A Monster PR

Well ok it was only by about 5 minutes. I pulled a 3:21:27 this morning in Hartford. A big shout out to the "Anti-Pace Team Pace-Team" consisting of Cranky Runner, this dude Ari and myself. The 3 of us held with the 3:10 pace squad for about 12 miles before the 7:09, intervals became too much. To put things in persepective on how fast the pace leader was going I pulled a Half Marathon PR in the race. Eclispsing my previous best by nearly 2 minutes. Going a 1:34:59. Sadly my legs would pay for this later as mile 24 and 25 were well above my 7:47 average. also huge shout out for Josie for plowing through a crowd of 50 people about 200 meters to the finish line. I may have been in pain but it certainly put a smile on my face.

Now back to watching Kona. Chris Lieto is leading on the marathon as Macca and Faris are running him down in hot pursuit.

On the *yawn* Chrissie Wellington Show....I mean women's race, Chrissie Wellington is gunning for a top 10 overall spot, and the rest of the women are trying to keep the lead from going over 15 minutes.

My legs ache just watching...
R.D.

Now I know How Chris Lieto Feels: The Park City Mossman Race Report.

Well my 2009 tri season looks to be done. Today was the Park City Mossman Oly in Bridgeport and ironically enough it was the first race I signed up for when I got back from New Zealand. ( Figured if cash became an issue as it usually does I wanted to have an August race.) So this morning I drove out at 5am to tackle CT's fastest Oly. I got to the race site about a half an hour before Transition closed so I didn't do much of a warm up. Things have changed since the last time I did this race. While it's still a multi loop run and bike the swim course has been lengthened so it could all be done in one shot. My times are all estimated as I haven't been able to find the official results and I'm trying to remember off of the sheet I looked at this morning.

The Swim: Lots of Changes
This year unlike year's past they sent the "older guys" infront of the kids so I went off in the second wave about 5 minutes behind the leaders. Races on the Connecticut shoreline always tend to be hit or miss with the tides and today was another miss. You could seriously run to the first buoy. Several guys took this strategy but I'm not one to run in humidity and neoprene so I dove in when the water was knee high and began to swim. I was amazed at how fast we caught the first wave. At the second buoy. After that the swim was pretty uneventful. I came out about 3rd in the wave, and it looked like I was in a good spot to retake my 20-24 age group title. My total swim time was 18:08 about 3 minutes slower than the fastest guy in the group but I figured that the flat and fast bike course would allow me to make up time as there were no climbs to upset my mash in the big ring rhythm. I managed to get my wetsuit off pretty quick and got on the bike and began to hammer away.

The Bike: This week's sign of the Apocalypse...
I love the bike course at this race as it's flat and multiple loops. There are a few turns and rough pavement but for the most part it is ideal for time trialing. I kicked the stomper in to the big ring and just hammered like Miguel Indarain. This guy, Mark from Staten Island came along on the 2nd loop and we began to swap the "lead" for the next three loops. I would lead one half of the loop and then he woould lead the other. We each tried to break away and build a lead only to have the other wear it down. I asked "What's your 10k time?" "About a 42." he answered crap this guy was about my pace so I was going to have a real race on my hands. We came around to enter T-2 and I did my sexy barefoot dismount, and I finally figured out how to do the one leg over the rear wheel thing. It would have gone off flawless except for my worn cleats. I ended up having losing a shoe, thankfully the volunteers at this thing are awesome. My bike split was about a 1:07 and I averaged 22.3 mph. I was really happy with this split because I never and I mean never average over 21 mph on the bike.

The Run: Now I know how Chris Lieto Feels...
T-2 was a comedy of errors as my Yankz lace came un hooked and I spent about 30 seconds reconnecting it. Mark took off in the lead and I doggedly followed. I got passed by a kid from our age group as he cooked along. ( come to find out this kid won my age group at the Griskus and would win here as he threw down a 15:00 swim and a 35:00 10k I'm just shocked I managed to make up that much time on the bike.) He caught Mark at the first aid station as I soldiered along trying to catch him As I passed him at the turn around we both sort of looked at one another and talked about the kid Bib 154 who had passed us. "I really hope he's a relay." I stated..."All I know is he's flying. " Mark said as I got around. seriously if this were Kona this would have been the Sindballe Lieto conversation once Normann Stadler had run past. We had led the Age Group off the bike and now were getting picked off. I knuuckled down as I saw some older guys ahead and figured if I could pick them off I would be in business. We got to the turn around and I was passed by two guys from team Tri Fitness. One of them had a 23 on his Calf. I tried to hold with him but got dropped after 400 meters. The rest of the run I seemed to be in no man's land. I passed a few more people but no one from my age group. I figure from my recollection of the bike Split that I was in 3rd in my AG so I would be getting on the podium all I had to do was defend at this point. I still dug deep as I could hear foot steps rapidly approaching from behind. I came down the finishing chute and was caught by a relay runner but nothing really to worry about. My 10k was about a 43:48 and my overall time was 2:10 after subtracting the stagger. I looked at the results and I had pegged 28th overall and 4th in the AG. I'm still trying to figure out where this 3rd guy to pass me had done it, but for all I've been through in the last month it was a good day.

Granted I think i'm going to talk to John Hirsch and Chris Lieto to get in on the support group for guys who have been in the lead on the bike only to lose it on the run.....

R.D.

All Hail the King of Kona!!!

Yes I know this post is 3 days late, ( just wanted to make sure Macca cleared doping, that and I have two 8 page papers due about bacteria and political leaders with names that are both hard to spell and pronounce.) But yes, the man I most fashion my racing style after has finally come through and become Lord of the Lava Fields, Empitome of Endurance, The Arrogant Chap with the world's best aerobic threshold...Chris Mc Cormack You are the Ironman World Champion and you'd had a hell of a race to do it. On the Women's side Chrissie Wellington Won in a blow out. Her nearest competition was Sam Mc Glone and she was six minutes back getting off the bike and that's where she stayed, Kate Major had been second but faded to third nine minutes behind the unstoppable Wellington. The sad thing is Ironman .com stayed gluded to the Women's race or lack thereof...as Macca, Crowie ( Craig Alexander) Trbjorn Sinbale, Chris Lieto and Tim De Boom waged a 5 man Ironwar. Granted when I saw Sinbale only had a 7 min. lead off the bike I knew it was all over for him....let's face Macca proved he could chase down Normann Stadler ( who dropped out via stomach virus...somewhere in the backround I can hear Peter Reid shouting "suck it up, I puked all over myself in 03 and still won." Or De Boom shouting " Whimp!" * Tim DeBoom dropped out of the 2003 Ironman due to passing a kidney Stone at mile 14 on the marathon. Granted I can't Blame Normann for dropping out this year..after all there is a difference between puking like a cholera patient and having a temper tantrum over a "Flat f&*king tire!") The guy that impressed me was the USA's Chris Lieto
For the second year in a row he was the 2nd guy off the bike. Then he took it out hard on the run. He passed then Leader Sinbale and led until about the half marathon point, when Macca and Crowie sort of said "thanks for the lift mate we'll take it from here." Lieto was repassed by Sinbale, Tim De Boom and some other dude. I will say this 6th in Hawaii is damn good! Now if the guy just puts more into his run focus we might just have another American capable of winning in Kona.
So in a quick Kona Recap:

Lava= Hot

Queen K = Hot and Windy

Macca = The MAN!

Wellington= The Woman ( or possible EPO we'll see when the doping report comes out. sorry I'm a little untrusting of big breakthrough wins after the Nina Kraft, Floyd Landis, Vinokorov scandals)

Tim De Boom = still has it.

Stomach Viruses Suck! ( especially for Brown, Stadler, Jones, Al-Sultan)

Normann Stadler= Win or DNF

Bike Crash = No win and No smile for Natascha

Chris Lieto= Next American Champion?

and Max from HEAT finished in 9:55 no age group bling but still a kick ass time. Way to go Max!

So any Kona perdictions for Next Year?

R.D.