Another unexpected friend

I mentioned I had another story about a competitor in the Eagleman race from a few weeks back. During the bike leg I was caught in a leapfrog situation with 2 men and a woman. It’s a frustrating way to race, because if you’re trying to hold a certain power level but someone is in front of you, your power drops due to drafting. In order to hit your target, you pass that person, are then exposed to the full force of the wind, and have to put out more than target power to maintain speed. That’s not ideal, so you drop down back to your target, the person behind you benefits from your draft, and whoever you just passed ends up passing you. Thus it goes for the whole race. About 2 hours into the bike I decided I was going to drop these two men if it was the last thing I did. I put in a huge surge, got out of sight of them, and felt free. But this girl kept holding on! She was wearing a dark green racing kit with ‘Boston’ written on the side. We kept leapfrogging in a pattern; I would pass her on the straights, but anytime there was a sharp turn she would get me on the corner. After the 8th time or so of this I yelled as she went by, “you always get me on the corners!”

She laughed over her shoulder and said, “I gotta take advantage when I can.”

On her next pass I joked, “by all means, go ahead.”

She retorted with, “only because you’ll catch me on the straight.”

It was fun to have some banter and someone to complain with too.

She was in front of me for the last two miles and it was helpful watching her pick a line around the corners. I learned a lot about bike handling as we approached transition. I sprinted past her with my bike, determined to transition speedier than her.

The whole run I was looking over my shoulder, she had biked similar to me and I figured her run would be about the same or faster. She hadn’t caught me by mile 3, and this surprised me. At mile 5 I decided she must have beat me out of transition and was well ahead. At this point my run was still holding together and I wondered if I could catch up to her. Mile 7 things started to crumble for me and my average pace took a dive from the 7:00s into the 9:00s. I gave up all hope of the podium, much less catching her.

At mile 10 or 11 I heard pitter patter behind me and a voice said, “come on, run with me.”

I looked over my shoulder and who should I see? “BOSTON!” I yelled, “I’ve been waiting for you, I had to slow down and everything.”

She chuckled and explained she’d been struggling through a cramp. I held pace with her for a few minutes but my situation was too dire to maintain and soon she was well ahead of me. It was so cool to have that on-course encouragement, to have made a friend in the face of adversity, and I wish I had been in better form to run with her the whole time. She waited for me at the finish line and we congratulated each other and made quick introductions.

She was a formidable athlete; podiumed in her age group and qualified for an IronMan World Championship slot. That’s a pretty big deal, they only give out a few per race. This year it’s held in Nice, France. We connected on social media and she shared a bunch of photos with me that her family had taken during the race. As we were together the entire bike, I was in a lot of them. I’m excited to follow her journey and cheer her on from afar.

I’m so thankful for the community triathlon brings together. Triathlons create such a sense of camaraderie. Uniting us regardless of backgrounds, ages, or fitness levels. Pushing through physical and mental boundaries alongside a complete stranger, and coming out the other side with a new connection. Sport is as much about community as it is about competition and those are two things I love.