Providence 70.3 Race Report – By Jessie Donavan, Burris Logistics- Fit Werx Team Rider.
The wake-up call on race day was a bright and early 3:15am. We stayed at the Cape for the night so we could leave the kids with their grandparents for the day and we had quite a drive to get to the start. We were on the road by 3:45 and headed towards Olney Pond, the swim start just north of Providence. We arrived just in time to get into transition, pump up our tires, lay out our helmets and clip in our shoes before transition closed. The swim was not wetsuit legal which was not good news for me. I am not much of a swimmer to begin with but when I take off my wetsuit all of my little errors get even worse, why is it so hard to learn to swim fast? I didn’t have too much time to worry about it, before I knew it we were off. The swim was definitely not my best but I was still all smiles when I ran up onto the beach towards transition, I’m always happy to just have the swim behind me and to get on my bike. I jumped onto my brand new, super fast, Cervelo P3C (Thank you Fit Werx!!) and headed out on the bike course. The bike course was much hillier then I expected, I don’t think there was a single straight flat section on the course but that was fine with me, I love the hills. My bike felt amazing and before I knew it I was pulling into T2 ready to run. The run course at Providence is challenging, it’s in the middle of the city which makes it hot and there are some long and steep hills up to Brown’s campus. I spent the run focused on running smart, not going out to hard and staying cool as I have a tendency to overheat. When I hit mile 10 I started to let myself relax and enjoy that I was still feeling great and I started to soak it all in. My family was waiting at the finish for me and the kids had their handmade “Go Mom Go” signs in hand which always makes me smile. My results from the day were great. I was the top amateur for my second 70.3 this year, 4th overall for Pros and I had the fastest bike split of the day including Pros thanks to my new bike!
-Jessie
