Women's Triathlon
Well, there’s no question that we’re in the heart of the North American triathlon season now. I know we’ve talked about busy days in the past, but over the weekend we were glued to our computers to the point that we almost lost track of time. Instead of thinking in terms of one o’clock, two o’clock etc., we were all about splits, transition times, and gaps between competitors. Time of day was largely irrelevant and everything was about race time.
We actually had a little meeting on Friday evening to go over all the races coming up and to develop a social media cheering plan (that went largely out the window as the action started). Instead of a steady stream of updates, we were just constantly hitting refresh on our athlete trackers between high fives and moments of concern. From time to time, one of us would yell out something to the effect of, “Oh my gosh, she’s in first! Has anyone tweeted? Can someone tweet that?”
It all started with Ironman Texas on Saturday. We knew that was going to be quite the show since we had three pros, several of our amazing ambassadors, quite a few friends, and Coeur Co-Founder Hailey Manning all racing in the Texas humidity. The day did not lack for drama as IMTX challenged everyone from the start to the finish. In fact, there were so many amazing performances that we’re afraid we’ll miss someone. In fact, we’re actually tempted to just post a picture of the results page, write “WOW” in big letters across the top and leave it at that.
When the dust settled, we ended up with one Age Group win from Katie Colville and a total of three Kona Qualifications. In addition to Katie, Hailey Manning and Kristin Schwieger both grabbed podium spots that came with tickets to the Big Island. We have to give a special shout out to Hailey because we know she was sick the week leading up to the race but still managed an impressive 10:10 finish that was good enough for second in her Age Group and 4th female amateur overall.
Katie and Hailey. See you on the Big Island!
Kristin’s performance was also particularly courageous as her special needs bag was misplaced and she had to switch to on-course nutrition. There’s a reason, so many people caution against using something new on race day and Kristin couldn’t keep any of the on-course nutrition down. Despite throwing up and having renal failure to the point that she had to go to the ER, Kristin held on for a podium spot!
We'll see Kristin (on left) in Kona too. Oh..and we love the 5Q shirt that Susanne is wearing!
We also saw a gutsy performances from Alana Kennedy-Nasser who came in at 11:35 and Kelly Hadiaris as she pushed through to an 11:54 finish.
Alana doing her home race.
Kelly digging deep.
We also want to give shout outs to Sean who is the husband of All3Sports Owner Morgan and Lucas Smelser who husband to our friend Lisa’s Smelser. Sean put down an amazing 9:11 performance at IMTX and will also be racing in Kona this October, while Lucas also had a great race and finished in 10:54.
Speaking of Hawaii, Coeur Ambassador Michelle Simmons lives there and she picked up some hardware this weekend as well. Michelle finished 2nd overall at the South Shore triathlon.
The fun continued on Sunday as we tuned in to follow Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga and Challenge Knoxville. Congratulations to Amy, Noga, and Nicole for digging deep at Chattanooga. Amy won her age group and (2015 Boston Marathon finisher) Nicole hung in on a very humid day.
Coeur representing in Tennessee
The state of Tennessee was hopping on Sunday as a little over one hundred miles away from Chattanooga, The Challenge Family had Challenge Knoxville. Our friend Maggs Morris (aka Moose’s mom) won her age group, so we’re sending her a big congrats as well.
Congratulations to our friend Maggs
As we mentioned, there was so much action this weekend that we’re sure we missed someone. If so, please just add a comment so we can know how you did.
Finally, unrelated to racing, you may have seen that Coeur is entered into a design contest with Witsup. For those of you who don’t know, Witsup.com is an amazing media group that covers women in endurance sports. We feel very aligned with their mission and would love the opportunity to provide their gear. That’s why we’d love for you to vote for Coeur if you have a moment and are so inclined.
Here’s the link:
http://www.witsup.com/project-swim-bike-runway-coeur-sports-announced/
Thanks and have a great week everyone!
Your friends at Coeur