21st Calvin’s Challenge – Cassie Schumacher

submitted by Cassie Schumacher:

Great race day at Calvin’s Challenge yesterday. It was an amazingly diverse crowd with great weather. Last year I made my own non-drafting category. I gave in to peer pressure and drafted a little this year. I did not want to explain to people for the second year in a row that my numbers were lower because I raced non-draft. Ended up with 232 miles in 12 hours. In true Jerry fashion on Friday when I saw him he told me, “go kill it!” I did my best.

Race Highlights
I did not get to the line-up earlier enough so I ended up in the middle. Turns out I was right behind Charles, a young disabled veteran, an amputee at the right shoulder. There were at least 10 guys from the Paralyzed Veterans racing team. Charles was a bad ass on the bike but because he did not have the ability to go aro he sucked up the wind like a sail. He and I worked together for the first 30 miles and when the 3rd group caught us I asked him if he would not mind if I took off and caught him at the end. He told me to go, I did. By this time we were at the back of a group of about 25-30 people. I laid it down and started a break-a-way. The 2nd group was in my sights. I was starting to slow down after a while and I heard shifting behind me; I was not sure how many people followed. I called back that I could use a little help making it to the next group, Marie came up. She was the only one who was holding my wheel. It was awesome, like old times. We got the 2nd group and never got caught by the 3rd group. After the first 50 mile loop things really got spread out and there was not much drafting. I had a awesome time the entire day and meet some really great people.

The Podium
I can’t say how proud I am of Marie. Not only did she take 1st Place in her age group, she set the AG record. I took 2nd in my age group and 2nd overall female. I told the race director again that they really need to add a non- drafting category. I am going to keep at it until he finally gets tired of me asking.

Vulture’s Knob – Christine Bowser, Paul Dowd

331 Racing’s Ohio Power Series Mountain Bike Races, Stage 1 Vulture’s Knob 331 Kick Off Race. May 5, 2012 Wooster, Ohio

Christine Bowser
FINISH TIME: 01:08:42

FINISH PLACE O/A AND A/G: Finished 4th in women’s beginner category.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
I was released to mountain bike and run again the week of this race, after two operations in the last month. Going into the race, I wasn’t expecting “much” out of my body. It was my second mountain bike ride since the release, had treatment the day before and, needless to say, it was at the VULTURE’S KNOB. I just wanted to ride. And thanks to the support from several good friends, and teammate Julie Healy, I did just that.

Lined up with the beginners and pushed my way through one lap around the knob in in 1:08:42. It was a great day to ride – trail wasn’t that muddy, the temps were perfect. It was a great start to hopefully a season of improving on my mountain bike and work my way back into good shape! (Special note: thank you Dahon for coming out and pushing me through the last third of the course!)

Paul Dowd

Vultures Knob…….finish time of 1hour 39 min Sport Class 6th age group

Rust man Louisiana Epic Xterra 5-5-2012

Submitted by Ken Frankenbery

The Rust man Xterra was the very first Xterra, and is one of only 2 Xterra’s to still use the ½ Iron man distances ( 1 mile swim – 30 mile Mountain Bike – 10 mile trail run)

I have wanted to do this race for years, and made the 16 hour drive down to arrive 3 days before the race

The race is held at Lincoln Parish Park, it’s a gorgeous State park with a spring fed lake, a great mountain bike loop, and lots of hiking trails to use for run. Upon arrival, went out for a short run. It was 90 degrees, but the humidity was so bad it felt like you were at elevation. 10 minutes into the run, I was soaked with sweat, and felt like I could not get a full breath – the air was so thick you could cut it!

After a few days of getting used to heat, riding the trails, getting in some open water swims, I focused on resting and getting hydrated. Saturday’s race temp was projected to be 95 and sunny.

Unfortunately, even with a spring fed lake, water temperature was 81 degrees, so would not get to use my new wet suit.

The swim was 2 laps, I tried to pace myself, but that was a challenge in a mass start. Came out of the water in about 38th place overall, 3rd in my class, but passed 4 people in transition, one of them in my age group.

Felt strong on bike loop, we did 3 laps on a 10 mile loop. I took the lead in my class on first lap, and passed over 20 riders before the final lap. I was glad I took my full suspension Gary Fisher – to take the edge of all the rocks and roots before the 10 mile run.

I was just outside the top 10 as I went into transition 2, headed out for 3 laps of a 3.5 mile run loop. Hit the run, and sun was brutal, temp was in mid-90’s. The run loop was a mix of hiking trails, dirt roads, and fresh cut trails with 3 creek crossings. I felt good, really focused on staying hydrated, getting in calories, enduralities and continued to pick off people, finishing 6th overall, and first in my age group by over 45 minutes.

The race is a classic, and hope to make it an annual event!

Hermes Cleveland 10 miler 4/28/12

Julie Healy Race Review.
Temps seemed warmer than predicted at the start = awesome. It did start to hail lightly after I finished though.

Overall I had a great (training) run:
Finished in 1:16. Averaged 7:36/mile … that’s about 10 seconds better than I initially thought and 24 seconds better than I thought I would pace for today! Woohoo! 13th in my age group out of 178 runners, 232nd out of 1500+ who showed up for the 10 mile distance. I’ll take that with a smile 🙂

I was rather consistent from mile to mile and felt comfortable at this pace – sometimes its hard to leave your ego at home and just show up at a “race” knowing you aren’t trained to “race” it but you can still use it as an awesome training run.