Silverlake Sprint Triathlon "Cheer" Report

Yes, it was a "cheer" report because the closest I'll get to the water is the Labor Day Adventure Race in The Woodlands.

If this blog was open to the public, some would ask, "Why would I drive all the way to Pearland to watch the Silverlake Sprint Triathlon?"

Well, because I had friends there competing -- and I had only one thing better to do this morning (and I probably should have been doing it - church.) But how could I let Edwin - drive all the way from Lufkin - cheer for our Texas Independence Relay teammates all by himself?

So Waverly and I joined him, but not before this electronic conversation this morning en route.

Jon: "Where are you? It's 5:24."
Edwin: "Bed"
Edwin: "Splendora"
Edwin: "Armpit of Texas"

After the first message, I thought to myself that I'm sure Donna really appreciated Edwin taking his iPhone to bed with him. Then when I got the second line, I really got worried. Because if the first two lines went together, I had a story!

Waverly and I got to Pearland at about 6:05 a.m. and made our way to the start area where we saw Katy running back to her vehicle (to get her bike bib number).

We saw the Striders' Frank Halter and Pam Paling from The Woodlands as well as Seven Hills Running Club's Mary Patterson before seeing Cassie and Manny Mondragon. (Frank asked me if I was competing and I just politely chuckled. Mary wanted to know if I'd swim for her. I told her basically, "Thanks, but no thanks.")

Here's the bottom line: With some swimming in the pool, I can finish a sprint triathlon. I mean I did a duathlon in the summer of 2004 to prove to myself that I could.

And yes, as she pointed out on her blog, Sarah, doing her best to maximize her time, came to the race site last (but after reading her blog post ... there was a good reason!)

Katy, Cassie, Manny, Edwin, Waverly, Sarah and myself hung out waiting for the various waves to start.

I saw and spoke with Strider/USAT official Andrea Chan before the start of the race as well as met Bill Shaw, running columnist for Runner Triathlete News and the Brazosport Facts. Bill, BARRA's newsletter editor as well, is a spry 69 years young. Additionally, I saw a friend of Bill Dwyer's through Team In Training, Miranda Mallet. (If I'm in town for the race that Miranda puts on, Bill and I are going to go run that 5K together this summer.)

I also had a chance to visit with Lance Phegley, his wife, Sherri and daughter, Lauren. (I know. You're thinking, "Who else does Jon know?") One of the best questions was from Lance to Edwin: "You drove all the way from Lufkin to watch?"

Edwin and I stood on the shore of the man-made lake as we watched Katy get started on the far left hand side of her "green wave". But after about two or three minutes, we saw a swimmer that looked like Katy veering far, far to the left. Thinking that maybe nobody would tell her, I ran over to the other shore, if you will, and after running over to it I could tell that it wasn't her.

Picking runners out of the water is pretty difficult, even when you know what the swimmer was wearing.

After awhile and many swimmers of the wave had gone by, there was Katy! She was hugging the buoy! Once I saw her go by the turnaround buoy, I ran back to the swim exit to see all three of them - Katy, Cassie and Sarah come out of the water.

Cassie, who had been fighting a wicked cough before - and during - the race, didn't catch Katy and Sarah didn't catch Cassie, but once they were out of the water and transition ... it was probably a good bet that Sarah would catch them both.

Katy had a good bit of an advantage on both Cassie and Sarah, but Sarah was not even a minute behind Cassie (and she started a wave behind her!)

So Manny, Edwin and I studied the map. I figured that I could run close to where I parked the truck (near the mile 1 part of the run) and go out there and cheer them -- and others. So I took off on a little bit of a run.

I saw all of them within the last mile of the bike, and the plan was to hold my position on the run course (close to mile 1) until all three of them had passed me.

I saw Sarah first, but I could see Katy running behind her. (Her stride is almost as recognizable as Kim Hager's - a little kick out of the right foot.) And sure enough Katy passed her!

Sarah wasn't surprised as she was expecting it, but nonetheless she was smiling - as she knew she was having a good run!

I started to run back towards the start, passed Cassie (and told her that she was a couple of minutes behind Sarah), and kept running. (I had a pretty good pace heading back and all of a sudden I see Lance's camera pointing at me! I told him that he couldn't use that for my column!)

I kept running to about two or three tenths of a mile from the finish line where Edwin, Waverly and I waited for our TIR teammates to come in.

Edwin was also there to cheer on friends from Lufkin (and potential TIR teammate), Jeremy Webb and his sister, Jennifer.

We had a great time this morning as Sarah edged both Cassie and Katy!

Sarah was third in the Athena division - and was not more than a minute out of first place! She also was quick to point out that as the two of them did more triathlons (Cassie-3, Katy-1) that they would probably end up beating her. Sarah was also happy that she took approximately a minute off of her time from the same event as last year.

Lots to be happy for and about!