Randy Hadzor takes 1st place by 8 minutes, setting new course record at THE RATSNAKE.
Post RATSNAKE 2016, Gilbert Lake State Park – Syracuse Crew
With a crew of Syracuse area athletes, Randy carpooled down to experience the phenomenon known as THE RATSNAKE; a backwards triathlon consisting of an 11 mile trail run, 29 mile bike ride and 26 yard ‘swim’.
It was an absolutely wonderful weekend of camping, craft beer and good challenging racing. Everyone was amazingly kind. The sense of community, competition and fun was unbelievable.
The Syracuse crew put up some solid results, Shannon Baum winning overall for the ladies in an exciting mad dash through the water. Tom Garby cranking out a 4th place, Ben Reller not far behind with 5th and Ben Gaulin coming in 7th. Also of note Shannons performance was a super solid top 10th in the overall, regardless of gender.
For the first time since 2009 when one co-worker asked another (approximately),
“Hey do you wanna go and run and bike at Green Lakes? A handful of people are doing this thing…” – coworker1
“um, sure!” – coworker2
“We’re going to run around the lakes, then go for a bike ride, then run around the lakes again” – coworker1
“really? you’re just going to leave your bike at the park.. while you run, what if someone steals it??” – coworker2
Fast forward 7 years:
Saturday, May 14th, 2016 Matt Migonis (coworker1) and Randy Hadzor (coworker2) did the Du the Lakes together again.
The run started off nice and smooth, chasing Sam Morse of the Syracuse Track Club.
Matt, Randy and one other competitor all went through t1 at roughly the same time, Migonis and the competitor with variations of the triathlon-shoe-on-the-bike-thing, getting over the transition mat first but fiddling with their shoes a bit, Randy ran through and took off with a cyclocross style remount.. only to have slight difficulties getting the chain on the big ring on the way out of the park, the chain falling off to the outside and luckily he was able to shift down to replace it and eventually get it situated on the properly large chainring .. only after Migonis took over the lead..
Once out on the roads Migonis and Hadzor were hammering along at roughly the same pace, which was fun; though they had to resort to riding a very awkwardly-wide-side-by-side orientation to be sure there was no drafting advantage, this went on for one lap until Migonis took the lead… lap two, Hadzor spent chasing the bright orange shorts in the distance, eventually getting back to the park and arriving at the dismount line at about the same instant, apparently Migonis had been riding a flat rear tire for the final 2 miles of the bike leg, apparently he accidentally hit a jagged 3inch rock “totally my fault” he exclaims, somewhat bashfully.. t2 was exciting as the race organizers took bets on who would return from the run first, the coach or the athlete, the teacher or the student!
2016 Du the Lakes, Hadzor and Migonis on the run. Photo by Beth Lancer
Out on the run Hadzor took it out in a bit of an optimistic 5:20 minute per mile pace, only to be slightly slowed by a four across family out for a stroll, after just a small bit of confusion and polite exchanges of apologies.
Migonis and Hadzor ran together for 2 of the 3 final running miles, chatting about finishing together though Hadzor insisted he prefer to put up a chase, and so Migonis effortlessly took the lead, or perhaps he just had to pee really bad; since he took off, finished in record time, setting a new course record, and ran straight to the potty.. Randy finished up just about 30 to 40 seconds later, claiming 2nd place for Team Migonis and putting Mello Velo racing on a multisport podium for the second weekend in a row.
2016 Du the Lakes, Migonis and Hadzor take 1st and 2nd
It was a great day, with lots of familiar faces out at the races. A great showing of friendly competition and wonderful weather. Duathlons are the best and nothing beats the local multisport community coming together to run, ride bikes, compete, and have fun; all while raising a little bit of money for a great cause.
Coming off a decent 10 mile run at the Mountain Goat the week before, Randy Hadzor went out to Watkins Glenn and revisited the Fly by Night for his first duathlon in a while.
Hadzor ended up 1st overall, winning by 4 minutes, and clocking a time of 1:19:44; the second fastest course time we were able to find on record..
The 2013 time 1:18:21 by Travis Kuhl is rumored to be a year where the course was a bit shorter due to construction at the Glen.. either way, something to shoot for.
(Also, let us know if anyone can confirm or dispel these rumors!)
Randy Hadzor wins 2016 Fly by Night duathlon in 1:19:44
It was another great year running the Tipp Hill Shamrock Run. The event has such a great atmosphere, with runners and walkers of all sorts that come out. The energy level is always a nice happy buzz, with neighbors watching from their porches to cheer for friends and family.. lining the streets, bands jamming out on the corners from rock to marching band to Irish singers.. even the local Irish dance school flanks the road with their pupils in school colors and regalia as runners pass under the historic traffic light whose green light is atop the indicator.
It’s always a great test of fitness and even more fun to see all of the folks from the running community!
BTB athlete, Randy Hadzor, had a decent run and got a nice shout out from the local neighborhood bulletin:
The weather was amazing and it was great to see so many people make the journey out by bicycle to check out the fun!
Congratulations to all of the racers for completing the challenging course!
We never got around to writing the press release detailing the story of ‘Edwards dethrones Timmerman Gobble Legacy’ .. as Kevan became the first A race champion to not be one of the brothers.
2015 Hollenbeck’s : War Horse (Avocadough kit) takes 1st in cat5 / 2nd in field 4,5 Photo credit: Jim Lassoie via Ruth Sherman
Warhorse padded the coffers with a 2nd place finish in the 4/5 race despite creating a sweet noise maker / resistance training device / challenging mechanical out of his front chain ring. His finish shook down to 1st place in cat5.. but we won’t tell him that.
2015 Hollenbeck’s : Kevan and Randy (Mello Velo kits) take 2nd, 3rd in cat3 / 6th, 7th in cat1,2,3 field Photo credit: Jim Lassoie via Ruth Sherman
Kevan and Randy played silly pack games that didn’t really make any cents, since a strong break was made by three powerful 1/2’s in their 1/2/3 field. After spinning along for a few laps, it came to finishing toward the front of the up-hill-pack-sprint.. placing 6th and 7th overall… which ended up being 2nd and 3rd of the cat3.
“… if it doesn’t make dollars, then it doesn’t make sense…” – Christopher George Latore Wallace
Great job to everyone that was out racing, and huge thanks to the volunteers and organizers. It was a great race, with a very nice, pretty, rolling course. There was deliberation in the pack whether it would be easier to enlist the aid of a cow to climb that little ‘wall’ of a hill.
Thanks again to all the volunteers, hopefully that mysterious glowing orb in the sky didn’t burn ya too bad!
