Race Coverage
Epic Newbie...
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Tuesday, 03 April 2012 03:00
(Photo - The girlfriends: Lillian Petite and Todd Hoekstra.)
Event Coverage - In a moment of un-medicated insanity, St. Paul cyclist / occasional cross-dresser (photo L), Todd Hoekstra, decided to make his multisport debut at the Life Time Leadman Epic 125 in Henderson, Nevada on March 31.
What was he thinking?!
Everything about The Epic is just that: Epic! The distances (1.5 miles -70 miles - 8 miles, A.K.A. 125K) and extreme course difficulty are epic enough. A member of the race staff described the run course to several participants who were standing at the swim start as follows: "Look to the southwest. You see that mountain range? We'll, the finish line is on the other side." He didn't need to describe bike route. The road leading to the race start was an asphalt ribbon than snaked up and down the craggy mountains that form the eastern and norther borders of Lake Mead. That was a section of the bike course. Scary stuff....
But wait. It gets even Epic-er!
Athletes were greeted by unrelenting 25-30 mph winds, with gusts sometimes exceeding 50 mph. Event staging was blown down and remained down. Resurrection was out of the question. The lake was ripped with angry waves and two thirds of the swim were into the teeth of the complaining current. Moreover, the water was frigid; the announced temperature was 61 degrees. Debbie Claggett, a veteran of the 2011 Coeur D'Alene Ironman, where entrants had to swim in a 55 degree lake, claimed that 
Lake Mead felt even colder than that. Several Escape from Alcatraz veterans said that Leadman's swim was the toughest they had ever endured.
Hoekstra, who is not a small man, nevertheless accepted every diabolical challenge that The Epic threw at him. Finishing after sunset (the event started at 10 AM), Hoekstra was embraced by a gaggle of Minnesota friends, many of whom are also recreational cross-dressers. Stinky and salty, he smiled down on the huggers--did we mention that he is not a small man?--knowing that his next race, even if it is an IM, was going to seem easy by comparison.
An arbitrary cut-off time had originally been set at 9-hours. Race Director Keith Hughes, however, made the benevolent executive decision to throw that out. If you could finish this race on this day under these extreme conditions, you deserve an official time. Hoekstra clocked a 9:05:08, which placed him 146th among the event's 152 finishers. It should be noted that 37 starters DNFed; and 40 did not start or were no-shows.
Leadman Epic 125 was an epic event, and no one, in our opinion, had a more epic experience than did Todd Hoekstra, who, you must admit, looks great in a skort.
You're a Rock Star, dude!
Photo R - Minnesota Lead-Dudes Todd Hoekstra, Jonathan Pedersen, Kerry Yndestad and Erik Hull. This cool shot was filched from Kerry's FB page.
