Texas endurance athletes at the Olympics
Texas endurance athletes at the Olympics
How Texans did at Hardrock Hundred, SwimRun Austin preps underway.
Hello endurance athletes,
Hard to believe the 2020 Olympics are just a couple of days away here in 2021. What a year, and with things a little dodgy with COVID in Japan, and one athlete already turning up positive, who knows what the next few weeks will look like.
Fans of Olympic sports and endurance sports have a lot in common. Even if the distances aren’t quite the same, there’s a lot of swimming, biking and running in the summer games. So let’s get ready for them!
Texans in the Olympic games
There isn’t a lot of Texans in the games this year in the sports that are at least endurance-related. The biggest name, of course, is Simone Manuel, the 2016 100M free gold medalist out of Sugar Land.
She had a rough spring and only qualified in the 50M free, where she won silver in 2016. She has an excellent finish and is super strong, so gold is certainly on the table for her.
Midland’s Natalie Hinds is a 27-year-old making her first Olympics in the 4x100M relay.
Drew Kibler from the University of Texas, via Indiana, will be competing in the 200-meter freestyle and 4x200m relay in the pool. Houston-born Nic Fink is in the 200-meter breast stroke.
Another Texan who will be getting attention is Lawson Craddock. Craddock’s very memorable 2018 Tour de France included him breaking his scapula on the very first stage and finishing that stage bloodied, bruised and battered. Incredibly, he went on to finish the entire Tour, even if he was the Lantern Rouge, the TdF “prize” for very last place. A real hometown hero, he raised money for the Alkek Velodrome in Houston for every stage he managed to finish after the wreck. We are fans.
Craddock is a member of the men’s road team along with Arizona’s Brandon McNulty who just finished the 2021 Tour de France.
Another cyclist we’ll be watching is Colorado’s Chloe Dygert, the 2016 silver medalist, 10X World Champion, World Record holder and a total beast on the bike. She’s coming off of a truly horrific crash that nearly removed her kneecap when she went over a guardrail last September at the time trial world championships
In distance running, Texas Tech’s Sally Kipyego from Oregon a Kenyan-born athlete competing in the marathon and 10K.
TCU’s Ronnie Baker, out of Kentucky and A&M’s Fred Kerley will compete in the 100M sprint on the track. Bryce Hoppel from Midland will run the 800M. Benard Keter, another Kenyan-born Texas Tech athlete, will tackle the 3,000M steeplechase.
NBC’s broadcast/streaming schedule is available here.
Hardrock Hundred results for Texans
After a three-year wait for the Hardrock Hundred entrants had near-perfect conditions for the race. Francois D’haene destroyed the counter-clockwise route record held by legendary Spanish runner Kilian Jornet by almost 1 hour and 45 minutes, clocking in at 21:45:50. He also broke Jornet’s overall record (the route alternates directions each year) by nearly an hour. A truly amazing performance. Silverton, Colorado’s own Sabrina Stanley took the women’s titles with the second-fastest time ever at 27:21:49.
Courtney Dauwalter dropped out about midway with stomach issues, but had been running in fourth position overall.
Here’s the iRunFar.com coverage of the race for all the details.
Texans came up 50-50 on finishes. Perfect conditions and 48 hours to finish the race doesn’t mean a lot when there’s 33,000 feet of climbing over the 100-mile distance.
Not a lot of race reports from this crew yet, but watch on our new Facebook page, if they come in, we’ll share them.
From Miguel Pena, the fastest Texas finisher.
Getting Ready for Odyssey SwimRun Austin
Planning is kicking into gear for Odyssey SwimRun’s event at Pace Bend Park in Austin. It’s set for Sunday, November 7.
This Thursday, July 22 is the ODYSSEY Monthly Chat and the Austin Pace Bend Course is the topic, so you’ll want to sign up for that.
If you are looking to change something with your registration, e.g. solo/team, distance, wetsuit rental, etc. the last day to change is October 22.
If you need a teammate, SwimRun is traditionally done in teams of two, you can post on the Teammate Search page they have set up.
The Low Tide Boyz podcast has a discount code for the race and tons of great content. This week they get into the basics of setting up a tether between teammates.
Badwater 135 underway with 5 Texans
Another brutal ultra started Monday evening with the Badwater 135 which runs from the lowest point in North America, Death Valley, to the Mt. Whitney Portal, the trailhead to the highest point in the 48 contiguous states. Death Valley in July isn’t exactly pleasant with highs in the 120s common and it hit 130 degrees earlier this month. The race is primarily along road shoulders.
Five Texans got started:
Kimberlie Budzik, bib 51, F61, Friendswood, has 8 starts and 7 previous finishes.
Han Siemelink, bib 59, M60, Houston, first start, recently finished Cococdona 250
Trevin Fugere, bib 75, M47, Frisco, first start
Mark Wooten, bib 89, M41, Garland, first start
Brian Hill, bib 95, M47, Aledo, 3 previous finishes. DNF for 2021
Harvey Lewis, from Cincinnati, finished in first place this morning and Huntington Beach, California’s Sally McRae is nearing the finish line to be the women’s champ. She’s running 8th overall at the last checkpoint with an hour-plus lead over the next male runner and 2-and-a-half hours over the next female.
UPDATE: Mark Wooten finished 5th, Sally McRae finished 7th overall and first woman. Trevin Fugere finished in 43:56:32, Kimberlie Budzik finished in 45:04:16, and Hans Siemelink finished in 46:13:25.
Meme of the Week
Featured Events
Cypress Tris & Trails Fest | Sprint, youth, trail run, MTB | Cypress | July 24-25
Habenero Hundred | Ultramarathon, multiple distances, relay | Cat Springs | August 14-15
Hotter’N Hell Hundred | Ride, multiple distances | Wichita Falls | August 26-29
Dallas Open Water Swim | .5, 1 and 2 miles swims | Lake Ray Hubbard | September 25
Kerrville Triathlon Festival | 70.3, quarter, sprint | September 24-26
IronMan Texas | 140.6 triathlon | The Woodlands | October 9
IronMan Waco | 140.6 & 70.3 triathlon | Waco | Oct 23 & 24
Red River Relay | ~170 mile relay race | Dennison to Dallas | October 23-24
Oil Man Texas Triathlon | 70.3 Triathlon | Margaritaville Resort, Lake Conroe | Nov. 1
Odyssey SwimRun Austin | Long and short course, solo and team | Pace Bend Park | November 7
Media We Are Consuming
Jan Frodeno Sets World Record at Battle Royale (Triathlete)
Tokyo Olympics' outdoor swimming venue smells "like a toilet" (Axios)
Race El Paso’s ‘Eagle in the Sun Triathlon’ kicks off in August (KTSM)
How Lael Wilcox Crushed the Tour Divide (Outside)
How hot is too hot to run? (Women’s Running)
Phoenix Will Now Close Trails During Heat Waves (Backpacker)
Get Out There
Video inspiration this week.