(Wednesday, 06 August 2008) Written by Stephen Semo
Congratulations to Kim and Rachel Cole on their race this past weekend.
Kim finished 1st in her age group in the international distance race.
Rachel finished 5th in her age group in the sprint distance race.
International Results - Click Here
Sprint Results - Click Here
Congratulations to all KBTC members who participated in this race.
Triathlon:
Jason Leggett - 1st Clydesdale
Simon Bell - 4th M35-39
Aqua Bike:
Karen Connolly - 1st
Chris Ebbrecht - 2nd
Jeff Cole - 3rd
Results - Click here
The Cohasett Tri was was for me a collection of race lessons. Lets start with the personal lubricant stick. As I am wet suiting up, a guy in my bike rack asks to borrow my body glide. Now body glide is a personal lubricant. Its says so right on the stick. Theres no sharing, its personal as in one user. Just like Chap Stick only more personal. I am thinking to myself if this guy knew what part of my body I just lubed he would not be asking to borrow the stick. What do I say? I can't say no cause I will look like an ass. So I say to myself 'thinking of this all day will give me a chuckle' so I say "sure buddy" and hand it over. The guy lubes his neck and wrist around the wet suit and hands it back. Then I am thinking 'what if this has some kind of skin disease' He could have MRSA or other kind of infection. I can't see behind his neck. He could have an open sore back there. So I toss the body glide stick into the first trash can I see. Race Lesson #1 - Be nice or you'll just screw yourself. Here's a little history. The Cohassett tri is the triathlon where a man died last year. This year there was fog. I mean pea soup cut it with a knife kinda fog. So, the harbour master was not letting the race proceed unless she had a certain visibility. The race went on but with a course change. I did not pay attention to that change. My mistake. Well, thanks to the master swim at the Y, I was the second person to the first buoy. Then, I missighted and followed the wrong course because i had tinted lenses when i needed clear lenses, got ran over, and then got ran over again. My goggles filled with water so I stopped to clear them and was run over yet again. Race lesson #2 - know the course. Race lesson #3 -have the proper equipment. So now I exit the swim and get to the bike rack. But no bike. Where is my bike. I mean where the @#$% is my bike? My area is in compete disarray. What the @#$% is going on? Finally I see my bike a couple over but no helmet which is why I could'nt find the bike. The helmet is down at the end of the row. The only bikes out of my transition row are the guys on either side of me and a couple of guys on the other side. So I take off and have 13 miles to think of all the things I can do to get back at these guys - cleat through the carbon wheel, bent derailer, outright brawl, etc. Race lesson #4 - getting mad gives you a great bike split. So after the race I go back to transition and walk up to both of them looking for a fight. I was hollering and yelling that one of them messed with my stuff and I wanted to know which one of them it was. Then, from behind me some guy says that when he came out of the water the whole bike rack was down. So, my head drops down and in a softer voice I apologize for my attitude. I said I was sorry. Race lesson #5 - Sometimes your stuff gets moved around. Be kind and rewind before you go looking for a fight. Now about the race results, Jarrod Shoemaker(Olympic Racer) won the race by a huge margin, then came the elite racers which raced so fast, then came the age group winners which were also so fast (including the guy next to me), then came the middle of the packers which was me. Race lesson #6 - its all about finishing and have a good personal day. The fog lifted, the man who died the year before had over 30 family members who raced with us, I had a great bagle sandwich and hot coffee, and $250,000 was raised for juvenile diabetes. Thats a good race day. By the way, on the way home I reviewed the events of the bike rack mishap. How did my bike wind up in the guys slot next to me if he left before me and his wetsuit was all over my stuff? Thats right, he did mess with my stuff - probably because I made him move a little when I arrived. He had encrouched into my area!! That @#$%.
Congratulations to all participants of the hilly Powow sprint triathlon in Amesbury MA. The race consisted of a 1/2 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike and a 3.2 mile run. Results: Chuck Chokel 2nd place finish in M55-59, Naira Chokel 2nd place finish in F45-49, Kathy Bois finished 8th in F50-54, Jeff Cole finished 11th in M50-54 and Dave Bois finished in 22nd in M50-54. Everyone had a great race and when Jeff Cole was asked specifically what was his secret for having such a solid race, he replied "It's the Viking blood!".
Special congratulations to Kim Cole for finishing in 1st place in the W50-54 age group out of a total of 9 and for having a PR day!!! Also congratulations to Chuck Chokel for finishing 3rd out of 10 in his age group of M55-59, working hard for it. Great job. Naira C came in 5th of of 16 in the F45-49 category. A total of 343 people participated in the 2nd annual Patriot triathlon. This is a great race for anyone considering "TRI-ing" their first half iron distance race even though the bike course is 2 miles longer than a normal half iron. The race course is great. The 1.2 mile swim in Long Pond was nice and wide open so no crowding. The water temperature was warm this year at 76 degrees but still wetsuit legal. The 58 mile bike course consisted of two loops of flat and rolling hills, with no major climbs. 90% of the course was on very smoothly paved roads... what a treat. (10% were bumpy due to our famous New England winters). The 13.1 mile single loop run course again was mostly flat to rolling hills. The finisher medals were very cool. The post race food was delicious and a large tent was provided so people could actually sit down and enjoy their well earned meal. Awards were given out shortly after the majority of the racers had finished so no long wait. Great race. Great day!
Race results can be view at: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/ma/Jul5_Patrio_set1.shtml
Jeff cole sent me an email this week with the idea to reconsider having the annual meeting this thursday and hold it in the fall. instead, we could get interested parties who have issues together for a discussion. i think it is a good idea.
this will give us time to work out an agenda. besides, having a mini tri and a couple of beers is a much better way to spend one of our few summer nights than arguing about agenda and protocall.
so stay tuned for the meeting date. i will get with joe, steve and, charles to get a free night. any interested parties would of course be welcome. the topics for discussion are the kbtc decision making process, email use, and the exclusion of non-paying members.
i have been working on a survey of other triathlon clubs so we can see what others are doing. i have never been a big fan of 'well they are all doing it' probably cause my mother scratched onto my frontal lobe that phrase 'well if your friends were jumping off a cliff would you do it' but i think it is helpful to see what else is out there for ideas. i will forward that along as it comes together. cause dont forget we chose to not become an official registered club. we chose to stay loosly organized.
so; well see you out there. until later. best regards, chris.
