GPS Kids | Jenna competes at Madrid World Champs, 2nd American

Garmin-sponsored triathlete Jenna Shoemaker shares her training and racing experiences with the new Forerunner 110 sport watch, Edge 500 bike computer and Garmin Connect.

Last weekend, I competed in the Madrid World Champs Series Race in Madrid, Spain. It was the third of seven races in the WCS series for 2010. After a long trip to Madrid from LA, it took me a few days to finally get my bearings. On race morning, I went to the local pool for an early morning wake-up swim before breakfast and then prepared for what we knew was going to be a hot day!

I had a great swim, even though I got battered and grabbed for almost the entire 1500m, and exited the water only 14 seconds behind the leaders. I had a great transition, got on my bike and headed out to tackle the very demanding and technical 8-lap course.

The first time up the hill, I had a tough time finding my legs and ended up in the first chase pack. We slowly ate away at the gap to the front group and by the start of lap 5, we had closed the gap from 45 seconds down to 25. At that point, I made the decision to attack and bridge the gap on my own. I made a carefully executed leap from my pack, so as to reach the front pack at the top of the descent, which would allow me to recover in time to make it up the hill, on the other side of the course, in one piece. When both packs finally merged, cycling got a bit scary and right before transition there was a pile-up just to my right. Fortunately, I was clear of it and headed into T2 and out onto a very hot run with all of the race contenders.

By now, at roughly 2:45pm, it was very hot outside, and the water stops had mistakenly been placed within 500m of one another, leaving us to suffer for 2k each lap without any water. I had a lot of trouble cooling down and despite my best efforts to run through people on the final laps, my legs never really came around. In the end I was 27th, the 2nd American finisher. It was a great day, especially for learning, and thanks to my Garmin Edge 500, I have a lot of interesting data to reflect back on and to give to my coaches for future races in Madrid and elsewhere.

This weekend is the Hy-Vee Elite cup in Des Moines, Iowa! A big prize purse, Olympic points on the line and really, just a great chance to race on “home soil”. There will be a live stream online and later this month NBC will broadcast some of the race on TV as well.

Check out my Garmin Edge 500 data from the race on Garmin Connect.

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