Two Good Weekends for Coach Clint

Rachel, Sara, Christine

Elk Lake Subaru 1/2 Ironman

Two weeks ago the Subaru 1/2 Ironman was held in Victoria at Elk Lake. I had seven athletes in the race and the day couldn't have gone much better.

My four local Island Triathlon athletes - the Four Horsemen:

Alison Dickson

Shay Averbuch

Steffen Hagen

and Derek Frohloff -

all enjoyed great races w/ Alison, Shay and Derek PBing over the distance.

Steffen was on track to great day after a strong swim/bike but had to settle for a good day when some cramping slowed him up on the run. Still it was clear he's on track and where he should be for IMC coming up in August - as are all four of them.

Shay recorded the 3rd fasted run with a 1:18 - not bad for an old cat!

Jeremy Hopwood jumped into the half distance only a few days before the race. He's been building slowly since the birth of his daughter Adalaide so this really was a test to see where he was at and what needed work. It turns out he's doing quite well indeed. He recorded a very respectable: 4:26:26

Rachel Kiers and Sara Gross (it's weird writing your wife's full name) both ended on the podium with Sara winning and Rachel close behind her for 2nd.

A MOST satisfying day!!

Yesterday in Vancouver was the next race in the Subaru series - the Vancouver 1/2 Ironman. Sara, Rachel and Jeremy were back in the mix.

Sara was using the day as a strong training day. The plan was to pull out after 30 minutes of running unless she felt good. The night before the race we reexamined that plan and decided that maybe running the whole thing - provided the wheels weren't coming off, would be just fine - so the race was on.

Shawnigan Lake champion, Rachel McBride was racing. She was coming off an awesome 3rd place finish in the Boise 70.3 close behind triathlon luminaries Heather Wurtele and winner Magali Tisseyre.

Unlike the Elk Lake race, Rachel Kiers' plan in Vancouver was to go in a little more rested and with higher intent. In the end both women ended up on the podium with Sara coming 2nd and Rachel 3rd. Great races for both of them.

Jeremy is a guy who likes his numbers. For Vancouver we wanted to set those aside (to some extend) and take some chances out there - just race hard. He did that and found himself at the pointy end of the stick. Unfortunately about 2/3 the way through the bike he found himself in some difficulty and had to notch it back for the remainder of the race. In the end, not his finest race but a great learning one. It's now clear to both Jeremy and myself that he can mix it up with the big boys. Some fine tuning and a couple good builds and he'll be there.

Mercury Rising gives a happy salute to our friend Scott Curry on his win. He's a class act and a quality guy!

Up next is the Mercury Rising Camp in Penticton - followed by the Peach Classic for many of the campers. Fun times!!