World Champioships at Rotterdam

Hello faithful readers, I’m here to share a great adventure, the 2016 ITU Paratriathlon Finals showdown, just weeks before the Paralympics in Rio. As of right now, I am not in the StartList for Rio yet. I will keep everyone posted as things progress. 

All the top competitors showed up and it was my hardest race up to date. It was very special also that we had a team from Loma Linda filming the trip, they went there for me! I felt like I was a movie star, too funny:) 

Racing wise, it wasn’t my best like I was hoping. In Japan I had broke my personal records, so I had been training hard to yet again repeat that. It didn’t happen. The day before the race, during the swim course familiarization, I somehow pulled a muscle and my neck got so stiff it wasn’t even funny. It was probably pre-race tension, but I hate when I train really hard for a race and something out of my control happens. But, we gotta be prepared for that…

Race day. I was loaded on muscle relaxers. It was going well, until the bike split. I did a rookie mistake of not deflating my tires enough… It was my first time racing on cobblestones, which is classic Europe. The trepidation was so intense that my bike chain fell twice, then I had to stop and put it back on, which just killed my time. Besides that, on this specific race, I should have used my Road bike, and not my Time-trial bike. There were 29 turns per lap, for a total of 4,5 laps. We were basically turning the whole way, and spending very few seconds on the aerobars. Beautiful, scenic race course, but, I wasn’t there for the scenery!! If I ever go again, now I know: road bike! After spending too long on the bike, I needed to compensate with a great run. It didn’t happen unfortunately. I carried the (lack of) momentum from the bike to the run. It wasn’t my day. But again, competition was sharp, it’s not like I could have podiumed on this race. 

I finished 9th, which was much better than last year, when I got disqualified at World’s in Chicago. 

This was my first time in Europe and I was truly amazed by all of it. The beauty, the organization, the people. Thank you Netherlands. Thank you Team PossAbilities. Thank you quest Diagnostics. I am blessed and I know that.