Many of you are probably like us at the TA office... for the past 2 years, you have been collecting the new recyclable timing chips: Cabot Trail, Johnny Miles, Boston, etc.
They are recyclable, but how?
In fact, the best thing to do with them is to give them back to the guys @ Atlantic Chip Timing, or bring them to the banquet (Nov 6th, only 100 tickets available, get yours soon!). A box will be at the banquet to collect the chips, and we will give them back to ACT.
Once they have many, they send them to The Netherland, where they are recycled.
Even more importantly, don't leave them on your shoes... if you do, then "Unknown Runner" will appear in the results with the same time as yours (assuming it is on the same side as your ankle chip!). We heard that Mr. Unknown Runner has been racing a lot this summer, more than the iRon MacTartan and Cookie Monster all together!
On this note... good luck to all of you racing at IMC or IML tomorrow!
And at the Cobequid Trail 10 km and half-marathon too!
(will track the first group online, and cheer "live" for the second group!)
As you may be aware, there has been a bit of a tiz in the upper reaches of the ITU regarding handlebars in non-draft legal races. The rule, 5.2 c)(iii) basically made the rules for tri-bars in draft-legal and non-draft legal races the same. Yup, you read that right.
For those of you travelling to Budapest and Edinburgh, the ITU has made the following announcement, and we reprint that text in full (la version francaise suit).
The ITU has made an official 2010 Handlebar Rule Modications announcement.
It read as follows
:
"For 2010, the ITU will not be enforcing rule 5.2.c)(iii) with respect to handlebars in draft illegal races. The rule is under review and any modifications will be announced prior to the 2011 season. For events in 2010, rule 5.2.c)(iii) will be replaced by the following:
- Only handlebars and clip-on bars not extending beyond the leading edge of the front wheel will be permitted.All handlebar ends must be plugged.
This new rule will be in effect immediately. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
If you have any questions or concerns please contact the Triathlon Canada office at 416.726.7180 orinfo@triathloncanada.com.
L'ITU a annoncé les motifications de règle de guidon 2010.
Il se lit comme suit:
Pour 2010, l'ITU ne va pas exiger la conformit au règlement 5.2.c) (iii) relativement au guidon dans les épreuves où l'aspiration-abri est interdite. Ce règlement est en cours de révision et toute modification sera annoncée avant le début de la saison 2011. Pour les événements en 2010, le règlement 5.2.c) (iii) sera remplacé par la directive suivante:
-Seront permis seuls les guidons et les prolongateurs de guidon qui ne dépassent pas le bord d'attaque de la roue avant. Toutes les extrémités de guidon doivent être bouchées.
Ce nouveau règlement entrera en cours immédiatement. Nous sommes désolés de tout inconvénient que cela aurait occasionné.
Veuillez contacter le bureau de Triathlon Canada, au (416-426-7180) ou au (info@triathloncanada.com) si vous avez des questions.
So, if you're at Worlds, then it's business as usual as far as your tri-bars go. You can breathe easy and leave the hack-saw and duct-tape at home.
If there's one thing the TA has heard a lot this week it's "it wasn't like this in Kelowna". For some TNSers, this isn't the case as they're still in the Okanagan for Ironman Canada this Sunday. We count 17 on the beach; Ron Allen, Richard Bendor Samuel, Terri Boss, Jeff Burbine, Mark Campbell, Sylvie Cloutier, Heather Doucette, Christine Gough, Penny Hart, Stacy Juckett Chestnutt, Ron MacDougall, Kathyrn MacKinnon, Scott Mason, Heather Mosher, Jason Murphy, John Sanford and Stephen Saunders (but this list is subject to the usual caveats).
The usual IM stories abound. Jason Murphy was Team Leader for Nationals in Kelowna last Sunday; after a week of working hard on the other side of the barricades, he finally gets a chance to do something for himself. This is IM 18? 19? for Mark Campbell, who had a BB issue and had to swap it out for something else. Whereas most people were strictly informative with their profession: MD, Professor, Chemistry Geek, Mark Campbell self-identified as "Cookie Monster" and Ron McScotch as a "Pumpkin Farmer". When Ron gets back you all might want to think about putting in your Curcubita orders in time for Halloween.
In keeping with IM tradition, when we punched "NS" into "State" we also got David Allen, Trevor Allen, Jim Casey, Gilles Chatelin, Andrew Houghton, James Lambert and Gavin Scott from New South Wales and Chris MacMillan from Aberdeenshire, so if you're running out of names for your athlete tracker, chuck in these honorary Nova Scotians (the Ironman website tells me so, can it be wrong?) and give them a virtual cheer too.
Ironman Canada isn't the only IM this weekend, with the Ford Ironman Louisville also taking place. A quick search for NS yielded Scott Cooper and Mark Pothier. We don't know Scott, but Mark did his first long-course at Bridgetown four weeks ago. He's also the son of local running legend George Pothier, so endurance runs in his veins (so to speak). Oh, and good luck to Paul Ambrose and Duane Cadman from New South Wales also.
Elsewhere, we culled 20 names from the Timberman 70.3 results sheet from last weekend. Top NSer was Adam Jones of Antigonish (4:33) who was 59th overall in a race with over 2000 finishers. Completing the list are Terry Worthen (5:22), Kevin Walsh (5:23), Terry Curley (5:24), Karalyn Burke (5:28), Edward Hawkins (5:35), Lisa Wilson (5:55), Ken Dufour (5:58), Anthony Corbin (6:04), Cory Tetford (6:06), Mary Cantrell (6:06), Wendy Foote (6:07), Paul MacDonald (6:10), Kathy Saulnier (6:21), Patricia Carrigan (6:26), Gregg Kerr (6:33), Andrea Haughan (6:48), Betty Pound (6:50), Carol Curley (7:12) and David Carrigan (7:48).
Meanwhile in print (yes, print media still exists), Laura Keefe, Caryn Small-Legs Nagge and Roxanne MacLaurin got name-checks in Triathlon Magazine Canada (Vol 5 Issue 5) for their Rhode Island results. Also, August issue Nubodys/Goodlife Fitness magazine Optimyz, is it's triathlon issue. You might see some familiar faces in there too. We'll have more on this in a later TA post.
Well done and/or good luck all (delete as appropriate)....
...and not in a bad way. We're always looking out for "Yesterday afternoon at the Arndale Roundabout, fifteen cyclists on tri-bars ....." but this isn't it.
Instead we picked up Metro (we only get it for the crossword) and saw this on the front page
Turning to p6 as instructed we saw this (coaches should look away now)
Clearly the harbour isn't home to the one-eyed goggle monster but we're sure he was just sighting, or perhaps trying to avoid "something". Given the reputation the harbour has, almost certainly the latter.
Yup. that's Kevin Doran, TNS Vice-Prez and webmaster swimming the harbour (Halifax harbour) with David Darrow, (TIR Deputy Minister), raising $2500 for the United Way on the way. They did the ca. 3km swim (Woodside Ferry Terminal to Aldnerney Landing) in 45 minutes (no word from Mike Richard and the gang to confirm!). We're not being political here in any way, but HRM mayor Peter Kelly has been promising to take a dip in the harbour for months now but just hasn't got around to it yet!
Swim went well, as anything other than last place would have been good, as long as I was with a big group on the bike I felt confident I wouldn't loose too much time.
Swim start. That guy in the red-and-white suit nearest the camera has a couple of medals.....
I made one small mistake though, when a couple of riders attacked on the hill, I figured I'd save my energy as the pack would chase them back anyway. Unfortunately, there was a guy up the road who normally would break off to keep from being dropped on the hill, and they joined up with him and ended up gaining a little bit of time on the group I was with. In retrospect it would have been a good move to go with him, but the bike racing skills are a little rusty, will come back in time though!
Ryan (#70, green suit) on the climb.
I was feeling really good on the bike, with the exception of the corners, which were often wet painted and even had cobblestones at some places. On the climb I was in my element and climbing stronger than the rest of the pack.
More climbing.
Run was pretty much suffering the whole time. I could definitely run faster than that but I wasn't used to running so fast after a bike which featured sharp accelerations on the corners, which definitely sapped the energy a bit. All I was focused on was finishing, although when this Whitfield guy lapped me on the first lap I thought about staying with him for a bit, cause he's about my pace :)_
jk lol, it was cool to see him running, although that pace didn't feel AS fast as I thought it would for the entire 10 seconds I held it. A lot of the guys passed me on the run, lapping me towards the last lap or so. I think that if I was fresh I could have stayed with those guys on the run no problem, so getting more used to pack racing in the coming year will be integral in helping me use less energy in a draft legal race. All in all it was a great race though and I'm happy to have finished.
On the run.
Thanks to Andrew, Sarah and Shane for helping me get here and do my first ITU race! And thanks Marie-Claude and Jason for your help in the race.
RM
Photos from Marie-Claude Gregoire and Chuck Perreault.
There were a couple of "proper" photographers out at the Guysborough County Triathlon last weekend, and by "proper" I mean big white lenses and a willingness to lie in the grass by the mount-line to get that "extra-special" shot. Here, however, are a few behind-the-scences photos from Guysborough. This was the way the TA saw the weekend...
When we got there, it was pouring with rain (as you may have heard, it was so bad a bridge got washed away in Meat Cove further up the coast in Cape Breton). In fact our pet cow didn't want to leave the cozy confines of the Deer Killer and she had to be coaxed out of the car with copious amounts of silage and a novelty salt-lick even to get this shot. Suddenly, we were not feeling quite so copacetic about tomorrow's event....
Two hours later, the storm had passed, the water was calm. Perhaps this race was going to happen under sunny skies after all......
The little harbour in Guysborough was full of boats last weekend. So long as none of them wanted to leave between nine and ten on Sunday morning.
Taking the water temperature
The water was a balmy 19C, wetsuits optional. An oxymoron of a phrase, now we think about it. Have you ever heard of a triathlete who views wetsuits as optional? This was a temperature record for G'boro, and we've been here every year since 2003. Global warming? Pschaw!!
Sunny skies, warm water with nary a ripple. It's going to be a good, nay a great, day!
Hey, some of our favorite words in the English language :)
The Jost Building, race HQ. This is one of the only races on the calendar with a waterproof roof and plumbing.
The main pack in the Olympic approach the swim turn, swimming in a V like ducks. Mac Grant and Julie Curwin had already flown the coop (if you'll pardon our mixing of avian similes). Don't worry, the colour isn't actually leaching out of the brand new buoy here (one of a set graciously donated by Paul Shaw from Cyclesmith), nor is it highly radioactive; it's just our crappy cell-phone camera.
What complements a red and white accented rim better than a blue tyre? Great colour-coordination. Plus, you don't see many Felts around here.
Speaking of bikes rarely seen, you didn't need to be at Nationals for some good bikes (besides, at Nationals the winner rode a Specialised, the same bike you can buy around here). This is a Neuvation, ridden (we think) by Jamie Haynes, winner at Cyclesmith this year. We're not sure what this model is (the F100?), but it's sleek, black, has great asthetics and looks fast even standing still...
The finish line, with an amazing view of the bay. We don't think the athletes were in the right state of mind to appreciate the scenery, but the chip-guys liked it.
No race happens without its volunteers. Megan Coady, Cheryl Coady, Emily Hart and Olivia Hart staffed the T2 water station all day. Hey, we don't get such attentive service from some grown-ups. Thanks ladies, the race wouldn't have been such a success without you.
Brothers Gus and Brad Dorion from Port Hawksbury gutted it our around the Olympic course, even though they wanted to DNF after the swim. Ray rewarded them with some serious left-over draw-prizeage, but you know we don't think they need to be bribed, we're pretty sure they're coming back.
Guysborough in my rear-view mirror. So long for another year, can't wait to be back. And yes, we have a hula-girl in our car. It's a tribute to Elvis, and He is, after all, The King. Thangyouvurrymuch.
A few pictures from Kelowna during the run-up to Nationals, courtesy of Marie-Claude Gregoire who is out there doing the National Technical Officials (NTO) course.
The gate at YVR before boarding for Kelowna. The dress-code among athletes was knee-length Bermudas, Knee high compression socks (socks, not guards, socks) and sandals. Argghhh my eyes!
We're in Kelowna!
The Kelowna boardwalk looks nice for a relaxed early morning run but Jason's advice is "save your energy"; sounds ominous....
Dessert; I hope TriCan was paying!
The new ITU Competition Rules. We'll be hearing a lot about these in the future. I hope the new yellow/red cards aren't that size!
Official Official's uniform :)
Carpet (timing mats?) all laid out and ready to set
News conference with Olympic Gold and Silver medalist Simon Whitfield and the triathlon world's current athlete-du-jour Paula Findley.
Dream TZ. Doesn't look like this is the Elite one tho'.
