Peg’s Posts: Garmin triathlete competes at world championships

We’re pretty sure this
isn’t the typical path to competing at the world championship level, which
makes this triathlete’s story nothing short of amazing. About two years ago,
Lauren Olson, a Garmin software engineer based in Arizona, took up the sport of
triathlon. This young lady has laid down some impressive performances in
distances ranging from Olympic to half and full Ironman triathlons, with every
stroke, second and step of her swim, bike and run recorded by the Forerunner
910XT multisport watch.

We caught up with Lauren
after she returned from Belfort, France for the ITU Long Course World
Championship. That’s Lauren centered behind the American flag — third athlete
from the left — in the team photo. Lauren reported that this year, the swim
portion was cancelled due to extremely cold conditions. Here’s Lauren’s race
recap: This year’s competition went better for me than last year, mostly
because it was so cold and wet, the swim was canceled and it was run as a
duathlon. My first duathlon was a world championship…no pressure! I love
swimming, but I am not great at it so I was pretty happy. Everything about this
race was epic. The runs were on a trail system, which basically turned to a giant
mud pit. And the bike course was on part of the route for the Tour de France, which
included 2,000 ft of climbing in less than 6 miles. On the descent, we were
getting sleeted on, and having to navigate these sharp switchbacks…just epic!
Unfortunately, on the second run, my back really started hurting, probably from
the monster climb on the bike. I was the first American female, and within
reach of medaling up until the last 8 km or so, when I really fell apart. I
ended up placing 6^th in my age group, 39^th female
overall, and the 2^nd American female.

I’m thinking any instance
of “epic” in Lauren’s race report would be the equivalent of “grueling,”
“hairy,” or “I may not make it out alive” in my vernacular. And if you think
this Garmin athlete is slowing down or taking some time off anytime soon, think
again. Lauren is gearing up to compete in Ironman Coeur d’Alene on June 23 and
she’s racing in honor of her best friend Kristen. “My friend did this race last
year, and then less than a week later was diagnosed with MS. I’ll be raising
money for the National MS Society.”

Please visit Lauren’s
fundraising page and consider a donation to help find a cure for MS so that
triathletes like Kristen won’t have to abandon their passion. Best of luck to
Lauren and my favorite blogger, Dimity McDowell from Another Mother Runner and all
other athletes competing at Ironman Coeur d’Alene next weekend.

Here’s a look at Lauren’s Garmin
Connect data from the World Championships.

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