Normally race reports seem to be reserved for the big deal, long distance events. But this is not, this is a race report for the home grown, tiny no name sprint event!
Houston’s first “Take a Hike Ike” triathlon in honor of the hurricane that blew us up last year.
In keeping with the theme of screwed up weather, the race morning was ridiculously cold and fairly windy, cold enough that us Texans would have certainly died if we had gotten in the water, so it became a duathlon! 5k run, 10.8 mile bike, and 5k run again!
I was entered with a relay team with some guys from work, my fiancee’ was entered for the full event, her first duathlon/triathlon of any kind. Previously she has just done running events.
Over the last 3 months she has gone from never riding a road bike, to riding one and nearly falling over, to getting into the aero bars, in an ST approved position, to handling zip 404s with a rear disc cover!
I was biking for my relay team so I hung out in transition as the special lady friend headed to the start, she was very nervous, but very glad she didn’t have to swim! The gun goes off, one big wave of runners heads out for the first 5k
20 something minutes later I see her heading back in, she is the third woman into T1, the other two have a pretty decent lead on her. I cheer her on as she switches shoes, grabs her helmet, and takes off on the bike. Good T1 time for a first try, well done!
A couple of minutes later my relay partner finally makes it, I grab the chip, grab the bike, and run for the mount point.
I’m a bit slow to get clipped in, why do I still suck at this? Once in I take off to try and chase down the fiancee’. About 3 miles in I’m already caught up to the woman who was first into T1…what the hell, she runs faster than I do and looks super serious, decent position. Perhaps she needs an HTFU bracelet. I’ll see about bringing one to the next event in case I see her.
I keep hammering, wondering where the hell my woman is and why I can’t catch her! I take a turn way too aggressively, still in the aerobars, the rear wheel catches some gravel on the apex, skips across the road, and somehow I don’t die, and stay up, coming within a millimeter of going off the road on the outside at corner exit. The dude behind me just saw me drift a freaking bike in the aerobars, he probably thinks I am a God, but I’m just really lucky!!
Around mile 7 I see the girl that was #2 in transition. Her position is not even ready to be critiqued by ST, and her shorts are flapping in the wind. No HTFU bracelet needed here, just a FIST fit or something, or maybe an email explaining something about frontal area.
So that was it, I had passed the shattered dreams of the women’s field, my fiancee’ was either in the lead or dead in a ditch alongside the course somewhere. Hard to say which at this point.
Mile 8! I finally see her! She is Alive, and still deep in the aero bars!! I hammer hard and finally catch her, tell her shes doing great and killing them! Shes smiling! good sign! I make sure to decisively PASS her so that she doesn’t even have the option of pacing off her boyfriend, that wouldn’t be professional!
I hit T2 and pass off the chip, handing a huge lead to my teammate (and boss, so much was on the line here!) in this ultra competitive (pinkfont) relay division. Would he hold off our other company team with the ringer runner??
The fiancee’ screams into T2 shortly after me, racks the bike, switches shoes, has a little trouble with the shoes as her fingers are numb. Girl #2 hits T2 just as she is finishing up with the shoe, but the fiancee is still the first to leave1 Will she hold her off?!
I didn’t get to see it but apparently the #2 girl DID catch my fiancee’, but it had killed her to do so and she couldn’t hold on! At the finish, there was my special lady friend, hammering to the overall wimmens victory, but man it was close, what a race!! Gave her a big hug!!
A few hours later my boss crosses the line for the relay win!
double victory! awesome!
postrace shot of the bikes, my P3, her Merlin/QR Aerial, and my commuter bike that a friend used in the 3rd place relay team. great day!
