Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Points Update

The leader board on the sidebar has now been updated!

Jen Bhatla is leading the field! Will this be the first semester where the overall leader is a female? She has a dominant lead over Brendan and Matt Reeve, a battle all on its own. Matt Reeve attempts to return to the throne of the race series but Brendan wishes to disrupt Matt and Barry's reign.

Closing out the top 4 is Victoria, she has a sizeable gap to make up, but with 5 events left, there is plenty of time. Daniel has his eyes on his first podium as well.

Stay tuned. Next event is the uphill bike TT on February 25th!

1 Jenn Bhatla 3109.3
2 Brendan Naef 3090.6
3 Matt Reeve 3054.1
4 Victoir Gilbert 2950
5 Daniel Salamanca 2763.5
6 Theresa Price 1933.3
7 Jen Moroz 1952.9
8 Scott Chris 1915.5
9 Dylan Stefanian 1852.9
10 Seth Bluman 1457.3
11 Barry Claman 1050
12 Eliza Christie 1050
13 Carl Reilly 1044.2
14 Vincent Lavallee 1029.9
15 Kelsey Knoll 1011.7
16 Steph Flynn 1005.4
17 Kevin Chiarot 975.6
18 Rachel Schollar 963.9
19 Tyler 955.2
20 Karin Olafson 954.9
21 Derrick Lee 942.2
22 Kuywon Kim 924.9
23 Sherwood Plant 891
24 Chris Hart 877.3
25 Ian Pitcher 867
26 Winston Guo 837.2
27 Matt Riddley 818.3



Thursday, February 9, 2012

Event # 2


It was another cold, wet night in Vancouver, with the air temperature hovering around 8oC and the sky looking as though it could pour rain at any moment. While most people hid indoors, the triathlon club set out for the second event of the Spring Fling Race Series. The challenge: 5.5 loops around Acadia block at full speed. With both winners from the fall race having to sit out, it was anyone’s race to win! The pressure was on.

After a short briefing on the race rules and running etiquette from coach Jen, the racers were off! Showing his need for speed, Barry took an early lead, pacing the group through a blistering 2:50 first lap! Spectators were overheard critiquing Barry’s race tactic; had he taken it out too fast, or did he have an eye on the club record? Only 4.5 loops left to tell. Close behind, Carl, Daniel and Brendan were pacing off one another and appeared to be making up the early gap Barry had made. Carl and Daniel did their best to catch Barry, but didn’t make their move soon enough. In a post race interview, Daniel was overheard saying that he would be running double so that Barry would not get away on him again.



Matt Reeve and Dylan both ran a tough race, having to run the entire 5 Km on their own. As a result, both runners fell just short of their goals. After hearing Barry’s time, Matt vowed to never miss another run practice for homework reasons. It has been rumoured that Matt challenged Barry to another 5 Km race, but the date and validity of the rumour is yet to be confirmed. Clearly, Matt is not competitive. Despite only missing his best time by 4 seconds, Dylan promised to make up his performance at the Iona bike TT this upcoming Saturday where he will attempt to crush Kory’s record (best of luck my friend!).



Scott Chris was the only competitor brave enough to run the race in Vibrams. Despite the feather weight shoes, he was unable to sneak up on fellow competitors as the sound of the shoes on the wet pavement gave away his position with every stride. He did however soar past the finish line looking as fresh as he did 5 Km ago. Ian Pitcher proved to be a strong runner, making his triathlon club race series debut with a solid 21:02 clocking. Having never contested a race series event before joining the club, Ian is showing tonnes of potential. He is focused on progressing through the ranks over the next six events.


Seth Bluman surprised everyone in the crowd with is race. Having taken it out nice and steady, he was able to crank a new gear with half a lap to go. We only knew it was Seth when he stopped past the finish. Matt Ridley rounded out the men’s competition with a clocking of 22:22. He was seen sprinting and jogging the last 50 m, trying to get a finishing time consisting of only 2’s to celebrate two years of training with our club.


The girl’s race was tight, with five girls finishing within 75 seconds of one another. Eliza Christie took home the gold with her clocking of 20:31. She proved to be a threat after ramping up the pace with two laps remaining. Like Scott, she looked as though she could run another 5 Km. Victoria was the girl’s silver medalist, finishing only 9 seconds shy of her PB. Close behind, Theresa and Kelsey battled for the final podium finish. In a sprint finish (photo finish required), Kelsey took the bronze. Theresa has proven to be a consistent 5 Km runner, having run three 5K's in the past two years within 4 seconds of each other.

Jen Bhatla showed everyone that consistent training and bull dog determination are key for success, taking an whopping 1:38 of her old 5 Km PB! In a post race interview, Jen mentioned that she surprised herself with her race. She never thought she could run with the fast girls in the club. Well Jen, time to start believing. She is looking forward to racing her brothers this summer. Having not wanted to race, Rachel and Kyuwon toughed it out, finishing in 22:27 and 23:27, respectively. Keep up the good work ladies!


With two successful races complete, we are one-quarter the way to crowning our next race series winner. Will Barry's be dethroned? Or will his desire to beat out Matt once again make him tougher to beat? One the girl’s side, Jen Bhatla and Victoria Gilbert have taken an early lead. Can they deal with the pressure of being the girls to beat? Find out next time, with the Iona 10.2 Km bike TT.

Many thanks to Jen Moroz for coming up with this entire blog post on very short notice. There was a hired journalist who was supposed to be embedded among the race competitors and gather some material for an article. Unfortunately, a large clipboard and old fashioned flash bulb camera weighed him down and he was only able to complete a single lap of the course. The incompetent journalist has been removed from any further assignments.


The Results: (Finishing time and previous PB)
Barry Claman 17:11 17:00
Carl Reilly 17:17 17:18
Daniel Salamanca 17:19 17:50
Brendan Naef 17:48 17:54
Matt Reeve 18:32 17:37
Dylan Stephanian 19:35 19:31
Scott Chris 20:12 19:36
Eliza Christie 20:31
Seth Bluman 20:52 20:34
Ian Pitcher 21:02
Victoria Gilbert 21:08 20:59
Kelsey Knoll 21:20 21:56
Theresa Price 21:30 21:27
Jenn Bhatla 21:46 23:24
Matt Ridley 22:22 21:24
Rachel Schoeler 22:27 21:31
Kyuwon Kim 23:27 23:45


Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Girls Still Faster in Aquatic Environments


The stars of the 500m swim time trial were again the ladies, taking two of the top three spots. Jen posted the fastest time of the club (7:08) while Steph also appeared on the podium, taking third place with a 7:28. Matt came in between them, no doubt drafting off of Jen until his little arms got too tired and he dropped back- coming in at 7:19.

As a whole, swim times have improved for the club with 6 of 11 competitors swimming faster this past weekend than in November. Perhaps they were inspired by the UBC men's and women's swim teams that both took first place in the Canadian Western University Conference, also held this weekend, in Edmonton.


Many of the club members are on track to be in great swimming shape for the UBC triathlon next month, so long as that darn water heater would just keep running and no more swim sessions are cancelled. Brendan is rumored to have rented several propane heaters and is keeping them in a storage locker in War Memorial Gym just in case. Ben wouldn't mind so much- he has often been seen wearing his wet suit to club swims. With a body fat percentage of -3, it is sometimes quite difficult to stay warm.

Kevin spent Sunday in Whistler, figuring he was fit enough to win the race series without any of these silly participation points. He later swam an impressive 7:30 for the 500m, putting him just behind Matt in the men's rankings.

Only as single event of the race series has passed, there are still plenty of opportunities to catch any early leaders. The aforementioned early leaders have no reason to get comfortable. I would also like to commend Seth, for taking the biggest chunk of time off of his previous 500m record, although in a brief interview he declined to say exactly how much time this was. He credits a bathing suit that was made of much less fabric, and those 15 push-ups that he did earlier this month. Seth will now be moving out of the lane on the far right of the images below.


Jenn B 7:08 (improvement over November time)
Matt R 7:19 (improvement over November time)
Steph 7:28
Kevin 7:30
Scott 7:35
Brendan 7:42
Karin 7:53
Tyler 8:05
Daniel 8:23 (improvement over November time)
Jen M 8:37 (improvement over November time)
Victoria 8:42 (improvement over November time)
Seth 13:43 (improvement over November time)