2013: The Year of 2nd

Finally getting back to the blog after several months away. It is time to catch up on 2013! After starting the year injured I managed to come back and have my best season to date. While I only won one race all year, I finished 2nd five times, the last of which was Lifetime Fitness Dallas, an Elite Qualifying Race. That 2nd place finish finally got me a pro card! 2014 will be my first pro season and I am planning to make my debut at the ITU Pan-American Cup in Clermont, FL. This is going to be a really exciting season. The main goal is to just have fun and try out different distances and formats. I am planning to race a little ITU during the first part of the season and then focus more on 70.3 the last half of the year in the hopes of qualifying for 70.3 Worlds in 2015. That race in Dallas was probably the most well-balanced race I've ever had. After coming out of the water 2 minutes down I managed to catch the lead group on the bike and start the run with everyone else. I took it a little easier than usual on the run and focused on getting 3rd and not being greedy by going for the win and blowing the shot at a card. I ended up 3rd across the line but the winner was disqualified for getting three penalties on the bike, so I was upgraded to 2nd a couple of days later. I decided to end the season after that instead of going back to Longhorn so that I could start base training and getting ready for the new adventure that is 2014. I have been able to put in solid training the last couple of months and am really fit right now. On Thanksgiving I ran just 3 seconds short of my 5K PR on just 7 weeks of easy running. 2014 is going to be big and I can't wait!