Tulsa Iron Athletes Finish Strong At The Ironman World Championships

Tulsa Iron athletes Kara Cassel and Dana Chance performed wonderfully at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii last weekend. Kara finished 8th in the 18-24 age group with a time of 12:00:27 and Dana was 15th in the 40-44 women with the time of 11:10:04

The extreme hot and humid environment made the course much more difficult this year. The Oklahoma summers are an ideal training environment for this race as evidenced by the strong showings from Oklahomans who have had great races here.

Kara enjoyed the race so much, she is making plans to get back next year. When she finished she stated “That is the hardest thing I have ever done”. Eighth in the world isn’t shabby for the first year in the sport. Now she knows what it takes.

Below is a little clip of Kara running up Palani Hill. The usual spring in her step has softened a bit. A lot of folks walked up this hill.

On the other end of the spectrum, Dana finished her 9th Ironman and 3rd Ironman since July. After the race she told me “ I’m not even sore” Below is a shot of Dana just less than a mile away from the finish line.

So Kara, the more you do, the easier they get....At least in Dana’s experience.

Congrats to both of those tough individuals for completing the Ironman journey.

Tulsa Iron Athletes Compete In The Duathlon World Championships

Two “Tulsa Iron” athletes, Doug Leib(51) and Trey Petty(23) competed in the Duathlon World Championships in Concord, North Carolina this past Sunday. The distances were 10K run, 40K bike, 5K run. The event took place on the grounds of the Lowe's Motor Speedway in a torrential downpour. The competition was, of course, world class and the times were very fast despite the rain.

Doug finished 33rd in his age group, despite missing 50% of his training sessions. He’s been working 80 hr weeks and just couldn't manage to squeeze in the training he needed to perform to the level he would have liked.

Trey finished 21st in his age group and was the top Oklahoma finisher in the event.

Congrats to those two for a job well done. Above is a photo of Trey at the speedway getting psyched up for the big race.

Next up for Tulsa Iron is the Ironman World Championship in Kona Hawaii. Kara Cassel and Dana Chance will be attacking that course on October 10th. Stay tuned.

Eric Lundt Crushes 5 Hours At Redman!

Last weekend Tulsa Iron athletes made the short trip to Oklahoma City for the Ultramax USAT National Long Course Championship and the Iron Distance Aquabike.

Eric Lundt took part in the championship, while Steve Scace and Kara Cassel competed in the full aquabike.

Eric has been picking away at his half iron times for the past year with the ultimate goal of breaking 5 hours for the distance. He just missed it by a minute at the Kansas 70.3, and Redman was his final opportunity this year to break the 5 hour barrier.

He keeps a steady balance in his life with training, work, and family, and often has to get up at 3 in the morning to get his trainer rides in. However, he kept his eye on the prize and focused on his goal despite a few setbacks along the way.

At Redman, Eric crushed the 5 hour mark and went 4:55. Goals are dreams with deadlines, and Eric made his. Congrats to Eric Lundt for his great accomplishment.

Steven and Kara have upcoming Ironman races. Kara is going to Kona and Steve to Florida. This will be the first Ironman for both of them, so the Aquabike was a great simulation event to do before they move on to the real thing in a few weeks. Both left with confidence that they can do it. Kara placed second overall despite being fatigued, and in the peak phase of her training for Kona. She is happy now that it’s taper time.

Look forward to seeing results from those two on this site in a few weeks.

Great News!

Tulsa Iron athlete, Kara Cassel, has been picked up by the age group elite team “Zoot Sports”. Kara is the current female Oklahoma state triathlon and duathlon champion and will be racing in the Ironman World Championships next month. Congrats to Kara!

Tulsa Iron At Ironman Canada

Tulsa Iron Dominates At Duathlon

Tulsa Iron athletes Doug Leib and Kara Cassel took part in the Chris Brown Tulsa Duathlon this Sunday. Doug is currently prepping for the Duathlon World Championships. He raced last week so this race was another hard workout for him.

 

Kara practically had to beg me to let her do the race. She has her Kona slot already so I thought why not. However, the day before her race she put in a 5 hour bike ride and a hour long open water lake swim with intervals. I wasn’t going to let her miss a key workout for this. Racing on tired legs is something she is going to have to get used to for Ironman.  

Doug won the 50-54 age group and was 7th overall. He had the 3rd fastest bike split behind the overall winner and another young competitive cyclist. Very impressive indeed. Doug does most of his training on an indoor trainer with a wattage meter, no fluff or junk miles. His focused training sessions are paying off with some big dividends. 

Kara won the female division by a large margin. I was on hand to watch, photograph, and cheer on my athletes and friends. On the second run, I noticed that Kara had a huge lead, so yelled at her to shut it down and just take the win. Being the tough competitor that she is, her second run split almost bested the overall male winners time. Athletes like Kara just don’t have it in their nature to shut it down. Now you see why I keep her from racing too often;-) She’s like a pit bull. 

Congrats to Kara and Doug on their impressive performances.  See the full results here. 

Tulsa Iron Athlete, Doug Leib (51)4th Overall At The Mudwater Duathlon

Doug Leib took 4th overall, and won his age group by over 7 minutes at the Mudwater Duathlon in Wichita, Kansas on Sunday. He had the second fastest overall bike split and his 5k run splits were even at 21 minutes each. 

Doug, has been hit with a lot of family and work obligations this year which have limited his ability to race and train. However, that doesn’t mean that he has to let up, give up, or call it a season. Doug is back at it and, with the help of Raceday software, is building his fitness toward peaking at the Duathlon World Championships. 

Doug is the oldest athlete in my posse and, at 51, doesn’t think about age group wins anymore. He wants the overall win. That’s the attitude it takes. 

Doug will be racing in the Tulsa Duathlon next weekend and will be looking forward to another great race. Congrats Doug and keep it rolling!