We’ll take the liberty of borrowing and modifying an historical quote and say that “Uncommonly inspirational performances were a common occurrence this weekend.” There’s just no other way to describe the multiple displays of heart and courage that we were fortunate to witness. With Coeur customers, ambassadors, and friends racing Ironman Lake Placid, Ironman Canada, Barb’s Race, The Vineman Full and others, we literally had Coast to Coast action.
While there were multiple occasions when we had to do a double take to make sure what we were seeing was accurate, there’s no doubt that the performance that moved us to tears (of joy) came from Marison Beniek.
For those of you who haven’t had the great fortune to meet her, Marison is one of the most positive individuals you could ever meet. She’s been a friend for years and she always has a smile on her face. I mean you just couldn’t be near her without feeling happy. If you were racing, she would be on the sidelines smiling and cheering and if she was racing, she’d be the athlete that was thanking people for coming out.
Not that life is fair, but when Marison was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, it seemed particularly unfair. But, as they say, the universe has a way of giving the strongest people the hardest tests and to say that Marison is strong is an understatement. She never lost her positive attitude through her painful treatments and eventually she was declared cancer free! Then, over the weekend, to underscore the victory, Marison completed Barb’s Race. She’s back and endurance sports is so much better for it. Congratulations Marison!
Marison (in the middle) is back in action
Barb’s race is out here on the West (or “Left” as we like to say) Coast. Back on our native East Coast, Ironman Lake Placid was playing out with plenty of Coeur representation. As many of you know, this is the first year that Placid (“IMLP”) did not have professional participants. We are and will continue to be disappointed that Pros are not represented at this iconic race, but we did have a result that took away a bit of the edge. Coeur athlete Amy Farrell lives in the area and decided to participate. For those of you who don’t know her, Amy is a world class athlete and also one of the most positive individuals you could meet. By the way, we honestly don’t say that about everyone. It just happens to be true with the vast majority of the people with whom we interact. Amy can be deep in the pain cave and still find a way to smile! In any event, Amy had already secured her Kona spot but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to race IMLP. With Ironman Hawaii just a couple months away, you might think she’d dial it down for Placid. Right? Wrongo Bongo! Amy went out and won the whole darn thing. First women overall! Congratulations Amy and we look forward to seeing you on the Big Island again in October.
Amy gets the Full Page treatment
Speaking of the Big Island. Congratulations to Noga Ruttenberg for winning the 40 to 44 age group at Ironman Lake Placid and punching her ticket to Kona as well! Noga is coming back from a serious bike crash last year and we are thrilled to see her in such great form.
Kona sisters. Noga and Amy will both represent Coeur at Ironman Hawaii
We also want to send a big congrats to our friend Amy Stone for finishing Placid. She’s also signed up for IMFL, so we’ll get another chance to cheer her on later in the year.
Ok..we’ve gone left coast to right coast, now let’s go North! To Whistler and Ironman Canada. First, a little quiz. When we mention Canada what pops into your mind? Yes, nice people. It does for us too. I mean they all seem to be so incredibly polite, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. What else? Uhhmm...Cold? Yes Cold! Now, it shouldn’t be that cold in July, but we are talking about Canada after all and the race is held in a Ski Town, so I suppose we shouldn’t have been shocked, but wow…was it frigid. The mix of cold Canadian air with rain and wind, turned Ironman Canada into in incredible test. Of course Ironman is hard, but does it have to be this hard? We haven’t seen the final finishing percentage, but it seemed as if people were dropping out left and right. That’s why we’re so incredibly proud of Brynje Enderle and Liz Cullen who took second & third in the 35 to 39 age group and Ellen Wexler who got third in the 30 – 34 age group. We haven’t seen how the Hawaii slots came out, but we suspect that we’ll have a few more names to add to the big contingent of Coeur athletes going to Kona! Congratulations Brynje, Liz, and Ellen!
Ok…enough of the cold. Let’s head back West. She kept the fact that she was even racing under her hat, so we were surprised and incredibly pleased to see that Sarah Jarvis won the Vineman Full!
Sarah talking about her win at the Vineman Full
We also want to give big shout outs to Dian Ginsberg who took 2nd at the Cypress Spring Tri in the 50 to 54 age group and to Jess Jones Myers who won the Tulsa Tri!
Dian on the way to the podium.
Jess Jones Myers
As usual, we suspect we missed a few, so please shoot us a note if you raced.
Back on the Coeur front, we’re pleased to let you know that our women’s bibs are coming in this week. We’ll have to do a photo shoot but they should be available for sale within a week or so. We’ve had several people ask us if we’d produce bibs and we were glad to oblige. They help round out our cycling collection and, if you spend time on a bike and don’t like any constriction in the waist area, we’d encourage you to give them a try.
We also, want to send a belated happy birthday to Coeur Co-founder Hailey Manning. Hailey is an absolute machine who finds a way to run sales, be the liaison to all our amazing partner companies, help with product development, and still make the podium at Kona. She does it all with a smile and we had a blast celebrating with her.
Kebby, Hailey (in white) and Hailey's sister all in the Smith Optics Sunnies
Ok…that’s it for now. Congratulations to everyone who raced and we hope you have an amazing week!
Your friends at Coeur