For the first draft legal race of the year, there wasn’t much drafting. I swam pretty well, but didn’t really have anyone to race, so I was fairly relaxed. I was first onto the bike, and biked hard the first lap. When I came to the turnaround to start the second lap, the lead pack of junior elites were starting their ride. Youth elites were not allowed to draft with junior elites, so I pulled up next to them, and then passed them. I played cat and mouse with them for the next quarter of my ride, and for the last half a lap, just sat behind them, giving them space. I just felt great! It’s a big confidence booster to me to know that I can bike with the likes of Michael Millic and other top Junior elites from Canada.  I got onto the run and had some trouble finding my stride for the first half, but then I just got the hamstrings firing, and started to fly. I felt great at the end, winning a sprint finish with a relay athlete. I ran 3 20’s. I was less than two minutes behind first place for the Junior Elite men in the whole thing, which I'm happy with for now. I'm learning so much every race, and know Ill do better each time. I can’t wait for the next one.
 - I am going to try to find my stride right off the start getting my hamstrings firing.
 - I'm going to swim much harder, even if I had a big lead.
 - I am going to bike just like last time.  HARD.

Well… A good way to start off the season. Top two boys and top two girls automatically qualify for summer games so I had to do well. I showed up at the triathlon in Kamloops in time to set up my transition but still with plenty of time to prepare for the race.  After my Majo warmup routine, music, and Spirotiger, I was ready. I started the race and felt good, my swim was fairly relaxed but still really good speed. I swam a 4:39 on the 400 m and was right onto the bike. I had about a 40 second lead after the swim.  The ride was pretty flat, only a slight false flat on the way out, and then slight down on the way back. I managed to make a wrong turn right off the start of the bike, and later on at the dismount (don’t ask me how;), but still managed to come off of the bike with about a 1 min 20 second lead over second place. I started the run and had some trouble finding my stride once I got tired, but still managed to gain another 1 minute and 20 seconds or so. My shoulders were quite sore during the run which made it hard to pump my arms and run normally. The fact that I've grown so much this last year or two is making it a bit difficult for me to find my stride. But I will.

So I won the race and qualified and pumped up for summer games!

Things I will work on/ do differently for next time:
I will go straight unless there is someone saying to go right or left :)
I will work on finding my stride at the beginning of the run so that I have it for the rest of the run.
I will make sure that my shoulders are loose before the race to allow for proper movement of my arms.