Exactly one year on from my first international triathlon as a professional I returned to Racine, Wisconsin, to claim my first victory in the Ironman 70.3 World Series. The race fell at the end of a week long tour of the Mid West, with 5 races across 3 states over 2 weekends. Now whilst this might sound a little crazy, and I admit to having thought much the same, I found the week an incredible learning experience and a whole lot of fun. Grabbing 4 out of 5 victories was also a bonus.

In 2010 I had a successful first race of my US tour, finishing a close 4th behind some of the sports most successful names. It was a special moment, I was spent and could barely walk the following week, but knew I was capable of more. This marked the commencement of my mission to learn the in's and out's of this sport I had chosen to pursue as a career. To return to Racine in 2011, following what I would best describe as a tumultuous 12 months, and be able to run, skip, hop and dance my way down that finish chute to my first victory was a very special moment. To answer the question posed by many, no I'm not pinching myself, and no it's not at all surreal; I have worked extremely hard for this victory, overcome many bumps in the road, and dedicated myself to learning a new sport and how best to prepare myself to compete with the best. I have known I was capable of such a result it was just a matter of tying it all together on race day, and this is exactly what I did in Racine on Sunday.

So following a huge week of racing I lined up for the final assault on Sunday morning, and remember thinking "this race is mine to win today". I wasn't cocky or over confident, just focused and determined to do whatever it took to claim my first victory. I had no idea how the day would play out but I was prepared to fight to the finish. The conditions were tough, with extreme heat and humidity going to cause suffering throughout the entire field, and a nice persistent head wind faced on the majority of the bike. A heat index of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (that's around 43 deg Celsius) saw around 500 of the almost 2,500 participants withdraw from the race, and was also responsible for the IV administered to many athletes including myself following the event.

The attention paid to my swimming has been paying dividends and I exited 3rd out of the water and a minute down on the lead. Still not where I want to be but much better than the 5 plus minutes I had been chasing in my first attempts at the 70.3 distance only a year ago. No mucking around in transition today and it was down to business, my plan was to ride to the front of the race and that's exactly what I did. It was at around 60km that the week's racing caught up with me along with Kristen Andrews, taking over my lead. It was here that I chose to control my aggressive and impatient nature, dropping back and collecting myself a little before launching an aggressive attack with 10km to go and entering transition with a small lead.

I'm sure I set a personal transition record here, even being an extremely long run out, putting the hammer down and distancing myself from Andrews over the first mile. From here it was pretty simple really, it was extremely hot and I could see that the men's field was blowing apart, so it would be a race of attrition and I had the advantage of dictating the pace out front. Around mile 2 my boyfriend Bryan passed the other way and his excitement spurred me on even more. The decision was made, I was going to win this race, and so using the turn arounds on the two lap course as indicators I kept an eye on my competitors chasing from behind and strategically pushed a little harder to gain a psychological advantage at each turn. Lap one saw my lead extended and not a fast but a consistent run saw me with a nice lead at one mile to go, I could enjoy the finish and soak up my first Ironman 70.3 victory. A very special day and one I won't forget!

    Thank you to my sponsors Blue Seventy, Merida and City Bike Depot, and also for the support from HED and Aloe Up. This result booked my ticket to world champs in Las Vegas so better go get rocking!!