Ethan Lyons and Erin Heard raced the Seafair Sprint tri last weekend. Ethan was 6th overall in a time of 1:00:34 while Erin was 8th at 1:09:48.
Charles Rivers took 5th overall at the Chelanman Half Ironman as well in a time of 4:48:44. His race report and a few pictures are below.
Chelan is an awesome scenic venue for a half iron and super challenging. With 4000 feet of climbing on the bike and a completely exposed run seeing temps into the 90s I knew it was going to be a tough day. Still I tried to stay relaxed about it and just use the race as a good training day for some of the bigger races to come.
Usually the water is very calm in the morning, but for some reason on this day the wind was gusting strong enough that it was pushing the buoys off line in a crescent shape. This meant that if I were to follow the buoy line I would be adding quite a bit of distance to the turnaround. So I planned to sight all the way to the turn and hopefully be able to follow some feet on the return into the blinding sunlight.
It was a mass start and at the horn and I sprinted hard out for about 50 meters to see that I was all alone. It looked as though quite a few people were going to follow the buoy line to my right. I settled into a strong smooth pace, but felt a little irked that I had no feet to swim on. The one swimmer that I could see in front of me was way to my right following the line. I needed to make a decision at this point as to whether to stick with the plan (meaning I would swim solo) or whether to slowly edge my way over to the leader's feet. After some deliberation I decided for the later. So by the turn buoy I had made my way over and was about 2 body lengths behind the leader. I decided to put in a surge to catch his feet and quickly did so. I was very content to stay
on his feet and ride him into the shore with minimal sighting. I really felt relaxed and smooth and though I could have swam harder I felt no need to do so. When we hit the shore we came out simultaneously and I just happened to edged him out to the mat to be "FIRST out of the water!" 29:45. A slow time, but just goes to show how choppy it was out there. After a sloppy transition I tried to relax into the bike and was passed by a couple of strong riders almost immediately. I never really had a chance to hang with them as I was staying right on my prescribed wattage (245) and they were just riding away. It didn't help that my rear wheel was 
slightly rubbing the whole time and I dropped my salt pills (dealing with unexpected issues is part of the game though.) A third rider passed me, but I noticed he wasn't really holding a steady pace. So from mile 10 until T2 we rode back and forth like this. It was nice to have him there to keep my head in the race. I averaged almost exactly 245 and rode the hills very well, coming into T2 just behind in 4th place. Bike split was 2:38, but I do believe it was 58 miles instead of the usual 56 as my powertap told me that I averaged just over 22mph.
Up to this point I was having a really great race. I was right on pace with my expectations, but I
knew that the run was going to be the real test. It's hard to emphasize how tough this run is. Literally there is no shade, just a blazing sun and the aid stations don't come frequently enough. If you look at the results you can see that only 10 athletes went sub 1:40, which is very rare to see. I settled in to 7 min pace per usual and planned to hit 6:35-6:45 after 3 miles. With a couple of miles to settle in I felt comfortable, but sort of knew it wasn't going to be my day. I know what it feels like to have good legs and I just wasn't feeling it. The sun was relentless and I was lucky if I grabbed one small cup of water at the aid stations. By the half way mark my pace had dwindled and I started the death march back. My pace fell to that of an easy run, except my heart rate was close to 170. It was frustrating to watch the guys in front of me run away, but at this point I was just trying not to walk. Finished the run with a 1:37 and overall a time of 4:48:44. This landed me 5th place overall and I won my age group by almost 30 minutes! Considering that only 6 athletes went under 5hrs on the day I don't feel too bad about falling apart on the run. I thought I could run about 10 mins faster, but everything else went very well on the day and I'm happy with that. I can't expect to nail every race and hopefully this just means Lake Stevens will be the best yet!
slightly rubbing the whole time and I dropped my salt pills (dealing with unexpected issues is part of the game though.) A third rider passed me, but I noticed he wasn't really holding a steady pace. So from mile 10 until T2 we rode back and forth like this. It was nice to have him there to keep my head in the race. I averaged almost exactly 245 and rode the hills very well, coming into T2 just behind in 4th place. Bike split was 2:38, but I do believe it was 58 miles instead of the usual 56 as my powertap told me that I averaged just over 22mph.Up to this point I was having a really great race. I was right on pace with my expectations, but I
knew that the run was going to be the real test. It's hard to emphasize how tough this run is. Literally there is no shade, just a blazing sun and the aid stations don't come frequently enough. If you look at the results you can see that only 10 athletes went sub 1:40, which is very rare to see. I settled in to 7 min pace per usual and planned to hit 6:35-6:45 after 3 miles. With a couple of miles to settle in I felt comfortable, but sort of knew it wasn't going to be my day. I know what it feels like to have good legs and I just wasn't feeling it. The sun was relentless and I was lucky if I grabbed one small cup of water at the aid stations. By the half way mark my pace had dwindled and I started the death march back. My pace fell to that of an easy run, except my heart rate was close to 170. It was frustrating to watch the guys in front of me run away, but at this point I was just trying not to walk. Finished the run with a 1:37 and overall a time of 4:48:44. This landed me 5th place overall and I won my age group by almost 30 minutes! Considering that only 6 athletes went under 5hrs on the day I don't feel too bad about falling apart on the run. I thought I could run about 10 mins faster, but everything else went very well on the day and I'm happy with that. I can't expect to nail every race and hopefully this just means Lake Stevens will be the best yet! 
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