Amber is a Pumpkinman

I figured since Amber hasn't had time to write up her race report yet, I wouldn't keep people in suspense any longer about this past weekend up at Pumpkinman. This would be her first 70.3 since hurting her hip doing the Mooseman/Eagleman Double and it would also be her first race weekend double of the season(doing the sprint on Saturday and the 70.3 on Sunday). She did the half-ironman two years ago and won it so the pressure was on for a repeat. She couldn't pass it up though. Kat Donatello and her husband put on a great race.  Not only does it attract some pretty stiff competition for a local race, organized well, has a beautiful locale, but it also has a great post-race spread. Shipyard brewery provides the beer which accompanies a full turkey dinner with actual plates and silverware!

Amber knew she was in for a tough weekend when she saw the start list which included: Amanda Kourtz, Andrea Wilhelm, Amy Danna, Katie Hursey, Catherine Sterling, Kim Shattuck and Karen Smyers. Amber Ferreira(nee Cullen). Ah ah ah and Cah cah cah. Jeeze if I were the announcer I would be confusing all of these similar sounds studs something cah-razy. Luckily for Pumpkinman spectators Andy Schachat of Announcers on the Run was there to officiate.

Anyway. Spoiler Alert!

Amber ended up doing both races finishing third on Saturday and first on Sunday.

Danny and Amber

After Amber's third place finish on Saturday, we stopped at a little restaruant in York, ME for lunch of very good burgers and a game of Connect Four(which Amber states she had never played before. Ha! She only said that after she lost on three consecutive occasions). Anyway, with Amber suffering her second defeat of the day we headed into Dover, NH for a night at the Dover Days Inn. Now that is a nice two star hotel! Right in the center of town, great pool and hot tub and clean comfortable room. Did you know that Dover was settled in 1623 and is the seventh oldest permanent settlement in the US? Well now you do.


While Amber took a nap, I read the newspaper in the hot tub and had breath-holding competitions with myself in the pool. I won the majority of those as well. Oh yeah. I'm a stud too.
Amber arose from her slumber just in time for her massage that I had scheduled for her in Portsmouth at Elements Massage. You may say that I was being kind but I really just wanted some Danny time to spend at Odiorne Point exploring. It is a pretty amazing area where you can barely make out Fort Dearborn which was a World War II fort and you can hike along the trails that bring you alongside the coast line. Continuing south, you can come to the sheltered tide pools of the Drowned Forest where treestumps are all that remain. The forest sank below sea level as it rose and the trees couldn't surrive because they couldn't live in salt water for very long(and they were submerged).

We met back up and went out to dinner at Blue Latitudes in Dover where I proceeded to engorge myself on Nachos and Buffalo Chicken. Delicious! We waddled back to our hotel and proceeded to watched several hours of television. I really appreciate the fact we don't have cable-there is nothing on! And yet, we continued, earnestly, to try to find something interesting to watch for several hours before Amber finally succumbed to her third defeat of the day: nothing to watch.

Well, those three losses: Pumpkinman 3rd place finish, 3 losses at Connect Four, and TV show searching must have lit a fire under her humpkin, man. Here she comes Pumpkinman!

All the male and female pros start the half-ironman together and it was a two loop course, so I was actually able to see her swim by me half-way through the swim. At that point she was with a group of men, with Ethan Brown off the front(where he would proceed to win back-to-back races). As she finished her second lap, Amber had made some gains on the men, coming out of the water second!
The Swim: 1st Female: 27:08

The Transition from swim to bike: Amber on the left- Danny in Green cheering her on

She then made tore apart the bike, finishing the 56 mile course in about the same time it took me to finish an excellent buffet breakfast.
The bike: 1st Female: 2:24:57(23mph)

Amber then took off on the run. This would be the real test for her hip. It would be her longest run since Eagleman and her first back to back hard runs. And although she had a good sized lead on Amanda Kourtz, she knew she had to have a solid run to hold her off. Which she did. Every time I saw her on the run she was smiling, striding out nicely and looking strong. Which she was. She ended up running a 1:29:41 half-marathon which is 6:50 pace. She looks ready for her fall race season. Which she is.
  The Race:  4:24:42 - 1st Female Overall

So Amber made up for the devastating losses of Saturday to come back big for the win on Sunday. After the race, Amber finished up her winning streak by being the first to the food tent which, as I mentioned above, comes with a turkey dinner and Shipyard beer. We were joined by Lisa Ransom and her beau, Paul who had also done the race. A great way to finish up a fun weekend.

Lisa Ransom and St. Paul

Up Next: Hiking Mt Katahdin this weekend.

Knife's Edge