September 16, 2004

Track North Web Site

1. The 28th Annual Ramsey Tour Breaks Attendance Record in the 1/2 Marathon
2. Mike Coughlin Competes in Ironman Wisconsin
3. Lise Edwards, Lawrie Oliphant and Others do the Honda Series Sprint Triathlon in Wasaga Beach
4. Trevor Shamas Checks out Grandma's Run in Markham
5. Our Traveling Rock!! Checks in from Australia
6. Dan MacLean Remembered - by Sheila Yaw- MacLean
7. NEW RUN - FiTFRiENDS 5Km and 8 Km Trail Run/Walk & for Team Diabetes - Sunday September 26
8. Running Room Clinics - Register Now!
9. Track North News - by Dick Moss

The 28th Annual Ramsey Tour Breaks Attendance Record in the 1/2 Marathon

Saturday's race was the biggest field ever in the Ramsey Tour 1/2 Marathon according to Sudbury Masters stats man Louis Moustgaard. The previous record was 86 participants back in 1984 and this weekend's run saw 93 individuals take on the challenging tour of Ramsey Lake. The Ramsey Tour 5k was well attended also with 76 participants. Kerry Abols (1:23:00) and Kerry Salmoni (1:36:16) took top male and female honours in the 1/2 while Robert Lopatka (16:21) and Lisa Labrecque (18:08) took the crowns in the 5k event.

Jesse Winters, Louis Moustgaard and the Sudbury Masters would like to thank all participants for making this the best Ramsey Tour yet. And as always you volunteers came through with flying colours. It was gratifying to see those friendly orange vests out there on the course urging us on with enthusiastic waves and smiles.

We'll see you all there again next year.

Fellow Rock!! Laura Thaxter writes on her experience:

Let me start off by saying , I experienced what it was like to hit the wall during a run. Unfortunatly I hit the wall just before 5km and felt like I had to push through it the rest of the 16km. My biggest excuse is that I was sick (Yes Vince I know, excuse number 587 wasn't it?), but I was. I felt weak and sick and stuffed up. Thankfully I had the most wonderful running partner who wouldn't see me fail. Sheila made me drink the most horrific drink, and eat gels that had the consistency of...well...I shouldn't say what Sheila said, but it was gross. I had to force myself to eat it, and then I had to force myself to keep it down. It was an agonizing 2 hours and 18 mins, but Sheila made it bearable. She is the only person I know that cheers on the volunteers and makes every runner she passes feel like a million dollars. She is encouraging and so supportive. The last three kilometers when I thought my knees were going to buckle, she grabbed my hand and literally pulled me until I agreed to continue running. And even in the end, when she did all the hard work, she pushed me to go through the finish line first when she deserved to be ahead. So yes, my time was slow, and yes I was pokey (thanks Monique), but I finished and sometimes that is all that counts. Acually, what really counts is that I finished ahead of coach Vince :) Anyways, thank you Sheila, for sticking through it with me even when I wouldn't stop complaining, and thank you Vince for making me run it, because now I know that I can run and finish any race that comes my way.

Click Here for 5k Results

Click Here for 1/2 Marathon Results

 

Mike Coughlin Competes in Ironman Wisconsin

Steve Matusch Reports:

YTri-er and Sudbury ROCK!!!,Mike Coughlin and almost 2200 Iron-racers pushed hard through 88 degree heat and a very challenging course to complete Ironman Wisconsin this past Sunday in Madison. Mike did himself and Sudbury proud with an overall time of 10:39:19 - good enough for 83rd place overall and 19th out of 289 in the very competitive 30-34 age group. This is a phenomenal improvement over his still impressive 11:14:30 debut at Ironman Canada last year.

Mike showcased his developing experience and technical discipline, passing racers throughout the course – coming out of the water in 299th, working down to 255th over the bike, and blowing past 172 runners with a very strong and hard-fought 3:41 marathon. This performance puts Mike “on the bubble”, nipping close at the heels of the triathlon “holy grail” – the Ironman Hawaii World Championship qualifier slot.

Outstanding performance Mike! We look forward to hearing your war stories next week!

Vince Perdue Reports:

The weather was beautiful as the sun rose over Lake Monona when 2118 competitors hit the water in a single surge starting Madison Wisconsin's Ironman Triathlon. Dave Harju was here from Canada as defending champion and Isabelle Gagnon also carried the maple leaf in hopes of winning the women's crown.

And don't forget our own Sudburian and YTri Guru, Mike Coughlin, as he attempted his second Ironman Triathlon in as many years.

The race was on and Mark Van Akkerren was first out of the water in 47:25. Amazingly, Andrea Fisher was second overall up the beach in 49:51.

Mike Coughlin exited the wet stuff in a more conservative but very respectable time of 1:03:48 placing him 299th overall. The transitions here are long so Mike's 6:21 T-1 was not out of line as he made is way to the bike course.

Our Canadian, Dave Harju, took the overall lead on the bike at the 25 mike mark. Andrea Fisher was strong maintaining an early lead but was closely challenged by our Canadian, Isabelle Gagnon, who took over the #1 position at the 1/2 way point.

As the leaders jockeyed for position, Mike Coughlin continued his 20 mile per hour pace clicking off the seemingly endless 112 miles. He was actually able to observe his true speed around the 90 mile mark at Verona where the local police force get a kick out of setting up their radar units and displaying the cyclists speeds on a large screen. The spectators love it and I imagine Mike got an energy boost out of the distraction as well.

Harju lead the pack into T-2 with a healthy advantage and Fisher passed Gagnon to enter T-2 with a 2/1/2 minute lead with 6:29 on the clock.

About 20 minutes later Mike Coughlin entered T-2. His bike time was a smokin 5:43 lowering his overall placing to 255 from 299. Mike averaged 19.58 miles per hour on the rolling and windy course. A quick 4 1/2 minute transition and Mike was into the final round of The Big Show.

By the 7th hour Dave Harju's lead had dwindled a bit and Andrea Fisher was showing signs of fatigue. Nicole de Boon was coming on strong while Isabelle Gagnon was fading badly. At mile 7 Nicole took the lead. Meanwhile Harju was on a 3:00 hour marathon pace while his closest rival, 13 minutes behind, was on a 2:48 pace. The finish was going to be close. With 4 miles to go Harju's lead was under 4 minutes, by 2 miles he was 3 minutes ahead of a hard charging Petr Vabrousek from the Czec Republic. Nicole de Boon had now firmly taken control of the women's race.

As Harju strove toward the finish line Mike Coughlin reached the 1/2 way point of the run clicking off 8:12 miles and turning the 13.1 miles in 1:47. His overall placing dramatically improved to 137th overall.

David Harju from Canada won his second Ironman Wisconsin in a row. His marathon split of 3:04:11 left 3 minutes to spare over Petr Vabrousek who ran a 2:54 marathon but couldn't close the gap at all in the last 2 miles. Harju's overall time was 8:52:33. At 10:05:40 overall time, Nicole de Boon broke the finish line tape approximately 8 minutes ahead of her nearest rival, Laura Jensen. Andrea Fisher had slipped to third and Isabelle Gagnon placed 7th in the WPROS turning 10:53:32.

Through all the finish line fanfare Mike Coughlin continued to count down the miles. The Big Dogs were in and now it was time for us locals to attempt to patiently wait for that final split time. It's not that we didn't have confidence in Mike's ability or resolve but as the minutes slowly passed we naturally began to worry.

My God, he's done it!

Mike Coughlin just crossed the line in an astounding 10:39:19 AND 86th place overall. His final marathon time was 3:41:36 or 8:28 per mile. What an awesome day Mike! That's an improvement of over 35 minutes from your Ironman Canada outing.

Congratulations from all of us back home

Vince Perdue

86 10:39:19 COUGHLIN, MIKE SUDBURY ON CAN 20/389 M30-34 436 65 299 1:03:48 1:41 6:21 72 302 5:43:09 19.6 4:26 13 61 3:41:36 8:28

Click Here for all the Results

Lise Edwards, Lawrie Oliphant and Others do the Honda Series Sprint Triathlon in Wasaga Beach

By Lise Edwards

Hi Vince, as promised, here is my review of the Wasaga Beach Sprint Triathlon.

Wasaga Beach has always been a favorite destination for me so it was only fitting that my one and only triathlon this year was there. The venue was beautiful, weather was great, water was calm, does it get any better than that? Thanks to Sheila Yaw-Maclean I was nice and toasty and buoyant in the full wetsuit and the water didn't quite seem so bad for me as it was for Lawrie. Alicia Kaye lent me a tri suit which made my transitions very quick and I looked like I knew what I was doing :)

The swim was nice and long, I was the last of my age group to get out of the water and off onto the bike I went. The course was very nice, not too technical. When asking Lawrie if he had seen some of the landscaping during his ride he noted that I was doing too much looking around and could have worked a little harder, sounds like you are rubbing off on him. I enjoyed being able to pass a few people during the bike as that's never happened before. Onto the run, I got off the bike and laced up my shoes and was ready for the run. There was a little sand, a little boardwalk, a little trail, a little sidewalk, nice mixture and that's when I got to pass a few more of the women in my age group. I placed 12/17 with a time of 1:41:27 which was my personal best. I've always finished last in my age group and a few times last in the event.

Louise & Lee Toner were also in Wasaga with Lee finishing with a strong 1:17:13 and Lawrie Oliphant finishing with a great time of 1:25:02. They were all there cheering me on at the finish, always great to have that. A special thanks to Lawrie for helping me out with getting my bike up and running for the event and getting me to the event and back without any Shania Twain.

Thanks Vince for your ongoing support, I hope you like your colourful shirt... I think you'll be in for a prize on Friday for the wildest shirt.
Lise Edwards

Click Here for the Results

Trevor Shamas Checks out Grandma's Run in Markham

by Trevor Shamas

Hey, Coach...

I was scouting through the local downtown Running Room last week and discovered a 5k event in Markham called Grandma's Run. Figuring this was geared to my running ability, I thought I'd check it out. Best case, I thought I'd have a chance at winning given the field apparent from the race name; worse case, I figured the name could be a cover bringing out some stiff competition that would put me in the back of the pack, which is where I generally am, anyway, so at least I'd feel at home. That said, nothing to lose, and away I went.

Turns out the course runs through a subdivision just west of downtown Markham. Although short, the course included a couple of respectable hills (up and down), a couple of long, steady, mild ascents (or least it felt like we were going up hill), and a bit of level ground in there just to fool ya. The event was fairly well attended and very well run, with burgers, donuts, Gatorade and water waiting for the 200 finishers in the park next to the finish line.

Hats off to the kids from the Orillia track team, five of whom finished in the 18-19 minute range. Not bad for the under 15 crowd. I fought my way to the line with a crew of 5 guys, all of us finishing within the same 5 second interval. Not a stellar performance, but given the way my speed work has been going I'll take the 20:15.

Didn't see anyone who looked liked someone's grandma in the race. Turns out the race was to benefit a local nursing home that was constructed recently and is still fairly heavily mortgaged. I did meet one dear soul who lives in that home, as she congratulated me as I exited the finish line. She was 88 and came out in her wheelchair to support the runners. Tells me she used to be quite a gymnast, but is now quite happy just filling a supporting role. Nice end to a good event!

Trev.

Grandma Race 5K run
Saturday, September 11, 2004
5K

Entrants Finishers
Total 218 201
Male 122 114
Female 96 87
Unknown 0 0

O'all Class Gender Pace
Place Bib Name Time Place/Finishers Place /Km City
----------------------------- ------- ---------------- ----- ------- ----------

19 430 Trevor Shamas 20:15 SM20-39 5/19 19 4:03

Click Here for All the Results

Our Traveling Rock!!, Martin Parnell, Checks in from Australia

By Martin Parnell

It's a chilly Thursday afternoon and I'm in an "Internet Cafe" in the town of Bunbury 200km down the coast from Perth in Western Australia. Over the last two months I've been involved in two triathlons, one as a participant and the other as a spectator.The first was in London on Aug 1st. There were 8,000 competitors involved in the two day event with 5,500 doing the sprint on Saturday and 2,500 in the Olympic on Sunday. My wave went at 9.40am Sunday morning and started with a swim in the London Docks. This was followed by a bike ride through the streets of London down to Tower Bridge and back. Finally a ten km run around the Docklands harbour facility and into the huge ExCel building for the finish. It was a great day but my time was 20secs slower than my first Olympic Tri at Arbour Lake just outside Calgary, more work to do!

The event I watched was the UK Half Ironman (Aug 22nd)held in the rolling grounds of Sherbourne Castle in the County of Dorset in Southern England. This Triathlon is a qualifyer for Kona and the 1700 participants were vying for 30 spots. The swim took place in the castle lake followed by the bike and run through the Dorset Country side. Great event with a number of Canadians taking part.

Congratulations to Steve and the rest of the rocks who competed in the 2004 Ironman Canada. I'm signed up for next year so I better get busy. Hi to all the Rocks, see you in late November, all the best Martin

Dan MacLean Remembered

by Sheila Yaw -MacLean

 

FiTFRiENDS

5Km Trail Walk/Run and Challenging 8 Km Trail Run

for Team Diabetes

Location: Starts at Laurentian University track and winds through the local single track trails

On-Site Registration Available from 8:30-9:30 a.m.

Race Date/Time: September 26, 2004 @ 10:00 am
Race Kit Pick-up: Running Room Cedar Pointe Plaza September 25, 2004 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
On-site Registration until 9:30 a.m. sharp

Click Here for Registration Form