Tuxedo Brothers Racing and Elite Endeavors hosted the 2005 USAT Mideast Regional Triathlon/Duathlon Championships on Sunday, August 28 at Eagle Creek Park, Indianapolis.
The event drew over 500 participants vying for the coveted club championship as well as individual regional championship staus. Going into the USAT Mideast Regionals no less than five clubs were tied for first place in the club points competition. As a result, turnout was strong and the racing was serious.
It was a pleasure to meet Chris Wiggins of A1 Cyclery during dinner at a Mexican restaurant the night before. Chris graciously offered the services of his fine shop, A1 Cyclery, for technical assistance and gave us detailed insights into the course. Chris was at the event on race day supporting a growing local Indianapolis multisport club.
An early morning fog burned off quickly after a brief weather hold. Conditions, once the fog lifted, were superb with light winds and comfortable temperatures climbing to the low 80’s during the final run.
The bike course was worthy of a championship with undulating terrain and varied pavement surfaces. One section appeared to have been specifically paved for the race. Other sections featured pavement similar to the chip n’ seal road surface in Ironman New Zealand. The corn fields of Indiana were at full height and provided excellent sheltered from the wind as well as a pastoral feel to the event.
Of particular interst on the bike was the technical, fast section leading into and out of Eagle Creek State Park. This section was strewn out like a snake coiled, ready to strike. It did strike for some athletes who found the fast, tight, winding curves too difficult to negotiate and wound up on the pavement. This section was through a beautiful forest on pristine pavement and featured numerous deer as quiet spectators.
The second run was a moderately rolling out and back inside park roads. Very beautiful and mostly shaded.
Tuxedo Brothers and Elite Endeavors did a great job hosting the event.
I travelled to the race with Officer Meggan Kantz of the Taylor Police Department who had an excellent race capturing 2nd in her age category in the Duathlon and my fiancee’, Sarah, who is the new USAT Mideast Regional Age Group Duathlon Champion. Sarah mentioned that is a rather pretentious title for race that had, as she characterized, “A pretty weak field” in her age category. Nonetheless, she loved he race as did the rest of us.
I also did the Duathlon and really loved the bike course. The runs were tough for me as I haven’t been doing much run training.
An early afternoon dinner at a local restaurant on the beautiful Eagle Creek Reservoir featured wharf-side dining at its best for the mideastern U.S. We ate fresh mahi-mahi steaks as we sat on the high terrace overlooking the lake and watched the sailboat races in front of the marina just below us. All in all, another great day to be in the sport.
Results are here: http://www.eliteendeavors.com/results/mideast_res.htm
There were two competitors in her age catgory but one DNF’d. She had a bit of a tough day with some lingering knee pain from a 1/2 IM distance duathlon she did two weeks ago. I raced for Team Toledo as an Independant Contractor so to speak to help them with their points total. Our team was: