spin / second sole multisport team

Leah on the way to winning Stark, by Gregg Brekke

Fall is in the air. The days are a little shorter, the mornings are a little chillier, and the leaves are starting to turn. People have begun crowding into the bars for pre-Browns beers, and everyone seems to be starting to hunker down for the winter. Well, not everyone. Autumn also brings two other things, running races and cyclocross! Guess what the members of SSSMST did with the first of their fall Sundays?

Two events dominated last weekends calendar; the Akron Marathon and Stark Velo’s CX race. Aaron Rood and Scott Zubricky tackled the full mary, while Patrick Kolozvary ran the half as he builds towards the NYC Marathon in early November. Leah Halloran was in Akron as a spectator, and would race later at the cross race. Well, she would outright win the thing! This puts her 3 for 3 in cyclocross so far this year. Nice work Leah! Jen Petkovsek tried her hand at cross for the first time and had a blast, while Bruce Macdonald logged time near the front of the men’s B race.

Click through for a couple of reports-

Leah –

The day began with a trip down to Akron to cheer on the marathoners. Aaron Rood was the first person we knew who came through.  We were expecting Jim to be with him and were surprised when he wasn’t.  Finally Jim runs by chasing Aaron and yelled something about getting stuck in bathroom lines.  Poor Jim had to run 5:40’s to catch up!  Nice first run back.  Next comes Jocelyn and I ride with her from mile 15-22.  Scott Z. was also doing the full and he looked great.  He passed us and was chatting about riding cross, houses, etc.  What a stud, talking in the middle of the marathon.  As I watched Jocelyn, I was really motivated to train for another marathon.  But, as we got deeper into the race, my motivation wained quickly.  It is much easier to watch others suffer than to suffer yourself!!!!!  One race down…..one to go.  We made our way down to Kent State (Stark Campus) for the cross race.  The course was, in my opinion, a power course……..grass and lots of it.  I was really nervous before the race because I’m not much of a power rider, although I do look like one.  I managed to get a slight lead on the first lap and was able to hang on.  The race was REALLY hard because there was never a place on the course you could relax and sit in for awhile.  Hats off to Jen, who competed in her first cross race and Bruce, who was at the front of the B race.  Racing is an odd thing…..I began the day watching others suffer, being glad it wasn’t me, only to do it to myself.

Patrick –

I have been building up mileage for NYC Marathon, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I stepped to the line for the Akron Half this year.  I have done this Half all 4 years they have had it so far, and the event keeps growing each year…because they put on a great race.  Having a lot of friends at this race, and treating it as a tune up worked well for me.  I think I was more concerned with Erin running well & the Roods and Scott having a good marathon that I wasnt too concerned with strategy.  I went out a bit easier than normal and ran very comfortably…to the point Jim Lamastra was yelling at me for smiling too much for the first half of the race.  I felt great the whole race & at 9 miles I decided to pick it up a bit.  I was ready for the big hill at mile 11 this year & ended up with a PR.  Not bad for coming in to the race with low expectations.  This race has become a lot more competitive, in the first 3 years of doing it I ended up somewhere in the top 3 in my AG.  This year I was over a minute & a half faster… and ended up 9th in my AG.  I guess if you put on a quality event you get a quality crowd.
It was great to be out there with Jim & Andrea, Brian & Bridget & Marty bringing in the Roods & Scott Z on the tail end of their marathons.   Congrats guys!

Jen –

I survived! I consider that a success for my first cyclocross race. I had fun too. Went with riding the C race as there were other women signed up. Turns out there were four of us so my taking third isn’t such an achievement, but it was fun to get out there and do something different! I look forward to doing a few more this fall.

Filed under: 2010 | Tagged: cyclocross, halloran, kolozvary, macdonald, marathon, petkovsek, rood, zubricky |