jackiehering: Hey everyone, and welcome to the very first episode of the Winner's Circle. I'm your host, Jackie Herring. This is a new Tuesday segment of the podcast where we'll hear directly from women in our sport coming off race wins around the world. I'm really hopeful this segment will grow over the course of the year and through people sharing this podcast. The idea is pretty simple. It's going to be short, honest, audio only race recaps from the athletes themselves. How the race unfolded. what challenges came up and what clicked on the day and what's next for them. There's so many incredible performances happening every single weekend and not all of them get the attention or coverage that they deserve. I wanted to create a space that gives more visibility to women's racing professionally, especially some of the athletes who may be flying a little under the radar, but are putting together amazing performances. My hope is that this becomes something the community builds together over time. a place where athletes can share their stories in their own words and where listeners can get a closer look at what's happening across the women's field week to week and hear from the athletes themselves about how they feel about their own racing. If you're a pro woman racing and you get a win, I'd love for you to submit a voice memo and be part of the winner's circle. And to kick things off, we're heading to Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast where Grace Alexander took the win this past weekend. Here's Grace. you All right, so I might be one of the first people to submit here. Of course, I'm going to support the women's race pod. Thank you for making some content for us and to keep people informed about the women's racing and all that goes on there. So I raised Gulf Coast 70.3 this weekend, came away with the win. It's kind of unexpected maybe on my part. Obviously coming from more of a swim background, they cut the swim. They said in half, but in reality it ended up only being about an eight minute swim. So probably closer to six to 700 yards swim or just the current was super helpful. So me and Victoria were leading out. I was a few seconds off of her. She took off a little bit quicker than I did, but I was able to keep her in sight. So we exited the water pretty close together. And then on to the bike. ⁓ Again, she was kind of just dangling out in front of me. I wasn't necessarily close to the 20 meter. I was more like 20 seconds probably off of her. And I just couldn't really close that down until at one point about 30 minutes in, I just decided to put in a push and close that gap. So I got up to her and went by her, took a poll for a good bit. And then I think around. Mile 20 is when Danny Lewis came by us. And at this point, Victoria was in front. So I wasn't sure if she was gonna go with Danny. So I decided to go around and just see what happens trying to hang onto her wheel. I figured it took her a good bit to close the gap on us. So maybe she wasn't going that much harder. ⁓ And she was definitely going hard. ⁓ The last. few miles of the bike were definitely some of the miles plus just the fatigue from the first half of the bike settling in. So I stuck with her for a little bit, but then ultimately she did get away again, probably 20, 30 seconds ahead of me on the final five-ish mile stretch. And onto the run, you know, I was in second, 30 seconds behind Dani and then I was told I was about... two or three minutes, I think, ahead of Victoria. So I just tried to stay present and focused. The weather, it was hot and humid, but luckily we had some cloud coverage, which was nice. So I just held a pace that felt strong, but controlled in those temperatures. And when we got finishing up the first loop, there was a long straightaway and I saw Danny in front of me and I was like, ⁓ maybe she's not. pulling away as much as I thought, which gave me a little hope. But then pretty quickly things went south for her and she started, I guess, throwing up and walking when I passed her about mile four. And so I took over the lead and that early on to have the lead, you can't really get too excited. So I just kept holding a strong pace for me. And then... about two or three miles to go, I had some people on course, family on course telling me that Victoria was closing the gap down pretty quick, which was unexpected. So that was a little bit stressful, but she had a really strong second half of that run. Huge kudos to her, cause that was a probably big negative split. ⁓ So I ended up kind of having to really kick it in the last half mile, which never feels great. ⁓ but ultimately got the win, was super happy. Definitely the biggest challenge of the day was having the swim canceled. there are some pros who are fighting to make ⁓ the swim always happen kind of for pros, which I really appreciate. But for me, when that happens race morning, my mind shift just goes to focus on what I can control, which isn't getting the swim changed, I don't think in that race. But of course, hopefully afterwards we can have the discussion. ⁓ But just focused on what I could control, executing the best race that I'm given on the day. And I think that was a really pivotal moment for just having the mindset going into the race to have a strong day, no matter what happens. You never know what's gonna happen. I didn't think Danny would blow up on the run. So always just keeping in a good mindset and yeah. Next up for me is Chattanooga this weekend, and I think I will see you there. And that is our very first edition of the winner's circle. Huge congratulations again to Grace Alexander on her win at 70.3 Gulf Coast. And thank you, Grace, for sharing your race recap with us. I hope this segment is one that will continue to grow, like I said, in a place where we can highlight more women across the professional field. If you're a pro woman racing and you come away with a win, I'd love for you to submit a voice memo. and be part of next week's Winner Circle. Thanks for listening and I'll see you back here next Tuesday for another edition of the Winner Circle. And be sure to check out Friday's episode where we will have a great chat with Holly Lawrence in our regular weekly, the Women's Race podcast. Thanks again and talk to you guys soon.