Frank beats Tina at Firmman

Here's a race report from Frank KJ at the FIRM Man half-iron triathlon:

Now what is this all about? Of course Frank would not a have a chance against Tina if she was crazy enough to do a half-ironman. And of course she isn't. Instead Tina smartly teams up with a great swimmer - Big Al (many of you know him) and cyclist Norm Collard - a category 4 cyclist from NEBC.

For the last 2 years it has been Frank vs. the relay team and both times the relay team came out ahead. But this year Frank had had enough left in the tank to run down Tina and beat their relay team by 1 slim minute. The team started 10 minutes ahead. Al was 3 minutes faster than Frank out of the water and Norm added another minute or two to Tina's cushion. Since it was an out/back run Frank could get some gap times on Tina and at mile 8 the deficit had been eliminated. The last 2.5 miles have little shade, two nasty hills and a 1/4 beach run to the finish so nothing could be taken for granted until one stumbled from the loose sand into the finish shute.

Tina's team did so well that they actually placed 1st in the Mixed Relay. Frank took 9th overall and 2nd in his advanced age-group. Funny enough he would have placed 1st had he still been in the youth category.