Ventum Racing hosted the Slowtwitch Party at IRONMAN Texas and as is typical it was a full house and good times were had by all with raffle prizes provided by Ventum and Castelli.

All photographs © Lars Finanger

Ventum pro Lauren Brandon arrived early to drop off her race rig with party host Kirk Noyes. Brandon had the fastest overall swim on Saturday and built a lead of nearly eight minutes by the end of the 95-mile bike.

Joe Chevalier (left) and Preston Hernandez (right) get their names entered into the raffle drawing.

Aaron Thomas was one of the top swimmers in field on Saturday and might be discussing swim strategies here with Magnolia Masters swim coach Tim Floyd.

One of the more colorful guests at the party having some fun with the camera.

Jeff Symonds and Sophia Chadwick arrived early. Nursing a broken elbow, Symonds decided on race morning to pull out and will race IRONMAN Cairns next month and attempt to defend his IRONMAN Asia Pacific Champion title.

Brooke and Justin Daerr flank Floyd. Daerr grew up in Houston and travels in to The Woodlands for training camps throughout the year, swimming with Floyd’s group while in town. Justin finished 6th.

Andy Gardner and Jimmy Price grew up swimming with one another and both still live in Houston. Price is always near the front of the race too.

In the augural year of IRONMAN Texas Gardner was the fastest amateur swimmer and finished the race first overall amateur. Here he is dropping in what he hopes will be a golden ticket in the raffle drawing.

The Norway table: Baard Dyrhaug (far left) and Morten Hornnes (second to left) traveled in from Norway while multiple-time Kona age group champion Lisbeth Kenyon (far right) came to Texas from Rhode Island

Party host, Ventum Racing, had a handful of pros competing on Saturday and they attended the party.

Lisa Roberts was another pro who spends time throughout the year in The Woodlands training with Floyd’s Magnolia Masters group. Course knowledge coupled with her proficient cycling skills and speedy running lifted her to a third place finish on Saturday.

Danny Marwood won one of the raffle prizes provided by Castelli.

Bob Merrill (far left), Tim Vibrock (middle) and Noyes (far right) all live in The Woodlands and have all completed IRONMAN Texas in the past.

Five lucky raffle winners received custom Slowtwitch logo’d Castelli T:1 Stealth Aero tops.

One very happy little girl won a Ventum hat and t-shirt in the raffle.

Roberto and Andrea Cagnati travelled in from Switzerland and spent a few weeks in The Woodlands leading up to the race.

We appreciated those racers and their friends who stayed after the party ended to help with our clean up! First time Ironman athlete Kyle Rodemacher (far left) and long course veterans Steve Hardy (middle in white) and Mike Arnold (second to right) and their support crews helped us leave The Refuge as we found it!