Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Thank God for small favors.

Luckily, I was at the Cherry Point Triathlon this past Saturday, because on our regular Saturday morning ride there was a pretty bad crash that I am sure I would have been in had I been there. A small group of rides was finishing up a super strong sprint about 20 miles into the ride when, Rowdy had a malfunction and his rear rim just snapped. It caused his tire to blow and with the speed that they were travelling caused him to swing right, then left. He tried to recover, but couldn't and ended up on the ground. The wreck was pretty bad and he ended up with lots of road rash to his right side and unfortunately a broken collarbone. The bike didn't fare to well either. Mostly scratched up on the right side, but also a cracked seatstay. Needless to say, the frame is busted. He also took down another rider, Michael Clay, who ended up with a few bumps and bruises, but made it out without any major damage. I have kept in touch with them both this last week and they are doing fine. Rowdy will end up having surgery on his collarbone some time next week and Michael will take a few more days to fully recover, but we rode today and except for a sore bumm, he's doing OK!
Be careful out there riders! This was a random event and could happen to any one of us.

Ride On!
-Super Dave

Sunday, June 1, 2008

After a week in Vegas . . .

. . . I arrived back in NC late Friday night and had to get up early for the Cherry Pt Tri on Saturday. The race started out kinda slow. We stood around a long time waiting for the swim. I was midway thru page 2 and I didn't jump into the pool until 8am. The swim for me was tough, because I didn't get enough reps in the pool, especially this last week, and it showed with my 10+ minute swim for 400 meters. Once out of the pool, my personal race started. After a so-so transition, I jumped on the bike and rode as hard as possible. I was out of the saddle from the start and started passing riders at about 1 mile into the ride. I continued passing riders constantly, until the last 2 miles. Not that I slowed down, there was just no one in sight at that point. The bike course wound through the base for the first 5 miles then turned back onto itself and headed back to the start. There was a headwind going out, but of course a tailwind returning, that I used to my advantage. I'm sure that most people weren't hammering as hard as I was, but I know my cycling/running limitations and I wasn't even close. I had a quick bike to run transition, but I started the run cautiously because I didn't want to burn out. After a few minutes into the runI was passed by someone from one of the relay teams. I started running step for step with him for about 1/2 mile then backed off a little and decided to just keep him in striking distance, just in case I got a surge of energy. Anyway, I ended up keeping a strong, steady run pace fast enough not to get passed again. I finished in a solid 1:03:27. About 3:30 slower than my goal time of 1 hour. I did have a great time and so did the other athletes from Down East Cyclists. I am just sorry that Rachel was sick and didn't get to race. She's the whole reason that I was there, but she didn't get to go.