Sunday, July 15, 2007

Couple's Race Report


The Couples Tri was really a lot of fun – great seeing everyone, great hearing Adam’s jokes/commentary about all the different waves of couples (asking the mixed friends wave to raise their hands if they wanted to secretly have sex with their teammate), great to see Stacy K. and Jack out with the masses after they’ve had a hard week, great to race with Stacey C., great to see/meet some people’s better halves, including Stacey's husband, her father & 2 of her kids.

After some carefully timed Advil this morning, I had a good race. In Danskins past, I have always thought this course was hard: hills on the bike, and a trail run through mud and tall grass. Panther’s workouts are definitely paying off, because I didn’t find the bike course terribly difficult. It was basically the same as the Danskin course I did in both 2004/2005, except for one small stretch. There was some off-roading, and a huge turtle trying to cross the road in one spot.

But let’s talk about this swim. Can you say Hydrilla? Yuck. And lots of crazy kicking in your face. Oh, and a “kayak gone wild” trying to save a girl from the wave ahead of me. Almost DQ’d but the kayaker saw that I did not intentionally touch the kayak (thank God). My right lens kept filling up with water, and I forgot to start my watch, so naturally, that was all I could think about. Frantic, crowded swims always make me crazy. I think about the 1.2 mile swim I did in Phoenix last year (SOMA Half Iron Relay) where I saw this guy who had been kicked in the face and given a large gash & swollen-shut black eye from where his goggles imbedded in his face. Ouch.

Anyway, Stacey is a fast swimmer, so naturally she pulled in front of our wave. I saw her twice on the run since it’s that crazy zig-zag, tall grass run (they cut the grass, so it was more of a loose-grass-stuck-to-your-legs-and-in-your-shoes/socks run, but that’s ok), and she looked strong. We both PR’d – Stacey at 1:24 and me at 1:29. My last Danskin time was 1:35 so while it wasn't huge, it was still a PR for any 800m/11mi/5K Sprint distance tri, and I'll take it. Plus, we came in 5th out of 20 teams in our category.
Thanks, as always, to "Team Shorey" for coming out to cheer us on and for taking pics of all my friends throughout the race.

I should also mention that Menard was there, recovering from pneumonia and not racing. He was supporting Arturo and Bibiana (who was Steve's last minute replacement with Arturo on "Team 100% Agave"), with his son Robert. True to form, he snagged a volunteer shirt without volunteering. Three and counting. It just never ends…

4 comments:

Steve_Z said...

Don't underestimate Menard. Officially, I claimed 9 clif mini-bars, 6 clif shot mixes, 10 kids Z clif bars, and a tshirt.

Erin said...

Menard is funny!

Congratulations, Shorey! That is so awesome! BTW, hearing Panther read your race report to Kris & me last night was funny.

Lulu said...

Great job Shorey!!!

Tim said...

thats awesome Shorey, good for you.