It is officially indoor training season. Ironman thirty-one is in the books, ending at midnight, some eight hours after Aussie Craig Alexander and Brit Chrissie Wellington finished with repeat wins in the blistering heat of the Hawaiian sun.
The big stories that we had been following all week melted early. Fearless Phil Graves, although he won the bike preme, was swallowed by the lead group just before the turn at Hawi and ended up slugging out a 9:11, well off the win he wanted, and in 41st place overall. Bella Bayliss succumbed to the heat as well and called it a day early in the run and husband Stephan gutted out the humidity and cloudless blue skies to finish well out of the money and just behind Fearless Phil.
And folks, when I say gutted it out, I mean that. I can remember Ironmans past where the internal conversations got a touch, shall we say, terse. You get in a state of debate, with the legs, lungs, heart and head doing everything possible to convince your soul and spirit that it has been enough for one day and that it is not a felony to stop running and find some shade. Stephan when he passed me at mile 20 of the run was having this conversation with himself. I am glad and happy for him that the good guys won the debate and he got to the line, stronger by far for the effort.
CompuTrainer had a great showing on the women's side with five of the top ten ladies in the CT family:
Virginia Berasatugui, 9:15
Rebekah Keat,
Rachel Joyce
Jo Lawn
Dede Greisbauer
I'll get in another post of the day's events along with additional pix later today, we are meeting with a few athletes to discuss sponsorship, with one being Monique van der Vorst, a immensely talented and personable hand cyclist from Belgium who just happened to smash the existing course record by over two hours yesterday and is now ramping up for an Olympic run. That was no type, folks. She smashed the record by TWO HOURS. And thinks she can get better.
Indoor training season has begun.
Sign announcing the obvious on the Queen K
Swim start
Today I will.......
Cool water
Swim volunteers get the brief from the boss
2 comments:
It sure looks great there as I sit at the computer working all weekend and the past week on that deadline matter. My thought right now though is, sure I feel really fat (and I am)and out of shape, but I sure feel a lot smarter too.
Dude, you are already the smartest guy I know. It's like Chrissie Wellington asked us at the awards banquet if we could get her a CompuTrainer. The three of us almost answered in unison, "Why?" (you are already the fasted women on the planet)
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