State Series: Three down, two to go

Not a lot of news to ramble on about today, just a quick update on the weekend's race. The third State Series race was held at Beauty Point on Sunday. The distance was 750m/30km/5km and the weather was still, muggy and overcast. It was my first race aboard the new Specialized Transition (see picture).

The water was very flat and the pool swimmers got away to a good start. Just after the first buoy someone grabbed my legs and tried to pull me under the water about three times but after I kicked hard and got away I thought I was swimming OK. However, when I got out I saw lots of people who I usually beat - or who I would like to beat - ahead of me. My bike mount was another disaster, it was quite funny really as I nearly ran over Dwayne Hinds who was TO-ing the bike mount area. (Apparently I wasn't the only one!)

I caught Melissa and we basically rode the whole 30km together with me passing her up the hills and her passing me down the hills and staying ahead on the flats. We posted exactly the same bike time.

T2 was significantly better than T1 but as I ran out I was surprised (to say the least) to see a girl I didn't recognise just ahead of me. She ran strongly too but I passed her early on and to my relief continued to pull away from her. Just before the first turnaround I heard loud breathing behind me and I thought 'oh no she's caught up, but I am dying, I can't go any quicker, I'll have to let her past!' but as we turned the cone it was Natalea who passed me. She wasn't pulling away from me as fast as I'd expected and I could tell she was struggling which, as it turned out, was because she was having stomach cramps. In fact she didn't gain on me all that much and I could still see her towards the end. I thought if I'd had a bit more in me, I could have sprinted and almost caught her. But the lack of running lately has really impacted my fitness and I had nowhere else to go, I was already pushing as hard as I could!

Still 45 seconds is not too much of a gap to one of this country's rising triathlon stars - and it was short course!

It was also awesome to have another competitive girl join the field in Kate Warner, and of course having Tahlz back from her mainland commitments to raise the standard.

Thanks Miss for duelling it out on the bike course with me and keeping me motivated.

Thankyou to my wonderful sponsors Specialized and Bike Central who give me some chance of keeping up with Melissa with the amazing bike and all the gear.

Thanks mum & dad for coming down to watch, even though it didn't make me win like the first two times this year ;)

And a big thankyou to my grandparents who put up with four starving athletes for a night, eating them out of house and home!

So that's two seconds and a first in the state series so far, or three firsts in my age group :) and the best two races to go: Coles Bay long course and Devonport olympic distance. Just 12 days until Coles Bay - can't wait!