Alden ran a STRONG 56:37 10k. He shot off the starting line, and I had to coax him to slow his pace over the first couple of miles. The first two mile splits were 8:42, 8:52. After that, we ran three straight miles between 9:25 - 9:30. We picked up the pace again in mile six, running that in 8:33. Alden struggled a bit in the final quarter, but he finished strong. I really enjoyed everything about this race. This price was lower than average ($20) the race shirt was very decent (it's a shirt I'd actually wear in public!), and it's always nice when the community greets runners with open arms. I'd say that I would take a more serious shot at this race next year, but I have big plans for the McVet 5k/10k next Memorial Day. In fact, I dare say this will be something never attempted by a League member before. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. My next scheduled race is a five miler put on by the BRRC in mid August. I considered running Chaptico, but the drive might be a bit much for a fairly expense road race. At that point, my attention will fully turn to the Baltimore Half on 10/11.

Ran my first tri yest morning -- sprint tri on base. It was a lot of fun. I entirely forgot about swim lane seeding, and was in substantially too slow a lane, and it was too difficult to keep passing everyone else (8 swimmers in my lane), so I would swim til I caught up to someone, then breaststroke headsup, and sometimes make comments to Crystal who was watching from the side, then pass when it was convenient. There were too many people altogether, so they only started men first, so the women were all watching, so several of my club friends were watching and yelling at me to swim faster -- but I found it fairly relaxing to give up on speed and just swim easily. I spent way too much time in the first transition, tying shoes, putting on gloves and shirt, etc, and still forgot to drink and take gel packs. The bike was really great -- Tues at a local time trial I'd averaged 14.4mph on a hybrid bike for 18mi of a 25mi time trial than given up due to sore rear -- so I wasn't sure I'd recovered, but I was thrilled to find myself averaging over 18mph -- on a road bike not a hybrid. The night before I'd put toeclips on it -- took a lot of work to get the old pedals off, and the thought had occurred to me that if I sprained my shoulder trying to change pedals past midnight the night before a race, and couldn't race the next day, I'd feel pretty silly, but fortunately I got through that operation, so I had toe clips for my first time for the race. They felt fine -- I like them. I expect that my +4mph improvement in time from Tues to Sat was due to (1) road bike instead of hybrid, (2) flat course instead of hilly, and (3) toe clips. There was really heavy fog, and I was hoping no car (or airplane) would hit us as we biked around base, but it was lovely in the fog. My glasses got wet, but I could still see. I chased one guy for about 8 miles and passed him only just near the end, right before the final hill. Fortunately for me, he was a nice guy and yelled at me from behind me, when I missed the last turn into the final uphill -- if he hadn't yelled at me so I turned back, I would have gone on to who knows were. (There really weren't any course markings.) I felt pretty good going into the run, altho of course it was hot - the fog was gone, so it was 90s I think, and sunny. I ran just under a 7min pace, for a 21:35 run split (5K). It was an out-and-back, and I declined water at the turnaround -- I can't handle water when I'm racing at that speed, I'll just spill it all over and/or choke. The turnaround was one guy with his car and a cooler and cups. So after I declined and turned around, I felt the water hit me on the back -- he'd thrown a cup onto me -- which I appreciated No clock at the end, so I don't know my time, until I find where they post it. They took no splits, so I'm really glad I used my watch to time the bike and run. The overall time won't mean anything to me anyway, but I'll find it out at some point. We had planned to run back from the tri to home - me riding and Crystal running, and possibly switching. But Crystal already had a headache from the sun, so we nixed that and rode back with a friend. Crystal waited until last night to run, when the heat & sun had died down (a little). After we got home, at about 11:30 (lots of cheering other people and women in, then talking, then awards), I went out for another run in the heat, because I felt really good. I ran 4 mi, the first two at abt 8min/mi and the 2nd two at abt 7:25min/mi. Wierd thing to do after a race, and probably not recommended I bet, but I felt pumped up and really good. I really enjoyed the experience, overall. I'm glad the run & hot sunlight were the last leg. Apparently some other guys came in and then just went and jumped into the pool to cool off -- I probably would have done it if I'd thought of it, sounds like a good idea.

Wow, that's close (one second). 800m swim in pool (50yd pool, so odd number of lengths) -- the lifeguards counted lengths and put a kickboard down in front of you when you were coming to the wall of your last length -- good thing as I didn't count at all, and was shocked to be done when the kickboard went down in front of me 13.1mi bike (primarily the 10mi cycling loop that PaxVelo uses all the time, but which I've never done and don't know at all) 5K run, of course This was a sprint triathlon. wikipedia says the standard distances for sprint,olympic, half-iron and iron (which are the only four I ever see or hear about) are: sprint: 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run Olympic: 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run Half-Iron: 1900m swim, 90km bike, half-marathon Iron: 3800m swim, 180km bike, marathon

9 Thor Young 38 181 M 42:20.27 There was a guy in the race on Saturday named Thor.

Well done! I knew it was only a matter of time before you broke 20:00. Did you win your age division?

43? Have you had a birthday recently, Perry? If so, happy birthday!

I bet my strong finish at Walden-Sierra is at least in part due to the Greenwell training last year, DR