As www.islandstats.com reported yesterday, Erica Hawley had a tremendous start to her season as she finished fifth in the 2022 Americas Triathlon Cup Viña del Mar in Chile.
Speaking to www.islandstats.com following her performance Hawley said, “I was happy to get the first race of the season under my belt early and shake out the cobwebs.
The lead-up to the race was crazy and I'm hoping the crazy travel experiences are over after this! Starting off, my vaccine wasn't approved in time so I had to change my flight a day later to Chile, which had its stress and challenges! Honestly, I didn't think I would be able to fly!
On arrival, my bike and wetsuit didn't make it so I had to find plan B. I fully intended to ride someone else's bike. It was honestly a miracle that my bike got here but only 12 hours before the race started.
I didn't actually ride my bike at all except to the course on race morning. And same with the swim, the first time I had been in my wetsuit and ocean in months was during the warm-up!
The race itself was OK. I had an average swim, average bike, and a pretty good and consistent run.
Unfortunately, I lost the sprint finish for 4th which I'm mad about but at least I was still in the prize money!
I gave it my all to the end and these early races are to identify things to work on and are used to hopefully make those mistakes early on.
Not only has this race itself had its challenges but 2022 so far has been tough for me personally, so I'm really happy that I could put a solid race together.
Triathlon has definitely taught me that it rarely all goes smoothly in the build-up, during the race or in the travel and it's about navigating these challenges so they don't negatively impact your performance.”
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