Episode 51: Personal Records, T100 San Francisco Highlights, and Vegas Influencer Showdown!

What does it take to smash your personal record in a triathlon, even with challenging weather conditions? Join us as Josh shares the electrifying highs and gritty lows of his recent race. 

Ever wondered what it’s like to rub shoulders with triathlon legends? Jenna takes us behind the scenes at the T100 in San Francisco, held alongside the iconic Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. She recounts her vibrant interactions with industry giants and fellow podcasters, witnessing a dramatic sprint finish that had the crowd on their feet. Highlights include the Challenged Athlete Foundation event, where legends like Alistair Brownlee, Ashley Gentle, and Jan Frodeno shared their insights. Experience the unique atmosphere of the event, marked by the fearless cold-water swims and the inspiring mix of professional and amateur athletes.

Who would reign supreme in the "Battle of the Influencers" in Vegas? We dive into the excitement surrounding this potential event and discuss our collective VO2 max training efforts. Get the scoop on upcoming races and events, including the Boston triathlon kickoff for Supertri and a thrilling recap of the T100 race. From Martin Van Riel's strategic win to the unique challenges of the Alcatraz swim, this episode offers a deep analysis and highlights that will captivate every triathlon enthusiast. Stick around as we reflect on the Ironman Boulder 70.3 race, the social media buzz, and the anticipation for the British triathlon Olympic team announcement.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to another triathlon podcast, the podcast that brings the electrifying world of triathlons right into your headphones. Journey into captivating conversations, share the excitement of race recaps, enjoy the humor only a triathlete would understand, and join us as we debunk myths and bring you the bare, thrilling truths of the triathlon world. So feel your heart pound, breathe in anticipation and get ready to dive into the world of triathlon. This is another triathlon podcast. Enjoy the ride.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Welcome to another triathlon podcast brought to you by Mon Apparel, where we, as always, are going to have some fun chatting about everything going on in triathlon the good, the bad, the ugly and getting into some race recaps from this weekend, because it definitely did not disappoint. But first introduce, as always, my co-hosts, josh and Fede. We're going to chat about what's going on with us and I think we have to start with Josh with a shiny new PR this weekend. How'd it go?

Speaker 3: 1:09

It was a wet one, but it was a good one too. I think anyone who's listened to the show before knows that I and us do not like the swim so much, and tends to. If the swim doesn't go great, the rest of the day tends to not be as good as it should be. So this one was the opposite, and I just felt different.

Speaker 3: 1:31

I had a good open water swim two days before and just felt really ready to go and I could see the current a little bit. I could. A lot of people said there was no current in the downriver swim, but for me I just felt comfortable getting in. I was with my teammate, um, on a teammate tara, and the two of us were just kind of chatting the whole way up to time it was time to go and got in the water it just seemed like it was easy to swim and easy to sight and it was a point-to-point swim. So next thing I know I'm feeling the 500 meter buzzes and my bus is going pretty well.

Speaker 3: 2:07

And then getting out, I pulled up um twice too early and forgot that you need to get like literally to the edge of the river before you can get up. It's like the deepest the river is. I can see the bottom, the whole swim, but when you get to the edge at the exit it's literally too deep and so that cost me 10 seconds or whatever. But we had to crawl ourselves out of the mud up the stairs and got my first stripper experience. So that was awesome. Got out of my brand new DeBoer wetsuit, which was super fast, so I had almost an eight-minute.

Speaker 3: 2:48

PR from myide swim in april and so, getting out of the water, sub 35, my wife right there yelling um how good the time was and just like, all right, now I gotta race. Now I gotta really push the bike, now I really gotta push the run. Um, and the bike got hard. I mean, the elevation was close to 3000 feet on the bike but I had a good average speed going through the first 20 or so miles before the first big hill and felt good about it and my goal was to try and keep the average above 20 for as long as I could. And and then, as soon as we hit the hill, the rain started and the wind came and were out in the west and I was like, oh, this is going to be a headwind for a while. So I battled some of that and dropped below 20, but I knew we had some downhills coming in but the rain just kept getting harder.

Speaker 3: 3:33

I did hit close to 50 miles an hour on one of the descents, following a few guys and I figured they had a good line and if they were going to go, I was going to see it before I moved and pushed it there and got back as far as I could and down as far as I could and just coasted, so it was got in for them good. I had a couple niggles on the bike where I had to shake it out on some of the climbs, but other than that I was like run's going to be good and had a good plan of eight sub-eight start and then try and get it down to close to seven minutes for the finish in the last four and a half miles and I saw my parents and my daughter on the beginning of the run and then, my wife was out volunteering.

Speaker 3: 4:16

She became a last-minute volunteer on the run course and got to see her three times and the next thing I know we find out that she's a super volunteer and everyone on the course was getting cheered on by her. She's learned so much listening to the podcast and doing all her research and knows the right things to say. She got a lot of people through the race. We come to find out afterwards. That was really cool. Got to see her three times.

Speaker 3: 4:40

I got yelled at for not kissing her all three times, but I did stop the first one. You got times. I got yelled at for not kissing her all three times, but I did stop the first one. Yeah, the first one was great. It was on an uphill. The next one's wrong downhill, um. So yeah, it was a two-loop course, um, with a bunch of hills on the run, seven, eight hundred feet of elevation there. But um, I felt good on the run the whole way. My nutrition the whole way along was good. I killed all three bottles on the bike that I had. Didn't lose anything and then just kept gelling it up on the run and grabbing both gatorade and mortal as much as I could, and um got home with like a 630, 640 last mile or so and finished with the 21, almost 21 minute pr.

Speaker 3: 5:23

So congratulations yeah, it was awesome, felt really good, saw my parents and my daughter at the finish line too and my daughter immediately grabbed my finisher medal and she hasn't been to our race, so that was really neat. And then, uh, see a bunch of teammates and monikits out on the course, um, and then just other friends from the area. Being a massachusetts race, so the race was like an hour from home, so really really cool environment. Just kind of stunk for the weather and then, of course, the people who had to deal with the worst of the rain on the bike then had to deal with the sun and about 75 degree weather at the finish. Yes, it decided to warm up again, but yeah, it was a great day and awesome family day, which don't always get to get in triathlon with the traveling that we do to race.

Speaker 3: 6:10

So, um, just a really special day, really special day, and I'm feeling it today and enjoying the day off.

Speaker 2: 6:15

But uh, we got some more races on the schedule yeah, you know, that's almost like the most satisfying part when you are kind of sore and achy afterwards, when you know, you actually put it out there and didn't leave anything out on the course. But congratulations on the pr. That is absolutely huge and very, very exciting. Just goes to show the hard work you've been putting in and the consistency is absolutely paying off no, absolutely the consistency.

Speaker 3: 6:39

And then the voices like, the more I tell people, the more accountability I feel out there. And and then that good swim led me to have that mindset that I can't let up on the bike. I can't let up because the bike in the run.

Speaker 3: 6:54

we know I can do and I just crushed the swim for me so I gotta push on the bike in the run and and it got to the points where I just mentally had to talk to myself through it and hearing your voices in my head and hearing some of my other people's, that stuff helps me and it's huge. So thank you.

Speaker 2: 7:10

That's awesome. It sounds like a great day.

Speaker 3: 7:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:14

So again, how about you Fede what is going on in your world?

Speaker 4: 7:18

Hey guys, no, I'm just super excited with Josh's performance. I just texted him yesterday that, uh, that sub five is getting closer and closer and uh, he, the fact that he did that on a hilly course. I mean, if it was a flat course, there's no doubt we would be talking about a sub 5 70.3 right now. But uh, yeah, it's coming. So I'm just, uh, I think what's up with me is that I'm really excited about you guys' weekend. I was, you know, having serious FOMO with one watching Josh's stories with his race and then watching your stories about being up in San Fran at the T100. So, yeah, nothing super exciting on my end, just a lot of chipping away and grinding. And uh, yeah, happy to be training, uh, consistent, consistently. Uh, back again. And uh, yeah, can't wait, can't wait to uh see what this uh blog has in store for me. And uh, yeah, just a happy camper.

Speaker 3: 8:24

I'm fully pain-free and like 100% to do whatever you want.

Speaker 4: 8:29

Yeah, pain-free, 100% free to do whatever I want. Of course I cannot go out tomorrow and go for a 20-mile run, but I'm going to slowly progress towards that. But on the bike and on the swim I'm clear 100% to do pretty much everything.

Speaker 2: 8:48

That's awesome to hear.

Speaker 4: 8:50

Yeah, so super, super excited.

Speaker 2: 8:52

You're on the comeback. We can't wait to see you tearing it up again soon.

Speaker 4: 8:56

Yeah, I might switch it up and go like ITU or Super League. We'll see.

Speaker 2: 9:02

There you go, love to see it.

Speaker 4: 9:08

What about you, Jenna?

Speaker 3: 9:10

I mean, I think we'll talk more about Jenna's weekend and VIP treatment and all the texts we got from her.

Speaker 2: 9:19

Some of which cannot be repeated here. Yeah, no, I didn't get a weekend here. No, it was incredible to be over at the T100 in San Francisco. They're running it alongside Escape from Alcatraz and, first off, what a beautiful place Like San Francisco is really incredible. It's so cool to actually go and see the bridge and run along there and it's so fun when a little area is taken over by triathletes.

Speaker 2: 9:52

It was one of those cases where everyone was kind of in the same spot and I didn't realize what a big industry event this would be. It was basically anyone, and everyone involved in the triathlon industry from the industry perspective was down in San Francisco. So really fun to meet some new people, catch up with old friends from over the years and actually got to meet, I think, most of the podcast sphere in San Francisco there. So it was really fun. Spent a lot of time with the Daily Tray guys there. They did some great videos and recaps, so go check that out. And then ran into Kyle Glass from Pro Trinews and then met Jack Kelly from Triathlon Hour. It was just kind of fun to geek out a little bit on the behind the scenes triathlon podcast side of things.

Speaker 2: 10:42

But man, that was a great race to watch and be a part of that energy and see it all go down. Like Josh mentioned, I was lucky enough to get a VIP pass there, so got a nice view from it. Got some good, good views and videos of that finish line, including that sprint finish, which was just so fun to have that energy of everyone just losing their minds as we got three people sprinting to the finish line just going for it, which was absolutely incredible. But yeah, it was just a really fun weekend geeking out on triathlon, talking about triathlon and, uh, didn't get as much training as I wanted to get in because I was spending so much time talking about triathlon. I didn't do as much training as I wanted to get in because I was spending so much time talking about triathlon I didn't do as much training for triathlon. That seems to be the way it is. But yeah, one of those times just go have some fun.

Speaker 3: 11:34

Did you happen to see how crazy the local swimmers are there?

Speaker 2: 11:39

Oh, my goodness With all wet boots. It was insane. I was down there with Ashley Gentle and stuff and they're getting ready to swim and you see kids running around swimming in the water there. The locals are swimming just in speedos. Oh okay, Just cold.

Speaker 3: 12:01

Yeah, world Triathlon has them in booties.

Speaker 2: 12:03

I thought it, and so funny so watching a bunch of the pros are going for like their shakeout swims the day before and stuff, you're just like what the fuck is this?

Speaker 2: 12:13

the locals laugh what am I doing here? No, it was. It was really, really fun, though. There's just something about that energy around a triathlon like that, an event like that, where you have the combination of the pro racing going on and then you have all these amateur athletes gearing up to race the next day too. There was a very cool vibe there. All weekend Got to do some fun stuff. There was a Challenged Athlete Foundation event on the thursday before the race. That was really cool. You had, uh well, basically a room full of legends. There was um, alistair, brownlee, ashley, gentle and jan ferdino up on stage, and then matt dixon was doing the uh, the hosting duties, and then he had bob babbitt hanging out in the back and mark allen just casually hanging out in the back and Mark Allen just casually hanging out in the audience to watch the show. So it's a pretty interesting conversation and just great to get some of those insights, because I think it was a little bit more of an intimate crowd and casual, relaxed situation with no cameras.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Well, there was a camera but, not like one of the pre-race kind of press things. So the athletes actually gave some really interesting answers and opened up a fair bit and Matt Dixon was definitely prodding out a few of those answers, which made it fun. And someone actually asked Jan Frodeno, the Lionel Sanders question.

Speaker 4: 13:43

Oh really.

Speaker 2: 13:45

So Brent from the Daily Try there, he went for it. He asked Jan, so are you coaching Lionel? Jan pauses. He's very he'll think through what he's going to say before he says anything. Basically said, he's more along the lines of advising him. He's not going to be in there kind of looking at the training data every day, but he's more he can bounce ideas off of and advise him about it, so kind of a PR, kind of not really answer to what's going on there, but talking to a few other people it sounds like he's going to be, yeah, just that kind of an advisor. He's not going to be in Lionel's's training peaks every day analyzing all the data but giving a little bit more direction, which you know what, hit a good day in oceanside and he's actually gotten over to the wind tunnel and doing some testing to get things dialed in and shave his legs.

Speaker 4: 14:37

so, uh, hopefully some good things to come from there I mean to be fair, like, probably, if there's one person in this whole entire world that could make lionel listen and actually execute something, it's probably yan. And because, uh, I reckon lionel respects yan that much that if yan says something, lionel's gonna do it. So, uh, hopefully, hopefully, that advice um relationship uh works out for both of them, because I know yan will be I. I don't think he's gonna share all of his secrets, but he's gonna help lionel a ton if lionel lets himself uh-huh, uh, you know, if he listens well, and it's at a point she like they're not going to be racing each other anymore, they'll be more open.

Speaker 2: 15:29

Give him some tips and direction, because it'd be so good, because Lionel's getting older too, so there's not that many years left to get it done, and hopefully he'll get some good direction and we see something epic.

Speaker 4: 15:42

Awesome.

Speaker 2: 15:44

Yeah, no, really incredible weekend. I'm wishing I was back there already. I just got off the plane about an hour and a half ago. So one of the harder parts, though when you're down there spectating in person, you get to see a lot of cool things up close and personal, but you miss out a little bit on the rest of the race, all the kind of small details. So I'll have to have you guys fill me in a little bit of um seeing the highlights, and at times there's more talking than looking at the race, so I will rely on you guys a little bit to enter. Let me know some of the things that went on during race day sounds, good sounds good.

Speaker 3: 16:18

So that's the question I mean. Now you've had the experience of watching and being at what? What would your wish be if you could go to vegas or go to london and see another one of these events? Is it to watch it and experience that aspect of it, or is this kind of like something now you, you want to do every time?

Speaker 2: 16:38

you know what, if? If I get the vip access, then this would be it, because at least they have the TV and the commentary and everything going at the same time, so you can still watch it for a while and then go down to the course and see them in person and then go back up and watch. That way and especially this race, where it was really cold and rainy the entire time it was nice to be able to go inside and get some hot coffee, right.

Speaker 4: 17:04

Once you go VIP, you don't go back makes it pretty hard to know.

Speaker 2: 17:12

No, there is some energy on course there that does make it fun to like. You just end up having random conversations with people you've never met before as y'all play armchair quarterback to uh the race going on. And yeah, there was a little talk of potentially a battle of the influencers at the las vegas event with some of the other podcasts, uh, crews I mean we have to look at some vegas dates. We'll we'll see what we can do there.

Speaker 4: 17:38

I mean if we, if we make it happen and the whole crew goes to Vegas, I mean, watch out, because I reckon our VO2 maxes combined are probably going to be, you know, good enough to give Christian a run for his money.

Speaker 2: 17:56

There we go. We've all been doing the VO2 max work. We'll be ready to fire.

Speaker 4: 18:00

Yeah, 98 or something.

Speaker 3: 18:03

I'll be lagging behind, since I've been racing all season. You guys are ramping up and I'm like, all right, I'm leveled.

Speaker 2: 18:10

Oh yeah, I'm racing next weekend. I forgot about that yeah, haven't trained for the last two days because, yeah.

Speaker 4: 18:21

Because yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:25

He said a lot more talking than training. Yeah, yeah, it'll be fun to go, uh, shake out the cobwebs and actually do some sort of multi-sport race on the weekend, and I haven't signed up for it yet, so I should probably do that too good idea.

Speaker 2: 18:40

That helps sometimes I know my poor coach. I just tell my athletes, do as I say, not as I do. I told him I was going to this event and initially I was going to be doing a race this weekend. That just passed. He's like don't you have a race in training? I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, I'm not going to do that, but there's one in the next weekend. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm not going to do that, but there's one the other week and the next weekend.

Speaker 3: 19:16

Oh, my poor coach, but he puts up with me and helps me get fast, so he's stuck with me. Actually, I actually have a cool event. I don't have anything this weekend, thank god. Um. But next weekend, um, I'm racing. But the next monday or tuesday there's a? Um, a local kickoff event for supertri here in boston, so kind of, with that being the first race of the season. Um, I got an invite from the boston triathlon team, um, or the boston triathlon organization, to puts on the event that Superdry is taking over, like they took over Escape for Alcatraz. So they're doing a kickoff event on the 19th. So I'll be seeing some of the coaches and the managers and things like that for that new league. So I would imagine in the next nine days we're going to find out who the other two teams are. That would be awesome.

Speaker 2: 20:08

Are they announcing all of the teams down there?

Speaker 3: 20:11

I think. So We've got two of the four and we've got nine days to go before this kickoff event. So my guess is we'll find out. I think the first two were announced within a week of each other, and I think Parker just messaged he would love to to chat with us as well, and I know um, the podium team wants to talk too, so maybe we'll have a somewhat of a live podcast next week. There we go figure out the logistics of doing a live podcast with the supertri managers that would be a blast.

Speaker 2: 20:42

Yeah, we had a little race gone this weekend, so we may as well roll into that. We had the T100 in San Francisco. Actually, you know, even after being there all weekend, I do not know what to call this race. Is it T100, California, San Francisco or Alcatraz? Anyways, it happened. So, Fede, why don't us run us down what happened this weekend?

Speaker 4: 21:09

absolutely. Uh, yeah, we had, like you said, the uh t100 escape from alcatraz slash, san francisco slash god knows what um race, and it was an epic, epic race. Finally, finally, we got a decent bike course, uh, so that the the strong bikers could separate themselves from the bunch, and, um, you know, it was a very, very exciting race. Uh, let's start over the men's side, and it was a cold morning for both men and the women. They were like josh mentioned before booties, neoprene hats. And the women they were like Josh mentioned before booties, neoprene hats, the whole shebang. And you know that water is known for being cold and rigid. You can't see anything. I've done that race and it's a bit scary because I remember receiving the athlete guide and on the athlete guide it says on the San Francisco Bay bay there are at least seven species of sharks. So that's, that's something you don't want to read, uh or have like a conscious, like a conscious knowledge about it.

Speaker 2: 22:18

There were so many um. I don't know if it's um. Is it sea lions or um yeah tons of those down there too, which I never would have given a second thought to, but didn't one of the athletes in um, miami or super league? Someone got bitten by one of them, um, at one of the injured events. Who was that? Oh blank, and who that was. But I never thought it was something that to fear in the open water. So yeah, new fear unlocked yep, new fear unlocked 100.

Speaker 4: 22:49

But yeah, um, and it's uh, usually it's a very fast stream because it's with the current and, uh, it's a point-to-point swim.

Speaker 4: 22:58

So it's a very, very, very cool swim, um, and it's an amazing, amazing experience. There wasn't a lot of separation from the guys, like, we saw Martin Van Riel, we saw Kyle Smith, rico Volgin the usual suspects that we would expect to be up there in the front, and it was very refreshing to see Rico, who's you know, the current 70.3 world champ, you know, battling it out with the boys. Kyle Smith, who's obviously had an amazing, amazing season so far, and you know, I don't want to say, but well, of course, friend of the podcast, frederick Funk, was also there and it was, it was a masterclass from Martin Van Riel. I mean, this guy can swim, can bike and can run. I I think the Olympic distance is a little too short for him to showcase the like, how strong he actually is on the over the three disciplines. Like guy can't do it all and it's it's amazing, it's amazing to watch, to watch you perform. He was on the front.

Speaker 2: 24:25

Uh-oh.

Speaker 3: 24:26

Lost you Fed.

Speaker 2: 24:29

Hey Fed, we can't hear you, Uh oh.

Speaker 4: 24:52

Really lost him.

Speaker 2: 24:54

Really really lost him.

Speaker 3: 24:55

I'm going to try and pop back in. Yeah, you're going to try and pop back in.

Speaker 2: 25:06

Yeah, his wonderful internet down in Mexico.

Speaker 3: 25:10

Unbelievable, I mean these days it's far. Right, you got to get a Starlink or something.

Speaker 2: 25:18

Oh, my goodness, the Wi-Fi in my hotel was so bad that Instagram wouldn't work, and then where I was apparently was like a dead zone too, so I'd have to like leave my hotel room to try to do anything. Hello hello.

Speaker 4: 25:34

I don't know what happened.

Speaker 2: 25:35

It kicked me out oh no, yeah, you went silent for a while and then it kicked you out so where?

Speaker 4: 25:44

where was I?

Speaker 3: 25:47

um it was talking about his bike.

Speaker 4: 25:50

Yeah, uh, yeah so, uh, do you want me to just uh pick it up from there?

Speaker 2: 25:56

just pick it up, I can edit together awesome, right?

Speaker 4: 26:01

um. So yeah, it was very cool to see martin on the bike, uh, taking it by the horns, and seeing guys like kyle smith as well following up and fred funk. Just an amazing, amazing race. And but but the very the most exciting part of this race was the run. I mean I don't remember when was the last sprint finish over a T100 event, but we had what we wanted and it was between Rico Bogan, former 70.3 world champ, kyle Smith and Martin Van Riel and it was I mean, I remember I think it was Jan on the broadcast saying it or Jack Kelly, I don't remember who it was, but it was like Rico, kyle and Martin, you know, the new guard, the current guard and the future. So it was amazing, amazing to see.

Speaker 4: 26:54

And, of course, we saw Martin's experience, you know, not surging when he didn't need it to, just keeping his calm and then just going when he knew he wanted to go or when he needed to go, and so happy for Martin that he got the win. And Kyle Smith took second, rico took third and after the finish line, you know, all of them collapsed at the finish line and after the finish line, you know, all of them collapsed at the finish line and jenna was, uh, taking pictures and video of the broadcast and I remember messaging her oh nice, you capture kyle's vomit and it was this green, bright green, you know vomit, that, all of the gels and probably some C algae or something. But yeah, that's that's. I did not.

Speaker 3: 27:48

You were just videoing and had no clue. It was actually on the video.

Speaker 2: 27:52

He messaged me, and I went back and looked at it. I'm like oh, he's right, you know. What's even worse, though, is that I see Martin Van Riel come down and sit next to him In. Oh right, you know.

Speaker 4: 28:08

what's even worse, though, is then I see martin van riel, come down and sit next to him in oh that.

Speaker 2: 28:12

Oh no, that's not not good. Yeah, yeah, definitely like it made it interesting. Now, was there anyone else who saw Sam Long down 50 seconds who thought, oh, yeah, he's going to run over.

Speaker 3: 28:23

Yeah, get him over.

Speaker 2: 28:24

It really like you got to wonder what's going through his head, that he's coming out of the water right after. Allie Brownlee and, just like at the front of the pack, people are still in transition when he's coming into transition, which is not a case we've seen before with him, and a 14-minute swim time for the top guys like the current. The boat was in a little bit closer too, but just absolutely insane. But that whole race it was just like switching up positions and they're really like pushing it.

Speaker 2: 28:53

Some questionable um distances between bikes, uh, yeah and then for a while it looked like sam and alistair were like back and forth on the bike else were trying to pass, sam would pick it up and it just. It was messy out there for a while.

Speaker 3: 29:09

It seemed like magnus was pushing huge power too, and crazy how he was getting rid of sam on a lot of those descents and then would would finally get far enough away where he pushed in front of them, even on the descent Sam would usually catch him. It was. That was impressive, and Sam's got to learn how to transition in these T100 races.

Speaker 3: 29:31

He does that penalty came back to bite him. I mean I think he kind of knew it was a different ball game and the mindset and the legs might've had a little bit more juice than what he said he had that day didn't have that penalty limit and I guess it's just the excitement of coming out the water, out of the water with those guys.

Speaker 2: 29:49

That's such a a basic mistake that even an age group would be disqualified for. I think so. If you guys didn't see, he didn't do up his helmet, hurt his helmet strap as he ran out of the bike, which is one of those things I tell my athletes. Rule number one before you do anything else in transition, put on your helmet, clear it up. But he totally hit it with all the adrenaline of the day. And then Alistair actually ended up getting a penalty as well. I don't know if they mentioned it on there, but for shoes outside of the box, because he put on shoes after the swim to do the run-up to transition, so it's a pretty long transition in there. I wanted to be careful with his ankle and his shoes that he brought into transition were outside the box. So he ended up getting a penalty as well.

Speaker 2: 30:35

But Sam, just like man, those little things still seem to keep getting him um out there, but I totally thought he would just power away with it, just with the crazy bikes and runs he's had recently to not hit the top.

Speaker 4: 30:49

It was surprising with only 50 seconds down on the swim yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I mean, like I said earlier, this was a biker's bike course, and by that I I don't I don't mean that sam is not a biker, because he is like, he's a specialist, he's an amazing time trialist, but this was more suited towards the road cyclist type of guy. You know the punchy climbs, the twists and turns. So we, like a guy, yeah, bike handling, like a guy like martin van riel with his ski level and you know, you know, from belgium, bike riding is, you know, second nature. So, yeah, yeah, it was. If this course was made for him and uh, I probably if this was a flat course and like a more traditional TT style course, sam would have won 100%, because with that deficit he would have been away.

Speaker 4: 31:47

Him and Magnus would have been away from everyone. And I think on the run, sam right now has a better run than Magnus. Yeah, but happy for Martin. I mean, I don't want to say who picked him on a little, on a little fancy, but I just want to say that his name starts with F and ends with Enrico.

Speaker 3: 32:10

So and I was 10 millimeters behind you. Yeah, on the ground, oh man. But here's the other thing too, like we talk about like the different courses, and all of these t100s have different courses, and that's one of the cool things about it. Well, wouldn't you think they would do a little bit more recon, because all three of the top three photo line photo finish finishers?

Speaker 4: 32:41

yeah, didn't know there was grass before the blue carpet yeah, they were all mentioning it like oh no, I didn't, I didn't know what.

Speaker 3: 32:49

There was grass, but yeah, yeah, and they're all kind of tripped. When it went from grass back to blue carpet too and I think that I mean it was like kyle tripped the most, it looked like and that kind of cost him the race and what else. We didn't even talk about this. Did you guys see what else that cost kyle the race? And I think this really did was when he went back in the aid station oh yeah, that that momentum.

Speaker 3: 33:14

Like you know, momentum kills you on a bike course, but it does on the run too, because that's a ton of time to go back and then get going again back up to sub six pace.

Speaker 2: 33:23

So yeah, I mean yeah, if you guys didn't see it, he dropped off. He was at an aid station. There's kind of a littering zone where he can drop the cups and it sounds like the uh that if you had wrappers, they had to go to the garbage can.

Speaker 2: 33:35

If he had cups, they could be dropped within the littering stone and I think he wasn't sure of what the role was or not, so he dropped a cup. It looked like well within the littering zone, but it didn't go can. So he stopped to turn around to go back to not get that, that penalty. Um, but yeah, turning on a dime like that when you're moving out here, like most of the way through a race, is not fun on the legs yeah, I got a lot of nice shots on the run course, so I was hitting the can on all mine.

Speaker 2: 34:06

Yeah, I'm abysmal at that. Again, zero hand-eye coordination.

Speaker 4: 34:12

I think Jan was even trolling Kyle for this After what happened, because Kyle's confusion, of course, being low on glycogen and not knowing what they tell you and the rules and everything. Uh, I remember it was like the second lap or so. Uh, jan was saying well, kyle is gonna maintain the lead unless he decides to go back and pick up his trash and everyone else's trash. So I thought that was pretty.

Speaker 2: 34:39

I thought it was pretty funny see and I love jan in the commentary for stuff like that like he just has no f to give it to us, he'll say exactly what he's thinking. He's not like playing nice to everyone, he's not mean about anything, but yeah no he just doesn't know, he just says it as it is and how he sees it.

Speaker 4: 34:57

That's the best just all good banter. I'm pretty sure he texted Kyle at the moment when Kyle saw Jan's message that I want to see Kyle's reaction for that.

Speaker 3: 35:13

I think the whole finish production announcing was done. Awesome, we're big sports fans. Friday and I with the like the pro major sports, that was like the end of a awesome ncaa march madness game or a close super like the they. The way they handled that last 2k 3k was really really well done. And and yon, just reminding people like I've done this before and it's been since 2008 and this is still better than that. Uh yeah, and that gives a mindset to what we've talked about before too. Like any sport fan could watch that and enjoy it and you don't have to be to enjoy that type of a finish.

Speaker 4: 35:59

Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 36:01

And, to be honest, it's taken so long to get to the point at one of these T100 races that we have a sprint finish. Maybe I'm hoping we'll see a little bit more of it. Now that people are kind of into the season and in form and we have most of the races, a lot more of them will be showing up. In some cases they have to, so hopefully we get more of those.

Speaker 4: 36:23

But that brings us to the women's race, which wasn't quite the same ending yeah, no, it wasn't the sprint finish, it wasn't green vomit all over, it wasn't picking up trash for your teammates. We saw like the world domination that tay Neve is slowly but surely achieving. Like the men's swim, it was like nothing special happened during the swim. We had the likes of Paula Finley, of course, taylor Neve, ash Gentle, laura Phillip you know the whole lot and Evogen Simmons, who was like like I'm going to take this race from the get, go and see if I can create a gap or get some TV time. And she went up the front and she was first out of the water, she was first onto the bike course, but it wasn't too long when Taylor passed her, like she was standing still on one punchy climb, like it was like the cadence, like the thing that I want to take away from this is Taylor needs cadence. She looks like a cyclist now and so comfortable on the bike, like I don't know. Just amazing, unbelievable and incredible to watch. And then from then she took the lead and never gave it back and the gap kept increasing, increasing, increasing.

Speaker 4: 37:46

And we saw a very, very solid performance by Kat Matthews. I believe she had a bit of a mechanical like minor. She dropped her chain and it was like an easy fix. Then hop on her bike again and started, uh, you know, catching people back again. And then she backed herself on the run. Oh, imogen simmons got passed by her laura phillip and but, uh, it was like, nonetheless, a very brave effort by imogen. So kudos to her. And we saw the likes of paul finley and ash gentle not making the top three, which were the first. Yeah, that was amazing to see, especially especially for ash, who has been so dominant on this race. But you know, with the olympics coming up, we're starting to see a more fit, uh, taylor nib. So, yes, it's, it's going to be exciting for the summer games and I mean she has a bright future and I know for a fact that these T100 races she's just doing them for fun, because she loves to push herself and see where's the limit.

Speaker 3: 38:58

She just loves to race, I mean she's a competitor she's an, I mean yeah she's a competitor, she's an athlete and she's a triathlon geek and just loves to race. And then we get to see her dad get interviewed. They're the same person. They have the same laugh. You know where she gets it from yeah, oh, it was just so.

Speaker 2: 39:16

She is so incredibly dominant at this, like she can just put power out on the bike, and it's incredible. I heard one thing which should scare us all for her getting even better on the bike is apparently she just recently learned that you're supposed to break before the apex of the corner, not in it, on some of these descents in there. So she levels up bike handling skills on top of that power, like she's just gonna be unstoppable, like yeah, I have to see her racing um yeah like when it's the world champs yeah, that's two or three minutes.

Speaker 4: 39:54

That's two or three minutes yeah, just crazy, but no.

Speaker 2: 39:59

So such a good race to see and like crazy turnaround for cat matthews like doesn't end up being able, or has that dnf turns around, gets a spot back for the team 100 and bangs it out like that was wicked to see. Talk about just mentally, physically switching or flipping the switch and getting it done. That was very fun to see and you know what was crazy. There was a bunch of us were having beers at the hotel afterwards and stuff, and she's skipping around the hotel lobby.

Speaker 3: 40:34

This is where you take it easy on your calf, and anything else could be fired up right now.

Speaker 2: 40:39

I'm like I'm not moving that well after her race, so that was more impressive the lactic acid hadn't kicked in yet.

Speaker 3: 40:46

It's like that last flush comes a little later yeah, no, it's really great racing.

Speaker 2: 40:52

Yeah, sounds like ash just didn't quite have the day and, um, she's somebody you expect, like I said, said to be up there. But I really liked this because it was so different from the other races. Like, most of these T100 races are more flatter courses, crazy hot temperatures, so it was fun to see how the dynamics in the race switched up by actually having a hilly, hard, challenging course in very cold weather, like that would not have been pleasant on the bike in those temperatures with the rain and the mist.

Speaker 3: 41:21

Completely the extreme opposite of what they had been racing in. Totally, yeah, wonder, like, who's out there in the t100 contract world who didn't race? Who's, like crap, should have been there. That would have been good for me, um, knowing the conditions and things like that. So, yeah, I I thought it was an awesome weekend overall. It seems like the age group race went really well and they had much better weather the next day afterwards too. Alcatraz lives on. Yeah, I was jealous, definitely for sure, and Taylor actually helped me on the descents too in the turns, because there were like 25 turns that we had to make, so that braking was definitely in the back of my head, like 25 turns that we had to make. Um, so that breaking was definitely in the back of my head. Just because she had said it the day before, I was like I know it. But thank you for that reminder always good.

Speaker 2: 42:08

you know, what would have been good, though, from the like race broadcast side of it would be if they switched the days. So have the age group race on the saturday, have the pro race on the sunday. You have a bunch of triathletes that are fans of triathlon in the area, and the day before their race they're not going out at 6 am in the freezing cold and when to go spectate a race, but afterwards grab a few beers, have a coffee and Bailey's head out there and cheer your face off.

Speaker 2: 42:37

It would be a lot easier to uh to get people into that's a good point.

Speaker 3: 42:44

Uh, yeah, I mean you've got to accommodate for that and that was an early start for the man. And then the woman was what like 6, 40 or something like that.

Speaker 2: 42:50

So it was crazy.

Speaker 3: 42:52

They had to be up there at the boat for like 4 am and stuff and it's just and the woman had to go out with the guys on the boat too, right, so they were out there even longer.

Speaker 2: 43:00

So it's always the worst when you get up earlier than you have to for a race. You're like I could still be in bed yeah, transition closes.

Speaker 3: 43:11

When transition closes, that's, it doesn't matter if you're back of the pack swimmer or not, that's. I mean, that's how I my swim started at six and there was no profile there.

Speaker 2: 43:18

I was like wow, this is like crazy early you know, though, I actually liked having, like there's some things that need to be worked out, but I liked having the men's and women's at similar times not at exactly the same time like that.

Speaker 2: 43:32

45 minutes Maybe an hour would be good and a couple handling a few things differently, like at the finish line for quite a while you're just getting the men's responses instead of seeing some of the women's run responses instead of seeing some of the women's run. But overall as a broadcast package like getting it all into four or five hours kind of thing, instead of eight or nine I think they had last time, with a big break in between and stuff it just seemed like the energy was higher overall. Now for this race, we had a men's race with lots going on and stuff, but sometimes the races turn out where you do have a taylor nibb um on the women's side and same on the men's side, where there's not a lot of position changes going on, um. So it was as long as they kind of work out the balance a little bit more.

Speaker 3: 44:17

I enjoyed that from what I saw yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense. It's what we're used to in triathlon and on the iron man side, anyways, right, the men and the women race at the same time. So I think, from a production standpoint, ironman is showing it's capable and possible to do. I think when you've got that level of athletes, they're trying to give them both their time and air time. So it certainly makes sense to do it either way, but it was nice to have it both out there. I think they were learning on the fly, like how to balance between the two.

Speaker 3: 44:47

Taylor made it a little easier to do until the men's race was was over, but it did seem and I think when I listened to the interview last week that Jack Kelly did with the production the head of production for T 100, they were talking about like San Francisco had a whole bunch of challenges in terms of limitations with cameras and where they could go. So it did seem like they lost a little touch on the bike, because I think Jack was saying, oh, imogen's gone, she's holding her lead on the bike and next thing, you know, they get a camera on Taylor passing her. So I think, nope, imogen's not gone. There goes Taylor, goodbye. So there's definitely some limitations to that and there's going to be. In any city it's going to have different jobs, what they're trying to do, and not have helicopters in the air like you do at the Tour de France yeah, and it sounds like at this point um, they're looking, they're planning on separating out the men's and women's races entirely, uh, for the rest of the series.

Speaker 2: 45:43

But who knows if something like that changes, if they get some feedback there. But even I think I've mentioned it before just from the commentary side, like by the end of an eight, nine hour day, the commentators even get tired and start saying the same things over and over again. So at least now there's lots going on. It was fresh, there was a lot more interaction and, yeah, I think it worked pretty well, as long as they can work out that balance, so you're not missing out parts of the the women's race as well yeah, I think it was like a permitting thing for san francisco and a total budget line item thing where how much it would have been to block it off for another, whatever many hours, and and you still had the age group race as part of it.

Speaker 3: 46:20

That had to be built next day.

Speaker 2: 46:21

Yeah, no, absolutely overall fun race to watch from all the perspectives in there. Um, surprisingly, though, we did have another race this weekend. I just had to move on from there because t100 kind of took over the uh, the social media racing stratosphere this weekend, but I believe we had another race in the ironman pro Series with Ironman Boulder 70.3.

Speaker 4: 46:47

Fede do you?

Speaker 2: 46:47

want to give us a quick rundown of what happened there.

Speaker 4: 46:49

Yeah, I'll give you a quick rundown. We had Boulder 70.3, and let's start with the girls. This time we had another nail-biter between the winner, ellie Solhaus, and second place from Denmark, sif Benedikt Madsen. Just like 30 seconds between these two girls. Just happy for Ellie. You know Boulder is like her second home. You could see it on her face, the emotion. She was over the moon with the victory.

Speaker 4: 47:22

On third place we had, from Belgium, valerie Barthelomew, coming in third place, jody belgium, valerie bartell and bartell and me, uh. Coming in in third place, jody stimson in uh, fourth, uh. But yeah, just an uneventful race, and you know boulder is beautiful and it was perfect conditions for racing um and over. The men's side we had trevorley, so former Lionel String partner winning in 333-36, so blazing fast. We had Matt Hansen coming in second place in 336. And Sam Appleton, who is another guy that's like Boulder is his second home in 338. We had Justin Metzler finishing in like eighth place, matthew Sharp in sixth place. We had Tomas Rodriguez, a former Texas champion. He did not start, I don't know why. So yeah, definitely a cool race to watch and it's on the bucket list. Maybe we need to make a trip to boulder and make a like a longer training camp and then finish up with the race because it looks like an amazing race it's beautiful to ride and train up there.

Speaker 2: 48:37

I lived up in denver and did a lot of time training up there for a couple years. Um, that elevation, it was funny people are responders, or less, so I always suffered up there. Boulder would be a pretty race to do, but probably one of those ones that I will never race, even though, living there for a couple years I found that challenging for fede, for you it'd be easy yeah, yeah, it's probably gonna feel like sea level of being like I don't know, 1,200 meters lower than Mexico City.

Speaker 3: 49:13

And even on top of that you get the sun on the run course where it's like there's no hiding from it whatsoever on a nice day like that.

Speaker 4: 49:20

Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 2: 49:22

It's a beautiful race. Well, let's roll into our what the F in Social Media Post of the Weeks here. No shortage of stuff on social media, so, Josh is probably a tougher one. What are you pulling up for us?

Speaker 3: 49:36

Yeah, it definitely was a tough one down to the wire here. But I just have fun and smile every time I see Indie Lee on camera being interviewed or a story goes up or a post goes up. And this weekend the two knuckleheads got to be together with her and Kat and whenever they're together it's kind of kind of a gem of a moment. So the T100 put up something up with Indie. So if you go to Indie's page, hey, follow Indie Lee, because it's usually pretty funny content anyways and her stories are pretty awesome. Um, but they did a little bit of their pre-race um documentary stuff on cat and Indy and it was a really cool video to check out. But uh, yeah, those two are just a bunch of like nuts when they're together and great training partners and they're both having fun this season. So it's always fun to see and check it out. Um, always fun content coming out of those two.

Speaker 2: 50:27

Way good. Now. You always got to love that positivity. They definitely seem like they have a fun vibe back and forth and just makes it fun to see that behind the scenes a little bit more and that they don't take things too seriously all the time, even though they're trying to perform at elite levels.

Speaker 3: 50:42

They're like the Sam Long on the female side. There we go Always having fun, which I mean. That was another one. That was a close one, like Sam's out there cheering on the females coming in to finish and he's like he didn't have his best day. His wife and his kid are here.

Speaker 2: 50:58

And he's out there cheering with his helmet on. There you go, love to see it.

Speaker 2: 51:01

Well, that brings us to the what the F of the Week. And oh well, that brings us to the what the F of the week, and that would be British triathlon. Come on, let us know already. So British triathlon has not announced their Olympic team. From some rumblings behind the scenes, it has been selected, but there are appeals and, yeah, appeals going on, basically. So I'm sure that means there are some not happy people on either side, but I just want to know how about you guys? What do you think?

Speaker 3: 51:36

I'm right there with you. I mean, this was a no-brainer for our WTF this week. Everyone else is done, everyone else is ready. All the big names are there, we know who's going. It's not like you have to prepare for your competition, but the triathlon world wants to know who's going to Paris. Yeah, and you've got some of the biggest names that people are waiting to hear from.

Speaker 4: 52:01

Yeah, I didn't get up the nerve to ask Alistair if he knew anything about Johnny in the Olympics. What would he have to say about that?

Speaker 2: 52:07

Yeah, curious to see. So not an easy choice when you have so much talent over there and they're deciding which direction they go between the individual and the relay. Man can't wait, so hopefully all of the appeals will come to an end soon so we can find out who will be racing there, as we have most of the major teams announced at this point. Either way, it's going to be an epic event at the Olympics, or so we hope.

Speaker 2: 52:34

Yeah, yeah Well other than that we have not a lot of racing coming up next weekend, but we do have a race coming up with Ironman Cairns, Cairns I never know how to say this one.

Speaker 2: 52:47

Which, as you guys probably saw, for a social media post that Sam Long has decided that he's not going to go over to Cairns, that the T100 race is going to be his target and he's going to give it all the time and attention it deserves, which makes me more excited to watch the T100 series, right when the athletes are saying they're actually going all in to see what they can do for it and not just using it as a training day for Kona. But we do have a few pros racing over in Australia. Let's start with the women's side. Here. The top names we have in there are Kelly Simpson, lottie Wilms, hannah Berry, laura Brandon. Names we have in there are Kelly Simpson, lottie Williams, hannah Berry, laura Brandon, radka Katovelt, rebecca Clark, kate Glaspy-Jones, fiona Mariardi, ayueta and a few others across there. So let's mix it up and start with Fedde. Who do you think is going to take it out in?

Speaker 4: 53:42

um, yeah, solid, solid field. Um, I'm gonna go ahead and pick. Uh, you know an athlete that is a very solid swim biker and her run has been, you know, improving throughout the years.

Speaker 2: 53:58

I'm gonna go ahead and pick hannah berry okay, I like it and you know, not too bad of travel over from new zealand yeah.

Speaker 4: 54:05

No, I'm thinking I'm a bit biased because I'm friends with her husband, so I need to pick her. Yeah, and he's a good golfer, by the way, so shout out.

Speaker 2: 54:18

Key to Fede being a fan. Yeah, how about you, josh? Who do you got for the women's side of this?

Speaker 3: 54:26

I'm going to go let's see with Lauren Brandon.

Speaker 2: 54:31

Lauren Brandon that's good, I'll go with.

Speaker 3: 54:33

Lauren.

Speaker 2: 54:35

Awesome. I know she'll be out of the water there quick. I'm going to go with Lottie Wilms. Let's see what she can do out there in cans. Curious to see how this one wraps up. And then, on the men's side, we've got Braden Curry Sam Long is no longer starting. We've got Joe Skipper, Nick Thompson, Mike Phillips, Henrik Gosh, Josh Hamburger, Arnaud Guillaume, Greg Reitbarnaby, Ben Hamilton, Tim Berkel, Gregory Barnaby, Ben Hamilton, Tim Berkel, Matt Burton, Andrew Horsville-Turner yeah, some of the top names in there. So we'll go around again with Betty. Who do you got for this one?

Speaker 4: 55:19

I am let's go. Let's go, sam Osborne.

Speaker 2: 55:28

Man, you're always pulling out. Okay, well, how about you, josh? Who do you got for this?

Speaker 3: 55:38

So my question to you was Josh Amberger in San Francisco.

Speaker 2: 55:43

He was not. He stayed behind to prep for Kansas.

Speaker 3: 55:51

Let's go with Amber. He has it on his list, his priorities are straight, that's for sure. Yep going after it, and we don't know what skipper is up to.

Speaker 2: 55:58

So that's my heart I mean he really yeah, he hasn't had great races recently. He was on a on a streak with the Ironmans. But yeah, I'm going to go. Skipper, Joe, Skipper, he's going to turn around. Have a great race out there and power through.

Speaker 4: 56:18

Like our pigs.

Speaker 2: 56:21

Keep it interesting in there. It's going to be a good weekend of racing and nice to just have one to kind of focus on a little bit With the Pro Series. This one is in the Pro Series, right, yeah? So with the Pro Series at least there'll be some coverage so we'll be able to follow along a little bit with the race, although the times may not be ideal.

Speaker 3: 56:44

I guess evening for us, if it's's australia it's not too bad not too bad yeah, and that, anything else going on that you guys wanted to mention the trap on world for jumping over the philippines and qualifying for kona and finding finding that iron man race before time runs out to qualify. We're're getting near the end of qualification for 2024.

Speaker 2: 57:08

Yeah, it's wrapping up soon. Actually, that was a topic of discussion over the weekend too, was Christian Blumenfeld, if he is going to attempt to qualify for Kona in a way other than just win the Olympics, which is his plan?

Speaker 4: 57:25

at the moment. That's a plan A, B, C, D, all the way through Z.

Speaker 2: 57:30

Exactly. But he's running out of time to do a couple 70.3s or an Ironman to actually get that selection. So, yeah, be curious to see what he does. Or, if Ironman pulls anything, get him a slot because people will watch the race to see what he can do, even if he doesn't win the gold medal. But lots of questions on that Kona start line at the moment. But this one step closer to that Kona start line and that Ironman Pro Series. As we see, those spots start to shake out and we have got a lot more racing ahead this summer and fall and winter. It's a long season.

Speaker 4: 58:07

Long season ahead, yep, yep. Definitely as well, we need to start a savings account for the Vegas party. Eventually, there we go. When is Vegas October? So we can be for Kona, I believe.

Speaker 3: 58:26

Yeah, that's too close to Chicago Marathon for me, I think.

Speaker 2: 58:30

Yeah, I think it's the weekend after.

Speaker 4: 58:34

Might be Before or after, something like that yeah.

Speaker 2: 58:38

I know it's really close to Kona too, but anyway, we'll have some fun talking triathlon and we will be back next week. Have a great night, guys.

Speaker 4: 58:47

Have a good one.