6.23.2010

Trailblazer Triathlon: Race Report

The past 2 weeks have been CRAZY!!! With Carla doing her last few runs and Damon in full taper mode, we were picked up by Tiffany and Eric and hit Medical Lake on Saturday afternoon ready to go. There were plenty of conversations describing strategy and how Damon was going to try and beat Roger. It was actually pretty dang hilarious to hear is philsophy on why he has a chance to win.


As you can see, Roger hasn't been riding much in the last week and well Damon has been training pretty hard for two weeks, so we pretty much have this one in the bag...right?

Heading to transition...These two look like pros!!!

Body Marking...Did I mention this is a small town race?

Pre-Race: Team Twee Boere en 'n Yank...All Smiles!!!
As for the race, it went really well. My game plan was to swim fast and just try to not hyperventilate on my way across.  After swimming across for a quick warmup and then waiting for about 15 minutes for the race to start, we were off. This race is just short enough that you can really swim hard but just long enough that you better keep yourself under control. Fortunately I was able to do both and exited the water 3rd. It was now Damon's turn to ride like the wind.
Heading up towards transition!
After hearing Damon and Carla's recaps, I had to get them to write a race report from their persepective, the non-triathlete point of view. I was amazed how many of these same thoughts have rolled through my head...even to this day!

Damon's Recap:

This “fun” triathlon couldn’t have come at a better time for the lazy college student I have become. When Steve asked us if we were interested in doing it, I was all over it and immediately started trying to figure out what little part of my day I could dedicate to training for the two weeks we had left before the race. When I found out team Fawesome had entered too, things got that much better. I always talk about my “older triathlon friends” to other people and really make them out to be more than pros at what they do, so the opportunity for me to get out there compete with them was something that sounded pretty exciting. And so, the trash talk started as I’m sure you’ve witnessed on this blog already.

As soon as I found out I was up against Roger on the bike I couldn’t stop wondering how sweet it would be if I managed to kick his butt. Which in turn made me forget that 12 miles isn’t necessarily a sprint. Any bit of continuous aerobic activity that lasts longer than 15 minutes sounds ridiculous to me, so I tried to forget that it would take anything longer than that.


Damon out on the bike course!

Steve got a pretty good lead for me out of the swim which left only Kalen in front of me at the start. I’m not sure what he was up to on the first straight but whatever it was he was riding pretty slow, which started to resound all these dreams in my head as I slowly caught up to him (all in the space of the first 100 feet, turned out he was just trying to get his shoes on properly). It wasn’t long then before I heard the dreaded “whooa whoa whoa” of old Rog the Dodge's carbon wheels screaming up behind me at which point I knew I had to start making my move. I didn’t even have the time to think though before this man that is not human on a bike was out of my sight, along with Kalen. I sprinted to try and keep up with them for at most 10 seconds which quickly made me realize that I would more than likely kick the bucket in the following 10 seconds if I were to try maintain that pace especially knowing this was only the first minute of a 36 minute ride. So I slowed down a little and started thinking about all the oxygen I had wasted trying to trash talk my opponents before the race.

Damon made the 12 mile loop and finished up strong!

As for the ride, it was pretty enjoyable in the early stages. I even took the time to see what kind of fish were swimming around in some of the little lakes by the roadside. This was fun until we started to make our way back and I had the wind in my face and a pain in my butt and sack. I remember trying to adjust my seating position for quite a while before I eventually came to the conclusion that it was more comfortable to ride with the seat up my butt than have my dudes slowly but surely be crushed. Big props to all you cyclists that do this everyday of your life. I feel sorry for your manhood though☺

"I think my bum bone and sack are broken"

All in all I was pretty impressed that the only people I let pass me were those with alien looking bikes and cone head helmets. You are all seriously impressive athletes even if you dress funny.

I had the time of my life doing this triathlon, I might even consider doing a full one sometime in the next few years.

Thank you all for a great day.

Damon Byrd




Carla's Recap:

Trailblazer Triathlon was the shiz! Barring any crazy insane heat and the nerves, it was a load of fun! Unfortunately though, the heat and nerves were most definitely there! I managed to get a stitch before I even warmed up - thank you, I understand that this is no easy feat. I then managed to get the taste of blood, yes blood within the first 10 minutes of the race.


Cahlah kicking some serious butt!!!





People think, "Oh 3 miles, that's okay isn't it?" Well actually, let me reframe this for you. It is not 3 miles of jogging on a treadmill with that glorious fan blowing directly onto your rosy cheeks on exactly the right spots. No. Horribly wrong there. It is 3 miles of running your heart out in the heat of the day, doing your best to smile and apologize to the most unfortunate mother and child who happen to see spit on the side of the road. Without the wonderful screaming encouragement from GREAT friends and complete strangers, this race would have been a million times more difficult. I have a whole new respect for people who do this regularly. I have even more respect to the Byrd crew for not only doing this regularly, but for actually smiling whilst doing it too. Jessi, your just-before-the-finish-line photo makes me sick. Try believing that the pain is actually there next time. Puke.

Cahlah Byrd

Team Fawesome and Team Twee Boere en 'n Yank

All smiles after the race!

This was a great race and I had a fantastic time racing a team triathlon, even if I can't pronounce our team :)
I also want to congratulate all the Tri-Fusion athletes who raced. We had a great showing and kicked some serious butt. Dave Erickson put some awesome videos together so take a look!

Swim to Bike


Bike to Run


Run to Finish

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks like a lot of fun!

Spokane Al said...

I am glad to see you guys were having fun out there. Congratulations on a solid team effort.

jessithompson said...

Filarious! Damon's trash talking is frikkin' priceless!!! Loved being out there with y'all. Let's do it again! Three cheers for the Byrd family... HIP HIP!

Tiffany said...

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!! Love that you let Damon Byrd and Cahlah have guest appearances on your blog. Priceless. ROTFLMAO!!!

Oh yeah, sorry we beat you guys. Better luck next time...;)