Yesterday was a very exciting day for our Team! All members had trained with the goal of podium and executed fantastic results!!
The Swim, unfortunately, had some timing glitches, so showed everyone's swim 3-4 minutes longer than their 'actual' swim. Everyone had swims of 16-18 minutes.
The Bike Course is heavily compromised, using 4 circuits within Memorial Park; it is impossible for a strong cyclist to really compete at their best, due to all the turns and dangerous angles. Still, a 'fair playing field' for all. One of our own, Adam Krebsbach, chose to compete at My Way the Tri Way up in Aurora, where he felt he could utilize his strongest event. That he did; he reports that no one was able to pass him on the bike, but several tried, as the Officials followed his 'group' throughout the bike leg!
Back at State Games, Emily cranked out sub 11 min laps, and Jon ripped up the bizarre turns, as the result of his mtn biking skills; I could not even catch him on my video cam; he was but a blur!! One turn included a hard right, then immediately, a hard left! We appreciate the fact those turns were carefully swept the night before, then again race morning. Even I swept; but not the course. I walked into the Women's Locker room, and found about 1,000 dead moths! The place hadn't been occupied in a year! It grossed me out; knowing the ladies would appreciate a clean bathroom, post-race, I found a push broom and spent about 30 minutes sweeping! I also received Race Director permission to be IN the Transition Area, to body-mark.
The Run, at State Games, very unfortunately, lacked the number of monitors to ensure the proper direction on a hill that was inserted midway; one member of our Team, Caitlyn McWilliams, was chasing a competitor in her division, when suddenly the girl decided to cut the course. This put Caitlyn in as the Winner of her division! It is the athlete's RESPONSIBILITY to know the course; USAT Rules! Similar confusion was reported several times. Everyone's running, however, was compromised due to to our rained out Track Workouts over the last 4 weeks. Track makes the difference between 5th and 1st place!!
The fact that most of our Team had been traveling to Grant Ranch every Sunday, for open water swimming, made all the difference in the world! All good swim outcomes; without issue!
We had a fantastic outcome; the honors go to:
Caitlyn McWilliams - 1st place
Emily Bollar - 2nd place
Jon McWilliams - 3rd place
Bert Bledsoe and Dave Skiba - 4th place
Adam Krebsbach - 5th place
Congratulations everyone! Work well done!
