Winners Crowned.

Seven of the club's bravest riders faced some less than ideal conditions for this morning's brick. With no major surprises or upsets, the Fall Classic point series has officialy ended, with the overall titles going to Barry and Claire who have had early leads since the first couple events. This turns out to be rather convenient as their names were already engraved on the trophies earlier this week.

Kevin tried to make up for a bad night's sleep by getting as much caffeine in his system as he possibly could. The jury is still out on how beneficial this might have proved. Seth gave Sherry a 30 second lead, hoping to catch up and draft later in the race. Seth lent Barry his aero helmet for the duration of the race, and as a result he found it much harder to catch up than planned. He managed to just edge out Sherry at the finish. Barry used the helmet to his full advantage, finishing just 10 seconds behind Matt's recorded time from an equally wet and breezy course on Wednesday.

Kyuwon hit six red lights, a funeral procession, a duck crossing and had to stop for 3 different elderly couples crossing the road. Claire was seen sprinkling tacks on the road before the event in order to further guarantee her victory and is suspected of tampering with the traffic lights as well. She took things a little too far, even interfering with the men's race by resetting Johnson's Garmin and costing him precious seconds at the start line. The next unofficial Point Series will be the beer mile, December 2nd, so there are still plenty of reasons to be training hard. And with only 15 or 16 weeks until the start of the spring point series, no off season is really permitted.

Overall Time
Kyuwon 28:30:00
Claire 23:58:00
Sherry 26:52:00
Kevin 23:18:00
Seth 25:45:00
Johnson 25:03:00
Barry 20:13:00
Victoria Gilbert 23:32:00
Matt Reeve 20:03:00
Vincent Lavallee 20:57:00

Leaving the brick competitors behind in Vancouver, an even larger group of club members (8 + one alumna) headed to Lynn Valley for a trail race this morning. Despite course marking problems and persistent rain, everyone seemed to have a pretty good race and get at least a pair of socks from the draw prize table at the finish line. Matt even won free entry into a trail race for next August; seconds after exclaiming "Man, I really don't want to win this". It turns out whoever is standing next to Brendan during draws for free race entries always wins. Take note in case you plan on attending any bike shop openings or similar events.

Naiely originally ran as "Vincent Laval" but after undergoing a rigorous gender and identity verification process after the race was allowed to keep her title of third woman overall in the 24k. In future she plans to actually enter races herself and save much trouble at the finish line.

Overall Place and Times

24k
2 01:51:10 Carl Reilly
4 01:58:52 Liam Harrap
5 02:00:05 Brendan Naef
12 02:14:37 Jake Alleyn
23 02:31:22 Naiely Cabrera

12k
1 00:56:54 Jonathan Heinz
2 01:02:00 Matt Reeve
3 01:07:23 Kaley Strachan
6 01:09:39 Kelsey Knoll

There was also a 19k but no one really cares how that race went as it was reported that very few triathletes competed in this event.

Girls Dominate Swim. Matt Tries His Best.

A familiar pattern repeated itself with this morning's 500m swim. The four fastest times all went to the ladies, with Jen Bhatla taking the event in 7:10, Kendra hot on her heels in 7:11 and Steph Flynn in 7:17. Karin's 7:29 didn't leave her far behind the pack. Kendra might have been able to shave that crucial second off had she not biked to campus this morning; her house is estimated to be 30 or 40k from campus. In a post race interview she revealed that she kind of felt "eh", and that after the event she echoed a similar sentiment. One can only imagine what Kendra might be able to do on a good day without an exhausting commute beforehand.

Also of note, on her way to winning the event, Jen crushed both of her times from the 2010/2011 Point Series by over 25 seconds, a significant improvement.

Kevin Chiarot was the fastest new club member, swimming 7:30 on the dot. Equally impressive was Liam, who took a full four minutes off of his personal best. Another four and he should have Jen in sight.

Winston was heard to remark that the event felt a bit like a Polar Bear swim on account of the beautifully clear but far from warm morning. And he wasn't even trying to squeeze in a late Aquathon, where the first lap of the SUB was cold enough to cause a mild headache. A few degrees colder and a Speedo might freeze to a man's body. For these and other practical reasons, Aquathon make-ups are now banned after October 31st.

Matt Reeve did not beat any of the faster ladies. But he did set the club record for the Aquathon, albeit a bit late to claim an additional 25 points. He will be forgiven for relaxing the pace a little bit in the pool to save precious energy for the run. The following statement was attributed to Matt just last Thursday "I don't know how fast I'll be able to run off of an all out 500, but I think I might give it a go to see if I can crush Barry". I think you did alright, Matt. And if your 500 was all out, then there is no excuse to have finished 4th overall. His 16:53 in the Aquathon makes him the first club member to complete the event under 17 minutes.

You now have only one more chance to make up ground on your nearest competitors in the Point Series with The Brick. Not that anyone can predict these things this far out- but the forecast calls for a dry day, and not too cold for mid-November. So plan on bringing your nicest set of wheels and don't worry too much about getting your best set of spandex dirty. At least give yourself a challenging time to beat next spring.

Matt Reeve 7:25:00
Kevin Chiarot 7:30:00
Vincent Lavallee7:32:00
Barry Claman 7:45:00
Daniel Salamanca8:49:00
Winston Guo 9:00:00
John Heinz 9:16:00
Jesse Chao 10:30:00
Derek 11:18:00
Liam Harrap 11:28:00
Jiri 12:22:00
Seth Bluman 13:24:00
Jen Bhatla 7:10:00
Kendra Swain 7:11:00
Stephanie Flynn 7:17:00
Karin Olafson 7:29:00
Brittany Buchanan8:16:00
Claire Askew 8:44:00
Tal 8:58:00
Kelsey Knoll 9:02:00
Greta Raymond 9:02:00
Annie Mauer 9:10:00
Jen Moroz 9:12:00
Becca 9:27:00
Victoria Gilbert9:32:00
Keely Hammond 10:42:00

Third Tree On Your Right

The Fall Classic is rapidly drawing to a close, with 3/4's of events now having already been contested. So if someone is immediately ahead of you in the overall standings, you had better have a good breakfast on Sunday and give your best effort in the 500m swim if you want to make up some ground.

For several club members this was their first ever timed 5k, so new personal bests were assured. Both men's and women's course records were eclipsed, thanks in part to having a bit of daylight left for the event and a break in the rain just in time for the race.

Jen Moroz became the first female to break 19 minutes on this course (including the impressive performance of professional triathlete Amy Kirkham), running 18:54. The men's lead swapped several times, with John and Barry each taking roughly 500m at the lead before switching off. This pattern continued for four and a half laps. Both finished in personal best times. The overall winner would like to thank Barry for pushing the pace and putting the record within reach. It's hard (not to mention lonely!) running alone. If the landscapers of the endowment lands had planted that finish line tree 18 inches farther to the West, Vince's "run under 17:00" challenge would have been a breeze.

An unknown competitor was seen clearing a few wet leaves off of the street and folding in the mirror of a parked vehicle during the warmup lap of the course. They were accused (and rightfully so) of taking point series events too seriously. 100 points have been subtracted from their overall total.

Special thanks to Johnson for handling all of the timing, and the essential countdown at the start line. I saw you at the finish line tree on lap one, so you must have been moving pretty quickly to get there. The clipboard must not affect your stride at all. For the three club members currently competing in Las Vegas, the first 5k of the 30k run portion of your race will be used for your point series time. Even if Naiely did the 5k in advance. So run hard right from the start.


John Heinz 16:41:00
Barry Claman 17:00:00
Max Stallkamp 17:31:00
Daniel Salamanca17:50:00
Vincent Lavallee18:01:00
Matt Reeve 18:02:00
Drew Senay 18:05:00
Liam Harrap 18:06:00
Ben Kresnyak 18:35:00
Jen Moroz 18:54:00
Dylan Stephanian19:31:00
Kevin Chiarot 20:20:00
Seth Bluman 20:34:00
Jake Alleyne 20:47:00
Mirko Moeller 20:49:00
Grahm Clark 20:50:00
Paul Rozehnal 21:29:00
Victoria Gilbert21:35:00
Thomas Belshein 21:43:00
Kelsey Knoll 21:56:00
Martin Kozinsky 22:22:00
Stephanie Flynn 22:24:00
Sherry Gu 22:32:00
Keely Hammond 22:47:00
Greta Raymond 22:54:00
Theresa Price 22:58:00
Jen Bhatia 23:39:00
Brittany Buchanan24:12:00
Winston Guo: 19:something. Run the event on the proper day if you want an actual time.

IONA Time Trial

A small but rather fit group of cyclists rode down to the Iona Island causeway on Saturday to compete in the fifth event of the point series.

Claire managed to finish the course 30 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor and her already sizable lead in the point series is now even more secure. Even Eddy's long legs couldn't keep up with Claire's time trial pace, she finished 3 seconds ahead of him. But with three events left, the competition for overall lead female is far from over. The spring Point series winner, Victoria was next in 19:26, very much still in the running for the overall title. It was a small group of competitors on the girl's side, the other pair of riders finished in exactly the same time (21:10 for Sherry and Jen Bhatla). Accusations of drafting and illegal pacing would be thrown around if they hadn't started at least 15 seconds apart.

Barry Claman (15:37) was the fastest among the guys, not an unexpected performance considering his dominance in the uphill bike time trial a month ago. And Max, despite putting in some major mileage riding to work on a weighted commuter, was still 30 seconds behind Derrick who has spent a comparative amount of time on the couch.

Barry should perhaps consider himself fortunate that his main competition, the second and third place finishers were one week away from the ITU world championships and were therefore were likely taking it a bit easy and unable to put in absolute maximum effort on the bike. Brendan was only 2 seconds behind in 15:39, while Carl also managed to break the sixteen minute barrier, finishing in 15:59.


Barry Claman 15:37:00
Brendan Naef 15:39:00
Carl Reilly 15:59:00
Derrick Lee 16:19:00
Max Stalkamp 16:49:00
Kevin Chiarot 17:15:00
Johnson Jia 17:24:00
Chris Hard 17:37:00
Winston Guo 18:38:00
Eddy Wu 19:00:00
Seth Bluman 21:15:00
Claire Askew 18:57:00
Victoria Gilbert19:26:00
Jen Bhatla 20:10:00
Sherry 21:10:00