One Big Deposit

On Saturday, a storied group of bloggers descended upon the Fox Valley in Wisconsin to tackle the High Cliff Half Ironman triathlon. There are sure to be much more detailed reports, but here is a breakdown of the major topics.

A pasta dinner was held at the Pol homestead, and the entire tri-blog/raceAthlete contingent attended. This included George Schweitzer (Article George, story to come), Simply Stu, Iron Will, and Rural Girl and her family. We had a great time, and have some funny stories and pictures for later.

On Sunday, each of us completed the half-IM race on our own terms. We raced our own races and faced our own demons. At the end of the day, we overcame and put one in the "Finish" column. A generic recap of the race:

George threw down the gauntlet. The official results need to be posted, but he was only about 20 minutes behind the overall winner, and that's after a flat in the first mile of the bike.

Simply Stu posted a stellar time, despite believing the run took a lot out of him. He came in well under 6 hours and placed in the top 20 in his age group.

Rural Girl showed that she will give Stu a run for his money in Madison. Her overall time was only 6 minutes slower than Stu's. She also placed very well in her division.

Iron Pol set a half-IM PR (since it was his first one), finished in 5:47, and beat his expectations in every discpline. This was good enough for 20th in his division, and something like 120 overall.

Iron Wil finished in about 7:45 and looked as if she had gone through a battlefield between the swim exit and the finish line. After catching some gravel and facing bike issues, she continued to bike and made it to the run. On the difficult trail run, two areas of gravel played havoc with her footing. I'm sure she'll post the pictures we took at the finish line. She overcame huge mechanical, physical, and mental challenges to finish, and she should take them to heart. She proved she is ready to beat the mindgame that is Ironman.

More detailed reports to follow, and I'm sure each of the others will have their reports. This was a truly exciting weekend, and if you have the opportunity to meet and/or race with any of these bloggers, take it. Each is inspirational, gracious, and humorous in their own way.