October 26, 2006

    Clinics

1. Rocks!! in Niagara
2. Mike Coughlin Completes the Hawaii Ironman
3. Banff-Jasper Relay Anyone?
4. Laurentian Road Update: Read in Track North News
5. Upcoming Events - North Bay Trail Run, Santa Shuffle

Rocks!! in Niagara

by Ken Stubbings (Cobourg Rock!!)

Hello Everyone,

After running the Prince Edward County Marathon, I decided to run the Niagara Falls Marathon. It was not until the Friday before, that we realized some other Rocks would be at the run. I should have known that some of you would be there.

I had never run Niagara. As with the Sudbury Rocks Marathon, it was within 3 weeks of running another marathon. Crazy eh!!! I had no idea of a finish time, but I gave it a go to maintain my 2006 goal of every marathon in less than 3 hours.

The day was less than perfect. The biggest decision was what to wear. It was raining, cold, and windy. Lots of people had tights and jackets on. I had shorts and a long sleeve technical shirt. I was debating about my running vest up to the last minute. I stuck with my original decision to not wear the vest. Remember, you heat up another 10 degrees when running. It was the correct choice. The wind was a cross wind, some tail wind, and a little head wind. I guess that means it was in every direction. The rain was a light rain, so the feet did not get too damp. I ran by myself most of the time. The course is marked in miles, so I was thinking of Boston. I kept counting the miles, one at a time. When I got to the 13 mile, it was really quiet. There was just the Sportstat truck and the mat. No cheering or Wellesley girls. At 20 mile mark, I looked for Heartbreak Hill; nothing there. The water stations were well staffed with cheering people. One station had a biker gang at it. Maybe they spiked my Gatorade because at 23 miles, I was still good, so I kept up a good pace to the finish for a 2:56:19 time.

Thanks to Sheila and Lynn for cheering at the finish line. Congratulations to Brent Walker for his P.B.(3:07:25) and to Dave Chisholm for completing another half.

Lynn ran the 5km race. Her calf was feeling much better. She passed a few people that she kept on target to catch. She felt so good; she wished she had done the half.

We lucked out by not running when the snow storm hit Buffalo. The damage from the recent snow storm was very visible. There were large branches down everywhere. The hydro company was out still doing repairs.

I hope to see you next May for the second annual Sudbury Rocks Marathon.

Ken

As Ken mentions there were other Rocks!! plus many local runners at Niagara this year. Congratulations to all!

All Results Here

Of special Note: Our YMCA Rock!!, Donna Smrek, finally broke the 2 hour barrier in the 1/2 (1:55:51) . Donna writes: Thanks to Dave Chisholm for making sure I didn’t go too fast at the beginning but kept me going strong at the end to FINALLY get under that 2 hour mark. Your singing was fabulous and it made me run faster – not because I was trying to get away - cheers

Mike Coughlin Completes Hawaii Ironman

Before the Ford World Ironman Triathlon Championship began, Mike Coughlin wrote the following:

"Tune into www.ironman.com on Saturday if you want to track my progress - that way I can't slack off!"

Mike did not slack off finishing in a very strong 10:07:01 and 426th overall out of over 2,000 very seasoned competitors. I watched him cross the line on the Ironman net feed Saturday night and he not only finished strong, he also looked fresh and absolutely pleased with himself. He should be. The road to Kona is long for anyone including Mike. Behind him are years of roadracing, ever longer and faster triathlons and finally a qualifying spot for the Big Show obtained in August at Canada's Ironman in Penticton. Good going Mike! Read his impressions below.

Mike was not the only local competitor there. David Bialkowski from Parry Sound made the trip as well and completed the event in 10:56:19 and 815th overall. David owns the sports store in Parry Sound and also organizes the Community's runs and Triathlons.http://www.pstrysport.com/

Detailed Results Here

Ironman Hawaii Impressions

by Mike Coughlin

Hey Vince,

After 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling, 26.2 miles of running, several days of illness, and 20 hours of flying, I am finally back. I have to admit it was quite a shock leaving the tropical sun and surf of Kona for flurries at the Sudbury airport (life can be cruel), but I must be a northerner because it felt like home!

Memories of the largest and toughest single day in endurance sports still saturate me at the moment, and it may be a little while before I can put them all into words. In the meantime, here are a few impressions I took away from the race and the Hawaii in General.

Ocean Swimming: There is something very special, very different and sometimes very scary about swimming amongst the creatures of the tropical ocean. I had a chance to swim in a few different places along the Kona coast, and was joined by bottlenose dolphins (amazing!), tropical fish, Honu (Hawaiian sea turtles which are considered good luck) and in once unfortunate and painful incident, jellyfish (they are virtually invisible, but you will know when you run into one!). The power of the ocean is also incredible. During one swim I was hit by a wave so hard it knocked my goggles off never to be seen again!

Crazy Kona Traffic: When the Hawaii Ironman moved to the Big Island in 1981, Kona was a little rural town. Now it is a tourism hotspot, development is out of control, and infrastructure struggles to keep up. The most obvious example of this is the 7 mile lineup of cars from downtown Kona North to the airport, but the other direction isn't much better. During race week I stayed 12 miles south of town with my family which was nice and quiet, but we were faced with a traffic jam into and out of town every day, even at 6am!

Triathlon Makes you look younger.....and older: Clearly, Kona has some pretty well conditioned physiques cruising around during race week. I will admit to being surprised more than once by young looking, trim bodies that belonged to people decades older than I expected. The flipside of this is that many triathletes who train in sun-drenched climates can develop rather "weathered" looks due to all the sun exposure. Needless to say, the combination of these effects can be quite shocking. Don't forget to wear your sunscreen while training!!!

A Quality Field: I knew this would be a strong field of athletes at this race, but wow. At Ironman Canada I managed to finish in the top 5% of my age group. At Kona I was within 4 minutes of my Canada time and wasn't even in the top 50%. Instead, I found myself racing alongside much older age groups, including a 51 year old woman who was putting the hurt on me on the bike!

An "Intense" Field: Before coming here I had heard that the athletes at this race were a fairly serious bunch, without much encouragement or camradierie on the race course. Now that I have done the race, I would have to agree. Many of the competitors have an aggressive, "intense" energy about them which can be downright amusing since most of us have no chance of competing for the top spots. My goal was to be my positive, social, borderline annoying self and lighten things up out there with some jokes and encouraging words. Hopefully some of it rubbed off on the race.

Survival Stations: For most races I attend, I have felt that aid stations were a bit of a luxury for those who didn't feel like carrying their own stuff or wanted to take more than they needed. At this race, they are most certainly not. In fact, on the run they should probably change the name to Survival Stations because I felt like I was a desert wanderer, praying for the next oasis to come along, and barely making each one (and they come almost once per mile). Skip the aid stations at this race at your own peril.

One Small Family: The intensity of many of the athletes aside, the sport of triathlon really has the feeling of a family, and a small one at that. Having met athletes from around the world in my travels, going to Kona felt like a family reunion, with many old friends there and new friends made. The other amazing thing was how similar the pros are in their attitudes and interests - there aren't many sports where you can go out and practice with the top athletes from the magazines and then have a drink afterward and chat about strategies for the race you will both be in late that week. Pretty amazing.

That's all for now, except to offer a bit of advice. If you are contemplating doing an Ironman event, you might want to find out where I plan to race....and avoid it. So far my presence at Ironman events has attracted forest fires (Ironman Canada 2003), hurricane-strength winds (Ironman New Zealand 2006) and an earthquake (Ironman Hawaii 2006). Next time I go to Kona I expect a full scale volcanic eruption.

Live your dreams!

Mike

--
Mike Coughlin
Coach/Mentor
The Discomfort Zone
'Where true potential is discovered'

mike@discomfortzone.com
www.mikestriadventure.ca

Banff-Jasper Relay Anyone?

Hello Sudbury Rocks

I am the with the Banff-Jasper relay organizing team (running relay in the mountains of Alberta). In case you have not heard, we have brought back the next generation of the Jasper-Banff relay. The old race was 17 legs, approx 195 miles, starting in Jasper and finishing in Banff. The original race was retired in 2000; however, we introduced its successor, the Banff-Jasper relay a few years back. 2007 will be our third year for the new race and we would love to see the Sudbury Rocks club join us with a team. Our new format is 15 legs, starting just west of Banff and finishing is Jasper. We still run the race the first weekend of June.

Please have a look at our web site (www.bjr.ca), and please consider joining us. Let me know if I can provide you with any more info

Sincerely

Rob Stichbury

Banff-Jasper Relay 2007

Upcoming Events

Visit our Events Section for all the Details