BlogOctober 30, 2007 Soma Quarterman Record high temperatures and a massive field greeted those competing in the 2007 Soma Half and Quarter Ironman Triathlons. This year, I competed in the Quarterman choosing not to take on the competitive pro field after competing in the Kona Ironman just two weeks ago. After spending a lot of time at the expo on Friday and Saturday, I had re-found the triathlon bug and the thought of hopping in Tempe Town Lake the following morning was pretty exciting. Gus from Racelab informed me that Patrick Bless would also be competing in the Quarterman. Patrick completed Kona two weeks before, he smashed the course with a strong swim and bike and then closed with a 3:01 marathon for a time right around nine hours, on a brutal day. That guy is tough. Just getting back from Hawaii a few days ago I hadn't yet bothered to adjust to the time change. Most days I've been falling asleep around midnight (9:00 PM in Hawaii) and rolling outta the tent around 9-10 AM... I turned down the ASU football game invite from Marc and Pres because I had the big race in the morning! Instead, I opted for an early PF Chang's dinner with old Tucson buddies Mike Hillenbrand and Steve Morton. After dinner, I still stayed up anyway and watched ASU kick the Clifbars out of Cal... I should have attended! Waking up less than five hours later was difficult, but it was time to go! Patrick was starting in a different wave three minutes ahead of me, I knew that if I were anywhere near seeing him at the finishline I could probably win. After a solid swim, off we went on a technical 31 mile bike course. It was a perfect course for me except that I hadn't bothered to look at the course changes. A few mistakes here and there causing me to take some extra U-turns, by mile 20 I had figured the course out and not lost too much time. I saw at a couple of the turn arounds Patrick's lead was down to around 90 seconds so I had taken half the lead out of him. Perhaps he got in some course trouble too, I'm not sure, it was tricky when you have nobody to follow. Coming into transition I could now see him riding ahead and I set a goal to catch him in the first mile of the run. This I did, then went to work on putting more time into him. Unfortunately, he held tough and we came together again with two miles to go. At this point he easily ran away from me as I found it difficult to fight anymore, I was worked! I ran to the finish 59 seconds behind Patrick taking the race by 2:01. Normally I wouldn't be excited but Patrick is great competition on good form, so I'm happy with this result. With two miles to go my hamstrings were cramping just as they had in Hawaii, I'm sure these muscles are a little strained and not yet recovered from the dehydration I experienced over there. It was nice to finish without having to breakdown and walk, this is why I ran conservatively the last mile, I had three minutes in hand! Congratulations to Patrick Bless though, for putting it to me at the end of the run, and looking strong just two weeks after his awesome Ironman performance. In the half Ironman, Jordan Rapp whupped up on everybody, as expected. Katie Ellis also shocked the scene yet again taking the overall title with a time of 4:32. She's really going nowhere but up in triathlon! Jane Gage won the Quarterman out swimming me by two seconds, someday I'll get her! George was also out there looking as strong as ever! Lots of Tri-Scottsdale athletes were also competing, it was fantastic to see! I was especially impressed by Eric Chebi and Dr. Jeff Kootman's results. Both of these guys destroyed their times from last year and finished looking strong on a day where almost nobody was. Steven Stromberg also had an impressive day. This guy biked something like 2:17 flat, man... Now it's time to make some decisions... I'm considering heading to Florida for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater. I'm feeling ok, I qualified in April, and I'm all ready registered. Why not give it a shot? Because I'm lazy? I don't know, I'll decide in the next day or two. My body is tired and sore, I'm looking forward to some downtime either now, or after the 70.3 World's in two weeks time. Lots of massage by sports-massage extraordinaire Z-Man Zogisle, and all the work they do on me up at Endurance Rehab, may have me ready to go for one last big day of 2007. It's so hard to shut it down for another year, but the time has nearly come! Thanks again to all the support in The Valley. This is really an incredible place and we're all participating in such an exhilarating sport. Also congrats to all who competed in the triathlon this past weekend, 96 degrees is pretty hot to go all that way! ~Lewis « Back to Blogs |
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