NETT comes up BIG at Greenfield, Lowell triathlons

After laying low for a few weeks, the Mini Ponies were out in force this weekend, producing some stellar results at two triathlons. First off, here's Frank KJ's report from the Greenfield Tri.

"After a bit of a dry period here's something good to report on the triathlon front. After taking July off to heal from his crash down the Kanc, Martin was back in action at Greenfield triathlon. And he put on quite a show, taking the lead on the swim, biking strong and the finishing off with his usual fast run to take 1st overall more than 4 minutes ahead of 2nd place finisher. Afterwards Martin was interviewed by the local press [perhaps we need a name that caption contest here. I will go first: My coach had me do these excruciating painful hill repeats two weeks ago so the hairpin turns on the hill today actually felt like piece of cake]. Another phenomenal performance by Martin."

Martin said, "It was a perfect day to race. The temperature was cool up to the run when the sun finally got bright. This race was a great fit leading up to Cranberry with a bike and a run leg that were a bit longer than what I will face there. The water for the swim was nice and cool. The race started and I pulled out in front. The way that the swim course was laid-out, I had an opportunity to see where the pack was behind me three times. I grew the lead each time I saw the pack. I had a relatively quick transition with no issues and was off on the bike. Two riders came blowing by me during the first lap which got me a little concerned. There were 4 laps for the course of a little over 7 miles and I feel that I improved on each. One other rider came by me during the bike leg, which happened at the end of lap 2 - it turned out that the first two were doing the race as a relay and the 3rd was the only individual who came by me.

I had a quick bike-to-run transition but had a bit of a snafu leaving the transition - the exit forked left for the sprint run and right for the international. I went left and got confused for a second. I corrected, back-tracked and was out on the run course - this probably cost me 20 seconds. At this point, I thought that there were 3 people to chase down and I was a little worried about catching the first two. It took me a little over 2 miles to make contact with the last guy who passed me on the bike. By mile 3.5, I had passed him. It was around here that a race official told me that I was in the lead. There was a very challenging hill at mile 4 but after I got through it, I felt good and pushed on to the finish trying to put as much distance between myself and the guy that I had just passed. As an interesting footnote, this was my first ever win for triathlon."

Frank decided to the do sprint distance this year and that turned out to be a good decision. "I ended up taking 3rd overall and fastest Master with good solid splits all around - in fact I had the fastest run split off the day and the blisters to proof it. Greenfield triathlon might be a small race but the venue and relaxed atmosphere makes it a real treat and worth the drive. Thanks to Chrissy for coming out to support and take pictures."

But that's not all! Meanwhile, up in Lowell, three Mini Ponies were stomping around at the Lowell Triathlon with some very strong results. Here's Karyn MM's report:

"We had a areat day in Lowell today! Eri, who chose to participate fully clothed, finished his first Olympic distance triathlon and looked very strong at the finish (we don't have any of the results yet, so we have no idea whether we scored NETT points).

I was doing a relay with Mary. My swim was fine, about the same as last year's I think (maybe a few seconds faster) but somehow (???) I managed to take about 10 minutes off my bike ride (43 last year, and according to my watch, a little over 33 this year, with another minute or so to walk to the transition area). Mary of course flew through the running leg, despite the fact that her timing chip was engraving her initials deep in her achilles."Congrats to all! That's the way to represent NETT out there in the field.