Let Friendship Shine

So Chicago's bid to host the Olympics was thwarted, and now instead of watching from our TVs we can go to Rio de Janeiro!

Osprey Sprint Triathlon: Dr. J, competing in her first triathlon ever, takes 2nd behind virtual-pro Krista Schultz. If you're ever interested in getting your VO2max done you should check out her business. Anyway Rebecca overcame some last minute travel and accommodation snags to crush it! Fastest run split of the day for the ladies and 8th fastest overall (insane). Good swim and bike splits. Great job Dr. J!

Bald Eagle Megatransect Race: This race is hard. I will now transpose Barf's recap: "It started at 7:00am with 720 registered. After Friday night's 2" of hard rain, the trails were soaked. There was an eerie fog at the start of the race, and morning had finally broken. We ran about 2 miles on relatively flat road, and then about a mile grinder on a semi-paved road. Then we hit the trails. It was rough for about a mile, rocky, wet, muddy, uphill. Then we hit the boulder field. About 3/4 mile of about 20-40% upgrade, through rocky ass wet boulders. That took me like 40min. Freakin insane. Then we got to the top to go straight down. The downhills were treacherous.

I eased into the first aid stop at about mile 7. I was over 2 hours. OMG. This is going to be a long day. Then I got about a mile or two of real jogging and then a NASTY uphill called the goat path. You basically have 1' wide at best and it's on a slope, crossing mud and rocks, trees and uphill about 1000 feet in 1/2 mile. I remember getting to mile 10 or 11 and being at 3 hours. The downhills were awesome, I mean, not awesome.

There were about 15 stream crossings - I was nimble enough to make it through each one without wet feet. But a patch of water-mud got me pretty messy on one foot. I also somehow didn't fall. I watched a couple of peeps go down, some slid, some just bounced, some hopped right up. I did crack my ankle once...that sucked.

I got out to about mile 18 and I had about 4 trail miles to go. I eflt okay, but hungry and tired. I was about 4-1/2 hours in. It was torture to go up another grinder. Then the downhill at mile 21. Rocky, muddy, etc...creek crossings out the ying yang. Then we hit the road!! 3 miles back. Then the shuffle started."

Army Ten Miler: Ben had his sights set on this race since after Boston, and his goal was lofty. After looking comfortable through 5 miles at 5:20 pace, it was a different sight at 8, and his pace dropped a little. He finished at 54:05, 34th place. The trio of myself, Jen and Arjun had traveled (early!) down to DC and relished in the gorgeous weather and quiet (and closed) streets. DC really can pull off a big race. We of course missed Sara Spears and Eve, and were upset about that. Both girls did very well and allegedly Spears stopped to drink a beer on course!

MightyMan Half Iron: David Lee (most of you probably have never met him) took 13th overall in 4:42:32 and that's pretty awesome out there.

MS100 Ride: Not really a "race" but Diane did this 100 mile ride for Multiple Sclerosis. It was from Philadelphia to Ocean City NJ. Let me just tell you how hard this is, when your longest ride ever is probably 20 miles to jump up to 100 is MAD hard. As a result of this, Diane is this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week!

Oh and the Purple TEETH Athlete of the Week is in fact Nina Hartman.

Workout for the week is going to be 5x1200m @ 5k pace with 400m jog recovery. If you are racing this weekend you can opt for the shorter workout of 2x1200, 2x800, 4x200.