Monday, May 18, 2009

Turn My Swagger On

Another great weekend, despite the tradition of the third weekend of May carrying unseasonable cold temperatures and wind and rain.

You can see some of the results on the right hand side, but big ups to Chrissie for snatching a win and a couple hundred bucks up at Kennett Square, and to Zero for doing 4 things in his Sunday morning race. He swam, then they decided to call the race, then he waited around, then they held a duathlon so he ran-biked-ran.

Columbia seemed to be a pretty decent day for everyone, I wouldn't say anyone raced tremendously well but nobody had a bad day. The weather was far from ideal, and that undoubtedly affected some performances. Not to mention the bike and run are just about the hardest respective courses I have seen in any triathlon. Claire made her tiny legs go sub 7 for her last two miles, which is awesome. And it's always nice when friends make it out to support this race, which starts beyond early, so thanks to Bryan, Emily, Jen and Brennan (plus Berardi) for being out there to watch us, lend some warmth, etc.

Kudos to Mike Prada and Eric Furst, both of whom ran the 10k leg of the relay for their respective teams. Mike was the fastest relay of the day,

It was great to see a 1-2-3 sweep of the Baltimore Women's Distance Festival 5k, so congrats to Denise, Kristen and Christine.

But the big event of the weekend was the 1st Annual Arjundar Twilight Road Beer Mile. We fashioned a course consisting of 4 laps around the Ravens' parking lot. We marched down from Arjun's house with a bevy of bevs, and sporting some sick outfits. Jen clearly won in the outfit competition with Brennan a close second. We amended the rules to enable more to participate, so Alyssa was allowed to shotgun her beers, and Melissa and Jen teamed up to drink their beers.

As I yelled GO! the racers got after it. When we heard the sound of the first beer can hitting the ground, nobody could believe it was Alyssa. Fresh off a 2:39 performance at Columbia (she hadn't showered, she ate wings, then watched a bike race) she started running her little legs around the parking lot. Brennan and Arjun quickly dispatched their beers and made their way around the circuit. Zero, who had raced basically a quadathlon in the morning, and Stanford, who raced Columbia, were hot on their heels. Ben was outfitted in his Miami straw hat and dark Aviators, but was off the pace.

Brennan held the lead for most of the race, looking like a champ, but on the final lap Arjun used his massive kick to put Brennan away for good. Arjun crossed the line in 7:28 with Brennan back at 8:03. Alyssa, benefitting from the speed of the shotgun, was the first female across in 8:56. Zero and Stanford made it a race, finishing at 9:13 and 9:18. The team of Jen and Melissa, and Claire finished together at 9:38. Ben faltered in the middle, suffering a "reversal of fortune". Even with his assessed penalty lap, he finished at 11:20.

We had a 2nd heat of cyclists who had just come from competing at Bike Jam. It was Dr. K, a former runner who hasn't run in years; Tank, who hasn't run since 11/23/08 Philly Marathon and Alex Viana, who recently has come to grips with the fact that he has a vagina. While he was a non-factor for most of the race, he put on a show for all. The real race was between Dr. K (wearing Vans) and Tank, who were separated by mere seconds at 8:11 and 8:16. Meanwhile, Brennan was cooling down by drinking more beers.

While we gave this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week to femme horse Rachel Alexander, winner of Saturday's Preakness, a special honor is being bestowed on Dr. K - the KC Masterpiece Award. He had a great race at Sunday's Bike Jam in the pro race, volunteered/helped all day when he wasn't racing, and then came out and did his first beer mile in 10 years. He, Tank and Ben comprised the Masters race as well.

A couple of shoutouts for this week, first with the birthdays: Denise (Tuesday), OJ (Wednesday) and Tom Stott (Thursday). And a special shoutout to graduates this week: Orla, Jake, Collin and Jen Koshy - and anyone else I may have missed.

DON'T FORGET to RSVP for the Team Picnic (either email me or write in the comments) and if you can help out at Saturday's Dreaded Druid Hills that would be totally awes of you.

5 comments:

alyssa said...

"she started running her little legs around the parking lot."

Are you sure you don't mean my Lumbering Dinosaur legs?

Jen said...

I'm down for the picnic-ing. What tasty treat shall I bring?

Chrissie- Learn to put your cell phone pics online. They are pretty glorious.

Ben said...

ryan - you are the only person i know who would post a picture of themselves as a young boy and reference a song about oral sex in the caption for a laugh.

a said...

Actually, that would be my handiwork. Ryan made the mistake of making me an administrator many moons ago.

RM said...

Yeah I did make that mistake of giving Alex admin privs but since it was my mistake I, too, must accept the consequences.

Of course Alex doesn't have any "handiwork" but rather is more of a "handikid"

Chrissie, it seems to have worked, so you can send me your other pics via text and then I can upload to facebook, and I can also email them to myself. Word.

Alyssa, I thought one time was enough for mentioning your lumbering dinosaur legs, so I thought it was better to have some poetic humour.