spin / second sole multisport team

We bring you more big race results for a bevy of our SSSMST’ers, who were again far and wide on the race scene the last couple of weeks.

Patrick K hit up the venerable Classic at Mastick – this year as a volunteer, but had a chance to give us his take:  This was the 5th year or so that I have volunteered for this race. Good publicity for Second Sole Rocky River especially with the high school cross country kids in attendance. Great race, great that they can raise funds for scholarships. Good times.

We head to Vermilion, where a number of our teammies slogged out the HFP Vermilion Harbor Tri in some sloppy weather….

Patrick K:  Rainy morning, but that didn’t keep the crowds away. I got a wake up call on the swim, I haven’t been in open water much in the last 2 years. A little current for the swim made it interesting. It rained for most of the bike, so I tried to ride conservatively. Rookie move of dropping the chain on the big climb didn’t help the cause. The run was solid, Rood helped keep me dialed in. Great to see so many team members out racing Susan (the triathlete formerly know as SOD), Kostura, Walsh, Rood Henely, Mike Schaeffer all out doing their thing. Roark was cheering, good to see everyone!

Brian Kostura:  It was wet! A triathlon is traditionally 3 sports (swim, bike, run), but on this day it was basically all swim! It rained from the start through the finish, which led to some hesitation on the bike, but overall I was please with my race. 

Henley and Schaefer were tearing it up on the course. It was exciting seeing the two of them battle it out despite the conditions. PK and Walsh had another strong showing, finishing first and second in their respective age groups. Susan looked like she was having a blast, and Rood provided some great run support. Overall good morning for the blue and green.

Tim Walsh:  In spite of some lousy weather, the race was worthwhile. A bit choppy on the swim but still navigable; wet roads were still safe on the sprint course; the run was plenty comfortable when you have teammates like A.Rood encouraging you while running along. Props to A.Henely and M.Schaefer for stepping up and hitting home runs on the Olympic course; good to see S.O’Donnell back on the course as well. With better weather next year, we’ll restore the post race burgers & refreshments on the river!

Jen P is hitting the trails hard late this summer – first at the Twilight Trail 8k in the North Chagrin Reservation:  This is always a fun evening. Was a little stressed getting from far westside to eastside and almost bagged it but Mark said we should give it a go so at 6:50pm we parked (race starts at 7) got our bibs, hit bathroom and lined up. One of the great things about small races 🙂 There were a few fast girls there and being I’m still working on getting fitness back I was not going to even try to keep up and die although I have been doing a weekly long trail run for several weeks now. Anyways….cool evening, beautiful woods, hard run…then pizza and beer after. Can’t get any better, right?! Except since several of those fast chicks were on teams I got 2nd OA female and earned some cash. Woot woot!

And our own Ironman World Championship-bound Jeanne DeBonis got in a little speed work in Milwaukee, WI, at the USA Triathlon National Championship!

Jeanne: Just over a week ago, I took a quick jaunt to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for cheese curds and kringle, and also to compete in the USA Triathlon Age Group Olympic-distance National Championship on August 9. Despite being eyeball-deep in Ironman training, Nationals stayed on my schedule because it was a qualifier for the ITU Age Group World Championship in Chicago next year.
I had second thoughts about my lack of preparation for the race and I had nothing even resembling a taper, but I took the day before and decided to execute a race plan called “hammer the bike and see what happens.” My 1500-meter swim was in the top ten in my age group (22:18), but my bike leg turned out to be a major struggle – my quads were sore and cement-like and protested immediately. I was not happy with my 40K bike time (1:09:37) because it was only about one minute faster than last year and I thought I’d be faster. The good part of the race was that I was able to chase down every woman who passed me on the bike (except the eventual winner). My 10K run was just under 7-minute pace until the final mile when my legs began revolting like I had “hit the wall” in a marathon, but I willed myself to hang on for 6th in the W45-49 age group (run time 43:28, total time 2:19:41) and an entry on Team USA for Chicago (top 25 made it this year).

With a 6th place finish, it was easy to regret not tapering for this race, but I once again have set my ultimate goal to hopefully peak in October in Kona.

Jeanne busting out a strong finish!

Major kudos to all!!!

Filed under: 2014 |