The Other Side

This past weekend marked a shift: we are well past the turning point of summer, and the weather was decidedly autumn-like; but also we are seeing the mental and physical transition to fall racing season with new cycles and builds. Most of all, we saw a few athletes come to the "other side" of racing - multisport events!

Christa Wagner decided she was going to race the sprint triathlon at Fort Ritchie. She talked Amy Horst into racing the duathlon. From there, Melissa Majumdar jumped on board the du train, and then at the 11th hour, Brennan Feldhausen said hey, why not try the tri!

First, the triathlon. Brennan started 3 minutes ahead of Christa and the big talk was who would emerge from the water first. After all, it's possible Brennan has never swam in his life. He borrowed goggles and a speedsuit, and thought he'd swim the 750m in 30 minutes. Christa thought she'd be about 15. To the delight of the onlookers, the two exited the lake at the same time! Brennan's "noodle legs" reduced him to a shuffle to his bike, quickly giving up time to Christa, but the pair headed out onto the bike at the same time. Both came back in off the bike ready to run, and Brennan's 18:26 5k split was good enough to nip Melissa's (from the Du). Brennan finished 13th and won his age group! Meanwhile Christa ran a 21:49 to capture 3rd place OVERALL. Win, win, win.

Then there was the duathlon. A 5k run started things off and Melissa ran comfortably, coming in a little over 19 minutes. Amy wasn't too far back at a 20-mid. Then Melissa rode to the day's best bike split (of the 4 of them) but a scant 3 seconds, coining a new term: "MILFed" instead of "girled". Melissa, with just dudes ahead of her, ripped into them and absolutely torched the second run, negative splitting (the way to do it!) to an 18:34 or something. Amy managed to keep her two runs within about 5 seconds of one another, which is awesome, and the pair went 1-2. Melissa was less than 3 minutes back of taking the overall overall win, which I suspect with a little transition work and some efforts on the bike, she could have gotten.

A great day out in Cascade for the team! Beautiful weather and a nice, low-key event for the racers was a great introduction (or re-introduction) to the other side of sport.

Brennan, by virtue of his amazing first triathlon, was this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week. Even if he's already begun sandbagging races by hustling the swim!

At the Casey Cares 5k downtown on Saturday, Megan DiGregorio took her second victory in as many weekends, racing head to head with Sherry Stick. Meg ran 17:41 which is just a few ticks shy of her personal best. Meg McNew ended up in 3rd at 18:04, also just about on par with her PR. Matt Franco finished 4th in 16:40, and PJ Anderer came through at 13th in 18:01.

There was also a BRRC trail race on Sunday, 11 miles at Bunker Hill. Graham Peck rode his bike from his parents' house, won the race, then rode back, so he got a de facto duathlon in. Ryan Stasiowski was 3rd and Kristin Bremer won for the ladies.

At the Sneaks Come Out at Night 15k and Relay, Tom Stack and Bryn Burkholder each finished 2nd individually, and Patrick O'Rourke's relay team won. Steve Febish's team came in 4th, which was pretty good considering Steve buoyed the team with a mid 17 minute 5k split.

As we are now almost a week into August let's keep up the good work! Conditions are much more favorable than they were throughout most of July and motivation seems good. Keep pushing each other. Whether you realize it or not, you each have an amazing impact on one another. Take the du/triathlon for example. Christa signing up was the impetus for 3 others to sign up, train for it, and do it. Challenge each other to do great things and you can accomplish anything. Hold your friends and training partners accountable, and hold yourself to the same standards. Now is not the time to be flaking out on runs, skipping workouts, talking others out of workouts. Support your teammates and they'll support you!