A bunch of us were back in Tupper Lake for the half IM today.
This is the 31st year in a row that community has held this race. The road to Kona used to go through Tupper in the early 90's. In fact, I believe Fleck got a Kona slot at Tupper many years ago. Many years ago, this was the go to half IM in the North East. There was no Tremblant 70.3 no Rev3 Quassy, no Mooseman (RIP), no Timberman, no Musselman, no Syracuse 70.3, no Muskoka 70.3. It was just Tupper. The race is put on by the local community to raise money for the High school sports teams. Many of the organizers are high school coaches. This is as "anti corporate"as it gets. Aside from timing chips and faster equipment, if you show up at Tupper Lake, nothing has really changed since 1990, and frankly that is a great thing. The race typically gets around 500-800 people between half IM, sprint and relays
For me, it was my 18th time racing there since 1990. It's easier to count the number of years that I have missed than than the ones I did.
Anyway, down to the blow by blow. My friend Kieth Alber has been training pretty hard, but has not had a "good day" to unleash is his full strength. It seems that every time we square off either the weather is stinking hot (like St. Croix) or there is something that gets in the way of his perfect race.
Well, there is getting chick'd and there is getty geyser'd (I'm used to both), but generally I pick hilly enough courses or hot enough courses that it is difficult to get "beefcake'd". Normally Kalber is hovering around 210 lbs, but this year, he's eliminated a few built in weight jackets and down to a svelt 190 lbs.
Anyway, some time in the swim, we spotted each other and this was about as close as it would get. We both came out of the water in around 33 minutes. Early in the bike he passes me like a hurricane. That's the last time I would see him and he screamed into T2 with a 2:23 bike split.
At least MTL (Alex Aluquerque) upheld the honor of the sub 140 lb athletes with a 3rd overall. Burnman just managed to get "un beefcake'd" late in the race by virtually passing Kalber thanks to a 1:28 run.
For me, the 32.59 swim, 2:31 bike and 1:40.01 run was 2 min slower overall than last year (4:46 vs 4:44), but both my swim and run were within seconds of last year. On the bike I had a hard time in the rain and was cautious with all the cracks in the road and was 2 min slower for 4th in 45-49. I also got to "race on feel" as I left my Garmin Edge by mistake at home....which means my Quarq Elsa turned into a really expensive set of cranks. My head was totally engrossed in work during the last 5 days and I was packing last moment around cranking off a proposal for investors/board members.....as it turns out , the powermeter probably would have made zero difference etc.
While I would like to use racing at the Tremblant 70.3 6 days ago as a bit of an excuse, the reality when I look back at things is that my body felt fine. Today's race is about all I could squeek out of me. I don't think I'd be any faster with a month of no racing. I was pretty recovered.
Very happy for Kalber...a few more seconds and he goes sub 4:40, but the big prize for him is 4 weeks from now at IMLP. Looking forward to getting beefcake'd again, provided that we both "don't go slow".
I just realized that I have done 1008 miles of racing on the Tupper Lake course since 1990!!! The good news is that my swim and bike split was the same as back in 1990 (I guess the new technology helps)....run is more like 15 minutes slower...kind of sucks to get old but better to still be doing it than not at all.
Well done Keith. Keep it up!
Dev
This is the 31st year in a row that community has held this race. The road to Kona used to go through Tupper in the early 90's. In fact, I believe Fleck got a Kona slot at Tupper many years ago. Many years ago, this was the go to half IM in the North East. There was no Tremblant 70.3 no Rev3 Quassy, no Mooseman (RIP), no Timberman, no Musselman, no Syracuse 70.3, no Muskoka 70.3. It was just Tupper. The race is put on by the local community to raise money for the High school sports teams. Many of the organizers are high school coaches. This is as "anti corporate"as it gets. Aside from timing chips and faster equipment, if you show up at Tupper Lake, nothing has really changed since 1990, and frankly that is a great thing. The race typically gets around 500-800 people between half IM, sprint and relays
For me, it was my 18th time racing there since 1990. It's easier to count the number of years that I have missed than than the ones I did.
Anyway, down to the blow by blow. My friend Kieth Alber has been training pretty hard, but has not had a "good day" to unleash is his full strength. It seems that every time we square off either the weather is stinking hot (like St. Croix) or there is something that gets in the way of his perfect race.
Well, there is getting chick'd and there is getty geyser'd (I'm used to both), but generally I pick hilly enough courses or hot enough courses that it is difficult to get "beefcake'd". Normally Kalber is hovering around 210 lbs, but this year, he's eliminated a few built in weight jackets and down to a svelt 190 lbs.
Anyway, some time in the swim, we spotted each other and this was about as close as it would get. We both came out of the water in around 33 minutes. Early in the bike he passes me like a hurricane. That's the last time I would see him and he screamed into T2 with a 2:23 bike split.
At least MTL (Alex Aluquerque) upheld the honor of the sub 140 lb athletes with a 3rd overall. Burnman just managed to get "un beefcake'd" late in the race by virtually passing Kalber thanks to a 1:28 run.
For me, the 32.59 swim, 2:31 bike and 1:40.01 run was 2 min slower overall than last year (4:46 vs 4:44), but both my swim and run were within seconds of last year. On the bike I had a hard time in the rain and was cautious with all the cracks in the road and was 2 min slower for 4th in 45-49. I also got to "race on feel" as I left my Garmin Edge by mistake at home....which means my Quarq Elsa turned into a really expensive set of cranks. My head was totally engrossed in work during the last 5 days and I was packing last moment around cranking off a proposal for investors/board members.....as it turns out , the powermeter probably would have made zero difference etc.
While I would like to use racing at the Tremblant 70.3 6 days ago as a bit of an excuse, the reality when I look back at things is that my body felt fine. Today's race is about all I could squeek out of me. I don't think I'd be any faster with a month of no racing. I was pretty recovered.
Very happy for Kalber...a few more seconds and he goes sub 4:40, but the big prize for him is 4 weeks from now at IMLP. Looking forward to getting beefcake'd again, provided that we both "don't go slow".
I just realized that I have done 1008 miles of racing on the Tupper Lake course since 1990!!! The good news is that my swim and bike split was the same as back in 1990 (I guess the new technology helps)....run is more like 15 minutes slower...kind of sucks to get old but better to still be doing it than not at all.
Well done Keith. Keep it up!
Dev