Steelhead swan song?

[kenb321]

Read quite a few negative stories about Steelhead last week. They had to cancel the swim (second time in 3 years), massive drafting problems with too few officials, lack of volunteers, too many people on course, and really boring run. With all the expansion of WTC, will this race keep going?

[Janet E]

I have never done this race, but it seems to me, that any race that draws almost 2500 athletes, including many big name pros, won't be going anywhere.

On the subject of Steelhead, I wanted to publicly congratulate a couple Northeast Ohioans, who both got outright [no roll down] qualification for the 70.3 World Championships. This is no easy feat, as it is not a certain time goal, but basically it goes to the top 2% of each AG. Not only do you have to be fast, you have to be faster than almost everyone who shows up and there are always a lot of fast people at Steelhead.

Brian Stern, who placed 2nd in his tough age group (M45-49) with a 2:21:43 bike split (23.8 MPH) and a blistering fast half marathon split of 1:23:45 (6:23/mile avg) for a total time of 3:47:20.

Mark Gorris, who placed 4th in this same tough age group with a 2:19:51 bike split (24.2 MPH) and a half marathon split of 1:31:51 (7:00/mile avg) for a total time of 3:53:45.

Many CTC members have benefitted from the advice and support of these two guys over the years (myself included). Huge props to you both of your on your stand-out performances!

[mgorris]

Thanks for the props, Janet!

I agree that this race won't be going away anytime soon. It is a great race/venue and all things considered, the RD made the right call on the swim. Had the swim gone off, I fear that some might not have made it back to land in one piece

I was happy with my race save two things:

1. Swim cancelled as I wanted to break 4:30 and based on my swim the last two years, I am pretty confident I would have easily cracked that barrier

2. Massive hammie cramp just after I passed the 11 mile marker. I was getting faster on the run, went thru the first split at a 654 pace and the second split at a 644 pace. I literally had to lie down in the middle of the road to stretch out my left leg. Never happened to me in a race and hope it never happens again!!!! That minor incident cost me my goal of going sub 1:30 on the run. Tough luck, live for another race

Brian is a machine. Dude went flying by me at mile 3 of the run. He is so darn fast and he ran an 8k trail run 4 days before the race. It was great to have him with me to pass the time while we waited for our start as our bib #'s were 3 digits apart. Congrats to Brian on an awesome race....you da man Stern!

I read about the drafting but to be honest, I really did not witness any blatant [ie : pace lines] drafting. I do think that both Brian and I benefited from the "legal" draft that occurs while passing. Since we went off so late we had A LOT of peeps to pass in the first half of the bike

Congrats to Bill Callahan, as well, who put together a very strong performance. It was great to have the two of them [and Linda Stern] up there on race day with both Lisa and myself

Hope everyone is having a great season so far. Won't be long until winter arrives

[gvale]

I have done this race 4 times and the swim was canceled twice. Very disappointed, but I guess that is the risk you have to take in holding the event in a large body of water. I was talking to Tim Johnson (WTC Swim Course Director) before the race and he said he was out on the water for 2 hours prior to canceling the swim, trying to redesign the course. They had no choice with the rip tides and the 6-8 foot waves.

Since its a one loop course and I was one of the last bikes to get on the course, the only drafting that I witnessed was the 2 packs of pro's around mile 45.

Vegas Roll Down went like this, If anyone wants a spot to the 70.3 World Championship, come up to the table.

Congrats to Brian, Mark and Bill.


View of the lake from transition

Attachments:

[MarkD]

Brian / Mark: OUTSTANDING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regarding swimming in the Great Lakes and the Ocean: Its a uniquely cool experience and presents a fun and sometimes challenging situation. My hope is that none of these races will ever go away. Steelhead.... Greater Cleveland.... Vermillion..... Lorain..... I've never done Steelhead, but the other three are some of my absolute favorite races, mainly because of the opportunity to swim in waves (water waves, mind you, not waves of people... but that happens too).

It sucks when the swim gets cancelled, but, its well worth it for the years that it doesn't.

Love the photo George.

[BrianStern]

STEELHEAD 70.3 is one of the best races in the 70.3 series that I have had the opportunity to race (70.3-Kansas, Eagleman, Muncie). We have storms all the time and as Triathletes need to be able to swim bike and run. I would liked to have raced with the swim (Steelhead deep water point to point swim is awesome). I toe the line at any race and deal with what ever the weather hands out.
I hate Drafters and would be the first to speak out on this topic. Due to the nature of a TT start with so many athletes it might be easy to get away with but I believe most were racing. I just kept jumping around groups of riders and raced my race. I look forward to this race every season and it is a fair course.
Thanks for the props to Mark and Myself, both of us would liked to have had the swim but we dealt with the situation as best we could.