. I just couldn’t believe that I was apparently ahead of most of the field after my set back on the bike and how slow I believed I was moving on the run. This race was truly about sheer grit and the ability to thrive under adverse conditions and situations. A new type of racing that I had not experienced before. If going into the race you can truly understand that this was the way the race was going to go you would be just fine. To accept that PR’s on the bike and run would be unlikely and even the fittest athlete can crack under the brutal conditions of the race, then you’ve got yourself a race strategy.

Again, I strangely admired the challenge of this race. The challenge was in the conditions you must withstand. The heat, hills and trails are not to be underestimated.

I had a pretty solid swim. I felt strong throughout the entire swim and stayed in control of my pace. I stayed with a good pack and tried to stay on people’s feet as much as I could. Out of the water there is a nice hill to run up to get to your bike. Running up the hill I laughed thinking this is such a cruel joke!!

Starting the bike I felt strong and optimistic I could take down this bike course. Coming off of my training I felt well prepared. Constantly climbing for the first 15 miles or so, I stayed calm and spun up the hills and powered the down hills as planned. I was amazed at how smooth and efficient I felt. I just felt this steady strong power as my heart rate stayed low. It was becoming an amazing ride for me. Then the unexpected happened. My aero bar extension came loose on me at 30 miles in and then completely off hanging only by a Di2 cord. I pulled off the road for about 5 mins ditching my aero drink and feverishly trying to reassemble my aero bar extension. No luck so I decided to just hold it, it was only 26 more miles. There was no was I was letting this ruin my race. I realized this was a great opportunity to practice my resilience. Nothing is ever guaranteed to go your way in races. The only thing you can ever control is how you handle yourself and I choose to fight.

I don’t claim to be perfect; I was upset over the set back on the bike and had some demons in my mind I was fighting. I was fighting to stay in the race but had a sinking feeling I had taken myself out of being competitive since I was moving so slowly out of transition on the run. More then half of the run I fought with myself to believe. The run was mostly on a sandy trail with constant leg burning hills dispersed evilly apart. Sometimes you just need a little angel to whisper in your ear and give you that extra push. I had two during my race. First was the lady I passed letting me know I was one of the top females that were passing here and that gave me that extra little push to change gears at mile 8 of the run. The second was a man named Kevin I met during the last couple of miles of the run. He had done this race last year and knew there was a giant hill at mile 11 to climb, but mile 12 was all down hill to the finish. I cringed of the thought about climbing another killer hill at mile 11 but stride for stride he talked with me up that hill. I would have walked that thing if it were not for him my legs were that numb. Thank you Kevin for being that second little angel to help me fight when I was feeling weak. Mile 12 finally came and all the anticipation of ending this brutal race exploded within me and I took a mile long sprint down this giant hill, put my arms in the air and crossed that finish line.

I took 2nd in the 25-29, which I am OK with. I am just still amazed that I took a podium spot when I thought I was done for much of the race. It taught me a lot about resilience and the power of continuing to believe. It is not over until it is over. You ought to fight to the very end. Never ever ever give up. Even if you come in dead last, you cross that line, because when you commit yourself to something you owe it to yourself to see it through. Now with that said there are absolutely extenuating circumstances like illness and injury that it would be silly to go on, but taking those factors out of the equation, just always believe that when the going gets tough, the tough get going (tuff).

And to bring it full circle, being the Timex athlete I am, it is all about being able to take a licking and keep on ticking!

A phenomenal thank you to both my team Timex who I had a number of teammates out there who rocked it and Tri Lab who has continued to be a huge support for me.

I wore my new Timex race trainer 2.0 during the run and although I did not like the numbers I was seeing, I loved the ease of use and high visibility it gave me from start to finish. Tri Lab being the best triathlon retailer of all time hooked me up with my disc wheel for the bike.

A huge thank you to Hypoxico altitude systems for sponsoring me this year and giving me the means to train with altitude so when I get the chance to race at altitude I will rock it!

I am also immensely blessed to have such a phenomenal coach Chuck Kemeny of Revolutions Tri Coaching for believing in me and being such a force in my racing. He truly knows how to execute a training protocol for even the toughest races and get my butt in gear when I fight my doubts.

And finally Joshua, my rock. I don’t know what I would do without such an amazing man in my life.

The podium of category Sen1 (minus 2nd place). I have to ask myself: Was this guy after my wig or what?

“I’d rather be 5h than 4th again!”,

I for my part was set to swim in lane one with last year’s winner, Marcel Bischof. So, would have some great feet to draft off – if I only could hold on to them in the first place. We’d see… Our male race horse, Florian Brosch, was set to race in lane three with Oliver Weber, the guy who had passed me to take third those two times in the past. Oliver is a very good swimmer and so Florian would also have the chance for a new PB in the pool we thought. Before the gun went off all seven of us in the last and presumably fastest wave of the day gave a “thumbs up” and off we went.

After only 25meters of trying to hang on to Marcel’s feet I realized that trying to do this for the whole 500m held the danger of already blowing up on the swim and so settled for my own rhythm at around 1:30m/100m. Marcel steadily increased his lead and I also saw Florian also constantly pulling away from me at the feet of Oliver. The swim exit saw me in around 10th place at a time of 7:34min. Very good for my standards and the fact that I’d had to swim that on my own. I fumbled a bit with my race belt in T1 which cost me some seconds on the competition and was up on my QR CD 0.1 a bit later than expected. By that time the eventual winner, pro Johannes Moldan had already covered the first kilometer of the bike as ha had mounted his bike some 1:30min before me. Nonetheless I had Marcel who was in second in my sights from the first long straight and steadily gain on him during the first half of lap one. While slowly rolling him in I passed the rest of the competition including two fellow team members. I passed Marcel at the turnaround of lap one but could not distance him any further than 20 meters. He seemed to play a bit with me and passed me at the half point of the bike with a little surge. I repassed again at 15k only to see him make a big surge with only three kilometers to go on the bike. Maybe he did not believe my pre race statement that he would at least run 2min faster than me and tried to get the deciding seconds there and then. As some readers will know “It’s all about the bike” for me at times and I tried my best not to let him gain too much in order to secure a better bike time than his. That at least worked out quite well. Nonetheless Johannes even went some 20sec faster than me so again so best bike split. Grrr… ;)

Entering T2 after the 2nd fastest bike split of the day.

Back in T2 I fumbled for sa second and perhaps deciding time, this time with my right foot, not the left, Mr. Day-Lewis. I had to take the right shoe off again as I had somehow folded the inner sole while slipping into the shoe. This cost a few precious seconds and so Marcel was long gone when I went out onto the run with a deficit of already 20sec.

On the home stretch.

When I reached the final 200m stretch Michelle shouted at me not to slow down as there really had been one fast guy in wave three. I must mumbled something I don’t remember but thought to myself that today I’d rather get 5th than 4th again. So I took a look back and without too much of an effort cruised to the finish line finishing 4th in my wave – and 5th overall. Florian had picked up his speed at the exact right time as he beat the guy in 4th by only 3sec and I was some 15sec further back in 5th. So at least Florian did not have to worry about being responsible for my 3rd 4th place at this race. He confessed after the finish that he’d thought about that quite a lot when slowly reeling me in on the run. Had we taken on the last kilometer easy & together – there was no one less than a minute behind us at this point – it would have been a real disappointment as we’d have finished a tied 4th.

Eight of us right behind the finish line. With Timex’ Tim fourth from the right.

We had a great time post race with delicious pastries, cakes and pies as well as a great to watch kids race. Of our 13 athletes an amazing seven made it onto the podiums of their AG and we managed to get the overall win by Julia as well as 3rd (Florian), 5th (me), 6th (Jörn Gabler) in the men’s race.

Next week it’s more than twice the distance for me as we head out to Kaiserslautern for the first league race of the season. As my ankle made it through the 5k run at an ac-ceptable speed and without falling apart I seems that I can look forward to that race as well even if the current water temperature in the lake there is reported to at around 14°C. Brrr…

The bigger fish and I.

This is my first year on Team Timex and this is my first post. And already I am talking about “bigger fish”. To make this clear: Team Timex is the biggest fish of triathlon teams out there and I am very glad and proud to be on board for 2013. So: Hail to the fish! Ehm… I am German, you might have noticed that strange sense of old European humor by now, haven’t you? ;)

But let’s stop digging and get down to it:

The quote above from Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace sums up 100% the funniest experience of my 2013 training camp on the island of Mallorca. It was at the end of the first of the two week training camp that I was talked into participating in a bicycle drag racing event called Thunder Wheels Racing (http://thunder-wheels.de). So only 20 minutes after finishing a five hour bike ride through the Tramuntana mountains of Mallorca I was facing a one on one elimination competition over a course that was just 400 meters long. Never before had I started any race whilst already clicked into my pedals and someone holding onto my saddle for a sprint start. Adrenalin kicked in when we lined up for the first round. My opponent looked like a real bullet: a few pounds too heavy but equipped with mighty thighs! So when the countdown commenced 5-4-3… my adrenalin kicked in. When it ended with …2-1 Go!, he was already five meters ahead! Damn, I had put on the wrong gear and within the first 100 meters the guy got a lead of around 10 meters. Finally I got my gearing right and caught and passed him after around 300m. From then on it was full throttle until the end and I crossed the finish line first. I had really survived the first round and with thus had reached the quarter finals. When we lined up for the heat I was told to be careful as my opponent would be a real sprinter and quite probably go for a late pass from behind. Well, I thought, we’ll see how this goes. I then decided to start the race from the drop bars instead of the top of the STIs. Like a real sprinter! Big mistake! The gun went off and I was leading. I was leading until my opponent decided that it was time for me to move back one spot. And that was at around the 250 meter mark already. He went by in a blitz and I tried to get behind him. I grabbed the bars tighter in one last ditch effort and nearly… rode right into the barriers on the right side of the race course. Puh!, that was close! And no more chance to catch the guy. I then decided to give him the credit he deserved: I got into an upright position and applaud him for his win. The picture above shows me in this process. If that maximum power output of 1.250 watts my Cycle Trainer 2.0 showed is not enough to catch the guy, he deserves the win! 

We stayed to watch the semis as well as the finals of the races and just like the guy who had beaten me every guy among the top four was a real road racer not a wimpy triathlete like me.

Today was the Inaugural Horsetooth Marathon. 18 miles of trail, ending with 8 miles on the paved Horsetooth Half Marathon course. We did not know until it was confirmed Friday if the marathon would be started.

A month ago with the fires in Lory State Park, Steve Cathcart, the race director was going to cancel the event due to fire damage on the trails.  Then the week before the event, Fort Collins received 2 feet of snow, followed by 3 days of 5o plus degree weather, trail conditions were unknown.  The course was rerouted to the service roads. The devastation at the Boston Marathon brought FBI to our scene, the race went off without a hitch!

I had no expectations other then to make it a long training day, around 6 hours. Some ice, some snow, lots of mud, I paced myself well and had a great time battling the elements.  I finished, just shy of a marathon distance in 4:40, the course was 25.5 miles. I slowly walked to meet my husband to get in 26.2.  

Fueled by PowerBar Energy Blends!  

Thanks to Team Timex and PowerBar for your continued support!

Timex Multisport athletes, Dave Erickson and Roger Thompson feature an all new weekly episode of the Endurance Hour Podcast with a full race recap of the 5th annual Ironman 70.3 New Orleans with Matt Lieto (@20:00-28:00),  we have an exclusive one on one interview with first year professional and Ironman 70.3 New Orleans champion, Haley Chura (@35:00-1:03), Roger discusses the results from the ITU World Triathlon Series San Diego (@1:04-1:22), and we highlight a new meal thanks to the Spokane Dinner Club (@1:23-1:28) and much more!

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