A big thank you!

2008 has come to an end... well as far as triathlon racing goes.

It was a fantastic year for me. I kicked it off back in Chile last January with a 9th place finish at the points race there and followed that up with a handful of other top 10's including a strong debut at Alcatraz with a 7th place finish there (and the 4th fastest run time) and a 4th place finish at the Athlone, Ireland ITU race. I finally mastered my swim and lead out a number of races, which was exuberating and an enormous confidence builder and on top of that, I found my biking legs again and posted the fastest bike split at two races as well. I moved up from 276th in the World at the start of the year to 115th at years end. A huge accomplishment, but one that still leaves me room for improvement!

I have a lot more learning to do and hopefully there will be a lot more upward climbing in the rankings, but 2008 was certainly a fresh start for me and I'm looking forward to seeing what the new beginning here in Australia will provide my racing with in 2009.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to all of my sponsors for the 2008 season.
Ultima Replenisher
Garmin
Puma
TYR
Oakley
XTerra/ Blue Seventy
Masi Bikes
Spinergy
Power Crunch
QLink
... and of course my most amazing friends and family, namely my mother, my siblings, my Santa Monica family and support crew and my best friend Jay.

I simply could not have achieved what I did without your support through it all. Many of you have been around since the beginning and I cannot thank you enough for sticking with me even during the hardest times. Now, the focus is on London, and I hope that many of you will be around to join me there in 4 years time! Let the jouorney continue!

I would also like to extend a thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog, and to make comments. I thank you for your support and I hope that you continue to enjoy reading about my journey. I am grateful to have you along for the ride as well.

There will be some exciting changes for 2009 and news of that will be on the way soon!
Until then, I'm off to water run in the rain!!