Dear athletes,

Although Cranberry said they will not make the call until tomorrow if they are going to cancel the race or not, the NECTC board has made the executive decision to remove Cranberry as a conference race due to the following reasons:

1. Some teams have been disallowed to travel to the race this weekend due to the severe weather forecast
2. The teams that can travel to the race this weekend will be putting themselves in harms way
3. It would create an unfair advantage to the teams that could make the race in terms of conference scoring and subsequently nationals qualification

Thus we have decided the following:

1. Individual nationals qualification spots will be awarded to the top three male and top three female races (pending that the race occurs)
2. Cranberry will not be counted in the team or individual point standings for NECTC Omnium or Nationals Qualification
3. The remaining 4 races will be the only collegiate races and instead of the top three scoring from 5 races, the top two scores for an individual or team will count in the standings / nationals qualification

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to e-mail me back or contact any of the other NECTC board members.

Fluid Recovery has agreed to give NECTC 50% off all products except packaged deals.

Please, ask your captain for the discount code, which they can find at the sponsors page after logging in to the captains section of the website.

JUNE 28TH - JULY 3RD

Please visit our website for more information AFTER January 1st.

Although this race was in Florida the weather was not indicative of being in the south. The morning started in the 30’s with 15mph winds, and since I had to check in to transition before it closed, I spent the hour before the race walking around in a wetsuit. Who needs to warm up for a 140.6 mile race?

Swim (1:04) The water temperature was around 75 degrees, and since this was twice the air temperature jumping into the water was actually very nice. This feeling was short lived as I did not anticipate how rough the first few hundred yards were going to be between the waves and huge amount of racers piled on top of one another. During this time I must have gotten punched, pushed and clawed at least 100 times. Thankfully I put my goggles below my swim cap or else I would have lost them.

After jockeying for a decent position, I got into a rhythm and swam around 1:40/100 pace for the first loop. I couldn’t help but think how long the day was going to be so I just took it one buoy at a time. Before I knew it I was running into the transition area with my parents screaming among the crowd.

T1 (6:00) the transition “room” or warehouse was much different than I had expected as it was packed with people by the time I arrived. Nonetheless I took my time and made sure that I was fully prepared for the long bike to come.

Bike (5:13) the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of this bike was a bunch of freight trains on one flat highway in the freezing cold. Once again I was ill prepared for how cold the weather was as I only put on arm warmers and gloves at the beginning of the bike. I paid for the mistake of not putting on an additional layer by freezing my @$$ off for the first 30 miles of the bike as the air temperature was in the high 30’s low 40’s and the wind was in my face. The rest of the ride was actually quite pleasant in the low to mid 60’s. Additionally, since the bike is one large 112 mile loop on very very flat roads, people seemed to congregate in groups of 5-20 riders with a good amount of drafting going on in the middle of the packs. Since I was out there to see what I can do from my training, and not hop on a train, I decided to use these groups as an excuse to stand up and push for a few minutes. Every time I would become the caboose of one of these trains I stood up and pushed to 25+ mph giving me the illusion that I was climbing a hill and giving me an excuse to stand up during the bike (advice Andy Potts gave me at Timberman). I would then proceed to pull a few people in the group to the next train…unless they were in my age group : ) Thankfully the motorcycles did a decent job of enforcing rules.

Overall I felt that Dr. Bob did a phenomenal job at preparing me for this bike ride as I started to fade right at the end of the ride at mile 105. For the first 105 miles I rode very consistently and averaged around 21.7, thus I was able to take it easy for the last 7 miles at around a 19ish pace as a way of preparing for the run brining me to a 21.5 mph pace overall.

T2 (2:30) Nothing special here except for the fact that I forgot to take off my gloves and arm warmers so I was forced to throw them away at the first aid station : (

Run (3:18): The run was broken down into two half marathon loops with the out portion of the loop going with the wind and the back coming against the wind. Since I entered the bike with the expectation of biking 20.5 mph and I ended up averaging 21.5 I was a little worried that my marathon goal time of 3:30 was not going to come to fruition. Nonetheless, I ended up running the first 6 miles at a 6:55 pace and felt phenomenal. After this split, Dr. Bobs advice of “everything is temporary in an Ironman” repeated in my head and I pulled back for the second half of the first loop. I ended up finishing the first half of the marathon in around 1:34 (7:11 / mile pace). At this point I was still feeling great but I was waiting to hit “the wall” as I did not think it was possible to maintain my pace for the rest of the run. To my disbelief (and with the aid of eating around 3000 calories on the bike and 100 calories per mile on the run) I held my pace up until the 19 mile marker, which is when I felt that walking the remaining portion of the marathon was inevitable. Thanks to the wonderful support and great placement of my parents on the run course and the knowledge that people like Rori, Ian and other friends, were tracking me online, I decided to try and hold a sub 8:30 pace despite my desire to start walking. At this point each mile felt like a 5k, but then I received news that I was currently 5th in my age group and the two people in front of me were running slower marathons. Since I thought that they only gave awards to the top three I decided that it was important to maintain my pace for the next few miles despite my body screaming at me.

Around mile 24 I saw someone in the distance in my age group so I picked up the pace to a 7:15 and blew past him. Once he was out of sight I slowed again to 8:30. Finally right after the 25 mile marker someone in my age group who I just passed without noticing ran passed me and asked if I was going to “make this an interesting finish.” Since I felt that I had nothing left, I let him pass and gain about 15 yards on me. One again the thought of my friends and family all watching me online pushed me to pick up the pace and catch him. As we ran together for the next quarter mile I somehow progressively picked up the pace to a 6:30, and just when I thought that I couldn’t go on anymore I heard him say “you got this man.” At that point a surge of adrenaline coursed through my veins as I could hear the volunteers saying “half a mile to go.”

Although I had gained at least 30 yards on the guy in my age group, I kept running at a sub 7 pace all the way to the finish line (which is why I almost ran into the camera for those of you that saw me finish). All and all I ended up catching two people in my age group in the last 2.5 miles bringing me to 3rd place in my age group (18-24) out of 49 competitors for the best performance yet in my 2.5 year triathlon career.

I’d like to thank every single person who supported me throughout my training and racing. I could not have done this without you!

Total Time (9:44:52)

Congratulations to all of NECTC on a fabulous season. I’m amazed and gratified by the growth of Collegiate Triathlon in general and by NECTC in particular. As a race director the energy and camaraderie that Collegiates bring to our events is unsurpassed.

See you next year.

Regards,
Eric Averill
USAT Board of Directors, VP
Cranberry Trifest Race Director

The NECTC is currently working on preparing an event-filled 2011 season.

Please check the website periodically for updates regarding the following:

• 2011 Athlete Development Camp
• NECTC/Scott Rigsby Foundation Fundraiser
• 2011 Races
• New Sponsorship deals

Again, great thanks to all the coaches and athletes who participated in the NECTC ADC 2010! It turned out great, so we hope to have something similar next year.

In the meantime, you can check out a report from this year's camp.

Happy training and racing!

• New camp application deadline: July 4th
• Eligibility: all athletes ages 18-28 with at least one triathlon race experience
• Payment deadline:
  • July 1st for accepted athletes who applied by May 30th
  • August 1st for accepted athletes who applied at June 1st or later

See the camp page for details and online camp payment submission.

Hey all,

If you are interested in participating in NECTC Development Camp this August, please fill in this survey (if you have not done so already)

Thank you!

We are pleased to announce the tentative race schedule for the NECTC Fall 2010 season! We are still working on finding a race to fill in the gap between Buckman and Mighty Man Sprint, so if you have any suggestions, please email max [at] nectc.net.

The final race schedule together with instructions on how to register will be posted soon. Please, DO NOT REGISTER for the races yet.

• Cranberry Trifest (Lakeville, MA)
• Olympic Distance (0.9mi swim, 24.9mi bike, 6.2mi run)

• Quakerman Olympic (Quakertown, PA)
• Olympic Distance (0.6mi swim, 38mi bike, 6.2mi run)

• Buckman Sprint (Lebanon, NJ)
• Sprint Distance (0.5mi swim, 17mi bike, 5K run)

• MightyMan Sprint (Montauk, NY)
• Sprint Distance (750m swim, 17K bike, 5K run)

(Top 3 athletes: (from left) Julie Tracy (Northeastern), Will Gerboth (Stevens), Gerald Rothenhoffer (MIT), Colin Kipping-Ruane (Boston), Katie Weller (Boston), and Amanda Nauman (Stevens))

The sun was shining, but it did little to break the chill that settled over the race site at the 2009 Lobsterman Triathlon on Saturday September 19. Athletes warmed up in and headed down to the frigid high 50-degree water for the start.

Amanda Nauman of Stevens Institute of Technology won the race for the women (2:32:10.9). She took the lead in the swim with the fastest female swim and followed it up with the fastest female bike. From there she never looked back, as she finished with the second-fastest run of the day. Katie Weller, 20, of Boston University finished second (2:51:50.9) followed by Julie Tracy, 23, of Northeastern University (2:52:06.1) just barely edged out by Weller. Nauman was the second finisher at Buckman and now became the leader of the point series leader.

A special mention for Kate Callahan, 21, of Syracuse University, who had two flats on the bike course and turned her anger into the speed. Her fastest female run (48:34), over 4 minutes to the second fastest time, however, was not enough to placing higher in the female field of the race, which has been increasingly becoming competitive.

The men’s race brought about a close competition. Colin Kipping-Ruane, 19, of Boston University won (2:17:54.0), despite having a lead-time in any of the stages of the race. His fourth place swim, second place bike and eighth place run were enough to propel him to victory. Kipping-Ruane became the new leader in the point competition. Gerald Rothenhofer, 29, from MIT used his first-place bike to seize the second place (2:21:48.2). Will Gerboth, 23, of Stevens finished third (2:22:47.8) with help from his third place bike ride.

Keisuke Inoue, 36, of Syracuse University, despite his fastest run time (39:55), missed the third place by .5 seconds to Gerboth.

Brendan Heller, 19, from Bryant University’s blasted through the swim (18:53), but crashed on the bike portion on the race and lost the lead. Heller toughed it out and finished the race. This was Bryant University’s first time joining the NECTC.

In the end, athletes enjoyed a perfect end-of-summer day in Maine as the race was completed and they feasted on lobster, clams, and beer from Gritty McDuff’s Freeport microbrewery.

A special thanks goes out to Tri-ME for a great race and hosting the NECTC for the third time. Despite the travel, a growing number of the NECTC athletes are calling Lobsterman, the most favorite race, because of its beautiful scenery, great organization, and post-race feast.

All the top finishers received plaques and prizes, provided by GU and PureMadness while the point leaders of the season and seized the leader jerseys provided by Champion System.

Now the stage is set for the upcoming NECTC Championship in Montauk, N.Y. Athletes keep training and get pumped!

The race results are available here.

The overall of standings of the NECTC point series can be found here.

The video from the swim start is posted to YouTube.

The pictures are posted (and more will follow) to Flickr.

(by Bryan Young, Syracuse University)
-Keisuke Inoue

Congratulations to Alice Henriques (age 29, time 1:24:33) and Griff Curtis (age 20, time 1:24:41) of Columbia University for their 1st Place finishes in this past weekend's race at the Buckman Triathlon in NJ. Not only did Henriques have the top swim time of the division (10:49) coming out of the water with just over 2 minutes to spare, but she also finished with the fastest overall race time outside the Collegiate division. Curtis took 1st out of the males also because of his swim time. Even though he didn’t have the 2nd fastest swim time, the fact the Keisuke Inoue and Russell Ericksen were dilly-dallying in the water (coming out almost last) he still took the cake because of his speedy run (18:51) that was the 2nd fastest run by 48 seconds. Henriques and Curtis are now the official point leaders on the 2009 NECTC. Congratulations!

Crossing the finish line as if holding hands, Keisuke Inoue (age 36) of Syracuse University took 2nd place for the men with a time of 1:25:24 while Russell Ericksen (age 26), of Columbia University, crossed the finish line at 1:25:29. Hmm…interesting. Well, it doesn’t surprise me as Ericksen came out of the swim 1 second behind Inoue, Inoue even gave him time to catch up by turning around playfully to chit-chat about the swim (pictures of their swim exit can be viewed on the Facebook group). Inoue’s kind gesture wasn’t enough to put Ericksen in 2nd place though because he spent a whopping 11 seconds too long in T1 to beat Inoue out. While the boys had identical bike times, actually the fastest of the race (47:54), it wasn’t enough to put the two of them above Curtis.

Henriques’ top finish created a margin of 9 minutes before the 2nd and 3rd place female finishers crossed the line. Amanda Nauman (age 20) from Stevens took 2nd with a time of 1:33:34. Columbia teammate of Henriques, Deena Elwan (age 23) took 3rd with a time of 1:38:26.

All the top finishers received plaques and prizes, provided by GU and PureMadness

Curtis and Henriques became our first point leaders of the season and seized the leader jerseys provided by Champion System.

An extended thank you to Joe Pantella and Greenbrook racing for hosting the 2nd race of the 2009 season. Joe's incorporation of the NECTC into the race made us feel welcomed and special. Our first place male and female finishers were awarded trophies, courtesy of Joe, in addition to the regular NECTC/USAT-NE plaques. Thank you Joe and all the volunteers who got up at the crack of dawn to make the Buckman Sprint an overall success!

Again, congratulations to not only the top finishers but to all the teams who came out to race. It was a wet weekend and the water looked pretty muddy but overall the turnout was great and everyone had a smile on their face.

The race results are available here
Pictures are available on Flickr.

- Rori Alter

-Keisuke Inoue

Filmed by Rori. Thanks Rori!
-Keisuke Inoue