While everyone is discussing all the other things at Steelhead, such as how great the volunteers were (they were awesome) and how nice the swim course was, etc., how about some props to the guy who put together, what I consider to be, an absolutely amazing performance at Steelhead.
Let me give you some background, first of all, imagine this is your first triathlon ever. A half-ironman is a lot to swallow for your first race. Next, you survive the swim, you get out on the bike, you get two miles into the bike and now you have a mechanical, your seat post breaks off!! This guy biked standing up the next 54 miles, with his seat and seat post laying on the aerobars/handlebars and still finished the race, although his legs were shot (which he verified to me when we were running together). I don’t know how many people could bike 54 miles standing up, but I sure wanted want to try it.
I looked up his race results from his number and recognized the name, he was (and may still be) an NFL kicker.
No Tom, ONLY 54 miles of it!! He said it broke off around mile 2, I saw him somewhere around mile 15, so I can vouch that he did 40+ miles standing for sure.
I passed him at Mile 30, told him he was the hardest man I have ever met. He said “brother it fell off at mile 2” I quit feeling pain at that point. I am glad to know he finished.