Spring Thaw Duathlon

Today was The Emde Sports, Spring Thaw Duathlon, part 1. These races are somewhat special for me. This series in 2006 was the first exposure I had to racing. The first one I did, I won my age group and that was inspiring to say the least......and FUN. When my name got called, I just sat there, confused, thinking maybe they were going to say they found my sweatshirt. Granted, had I done the time I did in 2006 today, I wouldn't have even placed in my age group. These races have become more and more popular and today, there were about 200 participants.

Here's us at the start line. Let's play a little "where's Phaedra?". It is only when I see pictures of myself around other "normal sized" human beings that I realize just how small I am. Can you find me? I'm there.

I have to thank my dear husband who showed up with the boys and camera in tow to the race and took a ton of pictures of everyone (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that maybe the boys dressed themselves today to help Daddy out). Here are the boys hiding out. I don't think they actually watched the race even though Hayden says it's his favowate thing to do.


SUPERSTAHHHH! That's me, Greg and Steve. Steve and I have coined ourselves team "superstahh". Both Greg and Steve had superstah performances today.


Cody captured this shot of me coming through for the second loop of the last run. I was passed by two REALLY fast women with less than 1/4 mile to go. I seriously felt like I was standing still when Janet Collar passed me with about 100 yards to the finish. I could hear her coming like a freakin' train. Good-ness.

Here I am coming to the finish, with a total time of 58:30. I'm happy with this, I took 1:40 off from last year at the second duathlon. I won my age group and I think I was 6th overall in the women (including the two pro's).

I want to give a shout out to Coops and Fannie for a fantastic race. Coops was the first overall woman and shaved off a nice chunk of time from last year and Annie came in second, at least a minute faster than last year! They never cease to amaze me with their talent, skill and hard work. Also, nice job to Sam for winning overall and setting a new course record. You owe me a Starbucks and I won't forget about it. Steve, you're a SUPERSTAH-it was fun competing against you today, props to you for passing me before the hill on the second run ;). Vicki, you always inspire me to push hard. I was riding hard, knowing you weren't far behind me.

I love this picture of little miss Zooty pants. Do you know Haley Cooper? She's on the ZOOT team. Oh, how we love to embarrass Haley by making a fuss over her. And no Coops, I'm not going to remove this from my blog.

And here's Fannie, off to Mazatlan next week to race with the pros. Good luck Fannie! I'll be sending lots of fast thoughts your way! Make sure to practice your "BANG!"(from the diaphragm).

Congrats to Greg, Conrad, Stan, Martin, Amanda, Michael, Daryce, Tia, Phil and everyone else that raced today. Great job to ya'all! Thanks also to J. Po, Rupe, Allison, Julie, Darcy, Tanya, Mark, Aubrey and Sarah for cheering. It was so nice to hear you guys out there!

3 weeks until Wildflower