Excuse me if you would but I'm forced to keep this short, since my coach just assured me: "It's straight back to work. The World Championships in Las Vegas don't care what you did here!"
Yesterday I finally won my first Ironman 70.3 race, the Rhoto Ironman Boulder 70.3, after about fifteen tries and about an equal amount of second-place finished. Truth is, I quit keeping track! All along my coach and advisers assured me that it wasn't even worth worrying about: the win would come, if I just stayed the course. The course, of course, is determined by these same people! Thanks to Chuckie and Tim DeBoom and Phil Maffetone and Mark Allen for keeping me in line! Could a girl have a better set of advisers? I don't think so.
Regardless of their belief in me I still got a bit overly emotional at the finish line (I'm very embarrassed by it now!). There comes a point where until it has been accomplished, there's always a small part of you that's never really certain it can be. I had belief, but I had an equal amount of doubt. Both Tim and Chuckie told me that winning one was a forgone conclusion: it was only a matter of time. But as soon as I finished I said to myself, "it's about time!"
I want to thank all my friends for the training help: Michelle, Sonja, Lauren, Doug. And I need to thank my sponsors for their backing, especially BH bikes. It's taken me a while to prove that a strong cyclist can become a winning triathlete, but the gang at BH had faith in me before I had even proven myself. That sort of backing, along with a bike built purely for speed, helped give me faith (and wings!).
Thanks also to the entire gang at Tri-Sports, Pearl Izumi, BH Fitness, Standard Process, TYR, my good friend Dustin at Shimano (and Shimano's Di-2 advantage), GU Energy (who fuel ALL my races and training), X-Lab, CycleOps, Punk Rock Racing (thanks Ron!), ISM saddles (no pain = all gain!), Rudy Project (the future is so bright I need Rudy Project!), Spartan Wealth Management (even though I don't have much wealth to manage...yet!), Victoria Sports Physiotherapy, LaraBar, Timex, Raw Revolution, Bio-Compression Systems, Energizer Batteries (positive energy!), and Scape sunblock.
