Our home-stay Mum, Monica was almost doing a rain dance in the kitchen when Beth & I fell out of bed race morning, "It's overcast......perfect for your race." We had been laughing the night before as she announced the family would be watching the race armed with sticks to take out our competition, including the local girls!  I was really looking forward to the race for a number of reasons.....the obvious one was my love for competing and the urge to win some more ITU points, but the atmosphere in La Paz over the last few days had been electric.  There had been a kids triathlon on Friday, an age-group race on Saturday afternoon and our race was the finale on Sunday at 3pm, with live TV and radio.  This weekend is the highlight of the year for the town and everyone couldn't have done anything else to make us feel more welcome - it was like being a rock star for the weekend.  I couldn't wait to run through the streets, which would be lined with people and most importantly our adopted family who would be screaming encouragement.

We arrived in transition to sauna-like conditions.....it was going to be survival of the strongest for sure and I was certainly going to use the energy of the 6,000 plus people, who had turned out to watch. The swim was in a really fast flowing river, which was over 1km wide, so strategy was going to be crucial.  It was a pretty unique set-up....the age-groupers had been ferried up the river 1.5km and thrown in to swim (or float!) back to T1.  We would also be ferried up the river, but only 700m, where we would swim back to T1 then commence a triangle with one side completely against the current - it was like a swimming treadmill!  In many ways, I liked the course as I was feeling good about my swim fitness and confident of the line I should take. Beth and I had spent a considerable amount of time in the river the day before with Diego in his kayak, working out the currents.  It was funny, as in some ways this completely de-stressed the swim for me as I was happy I could swim almost as well on my own as with a pack in these conditions and they suited my strength.

My legs were still not feeling on fire during my morning jog, but they were coming round from all the travel. Maybe one more day would have been ideal, but I guess it's also important to learn to race in less than ideal circumstances.  Most of the girls racing were from the America's with 4 from Argentina, 1 from Bolivia (who had recently transferred from USA), 3 from USA, 1 from Hungary, 1 from Mexico and me, so a reasonably small field. You could feel the excitement rising as the start time drew near and after a swim warm-up, we all sat in the shade, while the drums rolled and it sounded like they were getting ready to send us off to war!  Was I sure I was in the right place?  We were all announced to some Rocky music and had to run past the crowd before being loaded (quiet literally!) onto a cattle boat for the short trip up the river.  As the boat pulled away there was an explosion of fireworks and more drums - it felt like we were being taken to some fearful place where they only expected a handful of us to make it back alive.  I think I just got an idea what it must have felt like to be a Gladiator in ancient Roman times!

I felt surprisingly relaxed as the gun went off and picked out my planned line straight away.  I could see a group of girls off to my right but stayed on course and by the time we reached the T1, I was with the main pack......Wow, this was a new experience!  I felt really strong against the current and was nicely tucked in on some feet until I swam on the inside of a river outlet, as I knew this part of the river had less current.  My plan was paying off as I soon spotted myself gliding past the pack but unfortunately the turn buoy had been moved from the day before so I left my turn a fraction too late and lost my advantage. It didn't matter too much as I was still in touch and came into T1 5seconds back with another girl.  As I powered up the small climb out of transition, my new bike felt awesome and I knew this was going to be fun.  Within 3km, I had caught the main pack and dropped two girls who were behind them, one was a awesome runner so I was happy.  Amanda Stevens (US) was out front on her own but I wasn't too worried as she wasn't gaining any ground so I decided to settle in, get my breath back and see how these girls would work together.  As we came to the end of the first lap at 10km, I decided to try and make a move as I knew a couple of the girls in our pack were good runners and there were a couple of technical parts through town with a small hill......perfect for an attack! 

My plan worked perfectly and I soon built the gap to 30seconds where I was gaining on Amanda.  I didn't get to her until 5km left to go into the tailwind.....it would have been nice if we could have extended our lead of 50seconds by working together in the headwind but never mind.  She flew through T2 and at first I thought that was the last I would see of her but by 1km, I had taken the lead.  It was perfect timing, as I flew down the hill out of town past my adopted family who were going wild by this point.  Unfortunately, my lead was short-lived as Nancy (ARG) came flying past me at 2km, closely followed by Omar (ARG).  By this point, I was really feeling the heat and exhaustion and it became a mental battle to hold on.  I still can't describe the energy of the crowd, who were 5 deep around the whole of the run course.  I could see a girl behind me absolutely flying through the field as though her arse was on fire.....WOW, it was going to be tough to hold her off!  Sure enough, the inevitable happened and Agnes went sailing past, which made me even more determined to hang onto fourth place.  I can't tell you how relieved I was to finally make it to the finish line and the cold water they had pouring out of a hose pipe for us.

I was really happy as Beth finished 5th which was her best position in an ITU race and we both won a bit of money and some points.  After a cool down on the bikes, we quickly got them into the boxes and headed out for dinner with our family followed by some of the best ice-cream I have ever tasted.  This town really rocks in every way!  Beth and I both voted this as one of the best races we have been to and would love to come back again next year even though it is at the wrong time of year, expensive to get to and takes forever - just goes to show how great this little town is.