The RMEC took seven people to Greenville on Saturday to compete in the 8th annual Lake Kristi Triathlon. To say we did well would be an understatement. Four of our seven athletes took home age group awards!
Leading the way was Jeff Miller finishing in 8th place with a time of 1:19:49. This was good enough for 2nd in his age group. Jeff was solid from start to finish, but impressed the most when he ran a 20:41 cross country 5k, 7th best in the race.
Behind Jeff came Dave "Tarzan" Lavely in 25th place with a time of 1:24:58. Dave had a strong race, but finished just outside the awards in 4th place. Dave had a very strong bike ride, and an even better 5k.
The next RMEC athlete was Kinnie Pruden, finishing in 31st place, but more importantly 5th of all women! After a very strong swim, Kinnie had the 21st fastest bike time, with only one women finishing faster. All of this added up to a 1:25:58, and a 1st place age group award, 14 minutes ahead of second. . . wow!
Right behind Kinnie was Jason "Nice Hat" Irvin. Jason absolutely flew through the swim, with a time of 14:12, the 16th fastest swim time in the race. Following up with a solid bike ride and run, Jason was able to secure a 3rd place age group and a time of 1:26:51.
Mary Whitwell continues her streak of age group awards, finishing in 2nd. Although she was strong across the board, Mary shined the brightest during the swim, coming out with a time of 15:25. Her overall time was 1:32:26
Despite a longer bike ride, Ursula knocked 10 minutes off her White Lake time. From the time she got out of the water, she continued to move up places eventually crossing the finish line in 1:54:40.
Eric Seale had the most interesting day from the RMEC. Eric began with a strong swim of 16:37. After a smooth transition, he posted the 10th fastest bike time of all racers. At this point Eric had a decision to make. An sore achilles has been bothering Eric for months. Rather than risk injury, Eric wisely walked the 5k, and will keep trying to heal for the next one.
Really, this was a great event, and I felt proud to be part of the RMEC. We are a talented group of athletes with a lot of drive and a lot of heart. Well done everyone! For complete results click here. I hope to see other RMEC athletes try to triathlon in the future. You just might surprise yourself with what you can do!
This was a really fun event. It was a beautiful course too -- even the lake was kind of nice. Hey, did I just say that? I liked the lake? Well, sort of.
ReplyDeleteI want to say thank you to the great support crew that came out too. Team Miller was a big help. And the Forrester crew did some great cheering along the course. Special thanks to Kayla, Brandon, Caroline, and Henry for supporting RMEC!
Congratulations to all participants too. It's a privilege to be a part of this with you.
Congratulations to everyone for great job !
ReplyDeleteRocky Mount is becomming a NC center for endurance athletes! This group is leading the way! We're all really proud of each of you!!!
ReplyDeleteFrank
Ditto on the many thanks to the support/cheering crew! You guys were great. This was a very nice event, beautiful course, etc. I loved the big group of Tricredibles. Can we do the same? kinnie
ReplyDeleteKinnie, I echo your comments. I would love to see the RMEC continue to thrive. We had 20+ at the Nashville 5k a few weeks ago, but it would be nice to see big groups at even more events.
ReplyDeleteRocky Mount has a strong group of runners, cyclists, and swimmers. Let's do everything we can to keep us working together.
This is not an issue of talent. The RMEC has always been more about DESIRE than TALENT. For the last two years at Richmond, we proved we can do anything that we set our minds to. The Duke Liver Tri was another great example when we took 21 athletes to the event.
Congrats to everyone at Lake Kristi. Lets all do our part to encourage others to stay active and get involved.
Great job by everyone at the tri. It is a very spectator friendly event and if you want a first triathlon location, it is a good one. The swim is reassuring (never more than about 40 feet from shore). The bike was on relatively clear roads and the run is pretty low impact as most of it is off road. I had enough time on the run to see all sorts of native flora and fauna...and about 110 pairs of shoe bottoms as the entire field seemed to pass me! ;-) Still, it was a great time. Thanks to the cheering section for not over encouraging me and allowing me to stick to my 'walk'.
ReplyDeleteEric, it's a good thing you got to see the flora and fauna during the "run", 'cause you missed it on the bike. kp
ReplyDeleteMore photos from Lake Kristi on the Greenville reflector site.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reflector.com/photos/mediahub/media/slideshow/index.jsp?tId=109847