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(click on the thumbnails to see full-size version of pictures)
On a last minute whim, Park convinced Lara to sign up for yet another race. Ofcourse it didn't take much convincing since she wasn't too keen on letting her inaugural season end with Ironhorse in mid-June. One Saturday July 19th, we (Dan, Park, Pan, and me) were off to Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis for yet another race. This time though, my roles would be cheerleader and photographer.
The distances of this race were 1k swim-20.6mi bike-5mi run. Upon arriving though, we had our first problem. I had registered Lara using my active.com account and so they had my name entered in the race and not hers. Even they couldn't fix the problem, I really only wanted to take pictures today. Luckily, that problem was fixed quickly thanks to the helpful and accommodating volunteers. Once everyone was setup, it was time to start racing.
Everyone was looking sharp and feeling good this morning. Patrick was one of the top-10 men out of the water and Dan had a great swim too. Park and Lara also said they had good swims.
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Once off onto the bike, things still seemed like they'd turn out to be great for everyone. Patrick was off onto the run in 1st overall and Park and Dan both had good rides and were in the top-25. As I started to see the first women come in, I counted them off so I could tell Lara where she was in the overall. After 42 women I stopped counting ... I knew something had to be wrong because even in the absolute worst case, she would have been amongst the top 15 or 20 and I think we were both expecting her to be almost top-5 off the bike.
In what seemed like an ordinary day when everything was going according to schedule, the weirdest thing happened. Lara got hit from behind by another cyclist. Both of them went down pretty hard with Lara suffering a pretty deep cut and some damage to her bike. Needless to say she didn't finish her race.
In spite of the bad news, the others were able to finish do well. Patrick ended up 2nd overall and Dan and Park both placed top-3 in their age groups.
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The following weekend it was time to do it all over again, except this time with the roles reversed. It was my turn to race and Pan's turn to take pictures and cheer. This time though, she'd have company doing the cheerleading thing because my brother, Parag, was in town. We were off to Racine on Saturday and the race was Sunday morning. We had to check-in the night before and setup in transition. Here are some pictures of the beach along Lake Michigan.
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This race was offering some big prize money to the pro winners so it attracted a lot of big names in the sport like Heather Gollnick, Lisa Bentley, Lauren Jensen, Cam Widdoff, Bryan Rhodes, Courtney Ogden and the likes. Ofcourse I really only cared about seeing Lisa since she is Canadian. Here are some pictures that Parag got of her ... eventually she did end up winning. She even smiled at me when I cheered for her when we crossed on the run.
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Back to reality ... the race was off at 7am. I had a great swim and was 3rd out of the water in my wave of 122 athletes. T1 was also smooth and I was out onto the bike 1:19 later. Here are Me, then Dan, leaving T1.
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The bike was ok except that the winds switched on us and we ended up with a headwind for almost the entire 57mi. Oh well, that's all part of the race. After the extra effort on the bike and messing up my nutrition a little, the run just plain sucked. I decided that I wasn't gonna push it and just enjoy being in the pack. I spent a lot of time walking between aid stations in the last 6 miles, but it was worth it because I got to meet some new people and remind myself that I love this sport. Here's me coming into T2 and then finally Dan and me coming into the finish.
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