I'm immensely proud of the SquadraCoppi girls who raced Ironman Louisville this weekend. In short, they CRUSHED. Jean Colsant, aka IronBean, raced her first Iron distance event - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a marathon - for a total of 140.6 self-propelled miles in one day. She trained diligently all year with the help of her experienced coach, David Glover of Enduranceworks, putting in big miles on the bike and getting in high-quality long runs on the weekends. She executed perfectly on race day, setting her watch to eat and drink every 30 minutes on the bike and pacing herself appropriately throughout the race. Amazingly, given the 89 degree heat, she didn't cramp, bonk, or dehydrate. She finished in 12 hours 53 minutes, a fantastic time for a first Iron-distance event. She was smiling every time I saw her on the course.

Adrianne Kroepsch had a personal best race too. She won her age group by a large margin and finished 9th OVERALL among the women with a time of 10:47. She averaged 20mph on the bike and 8:22 miles for the run. Get this girl a PRO contract, folks.

Jean's coach, David, drove out with us and did the race too. It was his 3rd Iron distance event this season, and was only 2 weeks after his win at Vineman. He had a solid race, but I think he had a better time hanging with Jean's entourage.

I was on my bike the entire day (putting in 80 miles) watching the race. I caught Jean at the start, the swim-to-bike transition (T1), twice on the bike course, at T2, and at mile 12 on the run. I then hustled back to pick her bike and (smelly!) clothes from transition, shower, and change into clean clothes for the finish. The finish was amazing - a long chute with people 3-deep on both sides. It was set up in the 4th Street Corridor in the heart of downtown Louisville, surrounded by retail and food outlets. It was also a convenient 2 blocks from our hotel, the Galt House.

Jean had a huge entourage of supporters at the race, all dressed in home-made red t-shirts supporting the IronBean. Her entourage included her mom, step-dad, two sisters and their children (5 kids total!), her aunt and cousin, and a friend from D.C. And me - the Tri-Sherpa. The weekend was a huge blast.