It's been a few days and I feel like I have a bit more to report about Rev3 Quassy. By now everyone has posted their race reports and explained the ins out outs of why they did poorly or well. The various websites have published coverage about how all the "names" fared. But, there are some other stories out there worth telling.
First of all, Bec (2nd at Quassy to Rinny in '09) was on the start list, and had a transition spot next to me, but didn't race. As readers know by now, she is recovering from a toe injury and is not quite ready to race for 70 miles. Instead, she chose to sit this one out, train through the weekend and commit 100% of the 2 days in Connecticut to supporting me. After I was finished, she reported that her training run while I was biking was faster than my pace in the race. She'll be back soon! I'd rather have her in the race, but having support in the form of cheering and splits out on the course was invaluable.
While most of the pros came to Quassy for the competition and the prize purse, one of my friends and training partners Meghan came just to finish the race. Only a few weeks ago Meghan had a very bad cycling crash while training for Quassy. I knew it was bad and I knew it was in Connecticut, but I didn't know until the drive up (that's to Meghan for driving me to the race) just how bad and that it happened while practicing ON THE COURSE. Talk about facing your fears! Not only was this Meghan's first pro race, but she hadn't ridden her bike outside more than twice since the crash. I can think of a million reasons why she might have bagged the whole thing, BUT she chose none of those and got in there an finished among the best triathletes in the world. Completely courageous, impressive and inspiring. In addition, (Bec just reminded me) Meghan said in the event that she did crack into the top ten she'd give the money to charity.
Also, there were many people who competed in their very first triathlon in Quassy. I still can't believe that - I started with a sprint! One of those people is our friend Paul (Bec's former roommate). He's a big, strong Aussie lacrosse player/boxer/weightlifter. Not your typical triathlete, but he did it and he's doing Ironman NYC. Bec claims as she was waiting for me to come in from the run that she looked into tranisition and there was Paul riding his bike through the rows to the bike exit! If he did get yelled out or penalized, he'd definitely be the most likely person to talk himself out of it!
I'm sure there are a lot of other stories out there, it was an epic day for many - share your experiences with us if you'd like!