FLCC> The Great Race (long)

[Andrew Melnychenko]

Great write up Glenn and good job on the bike....everyone was amazed to see 
how fast you came in....it was a BLURR!

I was hoping that you and Ryan would come in together so that Al and I 
would have a drag race to the lake....it became apparent that was not going 
to happen when your runner smoked everyone...needless to say it would have 
been interesting starting together in that rough water....your canoeist Al 
is one of the best rough water paddlers in the country and I'm sure he 
would have had the edge.

When Ryan arrived after the bike I still ran as fast as I could down to the 
lake and tried like heck to take as many seconds back as I could....we got 
out on the lake and saw Glenn's canoeist with about a minute lead and way 
off to the right....I thought maybe stay way left and take a more direct 
route that we could gain a few seconds....NOT!  the water was just to 
rough.  We stayed about a minute behind at the turnaround and realized that 
there was no chance of catching AL and Mike...so we turned it down a notch 
to make sure we did not tip ....apparently many canoes turned over in the 
lake...to include a couple top ten teams.  We did not want to be one of 
them. About a mile from the finish I yelled out to a motor boat and asked 
if they saw anyone behind us?  they yelled back and said we had time to 
drink a  beer....so it gave us some relief knowing we were going to hold on 
to our spot.

Another great day and loads of fun.  Until next year!

Andy








>I've been working too hard at work lately to write any good race reports, 
>so I'm writing this almost immediately upon returning from the event on 
>Sunday afternoon..... (I know, I need to get lessons from some of you who 
>are obviously so efficient at work that you can find all the good web 
>links and write tomes, while still getting all of your work done...
>
>The Great Race is a huge event. It started 30 years ago as a 
>run/bike/canoe triathlon with 4 person teams. I think the concept really 
>came from one of the canoe companies that was trying to figure how to get 
>more people to buy their high performance boats. After trying one of these 
>fun events and paddling a Grumman bathtub around and being beaten into 
>submission by a couple of beer-bellies or 80 lb women in a faster boat, 
>who wouldn't be tempted to drop a thousand dollars on a fast canoe to earn 
>bragging rights for the next year ? It worked !  But most of all, it 
>turned out to be one heck of a good time with all kinds of athletes from 
>serious hammers to total fun family or work teams, all out there together. 
>The post-race parties didn't hurt the event's reputation either. Now the 
>event has grown to something on the order of 600 teams including a long 
>course, a short course, 4 person teams, two person teams, with canoes and 
>kayaks, with all the sub-categories of age, sex, species and horoscopes. 
>It is big fun for lots of people.
>
>With hundreds of teams there, it always turns out that there are a small 
>handful of teams with top-notch athletes in each of the disciplines. 30 
>minute 10K runners, 29mph bikers, and canoeists who could probably pull 
>water skiers... I have been lucky to have a good friend who is a world 
>class paddler, and we have had the good fortune to have some connections 
>and friendships with some pretty fast runners too. If you look through the 
>records of the Great Race you'll find Swan and Zaveral as the common names 
>on many winning teams. If you know many athletes in the Ithaca area, you 
>know that Andy Melnychenko is legendary for his abilities on the bike, in 
>the canoe, on skis and whatever else he tries. If you look at the results 
>of the Great Race (and other regional team Tris) you'll find Andy's teams 
>have won many events. But in the long run, I have enjoyed the perverse 
>satisfaction of finishing ahead of Andy's teams more often than not when 
>we go head to head. The rivalry is great, since our teams are invariably 
>so evenly matched that it would be hard to predict a winner. It's part of 
>what makes the event one of the high points of my season every year.
>
>Andy and Matt Belknap are fast in the boat. Ryan Morris has beaten me more 
>often than I care to admit in the last two years. He edged me out on 
>Thursday night at the local TT. Their runner, Scott Weeks is legendary. 
>Look at the records of all the regional races. He's finished at the head 
>of most of them for the last 10 years. We would need to have an inspired 
>performance to beat them. No chance for any team member to have an "off" 
>day. One bad break and the game is over...but Fred, my runner is world 
>class, and my paddlers, Al Shaver and Mike Pac-Man Packer are similarly 
>experienced and able.
>
>Nice temperatures. Sunny skies. Windy. Hmmmmm....my guys are better in 
>rough water. Maybe we'll have an edge in the boat. My paddler who will 
>have to run the wristband the 1/2 mile from the road down to the boats 
>announced that I am going to have to give him at least a 15 second lead 
>since among Andy's amazing abilities is his running...If Ryan and I end up 
>together on the bike course, there is no way either of us will allow the 
>other to escape, since drafting is allowed in this event. No way would I 
>be able to give Al the 15 seconds he wants over Andy. This could be a 
>problem... There is no way I might be able to keep a strong and inspired 
>rider like Ryan from mowing me down if our runners come in within 30 
>seconds of each other. Of course if Ryan's 30 seconds in front of me I'll 
>die before I let him escape, so all signs point to a race that might be 
>too close to call.
>
>Boom ! The cannon goes off and the runners are on the course. Time to go 
>out and finish my warm-up. Fred'll be back in about 1/2 hour and we'll see 
>what the game is. You can tell that I have been racing for just short of 
>forever, since this may be my most important race of the season and there 
>are hundreds of people around, and I'm not the slightest bit nervous. I 
>have a job to do and I know I have the skills to do it, and I will just 
>read the situation and do the best I can no matter how things play out. 
>Maybe we'll win. Maybe we'll be second. Maybe something else will happen 
>and we'll be somewhere else. No worries - just do the best you can. That's 
>actually quite a calming attitude. Knowing that if someone else beats you, 
>it makes their day because they measure themselves against your standard 
>is quite an honor, and after you get used to the fact that lots of people 
>are gunning for you (in some sense) it makes possible failure much less 
>threatening. I'll just do my best and they will just have to beat that if 
>they can...
>
>Runners from the short course are streaming in. Bikes and bikers of all 
>sorts are taking to the road. There is a level of chaos in the changeover 
>zone that provides a very real sense of risk and danger. As much as I 
>would like to impress everyone with a lightning start, I know I need to 
>navigate the runners, bikers, pedestrians and ropes and cones safely 
>before I can really get to what I know how to do best. Fred is the first 
>runner back. He hesitates after crossing the finish line, as I am one of a 
>long line of cyclists yelling for the hand-off. After a long few seconds 
>he realizes I am another 50m down the line and we make the exchange. My 
>focus is purely on the wristband and then getting my bike on the road. I 
>have no idea where Scott Weeks (Andy's runner) is, or whether there are 
>any other runners arriving at the same time. I hit the open road and I am 
>ripping by riders on the short course like they are pieces of furniture. I 
>check my heart rate to be sure I don't blow myself up on the first hill 
>only a mile out. I glance rearward, but there are so many short-course 
>cyclists on the road that I can't tell if there's anyone hot on my tail. 
>Halfway around the course there is a tough 3-step climb. It's easy to blow 
>there, so for the first half of the race I am constantly monitoring my 
>effort to be sure I will be solid for the whole climb. The worst possible 
>mistake would be to go too hard on the way out and then crack on the climb 
>and be caught because it would then be quite possible for the other rider 
>to drop me and ride away before I could recover. Remember how I said I 
>have the skills and I know how to use them..... well I'm not going to make 
>that mistake. By the midpoint of the route, the short-course riders have 
>turned off. Now I can look back and see if there's anybody chasing me. The 
>road is clear as far as I can see. I begin to wonder if Ryan has had a 
>flat or been taken out in a crash. I wonder if Fred was packing "heat" and 
>shot all of his rivals on some secluded part of the course...I remind 
>myself that I need to give my paddlers at least 1/2 minute and ride firmly 
>over the steps of the hill. 37mph down the grade to the final short wall, 
>and still I can't see anybody behind me. I don't have to ride too hard and 
>I certainly don't want to take any chances as I get to the final few 
>miles. I have the luxury of taking it easy (95% instead of cross-eyed 
>100%) for the final rollers and run-in to the park. The game's not over 
>yet as I now have to ride into the chaos to hand off to my paddler without 
>running him or anyone else down, amidst a sea of volunteers who are always 
>yelling for you to "slow down".  Doh ! This is a race..... I look at my 
>watch and wait about a minute before I see Ryan come raging in. We compare 
>notes. It seems that Fred smoked the field in the running and gave me a 
>head start of something approaching 1 1/2 minutes !  That's unheard of 
>!  No wonder I never saw anyone behind me. Ryan was "smoking fast", taking 
>time out of me just to get close enough to see me in the distance. The 
>next biker was pretty far behind him. This was going to come down to the 
>boats, and the water was rough, so anything could happen.
>
>The canoes are out of sight most of the time, so I'll have to leave it to 
>Andy to fill in the gory details, but the end result was that neither boat 
>tipped over or swamped from the big water, but they were paddling more to 
>avoid disaster than all-out racing. Pac-Man described going over waves 
>where the front end of the canoe was so high that he couldn't reach the 
>water with his paddle !  When it became clear that Andy and Matt weren't 
>going to catch Al and Pac-Man, they turned their attention to simply 
>securing second place. The only way the lead was likely to change hands 
>was if my guys went swimming. I waded out into the lake to be near the 
>finish chute when my guys came in. Short-course Grummans and other craft 
>were zig-zagging as they tried to make it into the narrow chute, with many 
>ramming one another and the occasional boat rolling over like a 
>mini-Nascar race finish. Finally I see the smooth, disciplined 
>arrow-straight path of my guys.  This is our race !!!!  With about 50 
>meters to go, an errant Grumman is going perpendicular to the path to the 
>finish...Oh no......but the collision is narrowly averted and the race is 
>indeed ours. After a few minutes Andy and Matt cross the line and the 
>stories begin...(there's another thing that Andy is famous for...) and 
>this is where the party begins. Food, drink and picnic supplies. Another 
>memorable race. And Andy again will have to wait until next year....  :-)
>
>
>
>
>----------
>Get a sneak peek of the all-new 
><http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000982>AOL.com.
>_______________________________________________
>FLCC mailing list
>FLCC at icycle.org
>http://icycle.org/mailman/listinfo/flcc_icycle.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://icycle.org/pipermail/flcc_icycle.org/attachments/20070813/57ce62a1/attachment.html