Pics from the Syracuse Cross’ Race Oct 18

The obligatory shot of Katina and me with our arms around each other’s shoulders.

and

Kate looking stoned…with flair that just doesn’t quite work…

but the spirit is there.

So, very late post - the race was fun, painful, one mud hole…gorgeous fall colors, decent temperature.

2nd place Masters Women - Katina

4th place Masters Women - Kate

Cobbs Hill Cross Race - near Rochester, NY Oct. 12, 2008

Finger Lakes Tri: Sept 21, 2008

Cayuga, NY

Jano gets 1st Women 50-54

Not much drama to tell, it was great weather for a swede, cool and cloudy and fairly still winds. My race number was 911 which seemed ominmous..

Kirkland Cross Race - Clinton, NY

Cross Over the Border - Macungie, PA

Apple Fest Race: Montrose, PA, Sept 13, 2008

(almost) Always the bridesmaid, never the bride…$25 cash for 2nd place woman is a pleasant treat.  Paid for the entry fee.  But I thought I could have won the whole shebang.  

The Apple Fest Race is a funny, homey, little USCF race with the men and women combined.  After the race, you can feast on home-made cookies, lots of fruit and drinks, all for a short 26 miles of “endless hills.”  It’s also amazingly full of booty to take home:  QOM winner gets a jersey.  Cash prizes paid to 5 places deep.  AND any woman breaking the course time record gets an extra $150!  After breaking my lifetime PR from five years ago by 24 seconds at the club time trial this week,  I felt nearly guaranteed that it was MINE.

On-line registration ended at 10:30 Friday night.  As of 10:15 there were a measly 7 women including me signed up.  I recognized some of the names, but not all and began to wonder if I was being too confident.  When I looked again after the cut off time, one new name had been added that made my blood run cold:  Elizabeth Tyrell.  No!!!!!!!  

Betty is a seasoned racer (somewhere around 54 years old) and wears a stars and stripes jersey for her national champion time trial and probably road racing success.  Katina and I had just raced with her a few weeks ago at the Chris Thater Crit, and while she didn’t finish ahead of us, it was she who really pushed the pace the whole race.  She has won crits by going off the front and then lapping the field.  Still she’s from Downstate…a flat lander…

So the race starts, fast downhill and the field was nicely solid and rode predictably.  I went to my usual place, toward the front, and tried to sit in and just take advantage of the testosterone of the leaders.  All was well, and the first KOM/QOM was to come at around mile 9.  Young Eli (sp?) from Ithaca, with his bleached, formerly pink fluff ruffling in the wind on his seat tube to show his support of the NY Bellas turned to me and chirped, “you got it!” and I believed him, because I hadn’t seen any women in ages.  There were maybe 200 meters to the line and I turned my head to the left, and who do I see, but Ms. Stars And Stripes herself, quietly moving up and passing me!  Verdammt!  And she kept going…I started to lose contact with the leaders.   Betty was dangling, but still hanging in there…  I was done.

The rest of the race, I was with a small group of four - one was the men’s NYS Time Trial Champion, who when I asked why the heck he was back with us, said he was sick.  We worked a ragged paceline and on the last hills all fell to one’s own pace.  I had a small test of my conscience when I realized I was dropping one of my club friends, Rich, who is usually a very good climber - I thought, should I just wait a little for him and we can ride the last mile together or should I just keep pushing and see how I do on that course record, even though Betty’s surely already gotten it?  No karma points for me - I chose the latter and left my pal in the dust wobbling up the hill with cramps in his legs.  Bad choice - I was off the record by a minute.  Betty broke it by two minutes.

Typical for Betty, when I congratulated her on her amazing ride, she replied, “Oh, if you had just managed to stay on a little longer, you’d have been there with me, all they did was sit there and roost the rest of the race!”  How can you begrudge a sportswoman like that?  If someone’s going to win and it’s not me, I want it to be down-to-earth, no pretensions, unassuming, and always cheerful Betty.  And the QOM jersey would have been too big for me anyway.

Here’s a Youtube clip of Ambassador to Women’s Cycling Betty Tyrell.

Kate

Jan-O: She IS all that!

Skinnyman Triathlon and “I’m All That” Race Weekend - Labor Day Weekend 2008

Skaneateles, NY 

Jano after the Escape from the Judge swim with Gaetane

Janet did the “I’m all that” competition this weekend:  The Skinnyman Sprint Triathlon on Saturday, and on Sunday, the Escape from the Judge 1 mile open water swim race, the Coon Hill Grind 2 mile uphill time trial and the 4 mile Skaneateles Road race.  What an exhausting weekend!  I think killing the day on Sunday between events and making sure she still had energy for the last event at 5:30 was probably the hardest part.  

Janet and MJ

Her results speak for themselves:

• 4th Women 50-54 in the Skinnyman Tri
• 2nd Women 50-54 in Escape from the Judge Open Water Swim
• 1st Women 50-54 Coon Hill Grind uphill time trial
• 2nd Women 50-54 Skaneateles Road Race - run
• 1st Women 50-54 in the “I’m All That!” overall!

Our ANIMAL, Janet, and Kate at the Coon Hill Grind

When asked if she would do it again next year, Jan-o responded, “Ask me next week…”  In any event, the Ohlsen family now has a lovely set of beer glasses to celebrate Janet’s many successes this weekend.

Other NY Bellas participating in the weekend’s races also had decent showing:

• Kim Behrman 12th Women 35-39 Skinnyman Tri
• MJ Kiggins 7th Women 45-59 Skinnyman Tri
• Gaetane Perreault 2nd Men (!!!) 40-44 Escape from the Judge Open Water Swim
• Kate Stewart 2nd Women overall Coon Hill Grind TT

Laura’s Win at the Tour de Loop - Oswego, NY

LiLynn’s Report:

Since being off most the summer with a knee injury I found this road race I could get in before my Colorado trip. It would be my one and only road race of the season. Very exciting, since I was told in March I would not race at all this season. I heard a few other Bellas would be partaking and talked Laura Kozlowski into coming with me. She was on the fence until her boyfriend told her it wasn’t “her kind of race.” She was signed up in a matter of minutes even after registration had closed. On the phone insisting she had to enter this particular race.

This set the tone for Laura. She was going there to win and I was going to help her reach that goal.

I drove and set the pace for the race by cruising at about 85-90 mph and arriving in 1hr 15 minutes, a trip that we were told would take over 2 hours. Being the first ones there, even before the officials had set anything up, we had the prime parking spot under the only tree but in our sleepy condition didn’t notice we parked right next to the porta-johns. Therefore making our car grand central station once the day progressed, with the bathroom line wrapping around the back of our car while we were getting ready. Quite amusing.

Five kittens (Bellas) showed up: Linda T, Lisa, Michelle, Laura, and me. After warming up we all lined up together at the start in our hot little kits and rode like the wind.

Lisa, Laura, LiLynn, Michelle:

Lisa, Linda, LiLynn, Laura:

Linda, Laura and I were in the front pack and at about the 10 mile mark just made a turn and thankfully were not going really fast but heading into an uphill, Linda broke a spoke and it went into the guy’s bike in front of me. I heard it and saw his bike swerving and then he went down, I went over the top of him trying to keep my line and somehow landed upright on one foot with my bike in the air but saw the entire crash transpire and I just froze. I saw Linda moving off to the side of the road and Laura go down with everyone starting to pile up on and behind her and I just went into shock. I was so worried about Laura. My first crash! My friend Peter road past and yelled to keep riding. Thank god, because I was frozen so I tried to get on my bike and ride, took me a while to calm down and start breathing normal and about 5 minutes later I hear “Kitten Power. ” Whoopie, Laura is back.

That’s all I needed. We were back in the race and OK. Two other guys got through and we never saw anyone else from the crash after that. We never saw the peleton either and for the next 20 miles of rollers we had to work really hard but ended up finishing 1 hr 25 minutes and the peleton finished 1 hour 19 minutes. Laura took first woman and I came in right behind her. This was Laura’s first win and a big one.

She has worked so hard this year and has made a major come back from surviving cancer in her leg and then from the radiation leading to a break in her femor and almost loosing her leg. She now has metal plates holding things together and is stronger than ever. This was really big in many ways for her. Linda had to drop out with her broken wheel. Lisa had a great race and and came in behind us with Michelle coming in behind her in her hot little black kitten kit.

It was a great day for most of the kittens, and we felt so bad for Linda because she was just sick about what happened out on the course but we got to experience our first crash and now I will know to just keep going if I can and not just stand there like a doofus. No one in the crash was hurt bad, just some scrapes and bruises and a few broke bike parts.

Off to Colorado to ride Mount Evans on Friday! Ouch.

Katina opens up a can of WV Whoop-Ass

It’s TRI-DAY! Sue A’s Caz Triathlon Report

Cazenovia Triathlon

Sunday 8/10/08

Tri-Day!

I had been looking forward to this triathlon since the start of the summer, however, life turned pretty hectic and I wasn’t able to be as consistent with my workout and sleep schedule as I’d wanted to be.  Oh well, life happens!  Since the start is just a couple of miles from my house, I had planned on bicycling to the park.  And typically, I prefer to arrive at the venue with at least two hours to spare (crazy, I know…pity poor Janet who frequently carpools with me!)  However, upon crawling out of bed, I was immediately conscious of the very relentless rain coming down.  I scratched the idea of arriving early and savored breakfast and coffee, even took a few minutes to check the weather forecast.  The radar showed that the rain had already moved off to the east and with nothing behind it, I figured we might have a decent day.  Having tortured my long-suffering boyfriend (Dave) with my tri-day exuberance (he’s not a morning person!) and since the rain had stopped, I decided I’d better get going.  On my way past Captain Kate’s house, I noticed her car was open and she was loading her stuff for her trip to Auburn to compete in the Great Race.  Forgetting that it was still early, I hollered out “Happy Tri-Day!”  Pity her poor neighbors (anyone sensing a theme here…?)  Sometimes my enthusiasm just can’t be contained.  I did look pretty unprepared for a triathlon; since it was wet and rainy I had street clothes and a rain jacket over my tri outfit.  I must have been a sight pedaling through Cazenovia!  Kate snapped a quick picture, we exchanged wishes of luck and we were both off. 

Registration, chip pick-up, body marking and transition set-up all went very smoothly.  I had a bit of trouble deciding what time I wanted to put on my wet suit, as transition closed at 8:00 when the Olympic-distance athletes started.  That left me with 45 minutes before my start.  Ultimately, the weather dictated that I put it on earlier than later, because I was starting to get cold.  I did manage to get a glimpse of Janet running from the swim finish to transition…she had a fantastic swim time and really hustled up the hill to transition.  That would be the last I saw of her until the finish!  Finally it was time for the first of the sprint waves.  Wisely, I had seeded myself in the fourth and final wave.  I spent the last few minutes conversing with two other women who were very nervous about the swim.  One, doing her first ever tri, started sobbing a couple of minutes before we started.  The support displayed from all the other women was very moving and once again, I felt tremendous pride in being involved in an incredible group of people.

The swim pace started fast and I rather surprisingly found myself sticking pretty well to the pace and feeling almost comfortable to boot.  I settled into a somewhat steady rhythm and tried to maintain that pace.  When I finally had the presence of mind to look for the first buoy, I realized I had strayed quite a bit into the center of the course.  I corrected, slowed down and did fairy well for the rest of the swim.  I sure wasn’t able to run up the hill to transition nearly as fast as Janet, though!

T-1.  Well, what could go wrong, did go wrong.  My wet suit caught on both arms and both legs, my socks didn’t want to go on my feet, I had trouble getting my bike off the rack and to top it off, I was a couple of paces away from my spot when I realized I forgot my race belt with my number.  I had to set my bike down and go back for the belt.  What fun.  

Here’s what I look like when I’m trying to quell those evil voices that keep nagging me when I’m not doing so well.  I was just thankful that the swim and T-1 was over and   that I was finally able to get onto my favorite leg.  In case you’re wondering, this bike course starts on a fiendishly steep hill out of the parking lot and onto the main road.  Leaping onto the bike in traditional tri style is pretty difficult for most people (though I have witnessed Janet mastering it!) and impossible for me.  I have to get one foot clipped in before I even think about moving forward.  Once onto the main road, it’s mostly down hill or flat; then there’s a 90-degree right turn and you’re climbing another steep hill.  To add some excitement, the race organizers offered a hill prime for the fastest time up the hill.  Now, I had told myself before the race that I shouldn’t bury myself on the hill prime and I thought I was okay with that decision.  Once the timing mats were in sight though, that competitive spirit took over and I was giving it all I had. 

To my great disappointment, the results of the hill climb were not posted, so I have no idea how I did (I do know that I didn’t win, though).  I didn’t feel as good on the bike course as I usually do, but I did have a better swim and run time than last year, so I guess training is paying off and the three events are evening out for me.  I purposely held back a little on the bike, hoping for something left for the run, but I don’t really think that strategy worked.  I don’t think the time I made up on the run was worth what I spent on the bike leg.  Oh well, each race there’s something new to learn!  The good part, though, was that I felt pretty strong on the run;   I was even able to crack a smile when I saw Dave on the sideline with the camera!  It turns out that I probably held back a little too much on both the run and the bike as I finished feeling better than at any of my previous triathlons.  My biking and running could certainly handle the step up to Olympic-distance, but I’m sure my swimming couldn’t; so that will have to wait until next year, as I had originally planned.  I will conclude my triathlon season in six weeks at the Finger Lakes triathlon in Canandaigua, NY.  I’ve set a goal of 26 minutes or less on that run; lofty but I’m pretty sure I can do it.  Now I’m off to go running so I have a chance of reaching that goal!

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