Powerman Zofingen Long Course Duathlon World Championships:
open results: Randy Hadzor, 13th overall, 5th in age group : 3rd american finisher including all; elite+itu+open.

 5. Hadzor Randy, USA-Syracuse 7:21.55,0

 
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The race was definitely a challenging adventure! Starting with a hilly, and fast 10k where I felt great, leading to a 150k bike with 3 loops of a pretty solid course, 2 real hills which I actually looked forward to each lap.. it’s the flat and into the wind where I need to improve.. and there was lots of that to give me some practice.. then transition and onto the last run, and equally if not hillier 30k consisting of two 15k loops, where you run up and around this flat area over looking the town, that was pretty cool but super punishing, into the woods, out, around that field again, around the turn around, into the woods back to the stupid field, down, thennn do it again on that second 15k.. I was super excited to get the wrist band marking that I was on the second (and final) 15k which meant just one more up and then I blasted it on the way down.. I think overall I did quite well, being able to beat some ITU guys from lots of different countries. It was definitely a tough race… I would recommend it to anyone that likes to suffer and feel strong for doing so. During the bike and run I felt like I couldn’t go much faster.. but I wasn’t completely exhausted or anything so I think with a little more training I could really get to like this distance – gotta learn to like flat I suppose and get some more miles in on the ol’ running shoes probably.

Since the race I spent a day checking out the art of Switzerland, visiting the Kunstmuseum of Basel and the Cartoonmuseum. Then I rode to Belfort from Pratteln. Belfort is nice, there’s some good weather over here, I keep looking north at the Vosgues mountains.. I’m tempted to take a day and ride around in them (without the backpack that makes the commuting from city to city less enjoyable) and then I’ll continue on to Nancy to prepare for Standard Distance World Duathlon Championships!

It was a great weekend of racing, nothing says volume like back to back hard race efforts… well I suppose lots of other things say volume, ie . trying to do both dante’s east and west in one day (some day, some day)… or any number of other things.. but this weekend was fun!

Bergen 5k

Saturday I joined up with a handful of fellow Syracuse Track Club guys to race as a team in the Bergen 5k, Kevin, William, Derek, myself, Sam, Stephen and Lenny. We all agreed it was a good start to the season. Good to get a solid group together and finishing third as a team we were able to win a little cash which is always nice.

I was excited to race a 5k to see what sort of pace I can actually run as lately for workouts I’ve been estimating what my race pace would be I’d been calling 5:20’s my goal race pace and was very excited to after all to run a 16:18, averaging 5:15’s per mile (exciting now .. but now all my workouts are going to be that much faster aka harder! ruht-rroh 🙂 that’s gonna hurt ) I haven’t done just a running race in a while, and it was kind of weird / refreshing!  The race was pretty fast, made me realize there is still a lot of work to be done, as my 16:18 earned me 34th over all which is good enough to get a cool etched pint glass awarded for top 50.. but dudes were running in the 14’s .. gotta get up there!

Bergen 5k 2012 : [team results] [overall results]

Then Saturday was the Cazenovia Triathlon!

The Caz Tri is kind of the CNY Triathlon Club’s crown jewel, they do a great job organizing training events, educational opportunities for new triathletes, with their Winter Training Facility and all but above all that every year they pull together one of the best races in the area offering the sprint and intermediate/olympic distance races. Their is a hill climb challenge on the first little portion of the bike (who doesn’t love a hill climb challenge) and it’s a beautiful clear lake, just challenging enough bike course with a mix of easy grades, a fast descent or two with some fun twisties and enough inclines / false flats to keep you honest and working hard the whole time! Then the run is awesome, a tough out (up) and back (down) which makes for a super fast and fun finish.

Dad, Robert Hadzor, ended up 21st overall!! and 1st in his age group and I ended up 2nd overall and 1st in the hill climb.

Lots of familiar faces at Caz, Eric Hinman took the win, Bill Houser taking 3rd, (fast swimmers!!) K was in the top ten, prolly would have been top 5 if he came out to ride ‘cross bikes with us Friday 😛 . Great job all around to everyone, racers, organizers, volunteers, spectators.

Very fun weekend for sure.

Cazenovia Triathlon, 2012 : [ overall ]  [ age group ]  [ hill climb ]  [ searchable ]

Photos courtesy of Liz Knickerbocker of Fleet Feet Syracuse.