Day started off cloudy, began to rain during the swim, stopped about 45 mins in and was rather ideal for the rest of the day: sunny, then cloudy, repeat.
Swim began with Sibbersen out front, Dr Tommy (Evans) held his feet (very smart if u can do it!) the entire way and they had over a minute on the rest and really strung things out. Tom, I believe you might owe Jan a little spending $ : )
Bike: Tom took off, at mile 54 with two climbs to go, he had a 3-4 min lead over Beke (below)
Rhodesy (cool people call him Rhodsey.. was in the top 5 and looking good)
Jaimie Cleveland was in the 5th-9th range at this point:
Evans got to T2 with an 8+ min lead over Beke, and 12+ over Zyemstev. We all thought it would be Beke making a statement, rather it was Zyemstev giving chase... here is Dr Tommy at about the 11.5 mile mark with a 3:35 lead over Zyemstev.
It was at this point we thought the Belgian Beke would be the next one up... nope!!! Zyemstev looked great giving chase.
Beke was next by at 11.5 miles in, but it was apparent he had pretty much established 3rd... LONG wait until 4th place rolled by (at that time it was Rhodes and Luke Mackenzie, with Rhodes opening up a minute on Luke about 1.5 miles later, flying down the hill and giving high fives!)
Beke in 3rd with no worries:
Yasterbov cruising by (out of focus) to try an make up for his usual T2 deficit (he would later pass Rhodes for 4th place, and almost get run down by Mike Neil who showed major guts the last climbs of the run, when was the last time Yasterbov was run down!?) Hypothetical question, please don't respond fellow stat geeks.
The two Ukrainian dudes are the most focused runners I've seen, a stick of tnt could go off and I don't think they'd move...
Chrish MacDonald on what appeared to be a so-so day... people were ringing those anooying cowbells right at his ear level up one of the run climbs and he make a swiping gesture to knock them off, can't blame him. When you get cranky in an iron, sometimes those things can get a little nutty.
Chris: He held strong for top 10
Nice guyJaimie Yon (15th o/a) starting the run:
John Hirsch 9:45, holding steady:
Sorry to the womenfolk for no pics, since it was an ag race for them they kind of got lost in the packs. FWIW, the winner showed guts and ran right to the front and held it, despite a late charge.
I'll give the "guts" awards at this race to Tom Evans for his out front strategy, Rutger Beke for hanging in there despite not being "on", and Petr Vabrousek he went from about 21st after the bike, 11th after the halfway mark, up to 7th? at the end running down Paul Fritzsche in the final out and back.
Also, I was giving time / place splits out at the end of the first loop of the bike, and Petr and Jaimie Cleveland were in the best spirits being very thankful. ST's own Dev Paul, on the other hand, was the only person out of about 150 who didn't appreciate the place calling, took the time to stand up out of the saddle on the way by and say something to the efffect of, "You know, it doesn't matter right now where we are, this race is hardly underway.. it doesn't matter until later..." Um, okay, Tony Robbins : ) Funny, out of 100+ people he was the only one to take offense to free info. You're welcome.
Anyway, this is just an incredible race, great scenery, honest bike/run courses.
A few items of note: to you so-so swimmers, very staggered swim exits up until the 59:00 minute mark.. then big packs and lots of congestion, you don't like the contact of IMNA swims?? Become a better swimmer!
-For the umpteenth time: know your bike rules, saw passing on the right, crossing yellow line, ect. Not to start a gender war, but the worst few drafting cases I saw was a woman sucking wheel.
-Run downhills out of town: slow down!!!!! 4 hour marathoners taking off at 6:10 pace, holy crap! Hamburger legs later on. Downhills will make your quads mushy later on : )
-Not a good pacer? Go out too fast? Watch the woman runners: they were running very smart on a hilly course.
-A lot of men (and some women) in way too big a gear going up the climbs on the first loop of the bike.
Finally, good beer at the Lake Placid Brew pub, go there!
Swim began with Sibbersen out front, Dr Tommy (Evans) held his feet (very smart if u can do it!) the entire way and they had over a minute on the rest and really strung things out. Tom, I believe you might owe Jan a little spending $ : )
Bike: Tom took off, at mile 54 with two climbs to go, he had a 3-4 min lead over Beke (below)
Rhodesy (cool people call him Rhodsey.. was in the top 5 and looking good)
Jaimie Cleveland was in the 5th-9th range at this point:
Evans got to T2 with an 8+ min lead over Beke, and 12+ over Zyemstev. We all thought it would be Beke making a statement, rather it was Zyemstev giving chase... here is Dr Tommy at about the 11.5 mile mark with a 3:35 lead over Zyemstev.
It was at this point we thought the Belgian Beke would be the next one up... nope!!! Zyemstev looked great giving chase.
Beke was next by at 11.5 miles in, but it was apparent he had pretty much established 3rd... LONG wait until 4th place rolled by (at that time it was Rhodes and Luke Mackenzie, with Rhodes opening up a minute on Luke about 1.5 miles later, flying down the hill and giving high fives!)
Beke in 3rd with no worries:
Yasterbov cruising by (out of focus) to try an make up for his usual T2 deficit (he would later pass Rhodes for 4th place, and almost get run down by Mike Neil who showed major guts the last climbs of the run, when was the last time Yasterbov was run down!?) Hypothetical question, please don't respond fellow stat geeks.
The two Ukrainian dudes are the most focused runners I've seen, a stick of tnt could go off and I don't think they'd move...
Chrish MacDonald on what appeared to be a so-so day... people were ringing those anooying cowbells right at his ear level up one of the run climbs and he make a swiping gesture to knock them off, can't blame him. When you get cranky in an iron, sometimes those things can get a little nutty.
Chris: He held strong for top 10
Nice guyJaimie Yon (15th o/a) starting the run:
John Hirsch 9:45, holding steady:
Sorry to the womenfolk for no pics, since it was an ag race for them they kind of got lost in the packs. FWIW, the winner showed guts and ran right to the front and held it, despite a late charge.
I'll give the "guts" awards at this race to Tom Evans for his out front strategy, Rutger Beke for hanging in there despite not being "on", and Petr Vabrousek he went from about 21st after the bike, 11th after the halfway mark, up to 7th? at the end running down Paul Fritzsche in the final out and back.
Also, I was giving time / place splits out at the end of the first loop of the bike, and Petr and Jaimie Cleveland were in the best spirits being very thankful. ST's own Dev Paul, on the other hand, was the only person out of about 150 who didn't appreciate the place calling, took the time to stand up out of the saddle on the way by and say something to the efffect of, "You know, it doesn't matter right now where we are, this race is hardly underway.. it doesn't matter until later..." Um, okay, Tony Robbins : ) Funny, out of 100+ people he was the only one to take offense to free info. You're welcome.
Anyway, this is just an incredible race, great scenery, honest bike/run courses.
A few items of note: to you so-so swimmers, very staggered swim exits up until the 59:00 minute mark.. then big packs and lots of congestion, you don't like the contact of IMNA swims?? Become a better swimmer!
-For the umpteenth time: know your bike rules, saw passing on the right, crossing yellow line, ect. Not to start a gender war, but the worst few drafting cases I saw was a woman sucking wheel.
-Run downhills out of town: slow down!!!!! 4 hour marathoners taking off at 6:10 pace, holy crap! Hamburger legs later on. Downhills will make your quads mushy later on : )
-Not a good pacer? Go out too fast? Watch the woman runners: they were running very smart on a hilly course.
-A lot of men (and some women) in way too big a gear going up the climbs on the first loop of the bike.
Finally, good beer at the Lake Placid Brew pub, go there!