Fool's Weekend Racing

As Mr. T says "It's April, Fools". Time to get racing. STC had a busy weekend with members competing all over the state.


Joe Younkin travelled to Charlottesville to compete in the Virginia one day classic, The Jeff Cup. It is a hilly course with bodies flying all over the road, and a truly difficult race.


Jeff, Jerry and Chuck got their Tri season started with the first tri on the calender. The Smithfield Tri at the Luter Family YMCA.  A special recognition to Jeff Rodarmel for completing his first triathlon. Results


Mr.B, Robbie, and Rob did some run-bike-running in Surry, VA at the Virginia Duathlon. Results




                                                                                                                                                                   
Joe Younkin - Jeff Cup, CVille, VA


The day started at 4:30am for me this morning as I had a 3 hour ride to the infamous Jeff Cup road race in Charlottesville.  Got there in plenty of time.  Gotta love the 70mph sections!

The conditions were primo: overcast, 50s, and DRY!  The 50 mile race started at 9am with a lot of nerves, especially from a number of new young guns.

Its about a 10 mile loop full of awesome rollers, with a nice hill about 1/2 mile long, and we had to complete 5 laps.  The first few were, seemingly, at a conversation speed @ 23-25.

The last two is where things started to get amped up.  I found myself in the front by the top of the big hill starting the 4th lap and had the first of two SWEET downhill rides all to myself with no one in front of me.

On the last lap, I did the same thing, but held back behind a few guys where speeds reached 44mph+!  I went off on the backside of the course, where I thought there was a lull.  Mistake.  The young guns were waiting for something like that and reeled me in.
Within the last 1k, there was a bad accident toward the front of the group and I finished about mid-pack.

On the way back, 1 guy was still there on the road with a significant amount of blood.  No news yet on that.

Fun, wild, awesome!

Joe


Smithfield Tri - Saturday, March 31, 2012


Jeff Rodarmel - 31st Men 40-44

It was a dark and rainy night…  Ok, wrong story.  So…………first off, a big thank you goes out to the STC teammates who were there and cheered me on that day.  As I was leaving for the bike I heard and big “go Jeff!” and same thing on the return.  Now, as you may see later with my times, you may want to place me on the C team. :) This was my first triathlon. I coaxed my wife into doing it as well, so I had some additional support. 

On Friday, we went to the Smithfield YMCA to pickup our race packets to find out our start times and places.  392??? Out of 500…no way, but that’s what I get for being honest!!  The day turned out pretty good after some rain in the morning. We set up our bikes and got ready to watch this event begin and prepare for our 11:29:10 start..... ugghhhh.  I knew I wasn’t fully trained for this event, but felt good that morning except for one thing…..I wasn’t prepared for the BATTLE ROYALE that was the pool swim.  The event started well with the better athletes, but as I line up at the end of the pool, I see this rather large gentleman, start to do the side stroke after the first 25 yards and then proceed to walk/jog the shallow end of the pool from lane 3 to 6.  So I’m thinking wow, I need to do a better job on the start time when I sign up for the next one.  So I finished that in 7 minutes, with a clear opportunity to do better with more forethought!!

Then off to the bike.  The transition went well except the STC jersey I had got stuck going over my back because I was still wet and took forever to get on.  Then off to the bike course.  It was a nice course and fairly flat.  The roads we still a little wet, so when I hit 30mph going down the hill, I was a little freaked out!!  Not a lot of issues here, but another place where I can improve upon as I finished in 35 minutes (17mph avg.), but I did pass a few folks.

Then off to the run, clearly my favorite and this is where I passed a lot of folks!!  Finished in 23 minutes (7:30 pace), so not to bad for my first time.  All in all it was a great experience and found out where I was at with my fitness and where I need to concentrate!

Charles Alt - 4th Men 45-49

 The weather was a bit dicey when Jerry and I were driving in.    Raining on and off, lots of green stuff on the Radar.  We were hoping no lightning would be sighted as we all know the Y policy on swimming and lightning!  We arrived in time despite my wrong turn and all the bridges being closed in Hampton Roads.  We set up in the rain and had time to catch up with friends before the start.  This was the first year for a newly designed transition area.  One big square now instead of wrapping around the side of the Y.  This would most likely change the T1 and T2 times a bit.

This was the first year I’ve done this race that I felt fairly trained going in so I was expecting to get a PR (thanks to a warm spring!).  My foot is feeling good and run training has been going well.  I had a lot of pent-up race energy as I didn’t get in a good race all through 2011 (a year to forget) between my foot issues and cancelled races and swims.

I was #50 on the swim start.  I’ve put in the same time each of the 5 years I’ve done this race and I still can’t figure out how they sort everyone.  Anyway, I only had to pass one person, which is better than most years.  There were some people in positions 25-30 that looked like beginners.  I’m glad there was a break after that group.  Maybe they were relays??

My swim went well.  A PR in the pool by 1 second so no big boost in time.  T1 ranked high so I guess I did well there.  I spent the ride trying to catch #48 who passed me while I was getting my feet in at the start.  I finally passed him on the big hill, but he passed me back and I never could re-catch him.  Bike time – another PR by 0:30.  T2 seemed slow, I should have put on the number belt while running instead of wasting time doing it in transition – mental note to next year.  Took off on the run and started to red line early.  Tried to ease up and get breathing in control and was able to do so only to red line again later.  Actually felt kind of warm and humid out during the run.

So I finish the course and cross the line and start searching for a clock.  With a start time of 10:10 the calculation would be easy – but where is it?  A finish line with no clock?  I ask a few people and then the announcer and he said they hadn’t brought it out from the pool?  Another said they had power issues due to the rain.  Oh well, got a drink and cheered on some finishers.  Finally they post the results and I had 54:04.  What???  I can’t run that fast???  It turns out everyone was getting fast run times.  One guy said his GPS said 2.9 miles??  I do know the turn around on Jericho road was too close compared to previous years.  I guess I’ll never know how fast I really ran – it was definitely some type of PR for me but what I don’t know.

So I PR’d the course by 3:58 and was only about 1.5 minutes behind Jason Lloyd but I really can’t believe my run time of 20:35.  I have been working hard on running and form, but that is just too much advancement in too short a time.

Finished in 4^th place this year with a great time (for me).  Podiumed last year with a slow, post marathon 59:01.  Go figure.


Jerry Berman - 8th Men 40-44


The late morning drive to Smithfield with Chuck was a good time (even
with some extra miles covered), but the weather had me worried.
Lightning and a cancelled swim would have killed my chances to make up
any time on the blazing fast field of 40yr olds.  Add that to a #99
seed in the swim and I was a bit grumpy.  The weather seemed to be
holding out, so I went for a quick warmup swim and made the brilliant
decision to ditch my red (attract the tri cops) tri jersey that was
just blowing up in the water.  I goofed around a little long in
transition until no one was left and then pushed through the onlookers
and in the emergency exit of the pool deck to find my 99th spot.  I
was finally off and into the sea of bubbles and swinging arms.
Despite the chaos, a couple speed bumps, and two missed flip turns, I
squeaked in atop my age group...only to receive the beat down I
deserved after a winter of minimal riding.  Sadly, 10 miles was a bit
painful up and down a few small hills with a gentle breeze.  A hair
under 21mph was a big surprise for what seemed like a very long ride.
T2 was a welcome sight after pedaling up the last hill.  I was so
happy to see T2, I hung out for a while and turned over all my gear
looking for my trusty Garmin.  I came up empty and finally had to bail
and face the abbreviated 5k course with a naked wrist.  The run out
was tough and vey slow on some tired legs.  The run home felt great
though, and I could have used another mile or two to make up some
time.  8th seemed respectable on Saturday, so I'm going with that.  I
don't recall seeing a post race adult beverage on the
premises...that's odd.


Perhaps my new STC super suit will bring me some bike speed in June.

VADU - Sunday, April 1, 2012 - Surry, VA

Robbie Brusso - 5th Men 25-29

What a great day to be doing anything outside.  The weather was a little cool early in the morning but perfect once the race began.   I was able to meet up with Rob and Mr. B. to get some quick course tips (i.e., the little hill at the end of the run) before the start of the race.  It had been a while since I had run a 5k so I was unsure of what speed to really run.  I started out a little quicker than I wanted with my first mile just under 6:00.  Luckily, I was able to reel myself back in and keep a pace of 6:14 for the first 5k.  My transition wasn't great (think: running late for work and having no idea where anything is) but it was not too horrible either.  For those of you who do not know, I have only been back on the bike for about 2 weeks after about a 4 month hiatus so I knew this would be "interesting".  I believe I was able to hold just under 21mph for the first half of the course but the lack of bike fitness caught up to me and I finished with only a 20.2mph pace.  At about mile 18 or so, I saw Rob cruise by looking very strong.  I was able to finish the last 5 miles strongly as well, and ended up catching some of the people who passed me on the bike, posting a final 5k pace of 6:31 and an overall time of 1:47:21.   Nothing too amazing, but it gives me a good idea of where I stand for the start of this season.  A lot of strong cyclists on the course today.  My early season wishlist: A TT bike and tree trunk legs haha.

Very cool to race with teammates though.  Otherwise, you are just that weird guy standing in the corner eating barbecue... 

Mr. B - 12th Men 40-44 - GI issues, No Comment.

Rob Riek - 3rd Men 45-49

Here's my quick race report.  First, I would like to thank my wheel sponsor- Albe racing.  The Zipp wheels were great on a tough bike course.  Went out a little fast for the first 5K but actually held myself back enough for once to feel good going into the bike.  I felt strong throughout the bike.  I had a lot of fun going back and forth with a couple of skinny toads, I mean fat frogs. Kevin Horvath, Matt Williams and myself went back and forth many times before I dropped them in the last few miles.  I did have a power gel disaster shortly after passing Robbie on the bike course.  I tore the packet too low and ended up with both my hands and then my bars coated in chocolate goo.  Robbie looked strong on the run and passed me back on the run.  Luckily I'm an old guy that started 3 minutes behind, so I didn't have to worry about trying to hang with him.  Good competition this year. I finished in 1:45 and some change (about 5 minutes faster than last year).  I ended up 3rd in the 45-49 age group. Sounds weird to say 45-49...