Berg Blog

Rona was there too on the flashy red machine. that made 4 from the Berg team in total.

I am having a really good time down here in Mazatlan. I heard from my dad that there is three inches of snow at home so I am very happy to be in Mexico in the sun! The race yesterday was really good. I placed fifth and I was beaten by Sarah-Anne Brault(CAN), Ruth Gris(MEX), Mary-Anne Hogan(CAN), and Kyla Coates(CAN). The Canadian girls did really well, we had 6 girls in the top 10. My race was good. The swim was brutal. We had to swim through these giant waves (15′) and a couple people were even pulled out of the water because of the waves! I managed okay. For some reason I was ranked first, and everyone else had been sorted alphabetically. I got to start on the right side, which was good because it was closer to the buoy and the current was pulling you left. The start was crazy, you couldn’t see the buoy over the waves so you had to kind of guess where you were going and hope you were heading that way. Once you got through the break it was better. I was the first person to the first buoy and I had a little lead. I took me a little while to find the second buoy but once I did I was the first person there. I was feeling really good. On my way into the beach I was trying to sight off of these yellow buoys on the beach, but I wasn´t sure whether that was where I needed to be going. I didn’t end up body surfing in because the waves were really strong and I was already getting tired. Once I got close to the beach, I found that I was probably 50 meters down the beach from where the swim exit was, and I saw people getting out of the water already! This made me really mad, and I had to swim sideways with the waves pushing me farther in towards the beach (Patrick said I should have dolphin dived there, but I wasn´t thinking about that). When I finally got out of the water, I was 6th or 7th out. My transition was smooth and my mount was really good, I even passed 1 or 2 people there! I caught up to the lead pack, which wasn’t too far ahead and rode with them for the entire bike. Me and 2 other girls (Mary-Anne and Sara-Anne) wanted to break away, but it didn’t work when we tried. I came into transition 2nd or 3rd and was first out. The Mexican girl came running by me really fast, and soon after Mary-Anne, Sarah-Anne, and Kyla came running by me. I picked up my pace for a few meters, but I just didn’t feel that I could run that pace, so I guess I gave up a little and let them go. I didn’t feel my hip at all during the run, but I felt like I didn’t have any more gears than the one I was in. I ran pretty steady the whole way and tried to keep my form. I finished 2 minites behind the leaders. What I did well in that race were my transitions, which were really smooth and fast, and my swim start with the waves. I think what I could do better is
sighting and knowing where I need to go, and breakaways off the bike. I also want to improve my running so that I can run under 19 min. off the bike.
Yesterday I ran 19:31, we don´t know whether it was a measured 5km. I know I haven’t been doing a lot of running this year so I am still happy with my time. Seeing as I didn’t qualify for world´s, I think we need to sort out what is happening for the rest of the season for triathlon´s, and I will also have to talk to my swim coach about swim meets.