Wright Triathlon Club Race Report

Club Triathletes challenge the Great Escape Triathlon and Ironman Wisconsin

In a busy end of season race weekend, eight members of our club, braved two noteworthy races to vie with some of the best athletes in the US and the world. Both of these races occurred on Sunday 12 Sep.

Firstly, Paul Day completed at Ironman Wisconsin, against a field of over 2,000 contenders in this Ironman Hawaii qualifying event. His 11 hours 22 minutes and 49 seconds placed him in 242nd Place overall (35th in Age group). Several countries were included in this world class event.

In a shorter race closer to home, the fabulous seven, plus one (That's what I call them now) braved the open waters of Lake Erie to compete in the Great Escape Triathlon. In this race approximately 200 top triathletes from all over the US vied for slots for the nationally known Escape from Alcatraz race. Leading the base group was Mike Polakowski, who had a great run finishing in 2 hours, 14 minutes and 54 seconds. He finished 13th overall and garnered a third place in his age group. Second from our group was Brian Gaughan who had a great swim as he finished in 2 hours 45 minutes and 43 seconds. (98th 7th in his age group) For Brian it was also his lucky day as he received a draw for a slot in the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon to be held in San Francisco next June 2005. Dave Hardwick, who just came back from doing his 10th Hood-to-Coast relay in Oregon the week before, also had a good day finishing in 2 hours, 47 minutes and 30 seconds (102nd, 4th in his age group). He bested all of his age group in the run portion of the event. In kind of a joke on himself when in transition two Dave found out that he still had socks stuffed in his running flats from his packing to come back from Oregon. Pulling the socks out of his shoes cost him about 15 seconds in transition. "Always something." Mike Calcatera had a great triathlon as he finished second in his age group and also qualified for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. His finish was 2 hours 48 minutes and 26 seconds (105th). Brad Elstad finished under three hours as he crossed the finish braving the jungle running of the cross country course. 2 hours 59 minutes 42 seconds (128th, 21st). Don Scarpero had a solid finish, finishing forth in his age group. 3 hours 5 minutes and 52 seconds. (138th) Lynn Streetz rounded up our fabulous seven group with a 3 hours 10 minutes and 34 seconds finish. (242nd, 8th)

In general, the Great Escape Race was truly a great multi-sport experience. Starting from a ferry we jumped into Lake Erie and had to brave choppy waves and strong currents for almost a mile before we made it to shore. The 25 mile bike ride was very scenic as we passed lighthouses and beautiful terrain of the shore of Lake Erie. The 10 K run was also exciting as we ran a cross country course of sand dunes, shore and jungle like environment to the races finish.

Looking at the first main element of the race, the swim, Lynn Streetz fairly well summarized this portion. For all of us the swim was a challenge and the distance was likely closer to a mile than 1,500 meters. "Overall I thought it was a great race. That swim from the boat kicked my butt - I think it took me 10 minutes longer than it should have and that I added a couple tenths of a mile to the most direct route! I kept looking for some larger buoys. I could barely see the flags. I felt that something to target other than the boat house would have definitely helped. At least it would have made me feel like I was actually moving forward! I think I heard Dave Hardwick's name being announced as exiting the water about the time I got to the rock islands. In a way it made me feel good that I wasn't the only one still out there!"

Also, who was our number eight person? It was Scott Weaver one of the race organizers, who is also a member of our club. It was he and his associate Craig Thompson that was responsible for making us jump out of a perfectly good boat to take a morning swim and running us though near jungle like environments. He was also responsible for some of the special touches in organizing the race, such as placing our numbers on the bike racks and the great announcing of all of the participants. Also of note was the playing of the national anthem and the pre race prayer.

Finally, sighting up on Ironman Florida in early November, we are expecting great things from both Brad Elstad and Lynn Streetz as they will have used this Great Escape event to ready themselves for their last race of the 2004 season.

DH

Note: Club scoring for this event not yet available. See our results page for complete stats.

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