Sorry for the delay I don't have any excuses....It has been one amazing ride, the news-sentinel article is another great article to check out. Also congrats to my good friend Amy Midis, who is going to Kona to race in Ironman World Championships. I am one blessed individual, people have been coming out of the woodworks to congratulate me and it has been very overwhelming and I feel so blessed. I also am considered a non-profit now with the Knoxville Sports Center and will be raising money to help my dream of 2012. I am meeting with one of my new sponsors tomorrow who will be joining with me in my pursuit, they are Blalock Construction and I welcome and them and am thankful for Jo and Sid and their willingness to join my team. I article below does a much better job than I could in explaining how it went down in chilly Vancouver, B.C.
June 8, 2008 -- For the first time in the 20-year history of the International Triathlon Union’s Olympic distance age group World Championship, 55-degree water and a nasty, five-foot wind chop forced race directors to cancel the swim for two-thirds of the field. With multiple timing difficulties engendered by switching to a duathlon format in mid-race and placing all 1,702 competitors on a three kilometers short of 40km four-loop bike and a two-and-one-half loop run, all results and designated age-group winners were provisional.
ITU World Championship technical delegates and the race director, in consultation with the race medical director, made the decision to cancel the swim after the women’s 45-49 and 50-54 age group waves had started. At that point, 672 competitors started the swim, and 1,030 – all women 55-plus all male competitors –were switched to a duathlon format of 3km run, a 37-kilometer bike and a 10km run.
With race officials citing safety concerns, many U.S. veteran age-group competitors grumbled that the water temperatures were no colder than a typical swim at the Pacific Grove Triathlon, the water no rougher than many a triathlon at Oceanside. But in combination with high winds and air temperatures dipping into the mid-50s at race time, many competitors were pulled out of the moiling gray waters shivering with hypothermia. In fact the numbers of rescue workers in boats and kayaks, and lifeguards on surfboards were kept busy by the numbers of triathletes requiring rescue.
Before the race, the race medical director cut back the point-to-point swim at English Beach from the standard 1500 meters to 1100 meters to avoid placing athletes in waters near 12 degrees Celsius (about 55 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than 30 minutes. With raging currents driving swimmers toward shore, swimmers actually had to fight through much of the original distance just to stay on course.
As rough as conditions were Saturday, they were much milder than the torture suffered by contestants in Thursday’s Junior World Championships. On that day, the ill effects of equally cold and turbulent water were amplified by freezing rain that local meteorologists labeled the “coldest June day in 50 years” in Vancouver. Several junior worlds competitors, with freezing fingers unable to unbuckle, completed the final run with their bike helmets on.
This leaves the USA’s Eric Bell, 28, the likely men’s overall winner in 1:37:58. If his overall time stands up under expected extensive review, he has extended a string of US men taking the overall ITU age group World Championship title to three. Bell follows in the footsteps of Marc-Bonnet-Eymard’s 2006 overall title in Lausanne and Ben Collins’ overall win last year in Hamburg.
Bell, 28, a former University of Tennessee runner with a 5k PR of 14:18, is in just his third season as a triathlete. This year he placed second overall amateur at St. Anthony’s and was one of the top finishers at a race for promising elite competitors held at Tuscaloosa Alabama the day after the second 2008 US Olympic Trials.
Now I am on to Hy-Vee this weekend where floods have casued race directors to cancel the swim. I will give a race report after. My idol Tiger Woods, wow, maybe I can work on my mental game to be a tough as he is. Somnium Magnus!!!!
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