spin / second sole multisport team

Classic summer races are here! A big contingent of SSSMSTers made their way to Oregon Ohio for the annual Maumee Bay Tri & Du. One teammate ran right after getting married (CONGRATS!) and a few made the brave trip down to Mohican. Read on…

Brian Stern…tearing up the run!

Jen P said;

Great day at Maumee! As always a huge local turnout between SSSMST, Snakebike, BAFF, CTC so pre and post race are fun! We got lucky with the weather as there was enough break between storms and conditions were quite good-just some wind out of the south and mostly overcast on the run (at least while I was running!) Having had some fun festivities Friday night celebrating teammate Anna’s wedding nuptials (who along with the new hubby too raced!!!) I was not sure how Sunday would go as I was feeling a bit tired and had not tapered for this race. So boy was I surprised and tickled pink with a huge PR of about 5:30!!! Last year I went 2:28:07 and this year 2:22:39! The other bonus was I knocked time off each discipline and felt good and strong the entire race. It seemed like many had very good races and enjoyed the day!

Bruce’s take;

Not bad for a first tri of the year. My swim was brutal, bike was good, and the run was average. time to get in the lake with the nice weather. Great seeing all the teammates out there, grat job by everyone.

Mike hammering away at the run…

Mike;

Great swim and bike – PR in both, but fell apart in run at Mile 4. Mostly just too hot so walked/jogged it in at 9min/mile… ugh!! Great team showing, we even got special mention by the announcer (along with Team Toledo and Snakebite…) I’m vowing to run better in upcoming races!

Anna raced 2 days after getting married! Congrats! Her thoughts…

I hadn’t run since injuring my foot before St. Malachi so my goal was to see if I could get through the race without re-injuring myself. Success! I also hadn’t raced the tri bike since crashing and breaking my jaw last August. Managed to keep the wheels on the ground this time! Oh yeah, I also got married the same weekend so this was our honeymoon race…isn’t that what most people do? 🙂 We love this race, very well run and well attended. Good showing by the SSSMST. The husband and I actually ended up doing better than we thought we would -what a nice surprise!

Patrick K wrote;

This is always an early season favorite. The team was out in force & it was a great way to start off my first fathers day. I felt pretty good, but i certainly appreciate the gains Ironman training has given me in the past. Apparently big training pays off at these races…I need to spend some more time on the bike! Having the family beat having a fast bike time though!

Kostura getting ready for his crack at the Olympic distance tri

Brandy was a great teammate out showing support;

Didn’t end up racing as I’ve not been feeling well. But, I cheered my teammates onto many great times! It was fun to be out watching the team and the local triathletes represent Cleveland. Can’t wait to get out myself and race next time!

Joe Bush making it look easy!

Smiling Tim…

Bruce & John made a trip down to Mohican for an epic race…

Bruce;

“I have to stop letting Jackson talk me in to this stuff. He decided to do the 100 mile race, after a coule of years of doing the 100k. I said fine, as long as he let me ride a 29″” demo bike. All of this was decided at the Beer Engine. I have never ridden a bike 100 miles in my life. I think my longest road ride is about 82 miles. I had some good early season races in, so I figured eat a lot, don’t push too hard, and i will be fine. I made the drive down at 5 am for the 7 am mass start. We rolled out at 7am, and I was feeling pretty good. I think they switched up the start of the race, it felt like a lot more climbing. A little muddy from the rain the previous day, but good conditions. I got to the forst 20 mile checkpoint in 2 hours. Seemed pretty good, a that would put me at a 10 hour pace. At about the 22-23 mile mark my day got worse. I clipped a bar on a really easy trail section. Flipped over the bars, and landed on a log. The pain was unreal, my right quad landed on the tree, giving me the worst charlie horse ever. I couldn’t bend it, put weight on it. I spent about 5 minutes rolling around on the ground swearing.. I finally got up, decided i need to ride on, I really didn;t want my day to end there. I got back in to a good flow. I was fine as long as i didn’t have anything technical or climbing. At a sketchy set of trail at about mile 45, bad luck hits again. I go over the bars on a steep drop when I hit a tree stump. I tried to grab a tree to break my fall, and ended up hitting another one. At this point I’m want to quit. I’m less than half way, everrythig hurts, my back is killin. I make it the next mile to the aid station, and try to regroup. People there are great, get e everything I need, I keep walking becasue i don’t want to get any tighter. I keep thinking what I heard about the 100 mile race “” it’s mostly rode, not as much trail””. That in mind, I grabt eh bike and go, into what seems like an endless single track climb. I get off teh trail, fall in with a group on some road/path sections, before the last issue of teh day. The bridge that all previous racers have crossed is roped off and guarded by a bunch of hillbillies. They explain thet there is a wedding on the bridge, and they are closing it from 1:30 to 2:30. One guy tries to ride past, and they grab his handlebars and push him off his bike. They tell us we need togo around, but nobody knows where around is. The bridge goes over a river. Myself and a couple others find what looks like another tril, and ride a mile of double track through prickers that puts us right back at the river….under the bridge we want to cross. Instead of turn back, we shoulder the bikes and hike it up the rocks to the road, where we jump the guard rali and set off in search of the trail. We find it a couple miles down the road. More climbs, more trail, and tehn the finish. Best part of the race, 25 kegs of great lakes waiting for you. If you do the 100 mile, they hand you a growler at the finish. It’s Monday, my body still hurts, and I can’t say I’ll b doing this again.”

John Willse came in 18 out of 275 in the 100k MTB race…nice work!!

Filed under: 2012 |