The top multisport athletes in Texas converged on San Angelo this past Sunday to compete in the 2010 Striders Duathlon. State Champions were crowned in the short course division, with other athletes competing for bragging rights in the legendary long course race. The event took place on a Middle Concho Park course that was modified due to muddy conditions.
In the Men’s division, Chris Aarhus of San Antonio blazed through the run and bike legs of the short course event in a time of 1:28:56 to collect the overall win and become a new State Champion. Stefani Langehinning of Austin came out on top in the female division, posting a winning time of 1:39:11.
Long course racers began their day with a 5-mile run, and then transitioned to the bike for a challenging 50 mile ride that took them from Middle Concho Park to Christoval, across a hilly stretch of chip sealed road to Knickerbocker, and then back to San Angelo. After working up a sweat on the first run, racers were quickly cooled off by the stiff north-west wind that seemed to be in their face on all parts of the bike course.
Patrick Schuster of Arlington, an Ironman triathlete from Arlington, led the long course pack home with a time of 2:28:46. San Angelo’s Christina Templin took top honors in the Female long course division in a time of 3:26:44. Full results for the Striders event are posted at http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=4559.
I’m troubled by some of what I see happening within the local (San Angelo, Texas) bike-run-multisport community. Through 2008 and most of 2009, there were positive local indicators related to collaborative activities, getting more people involved in endurance sports, and related fitness events. These indicators included things such as a comprehensive master calendar of local/regional events, a monthly meeting of organizations that were working together, and numerous jointly-sponsored events. Fast forward to 2010, and (in my opinion) we’re pedaling backward.
While there has been continued growth in the number of participants, the focus on “community” instead of “my group” seems to have regressed. A master calendar for regional events is non-existent this year, and organizations seem to have gone back to more of a single sport focus (runners, cyclists, etc.). While this may be a good short term growth strategy for some individuals or organizations, it’s detrimental to overall community efforts and to the quality of events. In short, we need to move back to a community effort instead of concentrating on “wear the T-shirt from XXX club”.
On a related note, I attended a TxDot Town Hall meeting last week where we listened to local and state officials talk about transportation issues. My interest was not in learning about how many more reads we’re going to build or re-build, but instead what the outlook is for implementation of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure such as marked bike lanes, off-street paths, and a reversal of the chip seal takeover. The take-home message that I heard was that bike/ped issues are a low priority, and will probably continue to get the same lip service (and lack of action) as has been the case for several years. We need to refocus and re-think our community’s efforts related to that issue. Again, more to come on this in a later blog update.
In my last update, I mentioned a lady who didn’t want to do much cardio exercise “…because I’m naturally thin and don’t want to lose more weight.” That prompted me to add a poll to the blog, and your response indicated that 66% of you prefer a trim, athletic body as compared to movie-star curvy or distance runner thin. The results are in … bike, run, lift, and do the cardio to look good. We like muscles, but we prefer fast ones.
There are some exciting events and activities coming up. On May 7, the ASUFit program at the university will be bringing in Linda DuPriest as the speaker for the monthly Brown Bag luncheon. Linda is a consultant in the field of non-motorized transportation, she’s in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, and … best of all .. she’s an articulate and friendly person. This event is open to the public, so please make plans to attend. Contact Katherine.Garrison@angelo.edu for more info, or call 486-6244.
Other great upcoming events include Tour de Burma, Run in the Sun, and the Loco Lizards Adventure Race scheduled for June 6. Check out the “Upcoming Events” link below FMI.
UPCOMING EVENTS
June 6: Loco Lizards Adventure race (see event flyer above)
June 6: Fredericksburg road race (cycling), http://txbra.org/events/event.asp?EventID=1978
Running events: http://www.roadlizards.org/
Cycling events: http://www.sanangelobicycleassociation.com/events/calendar.html
Equipment for Sale
Elliptical trainer, Smooth Fitness CE 2.7. Paid 1200.00 but will sell it for 700. Contact Jason at 325 617 4137 or mondiesman@yahoo.com
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