We're #1...

...in the pool.

Today was the single biggest day for Tri-ProSoap and our team members. We had the biggest showing of members at a single event. The list is long of noteworthy tid bits in the Sunday Morning extravaganza...

It all started with Chase Ingraham and his freshly returned bike from his successful Sprint Tri in Southern California two weeks ago. Yes, UPS was very particular in their delivery procedure. Go Brown or Go Home! So, we are #1, that is no lie... Number 1 to enter the pool for the beginning of over 400 triathletes to start on a Tri-Rock course. Chase Ingraham is a former SMU Varsity Swim Team Member and Captain (2006 season), and it goes without saying, that his swim time ranked #1. There is a lot to this... you do not want to be the hack that put a swim time down that they can't actually do and then get passed by multiple people that started after you. This is not the case with Chase, he is a rock star that is currently a US Masters All-American in swimming. Not an easy accomplishment. Of course, Chase absolutely Rocked the swim with an insane 3:22 time for the 300 yard pool swim. And yes, no one had a faster time than him. Nice job!

We had myself (Billy S.), Ryan Cooper, and Barry Brooks all very close starting around the 24th spot. There was a young Rip-Tide swimmer, age 13, that was starting 23rd right in front of me. (Side Note: the team was called G-ROC back when I was on the team) He was maybe 75 pounds of awesome distance swimming ability. And honestly, I was impressed by his confidence to start that close to the top. But, as fate would have it, the young man got passed pretty quickly. Props to the young man that will be a good force as he enters manhood. Personally, I had a great swim and had a personal best by 13 seconds. 2007 my swim time was 3:57 and this year I got it down to 3:44.

On to the bike... I read both of Lance Armstrong's books and he was dead wrong and dead right at the same time. Every second does count (got that right) and it's not about the bike (got that wrong). I had a goal of not getting passed by anyone on the bike. I popped out on the road with a decent pace that I was able to build on as I caught my breath from the swim. I saw lots of "stupid swimmers" as I rolled by... I can say that because I used to be that person that had a good swim only to get passed like I was standing still on the first 2 miles of the bike route. I knew that team members Ryan Cooper and Barry Brooks were very close behind me in the line up at the swim. They are very fast...both of them are elite racers that have some experience on me. I have a new bike this year, and it IS about the bike. It is an Orbea Ora from Rockwall Cycling. There is absolutely nothing better than flying on a tri course with that bike. Big thanks to the shop guys for carrying such a cool bike. I was able to avoid getting passed until about 4 miles to go, 2 riders that were drafting (big no-no) slowly went by on one of the few flat straight aways of the course. Did I say how hilly that course was out there? Whew! Those two riders did not get too far ahead as we entered the last turn towards the YMCA. Then it happened...ol' Barry Brooks on his P3 rocked by me. Nice job, Barry.

Time for the 2.9 mile run!!! This is where EVERYTHING got interesting... Literally! Ok, so this year the run course was changed around so that the run start and finish would not cross with those who were at the booths and had already finished. Good move there, but the latter part of the finish was a bit confusing for some of our own team members and others. Unfortanetly for Chase Ingraham (who said he was having one of his best runs ever) and Barry Brooks (who was on pace for a personal record and overall time of sub 59 minutes) both found difficulty in the last .25 miles of the run finish due to some confusion over the run markers and signs. This lead to a confrontation with the race production owner, Jack Weiss, on the markings in the final mile of the run due to the new finish configuration. Chase and Barry were quickly disqualified when Jack kinda...well..."blew up"... I didn't hear it all, but I'm pretty sure I learned some new phrases. Honestly, this was an embarrassing situation all the way around. Some heated arguments took place and finally the officials came over to change it from a DSQ to a 2 minute time penatly for going off course (regardless of the fact that both Barry and Chase went longer than the marked course).
Tri-ProSoap teamed with the Rockwall Cycling guys to make a neat booth at the finish line. We had some ProSoap Industrial Hand Cleaner and a Specialized Tarmac Road Bike for Raffle. The Rockwall Kiwinas Club sold about 175 raffle tickets for the Tarmac, which they only needed to sell about 75 to break even. Nice job all the way around. We got to wash dozens of numbers off from arms and legs. The people that tried the ProSoap were impressed with the awesome cleaning power. I would like to do another Tri-ProSoap booth at the next Rockwall triathlon next spring..... Wha??? You mean there is going to be a 2nd triathlon added to Rockwall's 2009 schedule? :)

Ok, now I'm going to list the team members that competed this year. The best place to find everything is http://www.run-far.com/ and look for the Rockwall Sprint "Tri-Rock".

Ryan Cooper, Barry Brooks, Billy Self, Jason Ross, Greg Diamond, Chase Ingraham, Louie Corwin, Tim Hartley, Trey Austin, Tripp Lee, and Brooke Rossman.

Big thanks to all the friends and family of Tri-ProSoap that came to cheer us on and support us this year. It was a great day of racing and I'm very proud of all our team members. We will have photos posted by tomorrow afternoon that were taken by our support group. I loved hearing everyone's ideas about the future of our team and I love the direction we are heading.

Thank you for believing in our mission of green racing.