Garmin-sponsored triathlete Jenna Shoemaker shares her training and racing experiences with the Garmin Edge 705 and Forerunner 405.

Wow, that was an incredible adventure Saturday! The weather was cool and since the water was “borderline,” they called it a wetsuit-legal swim. My start number was 37, so I didn’t have the best selection of start position, but managed to link myself up next to one of the Australians who I know is a great swimmer. We exchanged some words and agreed we’d do everything we could to work together to get away from the chaos. I wasn’t sure how I was doing when we hit the first turn buoy and had a few people grabbing at me, but I put my head down and pressed onward as hard as I could. It wasn’t until I was about to get out at the end of the first lap that I realized I was at the front of the race, at the tail end of the front pack. I dove back in and tried everything I could to stay in the group, but I was at my limit and lost about 10 seconds over the course of the next 500 meters. I knew I was still in a good spot though, so I focused on what would come next, a very wet and wild bike ride.

Exiting the water, I ran hard through T1, but struggled with my wetsuit and had to deal with a helmet that had been knocked to the ground by the gusting winds and torrential downpours. I rode as hard as I could into the strong winds to get myself up to speed and caught two women on the way. Then more women from the pack behind linked on and a group was formed. By the end of the second lap we had chased down the leaders, but my legs were still not quite ready to go, so I missed the opportunity to get in what turned into a three-woman break off the front. On the next lap, as per my coach’s instructions to “launch” myself “no less than three times off the front of the pack,” I attacked and got a gap. I got within 10 seconds of the group ahead but had no help from the one rider who had decided to come with me and we were swallowed back into the field. I tried again a few times and pretty much ripped my legs apart, but was focused and ready to have a solid run despite all of that. In between all of that, I just tried to stay out of trouble as many of the women were not comfortable riding in the rain on such slick roads.

T2 was a funny spectacle with girls slipping and sliding as they dismounted onto the soaking blue carpet. I got my shoes on quickly but had a terrible time with my helmet!  My hands were so cold that I couldn’t get the clip undone. I ended up losing about 8 seconds in T2 and losing the run group. The first lap, I focused on warming my legs up, which were very cold, and on keeping my form together. As the laps progressed, I felt continually better and started to catch a few of the women ahead of me. After a hard day, I was very happy to have had a strong run, although not a particularly fast one, because it shows me what I will be capable of if I am not quite as aggressive on the bike.

I was the third American finisher and my 24th place finish moves me up into the top 60 in the Dextro Energy rankings and will move me up a few places to about 37th in the World on the ITU points list. It feels great to come back after such a terrible race in Washington and I’m looking forward to the next four races I have lined up in the next five weeks. Next weekend I head to London for the London Triathlon on Sunday, August 2nd. It is not an ITU event, but is draft-legal. It is another great opportunity to learn and race hard, and since there is $80,000 in prize money up for grabs, it should be a lot of fun! Thank you so much for all of your support.