My first season as a professional had a lot of positives, but also a lot of negatives. I wanted to start off the season with an awesome race so Jeremy and I headed to San Juan for the 70.3—what a great birthday present! My hip had started giving me problems once again (it would come and go) and I had to drop out at the start of the run—bummed, but had to figure out what was causing the pain.

First off Branson is a pretty fun place, but it was hard to make the best of it with all the rain and storms! My coach had reserved a condo, which was awesome and perfect to get ready for the race! I checked out some of the bike course the day before—hell—o hills! If you want a hilly course and a flat and fast run Branson is your race.

I was really pumped to be able to race a half only two months after hip surgery! At Steelhead the swim was canceled due to high winds and a riptide warning so already my day wasn't ideal. I swim with a masters program and my coach told me I've really been busting my @%s and I felt ready to get out there. Since there wasn't a swim there was a TT start and I was the fourth female off. I felt really good on the bike, caught 2 women that had started in front of me, and was averaging 23.7 mph until I hit something hard enough around mile 54 to cause a complete flat (later I found out my sidewall was completely blown).