Wow!! The ITU World Championships Auckland, New Zealand

What an adventure!  I decided prior to qualifying that if I nabbed a spot, I was taking my daughters to this race.  The second catch was it had to fall during their fall break.  Well, the perfect storm happened and we planned a 12 day trip to New Zealand!

We began our adventure on the South Island and Flew into Dunedin, New Zealand.  This was an awesomely long 24 hour trip! The girls did great! We toured the Dunedin, Queenstown and Doubtful Sound area's and just had the most amazing time. I can not even begin to describe the beauty we encountered. 

After a wonderful time in the South island, we headed up to the North island to Auckland to begin in the race festivities.  Auckland is probably the safest and cleanest city I have ever been in. I absolutely loved it!

Then it was time for us to put a close to the vacation and Mom needed to begin focusing on the race.  We got tickets for the Women's Pro race and it just was awesome to see how interested my girls were in the race; they actually wanted to return to see all the other race categories as well (U23, etc).  I think since I have had the opportunity to be working closely with Pro Triathletes now and Olympic Hopeful's, this event was very real to them and the people that were racing it.  

The Parade of Nations with friends Tracy, Jim and Leo!

And of course, Timex Teammates Cindi and Keegan! Yes, Timex IS all over the world...

The race itself went quite well considering the vacation and illness I had prior to the event.  It was quite a rough swim with so many women in my wave, but I was able to pull it together after being punched in the face and have a solid bike and run.  If I were to compare it Beijing last year, Beijing was a much more beautiful course with amazing Olympic energy having been the same course of the Olympics the year before, but the awesomeness of Auckland was when you hit the run.  Being downtown in a major city, the run was a wall of people yelling and cheering! I could not believe the support I heard "Go AMERICA, Go USA, Go UNITED STATES" being yelled to me in all different accents from around the world.  It was truly one of the most awesome moments in my racing career.

Walking down to the swim pontoon.

Waiting for the gun, I'm positioned on the far right

Good cut on my face right there coming out of the swim. Of course, I had no idea.

Heading out on the bike

Finished 38th. I was pretty happy with this considering all things!!

When I first discovered my battle wounds, I still had no idea what it looked like!

I can not explain how wonderful it is to represent the USA and my wonderful sponsors, Timex, PowerBar and KSwiss..

And the wonderful support of my family. 2012 was a good year!!!