Boom Shake the Room

This past weekend was fairly tri-oriented, with 8 of the 14 results being produced from the sport of champions.

Alyssa Godesky took on the odd distance Diamond in the Rough Tri (1mi swim, 27mi bike, 5mi run) and took 3rd.  She was 10th out of the water, did work on the bike to put herself in third, and held it on the run (36:29). 

At the Belmar Five in NJ, Conrad Laskowski went out fast and furious, but was unable to sustain, and "faded" to a 27:20, 9th place finish.  My brother Kevin ran his 5mi PR at Belmar last year, when it was overcast and rainy.  As you all know, my family has an aversion towards heat and humidity, and this year's conditions were not conducive for a super fast day.  I ran with Kev and we set a quick early tempo, but he, too, wilted in the heat and humidity, ultimately finishing at 35:22. 

On Sunday, I made my way up to Randolph, NJ, with Pat and Tommy McLoughlin, to race in our friend's tri - the Randolph Lake Sprint.  Half mile swim, 16 and change bike, 5k run, made for a short workout.  Tommy led out of the water, along with two others, and Pat was just behind.  On the bike, Pat moved himself up so that he was 4th on the road by the run.  The run was a surprising challenge, as the first half mile was on single track, sandy trail, then about a mile and a half on a road through a neighborhood before coming back that same single track (now against runners).  With 3/4 to go, you veered to the right and ran through "the minefields" - super sandy stretch of sand moguls - before finishing in a baseball field.  Pat had moved into 3rd, but was nipped by a 40+ year old (who had started in the wave behind), so he finished 4th.  Tommy had a lackluster bike split, but ran a really solid 5k, and finished 11th. 

In the Pikesville 5k, Garrett Ash finished 3rd in 16:52, and at the Howard County Striders' Women's Distance Festival 5k, Denise Knickman finished 3rd in 18:45.

Elsewhere in the US, Spider Sillery took 5th at the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon in 2:10:27, and up at the Providence half Ironman, Ben Winterroth finished a pretty amazing 10th overall.  He had a great swim, a monster bike and his best ever run (1:24 half marathon) to finish in 4:23:09.  Really incredible.  David Lee had a tough day, finishing at 4:53:48, so a little slower than his Eagleman time (but on a harder course).  Diane Heiser, in just her second triathlon ever (and her second half) finished in 6:06:36 after what I'm told was enduring a flat tire on the bike.  She had a great run at 1:40. 

I forgot to look up results from the Utica Boilermaker 15k, where Seth Tibbitts finished 119th place overall (out of 11,000) in 54:45 - nearly 3 minutes faster than last year!

Currently, Dave Ploskonka is racing out in the desert at Badwater but I'm having trouble pulling up the site.

For our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week, it was a diversion this week.  This year's Tour de France has been absolute chaos.  Marred by huge crashes which have knocked out a bunch of race favorites, Sunday's stage featured something I've never seen in the Tour.  Everyone understands crashes are a part of cycling, and if the riders cause them, or wet roads, that's just the way it goes.  But when a crash is caused by a media car, well that's another story.  And that was exactly the case on Sunday, when the leading group of 5, with about 21 miles to go, was crashed into by a French television car (cars don't have the cameras, so who knows why they were even up there).  The car makes what appears to be a very un-kosher pass of another official vehicle, and attempts to speed past the riders on their left.  A tree on the left side of the road is sticking out somewhat, so the car swerves to miss it, and in its adjustment, it plows into Juan Antonio Flecha, who hits the deck...HARD.  Somehow Thomas Voeckler rights himself and stays up, but the Dutch rider Johnny Hoogerland is sent somersaulting through the air into a barbed wire fence. 

The rule in the Tour, obviously, is that in order to start the next day's stage, every rider must complete each day's stage within the time limit.  This meant that both Flecha and Hoogerland needed to ride into the finish, if they were physically capable, to ensure they could start the next day (in this case yesterday was a rest day, so really today).  Flecha seemed to be able to get on his bike fairly quickly, but Hoogerland was clearly messed up.  He got back on and pedaled into the finish, losing 25 minutes.  He was bloodied and exhausted, but because of his escapades in the breakaway had amassed enough points to place himself in the King of the Mountains jersey.  By finishing the stage, he was able to step on the podium to receive the honor, and THEN he went to the hospital, where he received 33 stitches.  So he earns our PDAW this week, because, two years to the day after I was pretty seriously hit by a car, I empathized.

Oh, and you bet he was on the line today, and finished the stage.  So assuming no more problems, I would suspect he'll be able to make it to Paris.

For TNT tonight, and for future weeks, we are BACK AT GILMAN!  6:30pm show up to start warming up, then we'll start the workout at 7pm.  Workout is long tonight, and the weather is supposed to be real bad.  I don't expect everyone to do the entire workout, and I would suggest amending your pace to be more reasonable given the conditions.  The workout is 5x2k at tempo effort with 60-90sec rest.  If you can get through 3, that's cool.  4 is great.  5 is champion.  But be smart, I'd rather not have to take anyone to the hospital.

The Road is Long

Every athlete, at some point in their racing life, will experience the most miserable possible conditions to participate in that event. With fortune, it will only be something short, but in some cases it may be a hundred miler, a marathon, or basically any triathlon. For me, that day was June 8, 2008. The air temp was 107 degrees when I went out for a 13.1 mile "run". I had already experienced the symptoms of dehydration so badly on the bike that I had to get off of it for a few minutes, followed by soft-pedaling back to the finish from 11 miles out. We all know how that story ended, with me marching a 3h37m half marathon en route to a 6h47m first ever half Ironman.

Yesterday was as close to that day as possible, and even just being out there evoked haunting memories. As such, I was quite glad to NOT be competing.

The Swim

Water temp was almost 80 degrees. This meant no wetsuits. For good swimmers, not a big deal. But for the majority of us runner-swimmers, this is a crucial start to an already difficult day. Time increases exponentially for poor swimmers, and that's just more time doing something, getting more tired, etc. OJ had a good swim, one of the better of the day (as usual). Pat had a strong swim, with Ben not far behind, and Spider too (in various waves). But many people were in the water much longer - like Claire, Beef and Rodney Taylor.

The Bike

With Pro Andrew Yoder riding to a 2:04, and some other fast splits being recorded, it seemed like other than the heat, it was maybe a little faster than last year, when it was pretty windy. OJ rode sensibly, Spider was about 6 minutes faster than last year, and Ben, Pat and Beef all had solid rides.

The Run

Here is where it would be tough. The temp was kicking into the mid 90s and the sun was relentless. It is like a cauldron when you're out on the course, and the out and back format offers no shade and heat blasting off the pavement. Spider hasn't run 13 miles at once in a year, yet still managed a 1:22:40 for the 4th best of the day. OJ ran a 1:34 which was a great run for him, and Pat and Beef were in the 1:40 range which was great for the day. I saw a lot of people dropping out. I know I probably would have landed in the hospital myself!

It was a successful day for our folks at Eagleman, with no DNFs and no real damage done. Spider finished 1 spot ahead of OJ (at 10th and 11th amateurs) and Pat was in 76th among amateurs. After that it became difficult based on how they had results set up, but you can see Ed Jablonski had a monster race, going under 5:10 in the 50-54 group. Beef and Ben finished well, Rodney Taylor survived his first half Ironman (with a 1:13 swim - yikes!) and then little ClaireBear came through in 7:05.

A little love for our racing friends to the South - Dirk de Heer (GRC) had his bike stolen out of his car on Friday. He rents a bike on Saturday and rides that in the race. For those not in the know, these bikes are not just "hop on and ride". They are meant to fit you, or you will have problems. I was impressed that he did the race at all! He called it a day shortly onto the run, but as I told him it was the worst conditions he could face, and after a day like that you need to brush it off, forget about it, recover and move on.

One day I'd like to be able to do Eagleman again, but it would not be on a day like yesterday.

Meanwhile, up in Baltimore, it was warm for the Survivor 7 again! Berdan took 2nd in 35:45 to multiple-time champion John Supsic. Ryan Pauling, who ran with us at TNT last week, was 3rd in 38:16. Elijah was around 40:34 at 5th. Megan DiGregorio was 2nd F at 44:21, and Tom Stott, who started 30 seconds after the gun, was 44:28. Ryan Orner returned to racing, and Cynthia and Pete survived!

Down by the Bay, where the watermelons grow...

Mike Zero did the Bay Swim (4.4 miles)

In the CHI...

Mellow Mike was 30th in 1:26:58 at the North Shore Half Marathon

Matty Blaze was 6th in 9:03 at the Midwest Distance Gala

And as mentioned in the email, a special shout awarding the Tough As Nails Award to Dr. K, who led his teammate out for the W at Crystal City/Clarendon Cup/Air Force Cycling Classic and hung on to finish 3rd himself. I wasn't there, but I bet it was dope.

But our Purple Drink Athlete of the Week goes to Spider, who virtually was faster than he was last year at EM with a better bike split, and an awesome run.