Let's Have Some Fun

This beat is sick...

Note: when you listen to Lady GaGa on your way to a 4.5 hour race, be warned that her hypnotic jams will be stuck in your head ALL day.

So I realized that in my email I forgot to put Zero's 1 Mile Bay Swim result in there, so he gets top billing here. I've never just done an open water swim without having to ride or run after, and I don't know if Zero has but it's a completely different type of racing. He persevered and did totally awes, taking 47th place out of 363 people, so I'd say that's a pretty good day.

The Patterson Park 4 Miler was Saturday and we were fortunate enough to have the 1st and 2nd place finishers in Chris "New Chris on the Block" Belcher and Cheese. Yes, Cheese is still here. I know. It's getting old. Both went way faster than last year's winner. Jeff Rumbaugh took 5th and Doug Ripley somehow found his way downtown and took 7th. He rarely ever spends time inside the beltway so it had to have been an exciting trip to the big city. David Ploskonka must have woken up, saw there was a race going on outside his door and jumped in.

Collin Anderson needed a W to earn a spot in the St. George's Marathon. Winning a marathon is not like going out and winning a 5k. You need to be fit, fast, prepped and, above all, a little luck on your side. Like not having Chuck Engle show up at your race. So Collin gets 3rd at the Bear Lake Marathon, on a tough course, and thinks it's all over. Ah but lo and behold, top 2 guys don't want the spot to the race so Collin gets it after all.

Survivor Harbor 7. Since it's the same day as something else I do every year, I haven't been to this race since Kip won in 35:12 a few years back. He narrowly missed the course record then. Last year was insanely hot and times were significantly slower. This year, back to somewhat June weather, and the times were white hot again. Kip regains his title and runs a 35:20. Berdan 2nd in 35:36. Ben, 4th, as we called it, 37:57. Then it was like Tuesday Night Track or something, with TWSS occupying the 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th (2nd F, Julia!), 14th and 15th spots. That's nuts. 11 out of the top 15. And Christine Trzcinski took 4th for the Femmes as well.

Eagleman. Ahh Eagleman. By now everyone has heard my story or witnessed first hand what actually happened to me last year. I chalked that up to the weather, not fitness. This year we were treated to much more humane conditions and I was psyched. Spider started in the wrong wave, and had a solid swim (for never swimming), a decent enough bike (not never riding) and a very solid, 9th best run. His finish time was 4:24:27. RMcGrath has a good-for-him swim, acceptable bike split and then starts off well on the run, fights through the cramps but is forced to slow down (no stopping or walking though) and records an alright run. Finish time was 4:24:28, 45th place. 1 second behind Spider. Now if we had been racing heads up, I would have had Arjun and Alex yelling at me to run faster and I probably would have, to make sure I held him off. But no biggie. Alyssa recorded a big 70.3 PR and snatched up the slot to Clearwater for 70.3 Championships and Claire rocked her little body in under 6 hours!

The Lawyers Have Heart 10k was apparently Saturday, as I've been told now, so I mis-ordered it but whatever. Meg McNew killed it, running a huge season best at the distance, and Sara Spears started way too far back (she's got to understand she's a runner now!) and had a slow first 5k but went on to crush.

And Alex did his 10th bike race of the season on Saturday, and I'm pretty psyched for how this racing year has gone for him.

Now, onto the Purple Drink Athlete of the Week. Eagleman is a hard race. Scratch that - very hard. It's flat so you think sweet, but it's flat which means you cannot stop pedaling for 56 miles. No freewheeling at all, you'll just stop going. Especially when there is a horrendous headwind the 2nd half of the bike. Then it gets hot on the run, and there's no shade, and probably not even as much water as they should have out there. And the swim is in the appropriately named Choptank River. So anyone who takes on this race is a champion, but I was really impressed by Claire yesterday so she has earned the PDAW. She swam what she wanted to swim, but more importantly was comfortable in the water. She rode well, and had a good run. Her run split was faster than my previous 2 half Ironman run splits.