Race Coverage

"Overall...a Good Day"...

Sunday, 01 May 2016 00:10

Photo - Heather with 2016 women's pro runner-up Alecia Kaye.

By Heather Lendway (heatherlendway.com)

St. Anthony's Race Report - I knew this race was going to be tough with World Champions, Olympians, repeat 70.3 champions and past St. Anthony’s champions on the start line.  Oddly, I never really got too nervous in the week or even days leading into the race.  I was feeling much more confident heading into this race just knowing I was healthy throughout my training and not fighting an extended illness like my last training block.  It also helps that it was the second time I’d be racing on the course and I’ve now raced many of the athletes on the start list, so I had a good idea of what to expect....

Sunday morning was beautiful, calm and a fairly cool 75 degrees (for St. Petersburg).  After a quick swim warmup the pros were lined up on the beach.  As soon as the men took off at 6:50 the women waded out to the start buoys in about waist deep water.  At 6:53 the gun sounded and we were off.

Swim

* The swim start was rough, I had people on either side of me battling for position. It was hard to take a full swim stroke and I almost felt like drowning with people pushing my hips down. With seven strong swimmers in the field we all knew it was going to be messy.
* I finally made it to clean water but Sarah Haskins and Lauren Goss had formed a line a meter over so I decided to not work solo and got on Lauren’s Soon after someone jumped on my feet as well.  READ MORE