Linda Gallo Takes First Win of the Season at The Uvas South Bay Tri

[bustamove]

San Jose, CA: Linda Gallo took her fi rst overall, triathlon win of the season at last weekend’s Uvas South Bay triathlon. Here’s what she had to say about that and other spring races.

Uvas South Bay Triathlon—This is one of my favorite races because I train on these roads all the time. It usually sells out at about 800 racers. The elite men and women started together which meant I got to draft off of some of the guys! After a very comfortable (but fast) 3/4mile swim I came out of the water right on the heels of the fi rst pro man. We headed out onto the 16 mile rolling bike course. Since these are our local roads, I knew all the risers and turns in the course and where to gain the most time. I pushed the bike and came into transition still in the lead. I headed onto the 5 mile run with a solid advantage, but still pushed it and cruised in for my first victory of the year! This was a great race to build some confi dence and get ready for Alcatraz on June 3rd!

Wildflower Tri—This was 2007 Pro Nationals so it drew one of the strongest pro fi elds in a while. I got a good running start into the swim and took the lead for the 1.2 mile swim. The forecast was for a super windy day, so the water was a bit choppy, but I navigated through and came out of the swim in front to win the swim preme! We headed onto the 56 mile bike course and Wow, windy is an understatement. There were strong headwinds and crosswinds the entire course... (how does that always happen?? where was my tailwind?) Then after battling winds for 40 miles, I had a dreaded fl at tire. It was only a slow leaker, so a few air stops later I made it to the fi nish. I headed out on the run a bit farther back than I would have liked, but picked off one women early on and then tried to keep a steady pace. The hills are relentless throughout this course. Around mile 8 of 13, I got my second wind (i.e. the fi nish line was in sight) and held off a few more women to the line. Overall, it wasn’t the race I was going for, but it has me fi red up for a good race at Alcatraz in a few weeks!

California Half Ironman—This was the fi rst race of the season, and a good test of my fi tness after 3 months of base training. It was a Half Ironman in Oceanside, CA and a part of the Ironman 70.3 series. All the top pros turned up (over 70!) to see how their early season training was going, thus the fi eld was super strong. I have been feeling good in training, so I was looking forward to the race.

The Race
I led out of the water with 2 other girls in tow. (Waldek is tired of hearing about how I always lead out of the water, so I’ll leave it at that...) On the bike I felt strong and focused my eff ort on keeping up a good cadence and spinning up the climbs. I was passed by a couple girls initially but then held my spot and ended up riding most of the course solo. The first half was pancake flat, but the hills on the back half of the course were a welcome change, even with my legs on fi re! I came off the bike in 7th, and headed out onto the run. The fi rst 2 miles of the run felt great. I was thinking to myself, this is going to be awesome! Then it felt like a headwind came out of nowhere and was in my face the rest of the time (note: there was really almost no wind on race day..). I focused on a high turnover and good form and just ticked the miles off . I held off my nearest competition for the last 3 miles which I was pretty excited about. Somehow those last few miles on the way to the fi nish line always seem a lot easier … Overall I was happy with the race. I fi nished in 11th. I came out ahead of a lot of people that have beat me in the past, so looking forward to a good year!

Next
Gallo and other LUNA triathletes take on the Escape from Alcatraz
Tri next weekend in foggy San Francisco.

Source:
Dave "Mac" McLaughlin