Chamberas Race hits 10 Years STRONG!

The Thomas Chamberas XC Race turned 10 with a bang this weekend! We had more registrants, more runners, more finishers, more sponsors, and a bigger donation to our charities than ever!

NETT onced again served as the host club and provided volunteers, runners, and support. Huge thanks to all the volunteers who were out there on Friday and Saturday. We raised a lot of money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Hannah Randolph Memorial Fund and we have many many people to thank.

Results are posted on coolrunning.com

(Somewhat belated) Congrats to Eri

Huge congrats to Eri on completing his first half-ironman last weekend at Timberman in New Hampshire. He met his goal of finishing in 6 hours and did it in true Eri fashion. Here's his report:

"The race was great! It was a beautiful day for a race and amazing location! The views were phenomenal!

Of course I had a shoe related incident! They said that you can go into to the bike transition area at 6:45 am at the latest. Our hotel was a little far, about 40 mins so we got to the park at 6:15ish thinking that we will have plenty of time, but of course we did not anticipate that the parking lot was going to be full! So I had to park at Gunstock (where they provided shuttle service). That meant that I had to give my shoes and socks and everything else to my friend Erik! So I ended up walking barefoot at Gunstock and had to drive my car barefoot too!

But the race itself went well. My swim was pretty good (for me) I think I did 1:45min/100m average, so close to 34 mins. The bike went well too, I did around 17-18 mph average, but I dropped my water bottle at mile 3 and I was really thirsty until the next water station which was around mile 15 I think. I also forgot to bring anything to eat with me! That absolutely killed me at the run.

Right at the start of the run I ate 4 GU packets and 2 protein bars (pretty much anything I can find,) because I was really hungry! And as I ate my second protein bar I started to regret what I had done. Things were fine until mile 2 where I actually had to stop and consider throwing up or not. It was pretty bad, I walked at least 0.3 miles or so, then slowly started to run. Thankfully nothing happened but it def. affected my run. I think I did 9:40 average for the whole run which is pretty slow for me. My lungs were fine, but my muscles mile 11 I started to cramp up a bit.

Overall I finished with 6:00:43 I think. so exactly what I wanted!"

Great job Eri!!

While Eri was kicking butt up there, there were other Mini Ponies cycling all over NH. Frank, Ali, and Toledo Joe climbed the Kanc. Crazy, Big Ben, Oona, and Dr. Ron climbed some monster hills and looped Newfound Lake. And Jerry apparently had to cut his riding a bit short on vacation.

Things Get Messy at Greenfield "Tri"

Frank KJ journeyed out to Greenfield this weekend and came across some interesting challenges. Here's his report:

I raced at Greenfield Triathlon today - or should I say Greenfield Bike & Run.
The swim was canceled because as the photos show there was hardly any water in the river. Earlier this week they had to empty out the water (open the dam) because of some human error resulting in water pollution. Instead they started us out with short 200m dash to the bike racks. I was quickly out first in my wave (45+) together with another person. Throughout the entire bike leg we went back and forth depending on the terrain with me pulling away on the hills and he on the downhills. We never drafted on each other but nevertheless the referee came up and gave me a 2 minute penalty for falling back far enough after being passed before re-passing - B.S.

Afterward I spoke with the other guy and he actually thought he got the penalty. Annoying when the athletes both agree there was no foul play and some referee has to screw it up. I put the (slow) hammer down on the run and pulled away quickly to run the 5K in 19:57. In the end I was over one minute ahead of the other guy but still ended up one minute behind in the results - and was robbed of a podium spot as he ended up 3rd overall and I ended up 4th overall. Still I am very happy with my bike split which compares to 23.3 mph and with going under 20 minutes on the run leg.

Results at http://www.coolrunning.com/results/12/ma/Aug5_Greenf_set1.shtml