I thought the All-Stars would be at Muncie??

The real all stars are doing both. Oh, are they the same day?

Uh, is Muncie still open? Another opportunity for a double race weekend... The "double/double"- two races two weekends in a row.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

It's a fun race which I haven't done for a couple of years. Thanks for reminding me. I just registered online. A wetsuit swim would definitely be a plus for us "non all-stars".

Richard

My girlfriend and I are driving up from Cleveland to race Clark Lake. (Not on race morning, that's insane)
Staying with my parents in Northville.
Should be a fun race. It certainly was last year.
After biking hills and running in a thunderstorm yesterday, I'd be more than happy if the weather cooperated Sunday morning...

I''m in! Bringing three friends and my son. I don't care about the wet suit, but one of our racers can use all the help she can get. Her major concern is the swim cutoff. Supposed to cool off again so cool nights might make it perfect conditions for the life preservers.

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Larry

Don't be afraid to ride too long or too hard. That's what cell phones are for. Rich Strauss

I'll be there along with hubby who is doing the du. Here is an e-mail response I received yesterday from the RD regarding the wetsuit issue: "Current water temp is around 77-78. Will take temp morning of and make the call then. I suspect wet suits will be allowed but cannot guarantee."

After a chaotic couple of travel weeks, I'm back this week to serious training. I also signed up for the Chicago marathon, which means I'm ramping up the running as we're only 13 weeks out from that. Given my load this week, I'm going to be very tired by Sunday. That said, this is the first time I've done this race, and I'm excited by all the good reports.

See you there!

[P.S. to davejakes: By chance, do you ride a fancy Kestrel? If so, the sweat soaked runner who yelled "nice bike" was me:)]

I thought the race to do in MI this weekend was Interlochen?

I am hoping to be there (Clark Lk), did Interlochen last year. Good race just watch out for the hill at the turn around of the run. Its a bitch.

My GF is doing Interlochen. I'm going to Clark Lake. She is meeting up with her family up there. I gotta work :(

At least we had a picnic and a day at the beach at Waterloo last weekend.

Interlochen sounds cool.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Cheryl and I are looking to repeat up at Interlochen. Nothing like free entries to help you pick races. ;-) I do like Clark Lake also, just watch the water, I got scabies there last time. :-0

Nasty. (the scabies, not Interlochen).

- Do look after my precious associate up there would you? I've taken quite a fetching for her.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

We'll keep an eye on her for you. ;-)

Very well, thank you.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Wasn't your precious associate and GF this week a "buddy" last week?

Intersteing how time (and a nice picnic and a little green bikini) changes things.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Well, then it's good you decided not to ride with Eric after the race. Good luck.

Indeed, although I would love to ride with those guys one time. There has been a procession of customers coming into the store complaining about getting beat up by Eric at Helluva Ride on Saturday (the day before he kicked ass at Waterloo to take second, after pounding out 100 miles on Saturday and wounding many of my customers in the process...).

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

On a complete different subject, what does your tri-specific clothing inventory look like right now?

Half way decent and about to imporve by leaps and bounds pending the arrival of a mammoth DeSoto order ASAP. Also, lots of women's Nineteen wetsuits inbound.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Looks like I'll be there too. Does anyone know if they have day-of-registration?

jaretj

I'm not sure. You could register on line as late as yesterday (when I registered).

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I felt bad for El. We got left behind at lunch and were trying to catch back up. I was in the groove, boogying along, and he was hanging on pretty well, but then I looked back and he was gone. I sat up to wait for him, but he waved me on. I caught back up with Kraig S., Kyle, and his friend (sorry I forgot his name), and we had a really nice last 25 miles or so. We were pacelining nicely and making good time. I was putting in some 'focused' pulls near the end and was going to try to hammer the last one coming in to Chelsea, but I dropped a water bottle (damn rear cages). Evidently, my riding partners were a bit relieved. ;-)

The poor man. I had to drive him home from my store yesterday. He was too tired to walk. He only lives four blocks away, about two blocks from me.

Do any of you find it odd that within a three block area of Dearborn we have three people who have completed about 15 Ironmans and over 400 triathlons between them? (El Bruley, Dawn Polk and myself).

Interesting. Maybe Dearborn is the new triathlon mecca. Maybe not.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I have heard that more than one person has needed assistance to get home from Bikesport, maybe it's a energy sucking black hole. ;-)

Actually, Ell is standing in our store right this moment....

He is picking up his bike for his campaign at Muncie this weekend.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tell him I said good luck, and sorry about dropping him at OHR.

Did anyone notice the unusual high number of water stations on the run?

It was great, looks like the whole neighborhood was involved in putting on the race.

One of the best smoothest bike courses I've been on too.

jaretj

You're right, there were a ton of water stations on the run. I seem to remember 3 of them in a 300m stretch or something like that. It's nice to run among the lakefront homes and see everybody that lives there out there cheering and offering you water or a hose.
One complaint: the new swim course this year. I think it's fine that you probably could have walked the whole course, but I didn't like swimming back into the sun after the turnaround. I couldn't see the buoys until I was right on top of them from the glare coming off the water. Anybody else notice this?
All in all though, nice race. I just wish I felt better while I was racing...
-Steve

I wish I had been there..... :(

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I had a real problem with the swim course. Not only was the first bit shallow, they started all of the women together. It was difficult to maneuver among all those chicks in that little swath of water. The sun bothered me too. Other than that, I liked the course, especially since the bike course seemed mostly downhill.

My girlfriend was telling me about her problems with the swim course as well. In addition to the sun glare problem, she was finding that she was running into people that decided to walk all the way to the first buoy.
How was your race overall?

My race was mediocre -- in fact, I was dead center of my age group, the ultimate MOP. In fact, I woke up Sun. morning secretly hoping the babysitter wouldn't show up.

That said, I enjoyed the race atmosphere, and I also beat my hubby on the bike again -- I keep telling him he has to work out more if he wants to overcome the Felt advantage. I can't crow too much about that, though . . . he ran the first part of the du at a 6:15 pace and injured his hamstring in the process.

Where the heck were you? I was looking for the thong 8-}

jaretj

I noticed the glare too but didn't have much of a problem with it. I wear dark goggles that filtered a lot of that out. A couple of more bouys on the longer back leg would have solved that problem.

I didn't care for the shallow water cuz I'm a short guy but hey, what can you do? I swam the beginning while others waded knowing that it was faster and swam further into the beach than most. Still I was 100ft out before I stood up.

jaretj

What was the new swim course? I haven't done the race in a couple years, but always enjoyed it. From the past I remember having a hard time finding the right side of the dock to finish on, and the long run into transition.

The old swim course went straight out from the shore into the lake ~350m, turned left for another ~50m, and came back into shore. This year it was basically rotated 90 degrees, with the first long side of the rectangle going to the right along shore instead of out into the lake. That's the major difference.
A minor point is that the old course finished wiht a long swim back in. In the new course there is one additional turn, as the the long ends of the rectangle are parallel to shore.
Hopefully that makes sense.
I'm feeling too lazy right now to draw a picture :o)

Really, my only real gripe with the swim was going into the sun for the long back stretch. Even with my absurdely dark gottles I just couldn't see a thing.

Side note: how did Interlochen go?

I forgot to mention one little piece of weirdness from that day: I struggled with whether or not to wear a wetsuit. Water temps were easily warm enough to go without, but I swim faster with one on and lose time in transition getting it off. On the way to the race as I was thinking through this dilema I saw a billboard that said: "Prepare to Meet Thy God". I kept wondering whether that meant, "prepare to meet thy god in heaven" -- in which case, I should wear the wetsuit to prevent drowning OR "prepare to meet thy god in church" -- in which case I could go without. In the end, I went without, mainly because I was just too damn lazy to put the thing on. I'm still here; does that mean I have to go to church now??

[That last bit is a joke -- I'm almost an atheist, which means that I don't believe in god, unless he exists, then I'm really sorry I doubted him and please let me into heaven.]

I wonder why they changed the swim. I do remember the water being very shallow near shore.

Interlochen was good. Cheryl and I both ended up 2nd. Some pro from New Zealand named Will Smith showed up and kicked my ass. I kept him in sight on the swim and bike, but he pulled away on the run. Bonnie Karas had a great race and kept Cheryl at bay on the run. Beautiful day also.

"I wonder why they changed the swim."

I overheard a conversation between two offical looking types that sounded like some former racers were uncomfortable with swiming in the deeper water in the center of the lake, so they adjusted the course to hug the shoreline.

No real complaints with the swim for me, counter-clockwise is ideal for me since I am a left hand breather. I had a decent race (it being my first since the 1983 Lake Cheumong sp? triathlon) Had a good swim, good bike, terrible run but that was expected as were my shaky transitions. A great learning experience, and a very well run race it seemed.

Vince