RUN... Swim and Bike Too!

Hellgate sure “TRI’d” hard last weekend in 4 multi-sport event and one classic Race for Central Park 4 miler. As usual there were stellar performances had by all Hellgate participants. First off on Saturday, July 21, NYRR held its annual Run for Central Park. Following not too far behind the 2nd place finisher and adopted Hellgater, Mustafa, were Nick, Bex, Ljubomir, Jovana, Amye, and Andrew. See the NYRR site for their impressive race results!

Now for the multi-sport events on Sunday, July 22nd! First off was Chip’s FIRST triathlon! The newlywed crossed rivers to West Windsor, NJ, to compete in the NJS Sprint Triathlon. The 500m swim, 13.5 mile bike with tricky turn arounds and hills, and the 5k run couldn’t wear Chip out! He finished in a remarkable 1:17:36; his splits were 9:59, T1 4:38, 40:38, T2 2:34, and 20:00! Chip said that he learned a lot that will help him improve his transition times as well as working out details like catching your breath on the bike. He also said “coming out of the water was the most surreal, exciting experience; one of the highlights of the day for me.” He also had an edge in the 5k being a runner first, passing “a ton of people” to help him finish 27th over all! Not too shabby, Chip!

Next on the lineup for Sunday was the Long Beach Biathlon! Mary went back to try and hold her title as No. 1 female finisher. This year it was not to be however. Not that Hellgaters like excuses, but an 18 mile run the day before might have tuckered her out a bit. Mary still managed to navigate this 5k run followed by a ¼ ocean swim in 3rd place overall and 1st in her age group! Levi also participated and put in a valiant effort as usual! A bit of drifting kept him from catching our fearless captain, Suzanne, however!

Suzanne woke up early that day with intentions of cheering Mary and Levi in Long Beach, but somehow her bathing suit and sneakers followed her to Long Beach! Suzanne did her first biathlon on a whim – breast stroking her way to a 5th place in her age group!

The popular NYC Triathlon was also held this beautiful Sunday morning! Raul made his way through the Olympic length course with his usual smiles and ease that we all strive to imitate! He finished with a fantastic 2:53:34! Way to go! One of the many Hellgate couples competed too and proved their mettle yet again. Patricia and Brian put down great times for the 1.5k swim (in the Hudson River), 40k mile bike (up the West Side Highway, and 10k run (through Central Park). Patricia finished in 2:50:00 flat. The Hellgate Blog thinks there is a story behind Brian’s 2 hour penalty! Fantastic showing guys! Check out www.nyctri.com for more info and registration for 2008 opens on Nov. 1st!

And FINALLY, but most definitely NOT least: The Lake Placid Ironman! Competitors have to sign up a year in advance and spend those 12 months training! They complete 2.4 miles of open water swim, 112 miles of biking in the Adirondacks, and finally a 26.2 miles run, (yes, a full marathon). One of Hellgate’s own signed up, trained up, showed up, and raced 140.6 miles. Congratulations to Joel Rosenstraus, Ironman. He staved off injuries and doctor’s warnings to muster the guts and muscle to cross that finish line in 13:19:12. Check out his splits on the Ironman webpage. Congratulations Joel! Rest up!

-by Jessica Moeller

New Singlets

The new, approved and officially sanctioned Hellgate Road Runners team singlets are now in!

The singlets were printed by our friends at Urban Athletics and are made of a high-quality technical fabric. Urban Athletics is also extending a 15% discount on all items in the store to Hellgate Road Runner members from 6pm - 8pm TONIGHT! (Tuesday 7/24/2007)

LuAnn will be at Urban Athletics tonight and the singlets can be purchased directly from LuAnn for $30. Stay cool, show your team pride and best of all - don't chafe!

Urban Athletics has two locations but the discount only applies at their Madison Avenue location. The address is:

1291 Madison Avenue
@ 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128
Phone: 212/828-1906

Run To Home Plate

Attention Hellgate Road Runners!

According to the website of the New York Road Runners the Mets Run to Home Plate has been postponed until further notice.

What follows is the message from the message from the NYRR website:

NYRR/NY Mets Run to Home Plate Postponed; Updates to Follow. NYRR regrets to announce that due to unforeseen conflicts with other city events, the NYRR/NY Mets Run to Home Plate will not take place on Sunday, July 22. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this unexpected change. The race will be moved to a later date (TBD). Entries may be automatically transferred to the new date; or, NYRR will be happy to transfer any entry to the Run for Central Park 4M on Saturday, July 21, or to issue a coupon good for any future (weekly) race upon request. Please contact Janet Cupo at jcupo@nyrr.org.

The status of Club Points races is being resolved; watch this page for updates soon. When the race date and Club Points race determinations are made, an e-mail will be sent to all registered NYRR/NY Mets Run to Home Plate entrants. Team runners should wait until a determination is made tomorrow, July 18, before contacting us as to their decision.

Hellgate Takes the Tin: 70.3 Miles Later

Five Hellgaters crossed the finish line of the 2007 Tupper Lake Tinman Triathlon which consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, & 13.1 mile run.

Eamonn and Josh made the 6 hour drive up through the Adirondacks to compete in their first Tinman, while Janine, Joel, and Raul (and his friend Nicholas, honorary Hellgater) returned to remind Tupper Lake just what these Queens residents could do! Standing on the side lines for moral support were Salena, Nazly, and Jessica.

Eamonn is known for his determination and dig deep strength as well for his enjoyment of beer, but did his stamina and grit get him through the 70.3 miles of his first Tinman Tri?

"Having arrived the day before the event to pick up our numbers, Josh and I stared at the swim course and noticed that we couldn't see the turnaround point. This made me a little bit nervous, and I was wondering what the hell I had signed up for.

The morning of the race, the strategy was simply not to drown, and then take the race from there. So after 50 minutes of splashing and a lot of drinking of lake water, the first event was complete. The bike course was described as “rolling hills”; this was a bit of an understatement since we were in the Adirondack Mountains!!! Over 3 hours later, at a reasonable pace of 18 mph, the bike course was complete. The run was a challenging course and having spent 4 hours already at the swim and bike, a PR was not going to be in the cards! But I was able to maintain an even pace of 9 minutes per mile (with frequent breaks at each water station). At 1 hour and 57 minutes and some seconds, the Tinman was complete.

Overall the experience, although very challenging, was a good one. Special thanks have to go out to our teammates and our supporters for the cheering through a very tough day." – Eamonn

Now, just why would someone take on a Tinman having NEVER competed triathlon before?

"With 4 marathons under my belt I really wanted a big athletic challenge before our first baby is born this autumn -- and Tinman was just that!

All through my training I was pretty intimidated by the prospect of racing 70.3 miles. When I first saw the swim course my fears were absolutely confirmed.

Having the support, training companionship and advise of the other Hellgater's was invaluable. Tinman was one of the hardest and most rewarding experiences of my life." – Josh

Please check out Josh’s blog for his more in depth race report! So, the first timers came in at 6:04 and 5:45; not too shabby! Could the course get the better of the Tupper Lake veterans? Could they get to the course? Janine’s race report sums it up nicely!

"The ride up Tupper Lake was a crawl, and 8 hours later it was a total nightmare. Joel was doing 80mph in a 40mph zone. We barely made it to the carboload dinner and picking up our race packets. After I got my blood circulating in my legs after the drive, we relaxed to eat dinner. After chilling for a bit at the expo, it was about 9pm. We decided it's time to check into the motel. Back in the car for a 20 minute drive!

We arrived at Long Lake Motel. I went to the front desk to get the key. Joel said you go check out the room and I'll start unloading the car. Well, I came back to Joel and found Jessica, Eamonn, Josh, and Salena along side him. I was fit to be tide with the room accommodations and made it known in front of everyone. I stormed to the front desk; there were no other rooms, so we had no choice but to stay in this shack. My night's sleep was a horror, but thank God for Jared's philopshy (get a good night’s sleep 2 nights before a race because the night before you will not sleep). He was right, and the night was LONG!!

At the sound of the alarm, we got ready, and we were on our way to Tupper Lake. The morning had a nice chill which felt great. My thought was "Yes! I won't be running in 90 degrees this year!" We arrived and went to get body marked and our chips put on. We went back to the car to get our bikes, and then we headed to the transition area. I had a great spot, and poor Joel was in the old man's land. I met my neighbors, Coleen and Tish. They were very chatty which was fine since it relaxed me. They asked me "what is my time today?" I told them "I'm going to enjoy the race, and I want to feel good." (My inner soul had one set time and that was a 6:30, but no pressure.)

I was waiting in my corral with Raul to start the swim. I did feel butterflies but felt pretty relaxed for the most part. We were next to enter the lake, and as I turned the corner, there's Nazly. It was so amazing to see her, then I saw Jessica and Salena further down. I felt great and no sign of anxiety. The horn went off and there I went... I started nice and slow and then hammered away. My poor shoulders did NOT like it very much, but I told them I have a race to do. The navigation going out was great, and I hit every buoy, but when we turned around the sun was glaring. It was very hard to navigate, but I said all I have to do is follow the people in front (hoping they were going the right way). I saw the end and said "Yeah! Finally." I exited out of the lake and made my way to my bike.

I zipped out of my wetsuit and made my way to start my bike. The thought entered "Oh boy, I'll be out here for 3:30 hours or so. I better make the best of it! Visualize that I am on a nice long bike ride with my friends!" I made sure I fueled every hour by eating a cliff bar (thanks, Bex!). Some of these hills were never-ending, but I thought positive all the way through. I approached the end of my bike ride and saw Jessica on her bike cheering and then saw Nazly at the transitiion area. As I got off the saddle I couldn't believe the pain; it's indescribable, but she said "Hey! You are a runner; this is where you got it, girl!" Thanks, Nazly; I'm glad you had faith in me, but the thought of running 13.1 miles did not register well yet.

So I start the run and to my surprise I felt decent but did experience a nagging numbness in my foot. At the first mile I had to stop because the pain in my foot was unbearable. I stopped several other times to loosen my laces and massage my foot to get circulation flowing. I finally decided that I have to put the numbness on a back burner and run this race, so that is what I did. I was passing everyone a long the way. It's like they were running in place! There was not one person that passed me. The mile markers were few and far between. I hit mile 2, then 5, and at one point I had to ask what mile mark I was at. Then I saw mile 6; the next mile marker was 8 then mile marker 9, but after 9 I never saw another mile marker! Then to see Jess directing us, I was very surprised to see her. I asked one volunteer what mile again, and she said I'm finishing mile 11. That mile 11 felt long then at the next water station I asked what mile only to hear that I have one more mile left! Not that I would have been able to gauge my pace after biking 56 miles, but the unknown helped me mentally.

I looked at my watch to see the time and that I had one more mile left, I cranked it up a bit. Realization was beginning to set in. I was so excited to see by my watch that I was going to finish around 6:20! And that I did (exactly 6:20:34)!

As I approached the finish line, I hear the cheers from Joel and my teammates. It was such a great feeling and what a sigh of relief. I made my way to Joel & my teammates, and we all were hugging each other. I kept on screaming “I shaved off 40 minutes from last year!” YES! YES! YES! I still can't believe it!" – Janine

Joel finished up with an amazing time of 5:35:53 and Raul rounded out the Hellgate finishers with a solid time of 7:07:13! (By the way Raul looked so refreshed after the race! It goes to show what great shape he’s in!) for more see the Tinman results:

Now, will the fabulous 5 return next year and with more recruits?

July 4th

Have a safe and happy Independence Day!