Monday, May 24, 2010

Might As Well Face It

You're addicted to RUN

That was kind of corny. I might use that for the Fed Hill email this coming week.

Another awesome weekend of racing and spectating for the gang! In addition to Blaze's hot time in the 2 mile, we had winners in Diane Heiser (BULA 5k) and Meg McNew (Dundalk Pondskipper 5k). At the Brooklyn Half, Kevin and Meghan McGrath ran some good times, with Kevin splitting 1:33:41 and Beez Nuts going 1:58:01 in her first post-collegiate race. Barf was 5th in 18:02 at the Lean and Green 5k. And Alyssa ran the Hump 50k in the middle of her 40 mile training run. On Sunday, Beth Shepard took part in the MD Half Marathon, and ran 2:15:22.

Sunday was the big day in east coast triathloning, with the uber-competitive Columbia Triathlon. It's a love/hate race, hard and frustrating. The weather never cooperates. The course is brutal and unrelenting. It's so early in the season yet so competitive. In the open field, OJ put together one of his best races in years, swimming the fastest time of the day (17:21) and then riding 1:06, leading the amateur competitors off the bike. His run (39:39) wasn't where he was hoping to be, but he still managed 4th in 2:06:35, and was 14th overall. He was also the first Maryland finisher so now he gets to represent MD at the Best of the US competition.

Zero has raced Columbia before, but not in the post-Zeroistic society that he lives in since ramping up to the next level. His 21:48 swim set him up for a good bike (1:10), and had it not been for a brief pit stop on the run, would have been under 40. Still, a 48th place finish in 2:16:58 is awesome.

In the 25-29 age group, it was the brothers McLoughlin show! Pat led younger bro Tommy out of the water in 20:59 (real good swim) and then rode a 1:13 before a 39:01 run (fastest in the AG, 26th overall). His finish time was 2:16:28 for 47th place. Ben Winterroth, who I'm sure we'll see more of soon, was 55th in 2:18:25.

Elsewhere in the triathlon, Dr. Rodney Taylor went 8 minutes faster than last year, and afterwards was pumped. He and Tom Stewart are training for the Berlin Marathon later this year. Tall Matt Augustin went a little faster this year than he did last year, which is always good to see, and Ed Jablonski took a cue from his son, blazing to a 2:27/120th place overall finish at age 50!

Mike Prada ran 38:19 (3rd) in his relay team's 2nd place effort. They had the fastest swim and bike legs, but Joe Wiegner of GRC ran an ABSURD 32 minute 10k to propel his team to the win. Becca Sirman overslept and needed to be prodded just to do the swim, but she did it and swam pretty well. From the slow times I feel like the course may have been long.

Then we went up to Bike Jam. In the 1/2 race, Jamie (Dr. K) took an early flyer and that was cool to see. Geez was he going fast. This was a day after crashing in a race in Wilmington, but finishing 9th and picking up some dollar dollar bills. The field absorbed him and he finished probably in the top 15. Alex did well in the 4 race, winning one of the primes, which was super cool to watch. But then he "blew" it in the finale. Whatever, we were all still psyched.

Purple Drink Athlete of the Week is awarded to OJ, for a tremendous race and more importantly, bringing himself back into this kind of shape. He has worked real hard and this is all just a month or so after bringing a child into the world!

KC Masterpiece Award goes to all of our spectators - Jen, Brennan, Cheese and Tom Stott at Columbia, and Jen, Brennan, Arjun, Melissa, their friend Andres, Meg, Dan Goodman, Becca, her roommate, Boof, Chrissie, Tank, Pat, his brother, Cheese, Tall Matt and Jan Cook. Awesome to see so many people out there watching our friends!

4 comments:

Dr. K said...

Big propers to the kiddies that came out to Bike Jam. It was awesome to have so much support at our home race. I do hear you when I'm racing and it certainly makes a difference. The beers afterwards are appreciated too.

a said...

Likewise. The hometown support was unreal. I'm glad I was able to spend so much time on the front and take the prime right in front of you guys. This is my favorite ace of the year because of you guys.

///MM said...

Bike jam was cool to see. Glad I finally made it to one and you guys put on a great show.
As for the Columbia swim, the RD said they used GPS to place the buoys this year so likely the swim was accurate for the first time.

RM said...

Well I've felt like over the last two years the swim has become longer and longer, but the one year it was ridiculously short (first out was 15:47, c'mon). The nice thing is that everybody swims the same course at least, so it's irrelevant. I actually didn't think it was tremendously long - OJ swam 16:50 a few years ago on the super short year, and was just over 17 last year. At 17:21 first out of the water this year, you're looking at maybe 15 seconds longer than last year, as his swim speed doesn't change much from year to year.