Race Coverage
Gaby Did Real Good....
-
Wednesday, 16 January 2013 00:10
We received this email on Sunday evening:
Hi MTN Guys,
Thought you might be interested in this since there aren't many races to cover this time of year:
Gaby Bunten finished 2nd overall today at the HITS Triathlon Series Olympic distance race, held in Naples, Florida. Gaby went down to Naples with a group of fellow Tri-Clones from Iowa State University to compete at the HITS Triathlon in Naples. One of her fellow teammates, Kris Spoth finished 4th overall in the Half Iron Man distance....
This is Gaby's highest overall placing and she went a 2:19 which is also a personal best for her so far. What made this race unique is the swim leg is held in the ocean, so it was her first ocean swim. Gaby led the women's group throughout the swim and the bike leg and was passed finally on the run leg by an Army gal who is a great cross country runner. (To make it more challenging, Gaby is just recovering from a nasty case of food poisoning which happened just a week before the race and laid her up for 3+ days).
Kim Ratte-Bunten
THEN: We Facebooked Gaby (photo R), congratulating her and shamelessly begged her to submit a race report. Her mom responded:
Hi Again,
Since Gaby and their Tri team started the long 2 full days of driving back to Ames this morning and then jump right back into 2nd semester (of which they've already missed the 1st 2 days), it might be easier if you could write something.
Bob and I weren't able to be down there for the race but I know the weather was great, it was a fast course, and Gaby raved how well run the race was and what a super friendly and encouraging group of volunteers and the crowd as well. She had so much fun down there that she can't wait to go back for the race next year! (And she wants to shoot for the half ironman).
Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.
Kim Bunten
Okay, Kim, we'll write something. We've never let a dearth of information, or reality, for that matter,get in our way.
What have we learned from Kim Bunten's emails? Several things. We now know that she loves her daughter and sometimes she has two last names, and sometimes she has only one. Also, we now know that Gaby's dad's name is Bob. We learned that Gaby finished higher than ever, 2nd. Previously, her best placing has been a 4th, which she did twice last season at Minneman Sprint and Maple Grove Olympic.
We learned that she set an Olympic-distance PR, her first sub-2:20 (2:19:52). Checking her past times, we now know that her previous best at the distance was 2:24:50 (2012 Life Time Tri - Minneapolis). A personal best by 4:58! Quantum leap. Very cool.
Because Gaby was recovering from food poisoning, we can infer that she lives in a dorm.
The women's winner at HITs Olympic was Kelly Kingma. We found her on Facebook and learned that she is cute and has been "in a relationship" with a guy named Chris Kittle since March 27, 2010. We suspect that Chris has a "thing" about commitment. Kelly is from Williamsburg, Virginia, which is sometimes called "Historic Williamsburg," whereas Gaby is from Forest Lake, which is ALMOST NEVER called "Historic Forest Lake." She (Kelly) attends West Point, listens to "All Time Low" but hasn't picked up "Don't Panic," the band's latest release, yet. She likes Steve Carell, Hershey's chocolate bars and Buffalo Wild Wings.
The 3rd place woman was Julia Wreski (2:21:43), who is from Fort Myers and has blond hair. She does most of her grocery shopping at Publix.
Finally, Gaby has been on the MMA radar for a year now. We're especially impressed with her swimming. She has the physiology of a runner and we expect her run times to improve dramatically and continuously over the next several years.
She is also a totally cool and charming girl and we hope that she's enjoying her collegiate experience. We really like the picture we posted here. Her shadow looks awesome, doesn't it?
