My Riverhead Race Report and More Iron Fit Race Results
August 2014
The Iron Fit Endurance athletes have been busy this month posting one great race after another! Below is a report on those races. We started the month with Riverhead Rocks. Noah and Irene Lam competed, as well as myself!
I decided to test my fitness at Riverhead this year. I had been training with my athletes and felt pretty fit, so why not race? I headed there in the morning with George and Salty as my cheering squad (see pic of "Coach Salty). When I got to the race sight, I was also happy to see Susan Roman, Jose Hernandez and my parents there to cheer me on too! How lucky can I be? Susan, myself, Jose and Coach Salty pictured below.
Riverhead is a time trial start, so I placed myself in the front, right behind the top men. I wasn’t too psyched about my swim as I exited the water three minutes slower than last year, but quickly shrugged it off. Onto the bike I went, where I found myself biking with Eamon Flood, a very good athlete here on Long Island. It ended up that I would pass him, then he would pass me... On and on we went like that, finding ourselves in the awkward position of not being able to bike away from one other as well as trying not to draft one another! Towards the end of the bike, a woman passed me. She was just plain stronger than me. I couldn’t stay near her…and she looked like she could run too!
When I exited transition, George yelled out to me that I was 1 minute behind the lead woman! “Oh no”, I thought, “…here we go again” (this had just happened to me in Pat Griskus a few weeks prior). I was questioning whether I could actually catch her, but I was trying my best. Soon I saw her in the distance and I quickly realized that I was reeling her in! By mile 3, right smack dab in town in front of my friends and family, I caught and passed her. “Great!” I thought! “I easily made up a minute on her in 3 miles! Three more to go…I have this won!” So, I ran the final three miles steady and came across the finish line first! Woo Hoo! A great day in the bag! …so I thought! It ended up the “second place woman” started the swim back in the second time group. Because of this, she was the actual winner of the day…by 11 seconds! Doh!! A frustrating way to lose for sure!
I thought back to a familiar result: I was racing Kona as an age-grouper and found myself in second place. I was reeling in the girl in front of me, and finally caught and passed her less than a mile left of the run! I ran down Alii drive with tears in my eyes thinking, “I can’t believe I just won my age group in Hawaii”!!!!!” “I’m the World Champion 25-29 year old!” I came across the line and was ecstatic! …until I saw my parents, that is. They didn’t look quite as excited as I was for some reason? “Danielle”, they said, “you got second. The first place girl finished already”. My heart sank. “Hmm…Well OK then…” I did my best at that moment to be psyched with a second place finish that at any other time in my career I would have been thrilled about! In a short time, I put it in perspective and was thrilled with my result, but as in Riverhead, sometimes it’s tough to get second ;-)
My frustration after my Riverhead finish quickly turned to joy as I saw Noah Lam finish with a PR race, followed by his wife Irene Lam finishing her very first Olympic distance race!!! I was so thrilled for both of them…especially Irene who was worried about being able to finish the swim in time. I knew she could do it and I knew this race would be a turning point for her!! Watching her finish was just awesome. Great pics of Noah running and of the Lam family after Irene's finish!
Next race result was the Presidential Lakes Aqua Bike on August 10th. John Burgess competed in the event as a prep race for his Aqua bike Nationals in a few weeks. John finished 6th overall in the Aqua bike division. This event is not ranked according to age. If it were, John would have won his age group by over 9 minutes! I’m really excited to see what he does at Nationals in September. That event will be a half which will play to John’s strength!
The following weekend Shayne Lewis headed up to West Point to compete in the sprint race there. Shayne is new to the sport. He is young and he is talented. He proved this in West Point with a 2nd place finish in his age group! Shayne has only been training for a little over a month, which is amazing! His background as a collegiate rower has helped him to build a huge aerobic engine. He will be competing in the Mighty Hamptons next…his first Olympic distance event. I’m excited to see what he can do in this race, but even more excited for 2015 when he has a year of solid training under his belt!
The same weekend of West Point was Timberman 70.3. Irene Lam compe
ted in the sprint race Saturday with ease. She said that the swim was “no problem”, which was music to my ears! It proved that she jumped that hurdle after completing Riverhead Rocks. Noah Lam competed in the 70.3 the next day! This was his first half and he had a great day despite some challenges. He gouged his foot on a rock out of the swim and had to tend to a bad cut on his foot. He then went on to have an amazing bike that exceeded my expectations! The run was a challenge as he had an issue with his foot though he toughed it out as best he could and finished his first 70.3!! Congrats to the Lam family yet again!
Tobay was this past weekend where we saw Frank Fiorello finishing 3rd in the Clydesdale division! Frank is a strong athlete and has had a long season which will end at the Lake George Olympic distance in a few weeks.
We also had Jim Nostrom (pictured with Frank) compete, as well as Peter Morandi and his wife Donna! The Morandi’s will both be competing in the Nations triathlon on the 7th of September and Donna will be competing in the Philly Marathon in November.
Congrats to everyone and I look forward to more race results in the fall!
Cheers
Danielle