Race Coverage

My First Pro Podium...

Thursday, 26 March 2015 01:10

Las Olas – The Unexpected Non-Drafting Pro Debut – Race Report

By Heather Lendway (heatherlendway.com)

When I left for Florida on March 4th I was planning to race twice but I ended up racing three times with a last minute decision to race at Las Olas international distance tri in Ft. Lauderdale. If I quick flash back to that week, Lifetime had just announced that they would not be holding a professional tri series anymore and in that instant, the majority of my season’s racing plan was erased. That left me with a couple options: get more serious about draft legal racing or go long-distance. Neither option had me jumping for joy. After racing at Clermont on Saturday and being very disappointed in my performance, I began to question my choice for even taking my pro card. I wanted to go pro to have the opportunity to race the best athletes out there, now the majority of those opportunities disappeared (Olympic distance non-drafting)....

Sunday I started to scour the internet for races and came across the Las Olas race and immediately saw they would be having a pro field. I checked the date for the race, Sunday March 15th, which was the day after Sarasota. I quickly mapped it out and Sarasota to Ft. Lauderdale was about 3.5 hours with no stops. I’d be done racing by about 1pm Saturday and with a stop for food I could be there by 7. I had to be crazy. I looked at the race website and there was a pro meeting on Saturday at 3pm, which I couldn’t attend and entries were full so I wasn’t sure if there would even be a spot for me. I emailed the race director to find out.

Monday I heard back from the race director and she said she’d have no problem getting me into the race but wasn’t sure about missing the meeting. I connected with the head official; he sent me the rules information and I was OK to miss the meeting but still race. I wasn’t 100% sold yet, I didn’t want to drive the 4 hours by myself to Ft. Lauderdale after racing and while I had my TT bike, I didn’t have my TT race wheels (although the Zipp 303’s would have been pretty good) or aero helmet. I slept on it. READ MORE