An Amusing Weekend at Cedar Point

Couldn't resist the pun!

The weekend started with Beth heading out Friday for the Rev3 Half Ironman at Cedar Point. I stuck around here because we had our first big XC invitational Saturday Morning.

As far as the XC Meet, we had a good start to the season. The race was PACKED--60 teams and you were allowed up to 10 runners per team in the varsity race. Almost too much for Schenley Park to handle. The teams did well. Both the boys and girls teams are pretty young so I'll be excited to see the team grow through the season and see how things work out at WPIAL's. Also, a local Elizabethtown College alum T joined me at the meet to help me do some recruiting/selling of Etown's academic and XC/track merits to the kids on the team. Along the way, she also got a small taste of the patented Shutt coach/spectathlete hill repeat workout regimen to mile 1 and back (x 4 races).

The awards wrapped up after the varsity and JV races and then I hit the road for Ohio to meet up with Beth. It was kind of weird missing all of the pre-race itinerary (packet pickup, driving the course, checking in the bike, etc.). However, it worked out for me to arrive just in time for dinner at Olive Garden. How convenient! I consumed a "pedestrian" two bowls of the never ending pasta bowl and we went back to the hotel to watch the PSU game.

The Tide sure did roll in their 24-3 victory. I was very split in the result of the game. Yes, they didn't score much and 'Bama's O-line pushed the Lions around a lot and Richardson was a man among boys as he broke many, many tackles. In spite of that, they went early into the 4th quarter with it being a two-score game. In fact, had PSU not turned the ball over FOUR TIMES (and three on Alabama's side of the field) perhaps it could have even been a closer game. So, hopefully JoePa, Frosh QB Rob Bolden, and the gang took away some good lessons to apply for when they head on the road to top-10 foes Ohio State and Iowa.

Okay, back to the race, Beth and I did our usual early morning wakeup call Sunday and went over for her to get the transition area set up. But, then we had some time to kill as the half IM-ers didn't go off for an hour or so after the full IM-ers. I caught a quick little nap in the car and then we went down to the start where I snapped a shot of Beth with the coasters and rides in the background.

Beth's wave starts and there's so much to do--start the watch so I can keep track of her time throughout the day, snap a shot on the good digital camera, and snap a shot on the cell phone camera to upload to Facebook of course. This picture is from Kim's husband, Kyle, who was standing on the other side of the start from me. Gee, can you find the guy with the bright yellow jacket and a camera in both hands?

Beth comes in from the swim and I counted her as 5th or so.



She leaves for the bike and I've got a couple of hours to kill. Our hotel, the EconoLodge (awesome hotel and super-friendly manager who let us come back and shower at 2:30pm after we had already checked out!!) had a waffle maker with their breakfast and it obviously wasn't available at 4:30am. So, I worked my way back over to the hotel and had a yummie waffle and OJ.

After checking some stuff on the internet and letting the waffle digest, I went and drove into position on the run course around Mile 4 because I knew I'd be able to see Beth a bunch of times as the course zig-zagged back and forth on the streets of Sandusky.

My plan was then to sneak in a long run. The weather was perfect (cool) for a long run and I was excited to have mile markers. So, I figured I'd try to run a decent tempo for 10 miles. Definitely decent enough for me as I ended up sub-7:00 pace. The legs are coming back just in time for the Great Race in a few weekends! I cooled down for a mile, grabbed some Gatorade and Powerbar from the car, and positioned myself to see the half IM-ers stroll past. The top men come past and then here comes Beth leading the way for the women. Kim was then just a couple minutes behind her.

So, with the layout of the course, I was able to see the two of them something like 5 or 6 times between miles 4 and 9. Pretty fun and lots of good photo ops.

Beth held on and won and had the cool opportunity to 'break the tape.'


Afterwards, lots of hugs for Beth and Kim with Kyle in the background.

We got home a bit late Sunday night after picking up the dog, and then it was back at it Monday for school. I did a track workout this morning with a fellow teacher who's also training for the Great Race. It was a 400's day. He did a great job with his workout from Coach Shutt and I think he's in a great position to PR. For me, the legs bounced back from Sunday for another solid workout. I ended up doing 12x400 with 60 seconds rest in the pattern 90-90-88-88-86-86...-82-80-80. The last two I was feeling pretty good and even went a little low with a 76 and 72 with my last two. I'm hoping I can capture some of this for race day. We shall see.

No dual meets this week, but another invitational on Saturday up at Coopers Lake, the site of our district championship. Congrats to all who raced this past weekend at Cedar Point, IM Wisconsin, our former high schoolers now running in college at the Spiked Shoe Invite at PSU, local road races, and the high-schoolers at Schenley. It's fun to check out all of the results.