Part 2 of the Gear West Duathlon Report

(If you missed it, scroll down or click here to see Matt and I [Team Happy Pants] racing the Gear West Duathlon. This post picks up just after we finished.)

As I was catching my breath, and before I had my camera, I saw the top females finish. Cathy won again this year! Then Jenny came to the line (she won at the Oakdale Du 10 days ago). I got my camera in time to see Catherine finish in 3rd:

And I got to see Julie (who won at the Cannon Falls Du and who I passed just before the finish of that race) hold on to 4th place ahead of Marlo:

Look at that photo above and the next photo - I don’t think Julie actually runs. I think she just strikes sweet running poses for the camera:

Soon after that, I sprinted across the playground because I saw Pharmie go running out of T2. Here she is (in white) running past the water stop coming out of T2. She used the woman in pink as her “rabbit” and caught her before finishing:

Matt and I worked our way back down the course towards that little jerk of a hill about 300 meters before the finish. We were looking for Pharmie (my wife, his sister). Here’s a group of people who just crested that hill in the distance:

Soon, Pharmie came trudging up that hill:

She ran past and sprinted towards the finish:

Matt’s cheering on the far right, and that’s Chris Hawes running next to Matt

Pharmie put down a GREAT time, and hit the finish line HASHED!! She finished 7th out of 18 in her age group with her fastest average on the bike EVER! After she finished, we had a 5 minute conversation about the race while she was doing this:

I LOVE this photo!


Sister and brother


Pharmie and I. I love that this race has your name on your race number.
You can read “Team Happy Pants” on my bib!

Soon, we got to cheer one of Pharmie’s college roommates to the finish of her first duathlon! Here’s Jess just before climbing that hill:

Go Jess!


Hitting the finish line!

As people were packing all their stuff up, that car that was parked in the middle of transition was becoming a dumping ground for anyone’s unneeded race number stickers:

I went to go find Julia because I knew she was going to bring cupcakes from her sister (who has her own bakery):

But, she had JUST given the last of the box to Hannah to give out, and I missed out!! Apparently Hannah’s hubby (David Thompson - the guy who won this race) loves Aimee’s banana cupcakes. I would had totally eaten this one if DKT hadn’t:

Jerk. (Just kidding!)

We all stuck around for the awards and the drawings. There’s always a TON of great stuff given away (Zipp wheels, a QR bike frame, a wetsuit, a gear bag full of goodies, etc.) Here are the top 4 females all apparently checking out Cathy’s slightly-oversized-but-not-comically-huge paycheck:

Julie (4th), Catherine (3rd), Cathy (1st), and Jenny (2nd)

None of us won any of the sweet prizes, so we loaded up and headed home. I had to pee SOOOO bad by the time I got home, that I couldn’t make it into the house. I stopped and peed behind our bushes. And being I was still wearing my camera around my neck, I snapped a photo of the disaster once I got done:

That felt sooooooooo good!

Pharmie and I showered and hit the hay for an hour+ nap! And despite what Jenny Evans would like to believe, we had a hearty supper later that night:

I ate everything there but the asparagus.
I don’t like shit that messes with my piss.

(To read my Examiner article about the Gear West Duathlon and to see more photos, please click here.)

Thanks for reading, everyone!