In this episode we hear from Ironman Maryland Finisher and Captain of Team Elbe, her relay team at Ironman 70.3 Texas, Evelyn Shreve. Team Elbe and Team Caliber, my relay team, we next to each other in transition in Galveston.
Evelyn has been married for 29 years, lives in Philadelphia, PA and is an “empty nester.” She shares that when she’s not in the pool, on her bike or running that she’s a CPA.
While competing with her brother and sister as part of the relay, Evelyn shares that she completed Ironman Maryland in 2019. Additionally, she has completed six Ironman 70.3 races and participated as part of another Ironman 70.3 relay team.
Because we have now both participated as part of an Ironman Relay Team, I take the opportunity to ask Evelyn how the experience was different in her opinion from competing by herself. We were both responsible for the swim leg and we spend a few minutes talking about the responsibility that we felt to complete our section of the race.
Because both of our cyclists had no triathlon experience before we compare how we prepared them for Ironman racing. In particular, we covered the no drafting rules and how they have never been subject to them in their experiences.
Evelyn shares how her team decided who would do the different legs of the relay. Her brother, Marv, is an avid cyclists and was the obvious choice for the bike leg. While her sister, Irene, had completed a triathlon before, it had been a few years since she had been in the pool. Ultimately, they decided that Evelyn would swim, and Irene would run.
Evelyn and I talk about how we approached our training leading to prepare for “only” swimming in this race. She shares that her coach modified her training to become more swim focused and that she has seen some unexpected benefits as she is always training for her 1st stand-alone marathon in the fall.
We compare thoughts on how we feel about using the relay option as a way to introduce new athletes to triathlon and Ironman racing. We both agree that there was a certain level of anxiety that was removed for our teammates compared to being responsible for all the things as a solo competitor.
I confess that I have started building a stacked team for my next relay. I have recruited a fast swimmer and runner so that I can enjoy the bike leg. As I am currently training for Ironman 70.5 Chattanooga, Evelyn talks about her experience having raced there already.
Because we both raced on the same course on the same day, we took the opportunity to break down our race performance by discipline. Spoiler alert, Evelyn’s team beat us by over 40 minutes. I did, however, calculate the math wrong during the recording when we compared our rolling times when we got to the bike leg.
We round out of conversation talking about bikes. Evelyn shares that she has a custom painted Trek Speed Concept. Which regular listeners know if my current favorite bike.