I'm from Chapel Hill and I pretty much grew up at the pool, as I spent
much of my time doing club swimming through high school. I did
Wilmington YMCA as my first triathlon my senior year of high school and
won my age group (it's my favorite race because the swim is extra long
compared to the bike and run distances). The next year, I ended up
going to UNC and I made the novice crew team. However, I just couldn't
give up swimming, so the mornings I didn't have crew practice, I woke
up early to go to Masters practice. In the spring, I started biking on
the afternoons that I had off and I decided to switch to triathlon
after finishing the rowing season.
It was hard to give up being on a team, so I'm excited to get to be
on the TMS-IOS team again this year.
After two years of coaching from Dave, I've finally made it to some
bigger races outside NC and ended up with some good results. Last year,
my favorite race was Best of the US in Phoenix, AZ. Dave and I
represented NC and came in 7th as a state despite both of us being
swimmers and the race more heavily favoring strong runners. Since I'm
turning 23 this year, I've decided to give the whole pro thing a try so
that I can race U23 while I'm still eligible. We'll see how draft-legal
racing treats me in 2009!
Chris returns to the team this year with some big races on her calendar. She is the only card-carrying mermaid of the tri team. Catch her fin if you can, but chances are she'll blast away from you WAY too fast.
In 2008Last year she found herself 3rd at Collegiate Tri Nationals, 4th in her AG at Olympic distance Tri Worlds, among the top overall finishers at USAT Olympic distance Tri Nationals (winning her AG), and every NCTS race she entered (3rd Overall Open NCTS).
2009 saw her first pro season with a handful of top 10 ITU finishes. Chris fought her way to strong finishes, despite feeling like her run was her limiter. We certainly don't think so!
2010 has so far been a string of wins in the NCTS without any competition and her debut in first half Ironman with a stellar 4:46 at the White Lake Half Ironman in the tropical heat.
