Geneva, Ny:  In the women’s ITU held in Geneva, Ny, two Olympians pulled a one-two punch: Ertel, 35, of Irvine, Calif., coming in at 2:04.52, and Kathy Tremblay, 26, of Quebec, at 2:07:02. The two left the water in a pack of five athletes, each exiting at times between 20:11 and 20:15; four of the five would remain as one on the bike, finishing within 7 seconds of each other. On the run, however, Ertel quickly pulled ahead of the pack.

“We had a group of four, actually five, of us, on the swim. We got to the bike, and we had three experienced riders and one inexperienced rider, which is good preparation, because you never know who’s going to be in the group at Beijing,” Ertel said.

“My focus today was just to get off the bike and run as hard as I could, to see how I would feel running hard in the Games,” she said. “It worked out pretty well.”

Julie Swail-Ertel started using the First Endurance system of products in 2007.  She has posted some of the best results of her career since starting on the First Endurance products.