JULY 8
Optimism prevailed for the final Elmore Practice Triathlon of 2021. The forecast for torrential rains did not dissuade a field of 24 from participating in what turned out to be a mostly dry, but cool and windy event. The rain even held off until hours after the pizza party! Brian and Rima Carlson repeated their overall wins from June 24 due to their fast run splits. Mark Mulder and Alice McCormick, both participating for the first time this year, took the 2nd places, while Prem Linsky took 6 minutes off of his June 10th time for 3rd place male and Doreen Audette placed 3rd F (despite a frustrating helmet/hair delay in T2).
The water was cooler and fairly rough which may explain why the race was characterized by some anomalies in the swim. Several people missed the white buoy to make their 2nd lap and a couple of people apparently walked most of the swim. While walking the swim, when it is shallow enough, is not technically against USA Triathlon rules, it has been discouraged as not meeting the spirit of doing a practice triathlon in Elmore where the swim is kept shallow for safety reasons. The bike stayed dry despite stormy south winds and just a few people were rained on toward the end of the run.
Most participants enjoyed the delicious pizza from Fire Tower Pizza along with salads and some delicious dessert from the Carlsons and several other participants. Thanks once again to volunteers Sigh Searles and Eric Ryea who helped every week this year and Meg Clark who volunteered this week instead of racing. We can’t put the race on without the volunteers’ help!
June 24
Another beautiful weather evening, but choppy water from a south wind, greeted triathletes for the 2nd Elmore Practice Triathlon of 2021. This week included a relay, 2 Aquabike competitors and a swim only racer out of the 23 competitors.
Rima Carlson who swept the 2020 series was outrun by her husband Brian Carlson to take 1st OA Female and Male respectively. Justin Kolber hammered the bike and run to take 3rd place while our fastest swimmer, 16 yo Jacob Antonovich, took 3 minutes off of last event’s time for 4th OA. Ezra Merrill-Triplet, age 15, posted the 2nd fastest run split to move up to 5th place OA. 14 yo Anya Carlson had the 2nd fastest swim time to place 3rd F behind 2nd place Meredith Naughton. An adjusted swim course brought the swim times back to their normal range from a long swim on June 10.
Thanks to the Vermont Sun Triathlon event 2 days in the future, we had an abundance of excellent volunteers. Thank you very much to GMM members Pam Sills, Sarah Phillips, John Martin, and John Bonneville for helping out along with Eric Ryea and Sigh Searles.
June 10
Beautiful weather and relatively warm, calm water greeted triathletes for the 1st Elmore Practice Triathlon of 2021. Thanks to so many Vermonters getting vaccinated, Covid-19 restrictions are minimal for the event this year! 24 triathletes including 3 first time triathletes completed the course. Competitors ages ranged from 12 to 72!
Frequent winner, Thorin Markison posted the fastest time of the day in 51:36 followed by 16 year old Jacob Antonovich who took 4 minutes off his prior best time on his new bike. Doreen Audette finished first female and 4th overall in a time of 1:03:05. The swim course was challenging, adding 1-2 minutes to the usual swim times due to a change in buoy configuration at the park and a new rolling start procedure from the beach.
Thank you to volunteers John Martin, Sigh Searles, Eric Ryea and Justin Kolber!