If you guys have photos from Brightroom or any others, email me and I will link them here.

Click for more:

Ok let’s cut to the chase.  Here are the race times:

Squeeky – 3:47:31

Litl’bit – 3:47:49

Holly B – 3:50:27

Sandbagger – 3:51:19

KarenG8r – 4:14:12

Terp – 4:18:33

Missy – 5:20:38

Let’s start with the race reports y’all!

I haven’t even finished my SOMA report and I have another one to do

More pics and reports coming up – we promise!

(We were down by 1 – #343 we missed you!!  )

(Course map)

(Have you seen my group?)

(Cruising the Expo – sufficient but not a NY or Boston Expo)

(Shop til u Drop)

(Missy Thang checking in)

(Downtown Shot)

(Downtown Richmond VA – nice to stroll and check out the scene)

(Lets Carbo Load! – La Grotta Ristorante)

(Fast GG Girls)

(Post race victory photo!)

Where: Richmond Marathon

Time: 6:30

Distance: 26.2 Miles

Temp: High 30s to Low 50s – Slight Chance of Showers

What a race!  I wanted to get a post up so people could start writing up their experiences in the comments field.

More pics soon.  Rap Master, we would love another epic writeup.  Squeeky, Topher and Litl’bit – please share your view of your first Half Iron distance race.  KarenG8r always has a great angle on things.  Miss Topher (new nick needed!) we would love to hear how you beat back the Halloween demons for a great OWS and great race as well.

Soma Half Triathlon is upon us. Squeeky and I walked to Starbucks at 6:30AM and saw an absolutely amazing full moon just setting on the walk over.

The rest of the gang is meeting Topher at Landis at 10:30, assuming the Cleveland to Phoenix flight treats the ladies nicely.

Topher has quite an itinerary planned out for us. After hooking up at the bike shop, we will head up South Mountain for a 12 mile climb and deal with humidity in the teens.

The site:


Quick bite at La Farm:

Tune up ride in 96 degrees:

Color baked out:

Registration and packet pickup:

The swim:

Topher explains the swim:

Saturday night Topher and Co (we need a nick for Catherine!) hosted us for a gourmet pre-race dinner at their fabulous home. The view:

We all dipped our toes:

A little later:

Dinner!

Will be back for the Crumble Thanks very much to the whole family for hosting such a wonderful evening!

SOMA race day pics are posted here.

We had a great time. RMS and I sported the EW colors, but we missed not having others there, as well. My friends from Reno came into town for a week at the beach, capped off with the triathlon. They had a great time and want to come back next year. Let’s all do it.

Alas, since Sandbagger was not there with his trusty digital, I have no pictures to share. That’s probably better, though. Saltwater dries in an very unsightly pattern on those blue EW trisuits.

NCBC Fall Rally & Picnic Lunch!
Date: Sunday, October 14th, 2007 – rain or shine
Distances: 100K (63 miles), 43 miles, 28 miles
Registration:

Morning of event only. Print Registration Form, complete, and bring with you.
PLEASE RSVP (see below) so we can estimate number of riders and plan appropriately.
RSVP: [CLICK HERE] to send an email to let us know you’ll be coming!
Time: Registration starts at 8:15 AM.
100K starts at 9:00 AM, all other rides start from 10:00 – 10:30 AM
Place: Rollingview Park at Falls Lake, Picnic Shelter #15. Map showing shelters. Rollingview is on Baptist Road, which is on NC 98 approx 5 miles east of Durham and 7 miles west of NC 50.
[Google Map]
Cost: $FREE for NCBC members and those who join at the event; $10 for non-members
Includes rides, snacks, beverages & post-ride picnic lunch.
Maps,
Cue Sheets: [Work in Progress - will be posted soon]
Contact: Scott Chilcote, scottchilcote@gmail.com
919-380-0585 (home – before 9pm, please)
Please Note: We urgently need volunteers for this event. Please call or send email if you’re able to drive a sag vehicle, ride sweep, or help operate a rest stop table. Gracious thanks to those who can help us!

Got a few pics up on Flickr. Click through if you are impatient and want to laugh, or wait and I will eventually get a full recap here.

Click here for the prelude.

Cliffs:
It was cold & dark to start.
The swim was very challenging on the way out, and a breeze after the turnaround.
The bike was pretty nice. Great weather, wind seemed to be behind me more than in front of me.
And then there was the run. It was long. And hard. And it was pretty long too. And the hills were hard.
I beat my goal of 5:30 by a minute and eighteen stinking seconds, and that made me smile.
Litl’bit and KarenG8r came all the way out to cheer (make fun of) me. After doing a ride nearby, they made it out and helped me push through the final yards with some insane screaming and yelling and cheerleading. I was trying to the the KarenG8r fist high five thing and I think she thought I was trying to slug her. I will stick to the old-school hand-slapping high-five from now on.

More pics after the jump.

Carol over at Triathlon Training Blog had a nice recap of her race. One of these days our paths will cross in person.

I somehow managed to finish. Click here for the recap.

What good are friends?

Squeeky drove us out to New Hope Overlook Park and ran the Duke Half course with me. He didn’t complain (much) when I got us lost and we had to scamper an extra 2.5 miles on a hot day.

He also humored me while I shot the transition area from a leather trimmed, air conditioned, Lexus photo blind after our swim.

More pics (of course) on the way after the race.

I told Squeeky I’m shooting for sub 5:30. He said he thinks I can do it. I think he is humoring me again. Ah, but that’s what friends are for.

(More transition shots after the jump)

[Click here for recap after the race]

Parting Shot

Rama,

The swimmer of my triathalon team tore her rotator cuff. If you know any ladies who swim and are not already participating in the Wilmington triathalon, I would appreciate if you would see if they would be interested in being on our team.

Hope all is well with you and all your training. I have had fun training and don’t want to drop out. If we don’t find someone by next weekend I’m going to start training for it.

Eran

EDIT – They found a swimmer – Litl’bit you are off the hook -
EDIT – Now we are trying to get you back on the hook! I posted over on BT. Maybe we can get you back on a relay team.
Click here to see the BeginnerTriathlete forum link.

Event Newsletter
September 6, 2007

As a registered participant in the November 10 SunTrust Richmond Marathon, NTELOS 8k or
Richmond Times-Dispatch Kids Run, you are receiving this e-newsletter to let you know about this year’s event.

Free Course Tours Provided

As America’s Friendliest Marathon, we are excited to provide FREE marathon course tours to our runners and their family and friends. Members of the Richmond Road Runners Club will be leading bus tours of the SunTrust Richmond Marathon course on Friday, November 9. All buses will depart from the James Center Atrium located on Cary Street next to the Omni Richmond Hotel, site of the race expo/packet pick-up. The first bus departs at 11:30 am with the final bus departing at 3 pm. Seating is limited and we usually fill up most buses so sign up today at www.richmondmarathon.com to guarantee your spot.

Trying for a PR? Take Advantage of a Pace Group

Trying to qualify for Boston or set a PR? The Richmond Road Runners Club is proud to offer Pace Teams for the 2007 SunTrust Richmond Marathon. There are two ways to join a Pace Team for accomplishing your finish time goal:

1. Visit our website and use the online form;
2. Visit the Richmond Road Runners Club booth at the Race Expo for details and to sign up!

We’ve Got the Best Place for Friends and Family to Watch the Marathon

The SunTrust/NBC 12 Party Zones make it real fun and easy for friends and family to support marathon runners along the route. Located near miles 7, 13 and 19.5, the SunTrust/NBC 12 Party Zones feature live music, refreshments, giveaways and an on-air personality. There’s no better way to watch the marathon – especially for our out-of-town visitors not familiar with the Richmond area – then to drive from the start and hit each party along the way and still have time to make it back to the finish. For a complete list of locations and driving directions from one party to the next, please visit our web site at www.richmondmarathon.com as race day approaches.

UPS Bag Check Available to all Participants

On race morning, UPS will provide a bag check for your gear at the starting line. Look for the UPS trucks at the intersection of Broad and 8th Street. Volunteers will be on hand to help you clearly mark you bag with your race number. Once you have finished the marathon, you can pick up your bag at the Finish Line Festival in Shockoe Slip where the UPS trucks will be parked at 13th and Cary Streets – a few blocks from the finish line.

Great run and great turnout today for our Bridge to Nowhere run! The trails were packed, the weather was reasonable, and the banter was top notch.

Litl’bit was running strong and had enough electrolytes in her Fuel Belt to bang out 20, but she wisely took the foot off the gas and turned around early.

Bill Betts ran today, along with Dr Feelgood and Mike showing fresh legs after the Hood to Coast.

Post run pic of the remaining few who headed to Starbucks. KarenG8r has finished the workout schedule – including the run locations for the next few months – at least through the Richmond Marathon and Soma Triathlon. Look for the schedule in the near future after we get it posted.

Mens Results
Womens Results

Pics here.

We almost missed half the EW Tri team when KarenG8r and her trusty co-pilot Litl’bit’Lost couldn’t find the race and just made it in. Hey guys, the Athletes In Transition pic is just for you two.

Will try to get some more info posted when I can. Squeeky, Litl’bit, KarenG8r – feel free to add color.

Check it out at: http://usatrankings.com/Pages/MemberPages/RankingQuery.aspx

You can search and sort by many different filters. You can see everyone in your AG for a particular race. You can download the results to your computer. And this is COUNTRYWIDE. I think I weigh in around 2600 something for my AG. Hey now THATS motivating.

I found that I placed top 3 for my AG at Swiss Pine. (Don’t let me fail to mention that there were 5 in my AG).

UPDATE – IM Newfoundland 2007 is history! RMS finished 7:53:52. Congratulations on banging out another Half Ironman!
______________
So Rap Master Sass made some remark about a ‘newfie’ in an email about a week or so ago. I thought, hmm, maybe a typo? Did he mean ‘newbie’? What the hell is a newfie anyways? Some kind of cross between a roofie and a newbie?

RMS takes off tomorrow for a big race. Lets all wish him good luck – maybe by now he has upgraded his Crackberry to the International version so he can get our spammingly good best wishes emails.

Give em hell and watch out for the polar bears/icebergs/etc.
_______________

Here is the report – fresh off the wire.

In 50+ years of over-estimating my abilities, rarely have I learned such a painful lesson. You’d think that being able to do the three legs individually in a total of six hours, and get through an Ironman in 16 hours, might point toward a 7-hour half. Maybe somewhere else. In Newfoundland, I was barely able to break 8.

I hurt too much to sleep last night. My eyelashes are sore, and my teeth are tired.

I do not want to sell Master Kenobi death sticks. I want to go home and re-think my entire life.

Newfoundland’s a beautiful place. Fir trees, moiuntains, and tundra for as far as you can see. The Humber River is bounded by banks so hgh that it could be considered a fjord. Unfortunately, I caught the place in a heat wave of 29 degrees — or high 80s.

This race was a big deal. One of the people who beat me was Craig Alexander, the reigning world champion. All the competitors had shaved legs, no body fat, and $10,000 bikes.

The lake was transparent, and about 60 degrees. It started off so shallow that we walked to the first buoy. I could see my feet turning blue. When it became time to swim, my face would not go down into it. My hands stung with each stroke. Little did I expect that this would be the most fun I would have all day.

The web page describes the bike course as “flat and fast.” I should have looked at the logo, which incorporates several jagged peaks. This was tougher than Lake Placid or the Blue Ridge Parkway. We ground out 18 miles uphill and into the wind, culminated by a 3-mile screaming-calf climb that got steepest at the top. My back went out, and I had no confidence that I would ever do it twice. Although we went plummeting back down at 45 mph, my average speed never got up to 15.

On. July 4, I went through 56 in 3:10 (17.5 mph). In all of my training rides, I did at least 3:30, or 16 mph. But in Newfoundland, I limped home in 3:46.

I was still in a position to break 7 with a 10-minute per mile run pace. I held that pace for almost a mile. Then, I went to my fall-back of 11:30 (my sub-five marathon pace). That also went by the boards. By halfway, I was just hoping to break 3 hours for the run.

At the end of the first lap, I attracted the attention of the race director. He wanted to know how I was feeling, whether I was eating and drinking, who my insurer was, how many fingers he was holding up, and whether I would mind signing a simple release. At least, that’s how it seemed. I must have looked like Walking Death.

On the good side, though I did not break 3 hours for the run, I broke 8 overall.

I managed to beat two or three people.

I found someone who was heavier and hairier than I. He was waist-deep in the river, scooping out salmon.

I killed fifteen minutes chatting with Craig Alexander at the airport this morning. How many other sports can you walk up to the equivalent of a Tiger Woods or Roger Feder, and compare notes?

Oh, yeah. I came within five spots of qualifying for the World Championships.

————————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

I promised Rap Master Sass that I would get EW on the podium. (Rap Master – does this count? Will I be sued for fraud or impersonating a winner?)

Pics Here – with our shiny new TriRunWithUs Flickr Account (Ask for admin access so you too can help build this photographic barrel of monkeys)

2007 Mens Results
2007 Womens Results
Recap coming – we (Squeeky, Litl’bit, KarenG8r, Mitdog, Sandbagger) promise!

Click here for Course Maps, Directions, and other info.

Quite a few will be sporting their new EW tri gear. We expect to see that snazzy blue on the podium from either Litl’but (it was a typo, i promise!) or Mitdog in his first foray into the other two scary legs.

We have some caravan issues to figure out.

Should be a blast!

Make sure the memory cards are empty and the batteries are full (camera and body) and make sure to have a ton of fun!

It would be great to get race reports from y’all after the race. I am setting up a group Flickr account for us to post our groups photos. Everyone who has group pics will be able to post them. email me for access to the account.

Yum Yum… Right? More like bloomin heart attack…

Here… we’ve printed it out so you can cut on the dotted lines and add the card to your nutritional 3×5 card collection.

For more thrills, go check out more heart attack material here.

What could be better than a police escort down Kildaire Farm Road at 8:00AM on Independence day? Riding 100k and crossing into 3 counties, riding past a nuclear power plant, several train tracks, a large lake or two – all with 800 other friendly Triangle Area cyclists.

2007 Firecracker Ride sponsored by The Spin Cycle.

Route map – Queue Sheet – 100k route only. See site for 50k route info.

Who’s rode?

KarenG8r

Litl’bit

Squeeky

Elvis

Rap Master Sass

Sandbagger

RECAP:
Rolling out with the police escort was fun. Lots of bikers of all abilities jockeying for positing and shuffling out half clipped in on an uphill. No wipeouts that I saw.

A bit of a sketchy moment at the bottom of the hill on Kildaire – as 6 abreast got forced into one lane as oncoming traffic barreled down from the other side.

After making it through Holly Springs, and onto Piney Grove Wilbon – 8 miles of really nice pavement and pace lines started becoming reasonable.

Overall, the ride was cool (for a NC 4th of July), dry and highly enjoyable.

Finishing up down Kildaire, its quite a treat to see the party starting at the Hibernian in Cary. After swapping some contact info for another guy I talked with on the ride (Hey Stan if you see this send us an email or register a comment below) – I limped home and actually put my running shoes on and did a short run to see if there was anything left in the legs. Not a whole hell of a lot.

You know how Squeeky gets around the camera, right? Especially when Sandbagger is on the other side?

For the GPS crowd, Alan (nick needed?) volunteered up his stats on MotionBased, which reminds me I have been wanting a Garmin 305 for awhile now…

Sandbaggers littler (as in younger) brother takes the plunge. Nothing like a little fraternal competition to make it all a bit more interesting.

Squeeky or anyone else – do we have lake water temp info?

Swiss Pine Triathlon 2007 Roll Call:

Squeeky

KarenG8r

Sandbagger

JayBird (aw doesnt he have a cute nickname?)

If he beats me I will grant him one nickname change this weekend.

Meanwhile, I am on a hunt for the nearest hotel room. (Edit – found! Alpine Inn NC)

Apparently the Smashing Pumpkins are playing in Asheville Saturday night. Not sure if my 36 year old ear drums can handle it.