spin / second sole multisport team

The weekends are filling up with lots of races, which means a lot of SSSMST on the streets of Cleveland & all around the country! Kevin Krol submitted the photo below as “the calm before the storm” at American Zofigen… with multisport season building up you can look forward to plenty of early morning views like this!

The biggest race in town last week- Cleveland Marathon, here are some notes

Katie Shaw

I’ve never felt like I had to fight just to finish a race before this one. I cruised through the first half taking it out at a conservative pace, around 8:40 per mile. According to my training and my initial plans for the race, that should have set me up to pick up the pace on the back half and finish strong. I was aiming for around 3:45…I came in at 4:13. I went from feeling strong, confident and focused at the halfway mark to at mile 19 considering, for the first time ever, calling it quits on a race. The heat hit me hard and fast. At 19 miles I was having difficulty focusing and had a serious side stitch. By the time I hit mile 20, nausea set in and I was getting sick on the side of the road. Running the rest of the way in did not seem like an option and my time goal for the day was out of the question. At that point I questioned whether or not even walking another 6.2 was within reach. I knew I was probably treading in dangerous waters if I wasn’t careful, so I started walking slowly just to keep moving forward. I made a plan to walk 5 minutes then jog 10 minutes and sip on Powerade at the water stops if I could keep it down. The nausea never went away until about 2 hours after the race but I managed to keep down enough liquids to keep me moving. The final miles started ticking by as I generally stuck with my 5 minute walk/10 minute jog plan. At mile 25 I still felt like death but the doubts slipped away as I saw family, friends and SSSMST teammates cheering from the sidewalks. I mustered the energy to smile and wave and ran the rest of the way into the finish. I trained hard for this marathon and was hoping for a big PR but it just wasn’t in the cards. No disappointment here. I’ve never been so happy just to finish and I learned a lot about myself and racing in hot weather. Many thanks to all those that volunteered and stuck around to cheer! Congratulations to everyone who raced this weekend, it was brutal out there!

Mike Schaefer

I’m so psyched!  This was my first 1/2 marathon (and first race over 10K ever) – so no doubt I had some extra adrenaline..  It went exactly as planned!  I figured I could run 1:45 but thought (just maybe) I could run 1:40 if I my legs held up.  I got a great pace-job from my former HS teammate, Ryan, who eventually left me behind.  (He said “It took my 22 years to beat you but I finally did!..)  I had some blister issues from 10mi onward, but the Scott TC3s were really fast and everything else feels great! I worked the CCF medical tent after the race (which was almost as exciting!).  We treated over 200 people, most of whom needed IV fluids and ice baths for hyperthermia!  There were 4 people with body temps OVER 107F!!  We even sent 5 people to the hospital as they were unstable, and I’m sure more were transported directly from the course!!  About HALF of them came from the half-marathon race — It was a good lesson –  when it’s this hot and you start to feel crappy, it’s time to SLOW DOWN – chances are you won’t be happy with you time anyway!    SO, it was great to see all the teammates on the course (and none in the medical tent!)  It was a day for me to count my blessings – SO awesome to be able to run well!! — and even better to stay survive unharmed!  Bring on the triathlon season!

I missed this race last year because of Zofingen. I went out too hard and suffered a lot at the end. Hyland software does a great job of putting on this race.

Butthurt?Absolutely.  Due in no small part that my arse sweat out a several friggin shakers’ worth on an 80+ degree Sunday afternoon. I think we can say that this year’s race had plenty of “epic” to it even with what we consider to be “unholy” weather for this event: nearly furnace-like heat, stolen signs/wrong turns, smack talkers on the ropes, bike course shinanegans (more on that over beers), Yoda beating up on Canadian Womens (slowtwitch inside joke)….  First up was deciding on a bike setup, of witch the road version won out due to the sheer amount of time spent going up.   On the opening run I really drew things back, even joined the power hiking group on the last bit of single track up at the top of the Crag.  Legs felt a little heavy in a couple of spots, but you never can tell if it’s just because of the course or if it’s going to be a bad day. Finished up the opener in 44:44.   Lickety split T1 due to the fact that for the first time ever, I didn’t have to throw on multiple layers of clothing for the bike.  First 2/3 of the first bike loop are spent trying to retrain your legs to ride, and decend like a hellion after a run that knocks the socks off you.  Was able to get a bit of rhythm going by the last of the loop, but was caught by the middle distance, Formula 1 race leaders as I went by the aid station that also serves as entry/exit to transition.  Lap 2 never goes as you’d expect.  First signs of some cramping and it’s time to batten things down and try to muscle on.  Nutrition is going as planned, downing E-caps and other Hammer product, and physically felt like I couldn’t have consumed much more than the 30-odd oz (plus another 400-500 calories) I did each of the first two loops.  Lap 3 comes and the sun is really hot going up each of the two big climbs.  Who’s idea was it to use an aero helmet with limited venting on a day like this?  My feet are now hurting with almost every pedal stroke.  Not sure why, but it, along with some spasms in the legs are costing me time.  Everything is really dry, and I’m fed up with HEED.  These are the dark moments where you think about being able to quit when you get back to T2.  Then you don’t think. Bike course split of 5:47. Ouch. Back to transition where I’m getting heckled by the promoter, the timing company, short course athletes, middle distance winners and the caterer.  Yep, everyone is in on this.  All three final 5-mile run loops were brutally slow, so much so I won’t spare you the gore, but at one point I lost one of my shoes due to the sucking of a giant mud pit.  I thought about continuing without it, but remembered how bad my feet hurt the last quarter of the bike.  I’m just glad no one was near me to see the nearly 2 minutes that it took to bend over, try to cram my foot back in, all while trying not cramp up.  Final run splits were 1:02, 1:06 and 1:11, for a final time of 9:57. Admittedly, I’ve got a bit of an empty feeling after this one – had hoped to do better, or at least as well as I otherwise might have (read: in less pain), and  the beer kegs were kicked (all THREE of them) by the time I finished up. Did have a few bright spots out there, most notably, my second time up Mohonk (the shorter, sick steep climb), some chap (probably racing short course, otherwise known as the Canadian Women’s Division) slows down tremendously, starts to wobble and clumsily unclips, starts walking saying “This is the earliest I’ve ever bonked in a race!” as I rode by. Back to the drawing board on this one. This truly is a pretty unique bunch.  A fraternity if you would.  Where the hazing takes the form of smack, both before, during, and after.  Where no matter what distance you race, the common denominator is – as Clubber Lang so eloquently put it – PAIN!  Two days out and it hurts to stand up, it takes about 40% longer to walk to the fridge, the “worse” knee is swollen, and no matter how many burritos I crush, I’m still hungry. American Zofingen – helping you hurt yourself.

Filed under: 2012 |