We Still in This

I think Buster Poindexter said it best: this weekend was HOT HOT HOT!

It's true, after a miserably cold winter and spring, anything over 70 degrees feels warm, but Saturday was legitimately hot, with the mercury already cracking 80 by the early morning. The good news was that Sunday morning seemed a little more tame, but once that sun came out, there was nothing you could do!

It was a very triathlon-heavy weekend, too. Rock Hall International Triathlon was on Saturday and Chris Scott kicked off his season with a 69th place 2:31:18. He commented that despite the course's flat profile, the heat and wind were really tough. Tom Stack found that out in Sunday's sprint distance race, where he finished 2nd in 1:10:08 behind an elite area competitor. Tom was unable to close the gap on the run, but we noted that he lost a lot of time in transition. Transitions: the 4th discipline! Christa Wagner also competed, and it was her first ever triathlon. Water temps over 80 degrees meant no wetsuits, but she didn't need it as she swam a great 750 meters. Her bike is strong, and she ran the 4th fastest bike split to finish in 11th at 1:28:15.

Down in Raleigh, NC, Brian Benda and David Lee were taking on the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Raleigh. Athletes were told the water was too warm for wetsuits, but by Sunday morning they remeasured the water and allowed them - of course most had just left them at home! It didn't bother Benda, who prefers no wetsuits. He had the 5th fastest swim of the day and was the top amateur out of the water. He then burned up the bike course, splitting 2:23:55, and ran a 1:46 half marathon to finish 40th at 4:40:16. David is pulling himself back into shape after some extensive global travel for work, and while he would definitely prefer a wetsuit swim, he had a solid day all-around and finished at 5:04:58.

At the ridiculously challenging REV3 Quassy race, Alyssa Godesky took 6 minutes out of her 2012 time to once again finish 7th. This is one of the REV3 organization's premier events, with a $100,000 prize purse for professionals. Alyssa swam 30:52, which is a distance swim PR, and then chopped 8.5 minutes off her bike split from a year ago. That put her in a great position, and she held on with a strong 1:42 half marathon to finish at 5:02:51.

Out in Omaha, Nebraska, Kendra Ingram was doing her first ever tri - the Omaha Women's Triathlon. Kendra has really impressed these past few months as she's put herself in situations that challenged her to conquer some apprehensions (namely open water swimming!). And in the spirit of a true triathlete, rather than be totally pumped with her performance, she's not resting on her laurels - she's already figuring out where she can improve, and has signed up for 3 more triathlons this summer, including 2 Olympic distance ones! Ben is a dangerous influence.

Back to running...

Dave Berardi raced the USATF Master's 8km Championships in Williamsburg, finishing 18th in 29:45. He always sends me his results after I send the email out. I can't keep tabs on every race!

The North Face Endurance Challenge features a bunch of different distance races over the weekend, including a 50 mile and 50k on Saturday, and a half marathon on Sunday. Keith Rice ran the 50k, finishing in 6:33:47. Then on Sunday, Mike Mashner went down and ran the half, finishing 6th in 1:53:09. Tom Stott did this race one year and confirmed: it is not easy!

On Friday night, participants registered in Sunday's inaugural Dot Dash 8k were notified that due to unforeseen circumstances, the course would now be on sidewalks. Yikes! The race started and finished at Riverside Park and went out to Fort McHenry. Carly Page decided to soldier on and race anyway, and won the race (3rd overall) in 34:53. Cory Donovan was just some steps behind, finishing 4th in 35:06.

Finally, the Bel Air Town Run was the weekend's big event. With money on the line you knew it was a fight for 2nd as Dave Berdan was once again going to devastate the field. He did, by the way, winning by 90 seconds in 14:38 - the 2nd fastest time he's ever run on the roads for 5k! Dave should probably slow down though when he's just running for money, as he definitely could have taken a nap with a 90 second gap. 3rd place went to Jesse Jaeger, and Tim Burns was first loser in 16:32. No wompum for you, kemosabe. Joel Gladfelter was disappointed with his race as he finished 10th in 17:36, but to think of where he's come in a few years, that kind of time would have been huge for him back then. Now it's a "bad day." He has set his own bar too high! Joel Brusewitz finished just behind him in 11th at 17:38. That's a trend lately, the two Joels finishing near each other. PJ Anderer was psyched with his 18:06, it validates his Shamrock race result. And Dave Ploskonka kept his very, very long streak at this race alive.

In the ladies race, it was Megan DiGregorio once again retaining her title in 18:12, but it was Sara Breedlove who stole the show, finishing 2nd in 18:25 - a huge new PR and moving herself pretty far up the Top 10 All-Time list! Interestingly, Carly had a big race there last year, and ran 18:26. Meg McNew is just getting back into it and was surprised she took 3rd, but definitely not complaining! And Denise Knickman was 4th, and top masters in 20:33.

Check out this article from the Baltimore Sun about the race, and here's your top 3 women:

And of course can't forget our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week - Christa! First triathlon and goes out and kills it. Add another to the tri club!

Lance: The Facts

When news broke yesterday that the USADA was set to file new charges against Lance Armstrong and a host of others for doping-related offenses, the media spin led everyone to believe that the USADA in some way had the power to ban LA from the sport of triathlon. This obviously is not correct, as they really don't have that kind of power. So who is imposing the ban?

That would be the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), owners of the Ironman brand and its affiliated events. The WTC had signed a deal with Lance to race in 6 of its events. As of today, he's raced in 5 Ironman 70.3 events, winning the Florida 70.3 and finishing second in Panama (his first) and Hawaii. Lance was slated to race Ironman France next weekend and it was generally accepted he would compete in the Ironman World Championships in Kona in October. So infatuated with Lance was Ironman that their website included a tab for "Lance Armstrong." All eyes were fixed on Lance, his training, his races, and he had, in a few short months, brought more visibility to the sport than all the athletes of the last decade combined.

But as soon as the news of the doping charges was announced, Ironman.com quickly took down their "Lance" tab, and it's their rules - not the USADA's - that are keeping Lance from competing. According to the WTC, any athlete who is under investigation for doping is ineligible to compete in WTC events.

In other words, Lance could compete in other triathlons - just not ones owned by WTC.

No word yet on whether the USADA will proceed with their case. They have merely sent notice to Lance, his team manager Johan Bruyneel, controversial doc Michele Ferrari, and a few others to let them know that they feel they have enough evidence to move forward with their case. You can read the full USADA letter here.

Lance has received mixed reactions from the professional triathlete community. Many feel he's a disruption and not an ambassador for the sport, and that his intentions are self-serving. Others have welcomed the challenge to take on and beat one of the best athletes of all time. Their reactions to this news have also been mixed, but there are a few supporters who just want to see Lance race, and question the WTC's "guilty until proven innocent" stance. 

Moves Like Meeker

Obviously I've recapped the RM Classic 5k, and you'll all be pleased to know that we raised the following amounts of money and awareness:

Money: $0
Awareness: 10.0%

I wasn't sure if Awareness should be measured in per cent form, or just a sliding scale, but either way apparently Conrad had been previously unaware that "we got him" so of the 20 or so people on the track, Conrad and Liz were made aware.

It was a proud weekend for our minions around the country, here's how everyone fared:

Joel Gladfelter finished 3rd at the Western Maryland Half Marathon.  His previous best half marathon was just a shade over 1:24, and with a summer full of ups and downs, Joel wasn't sure what to expect of this race.  He ran smart though, and was rewarded with a new personal best of 1:23:40.  At the Bottle and Cork 10 Miler, Denise Knickman cruised to the victory in 1:06:20, while Lillian Pinault ran a 1:17:52 for 11th.  Patrick O'Rourke won the Jessica Jacobson Memorial 5k in the unbelievable time of 15:37.  Apparently the motorcycle cop took runners off course, and somehow Patrick, who was in 4th at the time, was able to bridge to the leaders and won the 2.8 mile race.

At the Run to Remember 5k, Ben Ingram of the Runners' Retreat Elite Squad, formerly of Falls Road, donned his neon orange singlet and after the gun, found himself in the lead of this 1900 person race.  He had a false sense of hope that he was going to blaze to the victory, until Jesse Jaeger came up and joined his wolfpack.  Jesse of course recently ran a 15:40ish on the track, which enabled him to burn Ben in the finale.  Ben would finish 2nd in 16:34.  For the women, it was a very entertaining race to watch unfold.  New Becky Parks sat in the lead for 3 miles, with Carly Page just meters behind, until, with less than 200m to go, Carly hit the NOS button and zoomed by on the decisive Warren Ave climb.  Carly won in 19:28 with NBP in 2nd at 19:37.

In the Triathlete's Corner, while some of our races (cough Lancaster cough) were canceled altogether, most of us were still able to compete.  At the Nation's Tri in DC, they had canceled just the swim, making it into a T1-Bike-T2-Run race.  Andy "Chicken Tender" Sovonick and Tommy McLoughlin, members of Team CYB, were in action, with Andy finishing 6th and Tommy 72nd (this is a 5000 person race).  Out in Madison, WI, good luck charm Brennan Feldhausen brought swiftness to his sister, Erin.  She cut through the water like a graceful dolphin, and then stormed the bike as if she were in the Tour before kicking the marathon swiftly in the rear.  She ended up with an 11:38 big time PR for that race. 

Las Vegas was playing host for the first time to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.  I questioned the move as why would anybody want to race in LV in September, when the average temp is over 100 degrees?  David Lee and Alyssa Godesky were about to find out.  With a bike and run course that were uneviably difficult, the two powered the best they could up and down and finished with great results.  For David (5:02:13) it was the cap to a very good season.  He ran a 1:42 half marathon split on the tough course.  For Alyssa, just two weeks off IM Louisville, competing in this challenging event proved, well, challenging, but she finished at 5:29:25.

The other running event of the day was the Parks Half Marathon, where both Kris Simms and Meg McNew were just over a minute off of their personal bests, which is a good sign of fitness as they approach fall marathon season!  Kris ran 1:21:44 and Meg was 1:27:06.

That brought us to our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, and while it literally could have been anyone this weekend, the honor went to Dustin Meeker.  A 15:40 track 5k PR (and only 7 seconds off his 5k PR from Shamrock, which I would say is about equal) and defending his title at the RM Classic was enough to earn him the award.

Push to Start

The threat of Rainstorm Irene forced the cancellation of a few area races, most notably the Annapolis 10 Miler, so our pool of events was fairly small from last weekend. 

Lauren Dennisuk raced the Crim 10 Miler, her third ten mile race of the year, and, consequently, her fastest.  She ran 1:10:24 and finished 55th in this highly competitive event.

Claire Lears wrapped up the 6 day TransRockies Run, finishing in 9th of the Open Women division with her teammate.  The event is 120 miles over the 6 days, with stages ranging from 12 to 24 miles, all at very high altitude, some going up to really high altitudes, on tough, single track trails and whatnot. 

Ironman Louisville was the weekend's big event.  Far from the rain and wind, Mike Mashner, Alyssa Godesky and I were in sunny and nice Louisville, Kentucky.  This race is most often associated with high temperatures and oppressive humidity, but fortune smiled upon the race as it was mid 80s and not very humid in the days leading up to the race.  Race day even started overcast and fairly cool.  Each of us had swims that were nothing short of amazing - Mike went 58:01 (4:36 faster than he's ever gone), I went 59:42 (2:39 PR) and Alyssa swam 1:05:20, an amazing 7 minutes faster than her time at last year's Wisconsin ironman and 19 minutes faster than the first time she swam at Louisville.

As we headed out onto the bike, we had throngs of sketchy cyclists to pass, since we started pretty late (it's a time trial start).  Mike rode 5:41 at Arizona two years ago, but has found his cycling legs this year, and rolled to a 5:16 and found himself in a good position heading into the marathon.  Alyssa had the 28th fastest female bike split at 5:43, which was 30 minutes faster than she rode there in 2009.  She also had the 2nd fastest split among women in her age group, and was in 3rd in the group going onto the run. 

Mike ran smoothly and evenly along the double out-and-back course.  It's mostly flat, and brings you by the University of Louisville and also (apparently) Churchill Downs.  He rolled to a 3:26:55 marathon split, which put him in 44th overall, 13th in the age group and shattered his previous ironman time (10:22:58) as he went 9:49:12.  My body's timing to get sick was on point, as I came down with something pretty mean just on Friday night.  I honestly wasn't sure if I'd even be able to toe the line on Sunday, but took a bunch of medicine and felt like I could give it a go on Sunday.  The downside was that it dehydrated me in a pretty serious way, and I was getting sicker throughout the race.  After my good swim, I started off riding well but came apart in the back half, and then it got ugly pretty quick on the run.  I sat down for a while and contemplated whether or not I wanted to try and finish.  Meanwhile, Alyssa's run had not been going well either.  She began throwing up her nutrition on the bike, and it continued onto the run.  I waited for her to come around before going onto the 2nd loop, and she said her coach wanted her to finish.  That meant we were in for a pretty long half marathon, but we got it done and finished up at 12:15:20 and 12:15:21.  It was a long day.

We all know that anything can happen on race day, it's just magnified when it's in a race like an ironman as opposed to a shorter race.  C'est la vie, and at least we can recover and do another.

But, Mike's amazing performance was quite spectacular, and it's pretty obvious that he earned this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week.

If you haven't taken a look already, you may notice a new widget on the right hand side of the blog.  It allows you to subscribe via email, so if you want to get the most recent blog posts sent to your email, just type it in and boom!  It appears as if we have two so far.  We also had a bunch of new people at track this week, so if you are reading this by chance don't forget to send me an email so I can add you to my email list. 

I also just noticed that all of the events in the Baltimore Running Festival are still open, which seems pretty late for them to be open, perhaps a sign that THEY COST TOO MUCH.  So, if you are planning on racing but haven't signed up, you can still do that.  I haven't really talked to anyone about it, but do we have enough interest in putting together any relay teams?  We had originally talked about really getting after it and trying to actually beat the overall marathon winner, but I think that's kind of flown the coop so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll see if we can get an entry or two. 

There is a lot going on this weekend.  Kentlands 5k is tomorrow down in Gaithersburg, and is a very fast race.  NCR Trail 20 Miler is on Sunday I believe, and is a good way to get your long run done.  Knights of Columbus 5k is tomorrow in Ellicott City.  The Grand Prix 5k is tonight. 

Mahalo

Just found out yesterday that Ed Papa Blaze Jablonski is competing today at Kona, and I know Scott Boylan is as well - so big shout outs to these two real old dudes that are true Ironmen. You can follow along starting at 1pm EST on www.ironmanlive.com.

Is This Real Life?

Is this really happening?

I don't watch YouTube videos all that often, but that little kid after the dentist is real funny.

I have to start the weekend results with Parks Half Marathon because I missed the results of my good friends Tom and Patty Stott! Tom was 83rd in 1:31:03 and Patty ran 2:07:38. And of course Dave Berdan returned to racing, finishing 5th in 1:11:18. According to Dave, the overnight rains had caused the path the race is run on to be a quagmire of leaves and puddles. He said he was running under 5min pace for the first 3 miles on the roads, and then got onto the trail and the race kind of went to shit. But he's feeling fit, and will be racing Baltimore Marathon next month.

Run to Remember seemed to be fairly status quo, Hollywood came back to racing, Matt Castille, then our ladies Megan D, Meg McNew and Lee DiPietro went 3-4-5.

Triathlon World Championships were in Hungary, so Spider stayed across the pond I think following last weekend's Duathlon World Championships. Bike was clearly short, but he had a good bike split and great run to finish 9th in the 35-39 AG and 100th overall.

And then of course there was Alyssa's 15 minute distance PR at Ironman Wisconsin. It's a tougher course than Louisville, and her swim was 13 minutes faster than last year, and her bike split was an amazing 16 minutes faster. Truly fantastic work. Onto the run, and in her words she felt like she may have missed critical hydrating on the bike, and by the run the sun was full on. Temp high was recorded around 78, so not tremendously hot, but when you've been out there for 7 hours already, it doesn't really matter - sun and warmth = hot. She ended up with a 4:18 marathon split, and an 11:36:26 race for 13th in her age group!

That was good enough to earn her this week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week!

Last night at the track was tremendous, great weather, good crew, solid workout. As we briefly discussed, we'll plan on meeting through the month of October, and then from there depending on weather and attendance we'll see about going into November.

On Wisconsin

For those interested in following along online, in approximately 7 hours Ironman Wisconsin gets underway. You can access it via www.ironman.com or www.ironmanlive.com

Just Cruisin'

As evidenced by yesterday's email, I was light on the results this weekend - but it wasn't my fault! Do races even post their results anymore?? Annapolis 10 Mile results had an error, Spirit of Columbus Half results still aren't up, the Ironman.com website was hacked...

But most of this has been resolved and so I have almost complete results, so I'll start with Annapolis as I missed the most of the people that ran (besides Nina and Alyssa):

Newcomer Tristram Thomas finished just outside the top 10 in 59:24, a very good time as he gets back into running. Former big-man Eric Benjamin was 32nd in 1:02:49, and Matt Castille aka McFly was 1:05:31. Tom Stewart ran 1:06:13, which is good as I believe he's still preparing for late September's Berlin Marathon. Ed Jablonski ran a 1:08:56 and little Kristina Nina Hartman was 11th F at 1:09:45. Tall Matt Augustin, good to see him racing, finished at 1:19:48 while Pete Mulligan ran 1:24:23. I figured Jan Cook would be racing, and he did, finishing in 1:26:58. And finally, Alyssa Godesky ran with her dad and they finished at 1:41:47.

At Hood to Coast, Dave Berardi's team (No Stopping Till the Van Passes) won the "mixed super masters division" - 50 and over, men and women. They went 24 hours and 1 minute. Meanwhile the coed corporate team of Brooks runners, including Will Knox and Rebecca duRivage-Jacobs, was 2nd.

Spider Sillery finished 3rd in the Chicago Triathlon (individual division, including pros and elite amateurs was 41st overall) at 2:07:40. His bike split was strong and he had the fastest run of the day for the individual competition - which was out of 3800 athletes. 36:38 for 10k. Pretty awesome job Spider!

While results STILL aren't up for Spirit of Columbus Half Marathon, Meg McNew ROCKED a 1:25:50. I'm pretty sure her previous best was the 1:31:06 from the spring, so that's a huge PR.

Over in Europe, Julia Rudd won her heat of the 1500m at a meet in Belgium, while fiance Alan Webb won the 1500m in 3:41, then came back later to run a 14:16 5000m.

And our final performance, and our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, goes to Ben Winterroth's Ironman debut at Louisville. On the heels of a 1:04 swim, 5:10:10 bike and 4:04:56 marathon, he finished in 10:29:18 and was 76th overall. 11th in the 25-29 age group. Let me tell you all something - 5:10 on the bike there is insane. Especially for a dude who primarily trains indoors even during the summer as he doesn't like riding from the city, and put in only a handful of longer rides. STRONG. He was in 5th in the AG off the bike, so if he gets his run down a little, he'll be in contention for a Kona slot soon enough. The run is also great, considering he's never run a marathon and his longest run ever, 24 miles, was just 3 weeks ago. And apparently he wasn't swimming that much. So that's really, really awesome.

This weekend is Labor Day so there are some big events, such as VA Beach Rock n Roll Half. The Orioles are also in town, so games are aplenty.

Tonight at the track we are doing 20x400. I know. 20 of one thing is a lot. But it's a fun workout so it'll be cool.

IronBlazeManSki

Ed "Papa Blaze" Jablonski up at Ironman Lake Placid:

Swim: 1:03
Bike 5:35
Run: 3:46

Total time - 10:33:17, 174th overall and 4th in his 50-54 age group! For a second he was up to 3rd during the run but must have gotten re-passed. Not sure if he wants or will get a Kona slot, but that's a helluva performance!!

In other racing news, TWSS dominates at the curiously money-laden Cricket 5k, with Cheese winning in a walk (16:07) and Meg McNew got the win for tha ladieezz in 18:53.

Down in Crystal City at their twilight 5k, where it was 99 degrees at the start of the race, Rebecca "the other Becky" Parks took 11th in 19:51.

IRONMIKE

Zero swam, biked and ran one of the smartest races of all time and his results reflected it:

1:02:49 swim

5:41:43 bike

3:30:42 run

10:22:58, 28th in his age group and 226th overall!

Unbelievable. Swim was cold, felt long and 2500 people starting at once is insane. Bike had some wind. Run was warm but not overly hot, but the sun is strong here. We were super pumped to see him do so well, and he's not even feeling that bad right now.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia...

Mary Bertram finished 3rd overall in the insane time of 2:49:35. Jackie Truncellito, who just ran insane at Baltimore, took 10 minutes off her time and finished 10th in 2:58:30. Amazing girls!

The Ass-Man Cometh!

JFK50 RESULTS

Ben Ingram had a plan and executed it out there on the Appalachian Trail today. He knew exactly what he wanted to do and when he wanted to do it. So when he came out of the first 15 mile trail section behind 4 women, he played it cool. He saw Brennan, Arjun and Melissa and let them know it was time to get moving. And moving he did. He systematically picked the race apart and dispatched runner after runner, eventually moving into the top 20 and then 11th. He was rolling now, and knowing the course fairly well, he rocked the last couple of miles. His final 36 miles were run in 4 hours. SICK. He finished in 8th overall in a new TWSS record of 6:21:45. Booyah.

Claire Lears was also taking part in her first ultra marathon; after a move and a few months of difficult trail and altitude running she hoped for the best. The squad was out there supporting her and watched her as she finished in 10:23:33. Boom.

Pete Mulligan fell twice in the early stages of this race, and between miles 21 and 38 had a bloody nose as a result. He looked like he participated in a secret underground fighting society not known as Fight Club (sshhh!). In the end he ran a 21 minute PERSONAL BEST in 10:33:46 for 506th place overall. Great job Pete!

Molly Hyde had a great debut ultra as well, rolling to an 8:07/14th place Female finish. Awesome job Molly!

Alyssa Godesky wasn't far behind Ben after the trail section, but around 27 miles she just knew it wasn't going to be her day and wisely stopped. While it pains every athlete to have to drop from a race, having just competed in the Half Ironman World Championships LAST weekend, she just wasn't recovered yet. None of us would have been bold enough to even attempt!

Great job everyone, heard the weather was pretty dece. Things are shaping up for a good day tomorrow in Tempe. Air temps are chilly in the morning and the water is SUPER cold. The sun is obviously quite strong and while the temp hovers around high 70s during the day, it feels a little warmer. It's a great venue for the event, and we even walked right past Ironman champ Chris McCormack (who went relatively unnoticed). Fingers crossed for a great day for Z tomorrow, you can follow live online at ironman.com. We're two hours behind so we start at 9am for y'all. By the later part of the day it starts to cool down and get a little breeze going.

Happy 30th Birthday Z!

Hope it doesn't take that long...

Two Days Late, a Buck Short

After a long couple days in ChiTown and Louisville, I'm finally getting around to doing this portion of the weekly results wrapup.

FIRST, take a look at the post below this one from Zero. He has a 20 mile run on tap for TONIGHT and would probably enjoy some company. If you want to meet up with him, holler at him.

SECOND, awesome job to everyone who came out to the workout last night. Really great workout, one of the hardest ones you can do. The weather was perfect for it at least. From here on out we start doing shorter stuff, more turnover related. If you need longer intervals you should probably be getting them from tempo runs/long runs, or other means. Track will now be turnover time, save maybe one workout left.

Celebrate Your Style 5k - Jake and Dr. J swept up the men's and women's titles (and $100) for running this tiny race. Always good to remind people that if you want to win something you've got to work for it. Never assume you can just win a race!

Cascade Crest 100 - our resident ultra dudes, Collin and Dave P, headed out to do this race in the Pacific Northwest. Unfazed by the threat of running into Bigfoot (or more appropriately, his dick) these two harriers ran together at a baller pace for 74 miles. Then the wheels came off. Dave sprained his ankle or something and fell off pace a little, but still finished 25th at 24h45m. Collin had a few more troubles, and wound up spending quite a bit of time laying on the ground at aid stations. But he finished, and did it in 26h55m.

Chicago Triathlon - It was funny that this race was going on the same weekend a few of us were IN Chicago. I signed up for this race last year on the premise that I was going to go with Ryan Schmidt, but when he bailed, so too did I. I just didn't want to go by myself. This year I had no plans to do it, but Spider did. Back in the day he was a winner here, and more than a decade later, showed he still had the forms to come close. He finished 3rd in the International Amateur Division in 2:04:47 or something, with the 6th fastest run of the day (34:11). GRCer Matias Palavecino won the International Elite Amateur Division in 1:56.

Annapolis 10 Miler - This is the biggest race around this time of year, but it's also not very fun. Normally it's a billion degrees or super humid and times are real slow. Well, not the case this year. The winning time was under 50, which is awesome, and Matty Blaze ran 56:31 for 7th. Nina took 5th for the ladaaaays in 1:07:23 and Meg McNew was 15th at 1:09:48.

5k in La Crosse, WI - Now, I'm not sure which one she did, the French Island Lions Club 5k or the Central HS Alumni 5k, but Julia apparently won the overall title (men and women!) in 17:05.8 which is just 0.2 seconds off her all-time track PR! Quite amazing. She is clearly in bangin' shape for this fall.

Ironman Louisville - Brennan and I were fortunate enough to be on hand for this one. If you've never been to a triathlon, you need to see an Ironman. Talk about tough. We were at mile 90 of the bike course and then followed the entire marathon on our bikes and it was just amazing to watch these athletes. All different sizes and abilities, and you wouldn't even think some of them could walk let alone swim, bike and run. Alyssa did pretty awes, finishing 7th in her age group in 11h51m, hitting most of her pre-race objectives AND doing it with a slow leak in her tire the entire race. She had to stop no fewer than 3 times to fill it back up. And Scott Boylan, who ran with us during the winter at Fed Hill once or twice, raced to an 11h36m and 4th place AG finish (55-59) which earned him a slot to Kona! Great job.

Purple Drink Athlete of the Week - there were tons of great performances this week, with the tying essentially of a 5k PR, two 100 mile finishers, and a Kona slot, but like I said when Barf did his first tri: until you've done one, you haven't done one. Alyssa, by virtue of swimming 2.4 miles, riding 112 miles and running 26.2 miles and hearing "Alyssa Godesky, you are an Ironman" for the first time, you earned it this week.