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CHRONICLE
SPORTS
Chatham’s Griesbauer Captures
Brazil Ironman Championship
Eric Adler
CHATHAM — When Dede Griesbauer walked
away from her six-figure job with a Boston-based investment firm to
become a professional triathlete four years ago, many people called her
crazy. Now, they can call her champion.
Griesbauer, a part-time resident of
Chatham, captured the Brazil Ironman competition last month, completing
the 2.4–mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run in nine hours,
10 minutes and 13 seconds, just 11 seconds shy of the women’s course
record.
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| Dede
Griesbauer won the Brazil Ironman competition, a 2.4–mile
swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run in nine hours, 10
minutes and 13 seconds last month. She was just 11 seconds
shy of the women’s course record. PHOTO COURTESY OF DEDE
GRIESBAUER AND RODRIGO LASSALA, SAUCONY BRAZIL.
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It was Griesbauer’s
second ironman title following her August 2006 Ironman United Kingdom
victory, where she set the women’s course record of 9:37:44.
“As great as it was to
win, I never go into any ironman race thinking about winning,” she said.
“I just try to execute my race plan. It’s a nine-hour event, so many
things can go wrong.”
And they did, even before the sound of
the starting gun.
On the eve of the race, Griesbauer
discovered that her bike had a broken shifter, a tire puncture and a
cracked stem (the part that holds the handlebars together).
“All of this happened 15 hours before
the race, so it caused a little bit of stress,” she said. “Supplies
aren’t as abundant in Brazil as they are in the U.S. But everything got
ironed out before the start of the race and I tried to put all the bad
stuff behind me.”
Unfortunately, more followed.
Strong winds caused choppy waters, and
the marker buoy on the first anchor didn’t stick, forcing racers to
catch a moving object that was being dragged out by the current – a
difficult task even for Griesbauer, who earned All-American honors and
two national championships as a standout swimmer at Stanford.
Despite the sea struggles, Griesbauer
made it to land in 51 minutes. Trailing the leader by only five seconds,
she passed her on the first transition, changing her clothes quicker
before hopping on her bike.
From that point on,
Griesbauer was never challenged and widened the gap between her and her
competitors on the two-loop course that featured a few hills but was
mostly flat.
“During the bike ride, I could see that
my lead was increasing, so by the time I started running, which is not
my strong suit, I tried not to do anything heroic,” Griesbauer said.
“Rather than pushing the pace so hard that I cramped up, collapsed or
overexerted myself, I tried to hold on and not put my position in
jeopardy.”
As she approached the
finish line to the Florianopolis course, Griesbauer “savored every
second of the finishing chute,” high-fiving fans, blowing kisses to the
crowd, while waving, fist-pumping and reveling a rare ironman win.
Problem was, as she later admitted, “I celebrated just about 11 seconds
too long.”
The PA announcer informed
the crowd, “She's going to get the record if she can just get across the
line.” Griesbauer’s friends urged the announcer to “say it in English,
she doesn’t understand Portuguese.”
In the end, Griesbauer
said she had no regrets about missing the record. “Ironman wins don’t
happen all the time, so I was enjoying the moment. Plus, it gives me
every reason to come back and do it just a little better next time.”
Griesbauer earned $8,000
for her win, but banked more from some of her nine sponsors, which offer
her a bonus for each first-place finish.
“I’m not making as much
money as a major league baseball player and I’m not making the bank I
used to at MSF [Investment Management], but I’m doing better than I
thought I would,” Griesbauer said. “When I first started I thought I’d
try this for a year or two depending on how it went, but it’s working,
so I’m sticking with it.”
Griesbauer, 38, said she
isn’t sure how much longer she’ll continue competing, a decision she
makes during a sit-down dinner with her husband Dave. She admitted
though, “I’m closer to the end of my career than the beginning.”
But challenges still
beckon, especially the Hawaii Ironman World Championship, where she
finished seventh in 2007 and was the top American female finisher.
“I think people still
think I’m nuts for doing what I do,” said Griesbauer. “I realize too
it’s a little bit crazy. I had a good job that paid me well, it wasn’t
dangerous, it wasn’t physically exhausting and it wasn’t painful. But I
get to pursue a sport that I love and that I’m passionate about.”
Locals Turn
In Star Studded Season On College Diamond
by Eric Adler
HARWICH — James Hamilton’s first season
of college baseball was much like his final one at Harwich High – full
of hits, home runs and a whole lot of accolades.
A two-way talent, Hamilton hit .381
with seven homers and 45 RBIs and compiled an impressive 5-2 mark on the
mound, leading the Dean Junior College Men’s Baseball Team to a 27-11
record – 10 more single-season victories than the Bulldogs had in any
of their previous 52 years as a program.
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| Former Harwich High School star
James Hamilton hit .381 with seven homers and 45 RBIs for
the Dean Junior College Men’s baseball team this season.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DEAN COLLEGE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT. |
Hamilton, who was the Division Three
Massachusetts Player of the Year his senior year (2007) when he led
Harwich to the second of its back-to-back state titles, wasted no time
establishing himself at the Franklin-based school.
He went 3-for-3 with three RBIs,
including a home run, in Dean’s 10-7 season-opening victory over
Lakeland Community College, and later that afternoon, struck out nine in
the Bulldogs’ 11-1 win over Ancilla.
Hamilton, named to the Region XXI
Division II All-New England Team, had 15 multiple-hit games and tossed a
seven-strikeout one-hitter against Westmoreland in mid March in his
second outing of the season.
Just a short trip down
highway 495 was Hamilton’s Harwich battery mate Dylan DeGroff, who spent
his sophomore season on the Massasoit Junior College Men’s Baseball
Team.
DeGroff helped the Warriors, who lost
nine one-run games, to a 24-19 record. He hit a solo home run in the
Brockton-based team’s final game against Bunker Hill.
Hamilton and DeGroff squared off
against each other in late March with Dean edging Massasoit in a
double-header, 4-3 and 7-5. Hamilton tossed five innings of two-hit ball
and struck out six in the second half of the twin bill.
Two-time Harwich state champion Connor
Burnham just wrapped up his sophomore season with the UMass Lowell Men’s
Baseball Team. Burnham, who transferred from UMass Amherst, hit .205
with five RBIs in 18 games for the River Hawks (25-20).
Burnham’s best game of the season came
against Bryant University when he went 3-for-5 while driving in a run
and scoring another. He also had a pair of RBIs against Bentley.
Former Chatham High School standout and
Harwich resident David Gagnon led the Clark University Men’s Baseball
Team with five saves during his senior season. The team’s closer, Gagnon
made 17 appearances and struck out 14 over 18.1 innings for the Cougars,
who finished 14-21. He finished his college career with 47 strikeouts in
59 innings.
Gagnon, a management major, shined just
as much off the field, receiving the athletic department’s Russ Granger
award presented to the student-athlete who best combines academic
excellence with athletic achievement. He also earned NEWMAC All-Academic
recognition.
After getting off to a red hot start
this spring, Ryan Soares didn’t slow down, completing his junior year on
the George Mason Men’s Baseball Team with a .318 average, 11 home runs
and 42 RBIs while starting 52 games for the Virginia-based school.
The Harwich High School
product also finished with a .976 fielding percentage (he made only six
errors all season) as the team’s reliable second baseman.
Soares’ exceptional play
at-bat and in the field propelled the Patriots to a 42-14 record, tying
the school record in wins with the 1976 George Mason team that went to
the NAIA World Series.
Soares, who began the
first week of the season hitting at a .500 clip, had 20 multi-hit games,
a 14-game hitting streak (the second longest on the team), and a .559
slugging percentage. He had a season-high five-RBI day, which included a
grand slam, against James Madison in mid May, and is one of five active
players with a career batting average better than .300.
6/11/09 |
