Monday, August 16, 2010

Kesley kicks butt

Daughter Kelsey continues to impress and amaze me. In her first season of triathlons, she has placed first in her age group in every event and finished no worse than 5th for the women. Last Sunday was no exception. In the 2010 Seattle Danskin sprint triathlon, Kelsey competed with over 4,000 entrants and once again won the 20-24 age group. More impressively, she was third overall, beating all but one of the elite athletes. She started in the 25th heat and had to contend with 2,400 participants on the road in front of her. Kelsey took it out hard on the swim and picked up the pace on the bike. She looked for competition on the run to keep her motivated and was never passed. The funny part is she was disappointed by her run time.

Monday, August 09, 2010

August Update

Managed to finish STP respectably. Our time wasn't too fast, but it was better than last year and Kelsey was much stronger when she finished than last year. We got picked up and driven home than night, arriving at the house about 12:30 Sunday morning. After starting the day about 3:30 AM on Saturday, it made for a long day. Kelsey got up Sunday and left before 9:00 AM, headed to White Pass to volunteer as a counselor at the XC camp there. She ran all week on the trails with the campers and came home on Friday. Saturday morning we both ran the Aquafest 10k. She ran 44:06 and I ran 44:24. So she was tired and still beat the old man. Unfortunately, my right quad and hip did not work well and I had to walk a few times. Doesn't help the pace much.

Kelsey's rookie summer of triathlons continues to go well. She stepped up to the Olympic distance recently competing in the Whiskey Dick triathlon in Ellensburg. This is a tough event, with the swim (1 mile) in the Columbia River at Vantage. The bike portion climbs for 12 miles to Whiskey Dick Ridge and then is slightly down or flat on the next 16 miles into Ellensburg. As is often the case, the 16 miles were all into a solid headwind. The 10k run is in Ellensburg and Kelsey ended up with the fastest female time at 45:30. She was third female out of the water, but lost ground on the bike, ending up 5th female. Too much time lost to make it up, although she gained back over 4 minutes during the run on the winner. She was once again 1st in her age group.

Next up is Danskin this weekend. This will be a sprint distance, but will be MUCH larger than any event so far, with upwards of 3,500 participants. This will be her last event prior to XC season beginning at CWU. Looking at her times versus previous years times, I believe she has an excellent shot at the top 20; perhaps even top 10 with a strong race. We'll see on Sunday.