Eric Forte and Carl Legleiter quickly jumped into the lead. These boys are very fast. Eric is a former bike racer who has turned his focus to running. Carl, on the other hand, just started cycling this year and by his own admission, is already fully hooked. He's still adapting his legs to turning circles but can already crack the 16:00 mark up Old San Marcos. Too bad he's leaving town in December, otherwise I'd make a strong effort to bring him fully over to the dark side (i.e., bike racing).
These are the gentlemen who I aspire to keep up with someday... Terry Howell, Fred Mellon, and Travis Bower. They're my age +/- a couple years, but they tick off ~5:30 miles when doing races in the 5K to 10K range. Yowza!
Ricky Ho, getting faster and faster. On the few occasions where I was near him at the end of a race, he blew me away with his final surge and sprint. The dude has some major anaerobic capacity!
Travis gets a second picture because he was my daughter's Freshman year math teacher ...and he was so good that she actually enjoyed Math! Will she follow in her parents' math-nerdy footsteps?
Drea McLarty... one of the fastest women runners in town, and also getting into cycling! She writes an eloquent blog.
Mariann (aka Tommy) was a close 2nd, until taking a wrong turn.
Steve Miley and a harem of strong runners (Desa Mandarino, Romy Suzuki, and Gae Triplett).
And back to the leaders... Eric opened a gap in the first 3 miles, but Carl closed it down and passed him on the final lap. Eric dug deep to stay close (see below) and then tried to use his awesome bike-racer sprint at the end, but ultimately came up a few meters short.
All in all, a beautiful fall day for running ...or just taking pictures.
3 comments:
FYI, Drea actually raced bikes collegiately at UT-Austin, which explains her super triathlon bike performances (using the same 10 year old road bike, with no TT equipment).
Ah, thanks Eric! Glad to see she's getting back to it 'cause clearly she has talent and motivation.
How about you? Has running taken over, or will we see you out on the group rides again some day? Should I book us a room for Orosi in '09?
While my bigger goals for next year might be running (try for fast marathon before I get too old) I'm still on the bike. But I just haven't integrated into local cycling community yet, which makes a difference. I believe in doing it all, what the hell. Eyeing pools.
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