Thursday, April 26, 2007

Meeee-raaaaaannnn-daaaaaaaaa

Next in our tour of IMAZ athletes is The Legend Herself- Miranda Alldritt!

I met Miranda at SmartassCamp and immediately realized that this girl is truly special. I dare you to find me a single person as dedicated to triathlon as Miranda. She doesn't miss workouts. Period. If she needs to go out on a long run at 1am, she does it. If she needs to drive 30 miles to find a pool open, she will go. If it is pouring, she's riding. If it's cold, hot, snowing, storming, nothing, I repeat NOTHING keeps this girl from training. On top of that she BEGS Paulo for more hours. Miranda works full time and still trains up to 30 hours per week.

Miranda definitely has What It Takes

But that's not all that makes this girl so kickass, she's also a total sweetheart and always has kinds words to say about everyone. She is the one who stopped to help me change a flat at camp. Who was patient with me as I fumbled around like a newbie. Who pulled me along for a 2 hour ride, and then thanked ME when we were done for the company! She is a positive energy in the lives of everyone she meets.

That's why it was so amazing to watch her really nail this. Here is Miranda's race:


The day before the race we went out for Mongolian BBQ. Miranda is a vegetarian and loaded up on noodles for a pre-race carb load. As always, she had a big smile for the camera.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. Paulo, Sergio, and Miranda walking to the transition area on race day. So much energy in the air!


As the sun began to rise we spotted Miranda again. Her tires were pumped up, transition set, and she was ready to race. I was so impressed by how relaxed and happy she was!

Here I spotted her right before she jumped in the water. She's the one in the Orca full suit facing away from the camera


And the race is on! Here she is coming out of the water after a PR swim! 1:14:18. A quick 4 minute transition and she was off to the bike.

Miranda is an amazing cyclist. She can kick the butt of most men. She had the best female bike split at Canada last year but then lost it on the run. This race she played it so smart. Held things back on the ride to save her legs. The amazing thing- she still went 5:30.51!!!! That's more than 20 miles per hour on a windy day. For 112 miles! Can we all say.... wow

T2- 2 minutes


When Miranda passed on the run the first time all of our jaws dropped. She was FLYING. We called home when she was on the second loop to find out what her split was. 7:27 miles for the first loop! I wish I could say that we weren't all really really nervous at this point. Could she really maintain this for 26.2 miles???? Here's Paulo in the first loop yelling encouragement:


By the time she was on loop 3 the pain was starting to show. We saw her at mile 17, and then were going to see her again at mile 22. We waited with baited breath. I was so nervous. Paulo was having a fit thinking she went out too hard. But then we saw her. And she was STILL FLYING. Paulo, Sophie, and I cheered at the top of our lungs. We knew she had it. There was no way she was going to slow down with 4 miles left. The girl has too much gut for that. Here is Paulo saying: "Keep it together, Miranda!" I believe the one word Paulo kept repeating after she left us to continue on the homestretch was "WoW"

And then we all ran to the finish, filled with excitement. Final run time 3:25 (7:50 miles) HUGE PR


Final time 10:16.31. Second Overall amateur (only by a minute!), Sixth woman overall, if you INCLUDE pros. The girl beat like a dozen pros! I think Miranda's days as an age grouper are numbered


My very favorite quote of the whole day was from this moment. It was from the girl who never thinks she's good enough, and never thinks she trained hard enough:

"I'm really, really happy"

We're really happy for you! You earned it, girl!

9 comments:

John said...

Another great race report Jodi. You could have another career in the making Tri-reporter :-)

Wes said...

What an amazing athlete... Nice write up, Jodi.

E-Speed said...

holy crap, she ran a faster ironman marathon than I have been able to run stand alone. That girl is hard core!

E-Speed said...

do you listen to the Ironman Talk podcast? You should recommend your friend for their age grouper of the week section.

Janet Edwards said...

dang, this is one tough chick!!!

LoneStarCrank said...

She is a machine. And even more impressive by her humble attitude. Thanks for introducing her to us!

Unknown said...

Wow! Great race report. I'm going to need to watch out for her in the future.

Me said...

Hey, it's Barb! I know Barb. I haven't seen her in almost a year. She's cool.

JeffM said...

Inapiring race report! To be able to run a 7:50 pace for an ironman- wow. Great ahtlete- you'll probably be there in the not too distant future.