Natalie: In her first triathlon, this seasoned runner finished fifth in her age group, 82nd overall, with a time of 1:04:49. It took her 7:26 to complete the 400m swim, 32:21 for the 9.5-mile bike and 21:16 for the 3-mile run. For someone who's never raced before, she certainly made it look easy at least on paper.
Hoda: Judging from the pre-race talks and jeers, I honestly expected Hoda to be one of the last finishers of the triathlon. More because of the swim segment I caught where Hoda confessed she swims "granny style" with her head above water and breaststroke kicking. But alas, Hoda exceeded expectations and finished far from last. Hoda finished ahead of more than 100 triathletes at No. 260, and eighth out of 19 in her age group with a time of 1:17:38. Her swim took 11:30, her bike lasted 34:58 and her run took 25:26.
Congratulations to these first-time triathletes! Question is: Will they tri again? Can't wait to hear the full report on The Today Show. For more results from the race, click here. Photo from last year's War at the Shore grabbed from beginnertriathlete.com. Posted by Kate
Note: Natalie announced on today's show that she finished fourth, not fifth as the results stated, in her age group. She ran someone down at the finish line.
I'm very curious about how she is 4th when the results say 5th.
ReplyDeleteI was curious too. I saw the results said fifth too and then on the show she corrected Matt Lauer when he said she finished fifth. Hence the note at the end of this post. I'm all for the 5th place...still a great finish for a first race :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
If you look at the results she did pass a women right at the finish. Natalie's time is a second ahead of hers, but that women was not in Natalie's age group. The fourth place finisher in Natalie's age group finished over a minute ahead of Natalie. No way to pass that at the finish. I appreciate the competitiveness but the chip does not lie.
ReplyDeletevery true on the chip. I'm all for the fifth place finish. the pass at the finish must be what she was referring to during the race recap on Monday? I always love it when the chip gets me faster than my own watch for the exact reason that it doesn't lie. I think there's a misunderstanding somewhere along the line.
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