Union County Colorfest Biathlon Oct 13 2007

(Marvin) This is my 4th time doing the Anna IL biathlon. The first time as a team in 2004. I ran and Dave rode the bike. After that it's been individual competition. Every year I do better and better. This year was my best time yet. This is also the second year riding my rode bike instead of the mountain bike. The distance is a 5K run with 17.5 bike ride. The weather was cool and fairly calm winds. The run starts off going downhill, but near the 2 miles there is one big hill to climb. Other than that hill the run route is pretty good. On the bike ride there are two hills that are extremely tough to climb. The first is at the beginning and it is a tricky one. When you think that you reach the top of the hill it then grows to a second steeper climb. At least the downhill is long and fast ride. After that it is up and down many hills until about over half way you hit another steep hill. This hill puts the thought in of pushing the bike uphill, but I kept struggling through. I played leap frog with many other cyclist during the race and fended off an attack to the finish line. I had a total time of 1:15:31 Run: 19:58 Transition: 1:13 Bike: 54:20 2nd 30-34. One of the best things about the race is the attendance prizes. They have jersey, jackets, hats, bike gear, etc.. This year I won a water bottle..yeah.... I have been wanting to win a jersey, so maybe next year. The other cool thing about the race is that Anna has Colorfest celebration going on. On part of the run route you'll see many different dioramas using pumpkins. There are many creative ones, and if your in the area it is worth checking out.

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(David) This is my favorite biathlon. A lot of biathlons are 5 miles. This one is 3.1, which I like a lot better. The toughest part of this race is the hills, and there are a lot of them. I used to think the big hill after you turn off the highway was the toughest, but the more I do this race the more I think it is the hill(s) after the narrow bridge. That hill is steep and once you get to the top it flattens out a little and then you get one or two more bad hills. This is a race that brings out a lot of strong competitors so I never really expect to place. Last year my goal was to get at least fifth in my age group. I did place fifth and was very happy with that. This year a guy at work told me I should be able to get third. I told him my age group is really tough, but decided that would be my goal. I did get third in my age group. I was very pleased with my performance. My overall time was 1:16:25, over four minutes faster than last year. I wanted to be about 21 minutes for the run, I was 21:14. That was slower than last year’s time. I never know how fast to run in biathlons because I don’t want to bonk on the bike ride. My transition time was bad like usual, 1:46. That was 18 seconds slower than last year. I need someone to coach me on that. My bike ride was good, 54:04. I think that was faster than Marvin’s and four minutes faster than last year’s. I think last year there were stronger winds that slowed everyone down. During the bike ride I kept trading spots with one rider. I would pass him and then he would pass me. This went on for most of the ride. It got to the point where we would say something to the other guy as we passed him, not mean stuff. On the bad hill after the narrow bridge he stopped because he had chain trouble and I thought I might be done with him, but a couple miles later there he was again. We talked a little and when I found out he wasn’t in my age group I didn’t worry about him as much. We did change spots a few more times until he got ahead of me and beat me by five or ten seconds. Just like the Millstadt biathlon it seemed like I would pass people on the hills. My maximum speed going down one of the hills was 38.1. During practice rides I have gone over 40 miles per hour down these hills. After the race they give out a lot of quality attendance prizes. The first year we did this I got a long sleeve jersey and the next year I got a sleeveless jersey. I did get a prize this year but it wasn’t that great. I don’t know how they can give away such nice things. They always give away jerseys, jackets, hats, and other nice things. Like many races we had to leave once we received our plaques because I had to get home to get ready for work. Like I said this is my favorite biathlon. My whole year I train for two races: this one and the Steeleville Firecracker 3k. However, this year I ran some other races that I really liked, like the Germantown 5k. This race is also an end to my running / biking season. After this race I really taper off or quit completely until next year.