MUST....CATCH.....UP

So many races and updates, so little time.  With the season upon us, I'm having trouble posting race updates and news in anything resembling a timely fashion. To our faithful reader: send me some race updates, or better yet, start your own blog for your club or training group, and post your news.  In the meantime, I'll keep slaving away at the keyboard. But I'm not complaining; it's not like my fingers hurt, or anything. Honest.

[Note to Dear Reader: I think the He-Man reference in the last post went over your head, considering you weren't born in the 80's, let alone a child of the 80's.  I'll try to stick to stuff from your lifetime. It's really too bad, I had a great Thundercats reference waiting in the wings, but I digress.]

Off to the races.....

WORLDS

We've covered the elite teams already, but I'll take a minute to recognize some other results. 

Paula Findlay (AB) finished 9th in the junior womens' race, after riding on a flat for half of the bike.  The time she lost over the last 10k of the bike was equal to the difference between her 9th place finish, and 2nd place. 

Angela Quick raced in the Age Group Olympic race, and finished 4th, on only 3 weeks of training after recovering from pneumonia. 

Coach Stefan Timms picked up a bronze medal in the sprint age group race, hindered in his quest for a gold medal only by a complete lack of training in the months leading up to the event. Amazing.

Danielle Dickson finished 46th in the tough 20-24 division, and may have had the shortest, and best, race report I've seen: "My race report in short....skinny kids are not meant to swim in 11 degree water!"

Big congrats to Jen Hall (C3 Club), 4th in the 20-24 Olympic race - it's been a long road back from the challenge of chronic injuries.

There were many other familiar names racing in various events.  Congrats to everyone who braved the conditions. More results here.

OFSAA

While some of the worlds best triathletes were battling it out at Worlds, some of Ontario's next generation of junior triathletes were battling it out in the heat at the OFSAA Track & Field Championships.  Conditions were less than ideal, with temperatures approaching 40C (with humidex) under the blazing sun.  There were triathletes in most of the middle-distance and distance events, and I was impressed with the effort everyone put into their races.  There were some triathletes on the podium, but more importantly there was tough racing from everyone, and lots of new PB's or near-PB's.  Not surprisingly,  many of the 1500 and 3000 runners posted times faster times (5 to 15 secs faster) under cooler conditions in the weeks after OFSAA.   Full results are here.   Photo gallery here.

Chelsea Mackinnon (Westdale) Leads the pack in the 1500

Ian Donald (1204) from Nepean, in the Senior Boys 3000m at OFSAA

LAKESIDE TRI

I couldn't write a race update without mentioning that PTC'er Tom Lokody took the overall win at the Lakeside Sprint.  More importantly, Tom was faster across the board compared to his 2007 race. Nice job TL.

The KOS races looked like tough competitions too.  Lots of familiar names from the OAT training days, and the Hamilton Hammerheads club.  Congrats to all competitors.

Results here.

MUSKOKA

I didn't get to attend the Muskoka race weekend, so I'm relying on exciting race reports like this one.  In a nutshell, the C3 club was a major factor, sweeping the mens' podium in the sprint (Andrew Yorke, Taylor Reid, Chad Ruby), and at least one podium position among the women (Rachel O'Reilly).  Special congrats to Karsten Madsen on his 4th place finish and a big time improvement over last year, and Sean Splisbury on his junior racing debut (7th overall, 4th junior).

In the Long Course race on Sunday, it sounds like the pros put on an exciting race (see link above). Congrats to Wolfgang Guembel on the overall win, and Cynthia Wilson for the women's win.  PTC'ers James Loaring and Adrian DelMonte took a crack at this one too - James flatted half way through the bike and lost some time getting it fixed, but soldiered on.  Adrian was having a great race up to ~8k in the run, where he ran into some trouble - a good learning experience at long(ish) course racing. 

EASTERN ONTARIO

There have been some strong results from the Ottawa crowd at several races.  Junior Provincial Champion Lindsay Anderson has picked up where she left off last year: winning. The Bytown Triathlon Club has also racked up impressive results in tris, and track and road races.  Junior Provincials in 3 weeks should be a great showcase of the Ontario Juniors as they mix it up with our neighbours to the east at the Gatineau Junior Series race. 

Whew, my fingers are tired.