Sylvania has always been a great race venue. Jim and Joyce Donalson always put on a good race, and this year was no different.
Swim - After a short sprinkle of rain before the start, the first wave is off (39 and under). I take off in the 2nd wave 3 minutes behind (40 and over). I have a good start and get a good draft off the lead swimmer and stay that way for the 1/4 mile swim. I hit the beach in 6:45, by the time I get to the timing mats it’s 8:25, 2 seconds behind the lead swimmer. Good T1 and I’m first out and on the road.
Bike - Settled into a good rhythm and felt strong from the get go… About mile 9 some guy passes me like I’m standing still and I’m averaging a tick over 26 at this point. I look down at his calf and he’s 42, my age group. SHIT! There’s no way I can crank out the watts he’s doing without blowing up, so I just hold steady, there’s only 4 miles to go, maybe I can catch him on the run. Looking at my computer at mile 10, I’m at 22 minutes and change and still above 26mph avg, then POW! Blew the back tire on my Renn disc. So I stop and get off and look, take off my helmet and start walking. After about 10 guys pass me I decide to get back on my bike and just ride it in. 11 or so minutes later I make my way into T2. Decided to give it a go anyway…
Run - Slapped on my T5’s and headed out, decided not to hold anything back. This year is kind of a recovery year as in the past I’ve been plagued with calf injuries. I’ve finally got that monkey off my back and have been able to run without fear of another calf strain. So I start picking off all the guy’s in my age group that passed me during my sloth like ride in after flatting and slowly but surely and finish strong, very happy that I finished, but somewhat dissapointed about the tire. Almost 12 years of doing triathlons and this is the first time I’ve flatted during a race. Ended up winning my age group, but the guy who went flying by me won the race overall. I talked with him breifly after the race. He’s a cat 1 bike racer and this was his very first triathlon, TT is his specialty.
All in all a great triathlon that you should consider, again congrats to Jim and Joyce Donaldson for putting in the time and effort to pull off such a fine race.
Sure was a lot of competition there. I rode a 1:02:20 and that was good for 11th fastest split in my AG. Normally that would get me really close to the top but so many people went under an hour and is was crazy fast
Sylvania is my measuring stick for my late season fitness. I did the Olympic and had a good race.
Swam faster, biked faster and ran faster than before and still had a lot of fun.
Good on you for sticking to it and congratulations.
I’ve flatted in Memphis and did well. My Ironman PR is in Canada where a jacka$$ in my AG threw nails down and I double flatted going down McLean Creek Road but the motivation to finish was ignited after I saw that.
and beyond! we live in philadelphia, but my wife was out taking the kids to Cedar Point, and despite only just starting up again after a multi-week midsummer break, managed to get 2nd F40-44. sadly, she missed her worlds tri qualifier hopes though. sounds like she really enjoyed the race and venue.
This was a great race! Being a Worlds qualifier there were people from all over. I met women from both Austin TX and Philly (I think this was the PP’s wife) who came in for the race.
The Mideast Region Board, 2XU, and Blackwell Research really upped the ante at this race. A technical tee and running hat were yours for picking up your packet (both from 2XU) and if you were in a club involved in MERCRS you got a sweet 2XU vest. So just for showing up I got all this schwag: http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c279/Rebeccasmom/IMG_4136.jpg
Then I found out today that the overall winners got rims from Blackwell Research. Wow!
I believe Team Toledo won the MERCRS title, congratulations. My club, Kalamazoo Trikats, passed on the trophy that we had the previous 2 years. Hopefully next year team Toledo will add to this piece of art: http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c279/Rebeccasmom/trophy-2.jpg
Great Job to: Jim & Joyce of Elite Endeavors, The entire Mideast region board, 2XU and Blackwell Research.
Shakey fist at the 2 minute penalties being handed out left and right for not wearing a race number on the run. I understand that we should all be wearing our race numbers but…
-transition enforcement was pretty slack, usually people are harrassing you on your way out if you don’t have a number on
-I never heard any pre-race announcement regarding the strict enforcement
I didn’t get a penalty personally, but thought that it was little absurd to be penalizing people with their numbers tatooed all over their bodies. I guess I just take it for granted that race numbers are typically “optional.”
But in terms of race management, it was a great race. Definitely a race to keep on the calendar for '08.
I never heard any pre-race announcement regarding the strict enforcement
I heard it. And when/where is wearing your race# on the run “typically optional”? I’ve never heard of optional race numbers on the run. I remember seeing only 6-7 penalties in the Olympic and most were for drafting (and unfortunately they missed a lot of people who were drafting that went by me!). The sprint race list was MUCH bigger - maybe 30 penalties - a ton of drafting also, and several illegal equipment/helmets, etc. Probably just newbies who don’t know any better.
Great race, great food, great course, I just wish they would have moved some of the 35-39 AG to another AG!!! 50 people? Crazy…
Sylvania was my first tri and I completed the sprint distance. My swim was embarrassing but I felt somewhat redeemed by my bike and run and ended up finishing in 1:21 which was better than I had hoped to do (since I have no background in any of the disciplines). I didn’t push all out since I thought of this one as training for my “A” event of the year which will be the Reeds Lake Tri on Sept 8th. This event seemed fairly ideal for a tri-newbie since the course was so incredibly flat, so I had a ton of fun!!
