Two Days, Two Races, Two Wins for Derek Yorek
Source Endurance elite athlete Derek Yorek proved that even though his triathlon season is over he’s still up for some competition. Derek started his weekend off on Saturday by taking the win in the first annual skirt chaser 5k, a unique equalizer racer in which the women get a 3 minute head start over the men (get it…skirt chaser). Yorek was extra motivated by some nice prize money for the first person across the line. Standing in his way was Austin’s own Desiree Ficker who can not only blaze an Ironman race but has also qualified for the Women’s Marathon
Olympic trials. Yorek went out very hard over the first mile to try to make as big of a dent in the 3 minute lead as possible that he did but then paid for it having to back off over the difficult second mile, however his effort was good enough to finally catch Ficker over the final 800m finishing in 15:03.
Sunday morning was the first annual Run for Water 10 miler, a beneficiary for the Gazelle Foundation to provide clean, accessible water for villagers in Burundi. Derek showed up at the start thinking he would simply hop in and use the race as a chance to pad his Sunday long run but at the last minute he was given a number and race chip…and we all know what happens when you pin a number on…it’s business time. Despite running on tired legs Yorek ran a very strong race on the rolling course to take the win in 52:19.