Club Champs, August 6, 2011

Andrea K

I always wonder why Club Champs is run in the heat of summer when I’d much rather be swimming than running! Today’s race was extremely uncomfortable with 73 degree temperature and 81% humidity.

Racing is extremely taxing in any weather. Add a little heat and humidity and you have a recipe that creates a competing struggle within the body to power a strenuous effort and the need to stay cool. This means you have to work even harder to cool your body, and that’s why today’s race felt much harder than a workout in similar conditions, especially the first 2 miles which were mostly uphill!

Nevertheless, the Flyer’s were out in full force and many PR’s were set today. Congratulations to every NY Flyer for your heroic efforts on such a hot day!

We had a great turnout and fantastic results including:

Flyer Men, 16th Place, Flyer Master’s Men, 11th Place, Flyer Veteran’s Men, 10th place, Flyer Senior Veteran’s Men, 4th Place.  The top Flyer scoring Men include: Leslie L - 29:52, James D - 30:19, Brian H - 30:59, Sean J - 31:07, Gordon R- 31:46, Jorge F - 32:16, Tim Decker - 33:43, Terence B - 33:43, Glen W - 33:45, and Percy G - 33:45.

Flyer Women, 8th Place, Flyer Master Women, 3rd Place, Flyer Veteran Women, 1st Place, and Flyer Senior Veteran Women, 5th Place.  The top Flyer Women include: Deanna C - 32:57, Chris M - 33:00, Jessica R - 33:23, Elizabeth A - 34:09, Katie S - 34:52, Colleen R - 34:53, Andrea K - 35:21, Lara K - 36:00, Nina T - 36:11, and Katherine Ram - 36:49.

Since Club Champs is a double points race, the Flyer Veteran Women are now in 1^st place with 90 points!! We are now ahead of Athena with 78 points, Greater NY RT with 73 points, Taconic with 48 points and CPTC with 43 points. I would like to thank my teammates who helped us win big time: Nina T and Carrie B (who is back after suffering a calf injury for most of the year).  I also helped the team although I felt that I struggled most of the race. I was trying to save some energy to use at the NYC Triathlon the following morning.

It was great to see so many Flyer’s at the picnic and to pose for the team photo, including everyone who brought their kids and even their pets.

Flyers Elizel A and Laura G (with Laura's Doggie Grady)

I was so surprised to see Monika G and her husband Tom who drove up all the way from North Carolina to join us today! What a great picnic.

Flyer Fran O -- Again the Organizer of a
Wonderful Club Team Champs Picnic -- Caught in the Act of Setting Up

And a special big thanks to Fran O and Isabelle J for getting up so early to set up the picnic!

Thanks, too, for the fabulous Flyers cheering section -- the very many merry men who cheered on us women, and the Flyers' wild women who did likewise in our raucous cheering on the Flyer guys!!

- Andrea K