Natalie and Hoda with Coach Rob
Natalie Morales and Hoda Kotb trained for and finished the War at the Shore Sprint Triathlon in New Jersey on September 20, 2009. Based on the training we saw reported on the Today Show it seemed Natalie would do well in the race and hold her own. According to Hoda she had only been swimming a couple of times and yet she pulled it out! Maybe there was some closet training going on with her coach Rob.
It was a sprint - a .3 mile swim, 9.5 mile bike and 3 mile run - held in great weather conditions.
Natalie finished 5th in her age group and 82nd overall (out of 365 participants). Here splits were: 7:26 on the swim, 32:21 on the bike and 21:16 for the run - for a full time (with transitions) of 1:04.49.
Hoda finished 8th in her age group in the time of 1:17.38. Her splits were 11:30 for the swim, 34:54 on the bike and 25:26 for the run. Hoda admitted that she had not trained enough, but she does work out and is in good shape. She had not done the practice swim, so when she went into the water she did panic a bit. She said that a woman who had passed her in the water started to hyperventilate she got nervous. Coach Rob was right there with her. Lesson learned? Practice, put in the training, and get in open water before you do your race. Many races now offer the chance to get in the water the day before for a practice swim. Take advantage whenever you can and don't worry about messing up your hair - it can always be blown out again (Hoda's excuse for not getting in the water the day before).
'Hot Rob' was on the Today show with Hoda today. We'll see what happens there. Regardless it is nice publicity for his tri training group. Who is next? Al Roker looked interested.
Stay tuned for video and other stories from the race.
Send your story to Kristen Hislop at hislopdesigns@hotmail.com
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