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New Year’s Eve Party @ Peabody Little Rock — 12.31
The hotel’s huge annual party featured music from bands Tyrannosaurus Chicken, Ephiphany and Tomorrow Maybe, and Rodney Block and the Real Music Lovers as well as DJs Tre’ Day, G-Force and Brandon Peck, aka DJ 1-Up.
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With less than a mile left in the bike portion of the race, Pedro Gomes, from Portugal, experienced a race-ending crash.
"Coming into town there were sharp turns, and I took a curve too wide and hit a cone and went down," he said.
Gomes said he tried to go on but realized something in his leg did not feel right. He sat with ice on his leg outside the medic tent -- his arm covered in white bandages -- and reported he was told that he may have torn his hip flexor.
"I race for a living," Gomes said. "This crash won't stop me from completing more races."
Looking confident he said, "I will be back next year."
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Four women, dressed in butterfly wings and polka-dot knee socks, sprayed SPF 50 sunscreen on runners' sweaty skin as they completed their final transition and began the marathon-distance run.
My friends and I traveled from Atlanta to volunteer, and plan to compete in next year's race, said Elizabeth Huber.
"This morning we were strippers," she said, explaining the role of a volunteer who rips the wetsuits off swimmers. "We yanked those things off."
When Huber and her friends were almost finished spraying sunscreen, they went to stand at the finish line and cheer "until the last racer crosses that line," Huber said.
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Anna Cleaver wanted the city to be proud of her fifth place finish in the women's professional division.
Shivering in a rain-soaked black running top, Cleaver covered herself with a silver blanket inside the medical tent as she recounted each portion of the race to her friends.
"Competing in the race today I felt like I was competing for Chattanooga," said Cleaver, who finished with a time of 9:24:12.
Cleaver, who moved to Chattanooga from New Zealand this summer, said, "I love racing in a town that I live in."
Spectators watch as athletes run to the transition at Ross's Landing, where participants would change out of swimwear and get on bicycles."I had an advantage in the swim for sure because I knew where the good currents were," she said. "I also felt like fans throughout the whole race knew my name and were cheering for me."
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Elliott James Wright, 3, flaunted his Superman costume with confidence, standing with his parents in the bleachers by the finish line.
The Wrights stood in the rain to cheer for a family friend whom Elliott James called "Ironman Brandon."
His bright red chair was damp with rain as he fist bumped people in the crowd and adjusted his cape, eagerly awaiting the finish of his fellow superhero.
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Kim Willis stood on the riverbank in tears and asked where her daughter was.
More than 2,300 athletes had transitioned into the bike portion of the race -- but Alexis Willis was yet to reach shore.
"I heard them say, 'There is one more swimmer out there,'" Kim Willis said. She knew it had to be her daughter.
Alexis Willis was the last swimmer to crawl out of the river Sunday morning, and Kim Willis said seeing her daughter come out of the water was an inspiration. She was 15 minutes behind the last person to surface.
Alexis Willis, from Chattanooga, had never trained for anything like this before, said Daryll Walsh, a friend who helped her prepare for the race.
"I am just so proud of her. Man, this is the first time for her to do a triathlon period," Walsh said. "Her main concern was the water."
Walsh and Kim Willis said they both stood on the bank of the river in tears as they watched Alexis fight to complete the swim. She paused at the buoys and bobbed up and down, but finished the 2.4-mile swim in 1:47:45.
"When she sets her mind to something she is very determined," Kim Willis said, smiling. "I am just proud of her as a woman and wish I was more like her when I was her age."
Jim Tanner contributed to this story.
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592.
