A small obstacle.

 Four days after my last triathlon (9/9), I went out for an early morning training ride and in the process of seeking a safer course, I found a slicker one and went down hard, breaking my left collarbone.  I was only 2 miles from home so Sandy came and took me to the Advent Health Altamonte ER.  That culminated in surgery with Dr. Cody Hillen to pin the bones back together six days later on September 15th.  The next scheduled race for me is The Great Floridian Triathlon (1/3 distance) on October 24; we'll see how I am by then.  Just a small obstacle in the process we call life.

Waiting for Sandy

Unfinished ride

Day after surgery

New helmet to replace the damaged one; saved my head!

# 173 Crystal River Sprint Triathlon

Saturday was the Crystal River Triathlon, my 173rd and third tri of the year. Two hour drive to get there but it was worth it. Big crowd but the race director had a lot of safety protocols in place; I could get used to 4 bikes per rack. An offshore thunderstorm proved entertainment during the dawn on the salt marshes. Longtime rival James Mayer showed up and put in his usual performance for a solid win. My swim was good but my bike ride over the flat, straight, 15 mile course was fast with an average speed of 18.8 mph. Three mile run was all sun and very hot and found me chasing down a guy I spotted at the turnaround. When I finally caught him with a mile to go, I discovered he was in the lower age group, 60-64. My overall finish time was 1:27:03 for a 4th place out of 7. Great to see JP Russo there doing bike repair after recovering from his accident. When I got home, Sandy Finucan made me a delicious pizza!

4 bike transition

Jack and James Mayer

Moon and thunderstorm

Sunrise over the marshes

Magic sky

JP Russo is back.

Moulton ready

Great photo!

Enjoying the bike ride

James Mayer hammering!

Very hot run!

Great finish

It was a great race!

# 172 Clermont Triathlon in July

Triathlon #172 is in the books! This was the second Clermont Sprint under distancing conditions.  Water temp was 80'f, bike temp was 81' and run temp was 95' in the sun! I finished in third behind James Mayer and Doc Brown again (though I was catching Doc on the run! Next race!) 

Longtime friends Jeff Cuddeback, Gabrielle Suver, and Bill Black won their categories and my newlywed friends Andreas Moraitis and Kerry Librada Girona finished 2nd and 3rd Overall! Fast couple! Met the Westrip family, all three children were racing.  Everyone was happy to be out racing again.  Sommer Sports did a great job keeping us safe.

Finish line at dawn

Dawn over transition.

James Mayer

With Bill Black

Jeff Cuddeback, coach extraordinaire

Mom & Westrip family

Line up for swim start

Swim finish

First big climb

Waterfront park

Kerry and Andreas

Gabrielle Suver

3rd place!

Finish line view

Westrip winners!

# 171 Clermont Sprint Triathlon in June

Triathlon # 171 for me today, put on by Fred Sommer out in Clermont. Distancing, face masks, self-body marking, 3 bikes per rack, time-trial swim start but it's great to be back. No awards ceremony and bagged food at finish; we just lined up 6' apart and collected our goodies. I had a good swim, great bike and passed a competitor on the run to garner 3rd place: 1:19:46 was my time. 

Race organization was exceptional and the TT swim start was run by an iPad that flashed GREEN every few seconds so it involved a long start line instead of a group wave. Longtime competitors James Mayer and Randall Brown were ahead of me for first and second. Lot of old friends out there too. Hot and humid but it's Florida in June!

Big rack, small bike!

Sunrise

3 per rack

Jack and James Mayer

Huge transition for 200+

Quick photo by Tamara Congdon

Kenyon, Kerry, Andreas, and Enrique

Jeff Cuddeback and Jennifer

Real Florida 5k10k in Wekiwa Springs State Park

Cold morning for the Real Florida 5k10k trail run this morning. 51’f at the start and I purposely underdressed. Felt strong throughout the run, even on the rugged uphills. 

Finished first in Senior Masters division (+60) with a 59:32 time with 9:35 mile splits for the 6.3 miles; 22 out of 76 in the 10k. Very happy with the results considering it’s only been 2 weeks since my Ultrarun. Record turnout with 364 runners under sunny skies. 

Friends Dustin Radney (1st Male OA 10k), Ashley Jeanne Samples (2nd OA/1st Female 5k), and Jim Payne (1st Male 60-64) all had fast races.


Sträva tracking showed I climbed 221' and burned 1,037 calories.  Didn't get many photos as I so busy.

Race Venue

Dustin Radney and Ashley Jean Samples 1st place finishers

With Jim Payne, WESH2 Anchor

Dawn to Dusk 12 Hour Endurance Challenge 2020

First event of 2020! Sunday was my third time racing the Dawn to Dusk 12 Hour Challenge. There has been a different course each time and each has been a challenge. Yesterday's course in Deland had elevation changes and the high temp was in the low 80s and sunny. Lots of friends there from Seminole County Triathletes so it was great seeing everyone. 

7:00 AM start saw a big crowd head out on the 2 mile loop paved course. The first 2 hours were nice and cool and then the sun began to warm things up. The two previous D2D races were on flat courses so the "hills" started getting harder, prompting me to follow the ultrarunner's mantra "Walk the Hills!". I took a break at mile 10 and mile 20 but the heat was getting to me so I stopped again at 26. After a 20 minute rest, along with eating and drinking, I felt better and thought a goal of 50k/31 miles would be fine. After another 6 miles I still felt good, so I kept going. I did get to run with Harry Hoffman, a 300+ marathon racer and  David M Robinson III and Carrie Campbell were also there, honoring our vets, carrying Old Glory. The skies became overcast around mile 34 which helped a lot. I felt strong and a light drizzle started which cooled things down. Mile 38 saw a steady rain falling along with darkness too. I got to 40 miles at 6:15 and Amy L. Fedock encouraged me to keep going and I realized there was time to do one more lap before the 7:00 cutoff. About 500 yards into my 2 miles, the skies opened and it poured. I was running strong in the rain and darkness and really enjoyed this last lap. I caught a few people and we all finished together.

My 42 miles earned me a 7th place out of 22 males and an 11th overall. My friends Rob Marens and Jennifer Jordan did very well, both taking 2nd places. Teardown was a joy as the heavy rain continued so there was no recovery stretching but I'm feeling good today. My previous efforts in this race netted me 45 and 44 miles but I was very happy to complete 42 today. Total elevation was 1,413 feet so the hills were real!

And we're off

Happy runners with Lisa

Heading in, mats on left

Tent City

Main St.

With Amy Fedock

Katrina Pelican up front

another lap finished

Jack and Harry

Rob heading out

Taking a break

Relaxing view

Carrie and David

Amtrak passing by

Close to being finished!