2013 Team Frank Ste Agathe Triathlon

What a weekend, what a day, what a race! From 11 year olds to 65+ year olds this year’s Team Frank triathlon had almost 30 participants. And one of the best parts was seeing Zoë and Garrett competing with their friends. I could sense it the last couple of years as more of their friends started coming and this year it really felt like the kids are taking over. And I’m pretty sure Frank is smiling as he sees his kids pushing themselves and encouraging their friends out on the course. Some of the other highlights: - Jonathan doing the 1k swim without swim goggles - Max casually aiming for a top 15 and getting a top 10 - Anthony running across the finish line with two year old Lucciana running with him - Andrea Lufty coming second overall in the Super Sprint when she really did it as a relay with her mother - Richard in his 10th Super Sprint again coming within seconds of breaking the elusive 1hr mark - Ashley telling us that she really can’t swim and then going out and winning her age group - Garrett, after doing his race, running out along the beach and onto the road to support Kaleigh as she pushed through her run - Zoë and Jas singing their way through the swim, the bike and the run - Nic after being the first of five Team Frank in row to finish the Sprint, then going back out on the course with his this bike to make sure that the rest of Team Frank was doing OK - Craig running with his nephew Max as Max got a third place finish with his relay team - Andrea escorting 11 year old Kaleigh around the Super Sprint course as Kaleigh completed her first Team Frank event - And our hero of the weekend, after competing in the Super Sprint for at least 7 years, Ron made the jump to the triathlon and made us all proud with a great race With friends and family coming together from as far as San Francisco (Craig, Max and Leo) and Calgary (Pam and Stephanie) the 2013 Team Frank triathlon was another amazing event. Kimmy, thank you, and Garrett and Zoë, for opening up your home to us and for letting us share this special day with you. I am always proud to tell people about Team Frank and about the impact that he continues to have on so many people. Already looking forward to next year when we get to see you all again, Mark

It's Time

Writing this thinking of Team Frank at the Rubin Run realizing that it's time to get ready for the Team Frank Ste Agathe triathlon. Been a busy winter with work, some travel and lots, LOTS, of kid's hockey. The hockey was a lot of fun but there's been very little training. I've been looking for something to kick start training and it finally arrived this past week. I was in Calgary for a few days and one of those days was beautiful, about 20 / 70 degrees and a perfect blue sky. Calgary has a small river running through town and a really nice bike path along either side. I could see the path from my hotel and it was always busy. One day I had a couple of hour break so I went for a quick run. My hip's not great so trying to avoid running but getting out this week was fantastic. That inspired me to get my summer haircut, short for more speed, and even got me out on the bike today. Now need to stay committed and motivated. Good luck at the Rubin Run Team Frank. Mark

An Anniversary to remember

The 10th team Frank triathlon was a tremendous success with a record 32 participants, PB’s across the board and Zoe’s first full triathlon.

Under perfect sky’s Saturday’s kid’s triathlon was a lot of fun with international representation from Montreal, Toronto, Boston and San Francisco. With 9 year old Leo leading the way medals and prizes went out to everyone from 2 year old Mathew to Kaleigh the overall girl’s winner. Julia, Juliette, Charlotte and Brigid pushed Maverick in every event and Nico was our fastest boy.

Sunday’s triathlon was under cloudy sky’s and in very hot and humid conditions and among the highlights:

 Garrett and Mary Lynn combining for a 1:47 in the duathlon relay. Second fastest in Team Frank history
 James with a 47:20 Sprint, first among 30-34 year olds
 Bob (52:50) and Danny (1:23:06) both winning their categories in the Sprint
 Ronnie coming in well under his objective of hour, in 57:22 and finishing first in his category
 Amelie finishing second among women with a time of 1:44:05, far from her prediction of a PW (personal worst)
 Max (Amelie’s brother) doing his first Tri in 1:51:34
 Brad coming within 40 seconds of the Team Frank men’s record with 1:47:56
 Christian taking 10min off his PB with a 1:49:02
 Newcomer Matthew finishing first overall in the triathlon with a record time of 1:28:50
 Heck even I managed to keep my streak of being faster each year for the 11th time

I’m pretty sure that Frank would be proud of everyone for their efforts and certainly none more so than his little girl. Zoe finished the sprint in 1:08:57, coming in 7th for girl’s 16-19 (even though she’s four years short of 16) and beating her mom by 8 seconds.

The weekend had a ton of laughs as well, from Craig’s parking mishap to his wet car on Sunday morning; Anthony, Matthew and Danny getting lost on the course to FX leaving the transition on his bike still wearing his wetsuit.

Kimmy, thank you for the hospitality, the amazing food (Marie Jo), the incredible setting and the great people that all make the Team Frank triathlon a highlight for everyone involved.

10th Anniversary

Anniversaries are a chance to look back. To connect what happened then to what is happening now. The 10th anniversary of Team Frank had people who are healthier, fitter and likely happier thanks to Team Frank. From Frank and I doing the Ste Agathe triathlon in 2001 with no preparation and no training to last weekend with over 30 participants and Team Frank winning the overall title and placing in different age categories there’s no denying the impact.

Would Zoe and Garrett be the athletes they are without the influence of Team Frank? Would Brad be the triathlete he is? Would Ronnie, Michou and James be racing each other? Would Nic and Jonathan have the same friendly rivalry? Would I be committed to doing triathlons without Team Frank? Would Kaleigh and Brigid have an interest if they didn’t see me (really Zoe) doing triathlons?

Just as important is the community of friends that’s been built. Not sure how often Christian and Emily, Craig, Mary Lynn, Bob and Danny, Jill and FX, Erika, Jamie would all connect if not for Team Frank.

And now one of the best parts of the weekend is the kid’s triathlon. Not sure that there is anything better than seeing our kids having fun, pushing themselves, competing and having a real feeling of accomplishment. Does anything more embody the spirit of Team Frank? Love this picture of Kaleigh and Maverick on their bikes for all the reasons above.


Thank you Kimmy, Zoe and Garrett for letting us all be a part of Team Frank.

Test Tri

I was sitting at work on Friday afternoon, minding my own business when I got a note from Anthony. "Hey" he wrote "why don't you do the Belwood triathlon with Bruno and I this weekend?"

As this would be my last big training weekend before Ste Agathe I'd been thinking about what training to do. It's not always easy to find an inspiring swim / bike / run which I needed for my last heavy training. After a little thought and some organization with Andrea I decided to do the Belwood triathlon as a test tri for Ste Agathe.

Belwood is a conservation area about an hour north west of Toronto. It has a nice lake and trails in the woods As anyone on the east coast can attest it's been a brutally hot week but this morning wasn't too bad. We had cloud cover for most of the race and the run was through the woods. The race was a 1/30/7 so similar to Ste Agathe.

So what did I learn from my test? Well I'm in OK shape, not great but OK. And that my hip has some discomfort on the bike and the run.

Two weeks from now we'll have completed our 10th Team Frank triathlon. Hope that everyone is healthy and fit. Look forward to seeing you ,

Mark

Lake Placid - an outdoor lovers dream town

Andrea, the girls and I are just back from a weekend in Lake Placid. It was the Canada Day long weekend and the fourth of July so a fun time to be a Canadian in the US.

For anyone who has not visited Lake Placid it is a great little town. And if you love the outdoors it is an incredible town. With due respect to our west coast pals (Brad, Craig) I would put Lake Placid up against just about anything you guys have out there.

As you drive into town you are constantly passing people on their bikes as they ride along the wide shoulder on the side of the road. Just about every vehicle has a bike rack with either a road bike or a mountain bike and sometimes both. Just off the road there’re people standing up to their waists in the river fly fishing. And Whiteface Mountain is a constant presence and the clear, fresh air is fantastic.

The Lake Placid triathlon is later this month so the town was buzzing with athletes getting in a good training weekend. The triathlon swim course was set so I got out for two long swims alongside some real athletes. It was beautiful to be swimming in a clear lake with the mountains to one side and the town of Lake Placid to other. It was also nice to be sharing the lake with canoeist and paddlers from the rowing club.
If you’re looking to get started on your training, I’d recommend a visit to Lake Placid. You can’t help but feel motivated and excited to be out doing something when you’re in that environment.

Four more weekends of training before Aug 7th!

My Best Week of Training Ever

Big statement I know, and not a reflection of my performance (more on that later). I am calling it my best week of training because of the amazing bike, run and swim I had last week.

On Sunday June 5th the city of Toronto closes two of the city’s main highways for a charity bike ride. I’ve done the ride a couple of times, you may remember last year when I came close to getting hypothermia, but this was going to be my longest ride. Sunday was a beautiful morning, warm and sunny with a little breeze. I met a friend at 6am and we rode to the start. We got out before the crowds and had a fantastic ride on smooth roads with no cars or traffic lights and the occasional rest stop with food, drink and music. Just to keep things interesting, as we were riding home a little weary from the ride, I lost focus, got caught in the street car tracks and fell off the bike. The cars and trucks on the road managed to avoid me and my bike was OK so besides leaving some skin from my elbow and knee on the road and a couple of pretty good bruises, I’m fine. All told we did over 100k, my longest ride ever.

I was in Vancouver this week and ran the seawall around Stanley Park on Wednesday morning. This is my favourite run in a city that I’ve been to. The park is just off of downtown so I ran straight from my hotel and ran clockwise so it felt like I was arriving from the ocean into downtown Vancouver. From the ocean to the snow capped mountains to the beaches, the scenery is spectacular. I also saw two bald eagles along the run. The first was about 30 yards away sitting on a rock just off shore and the second was in a tree along the path. Another memorable part of the run was coming around a corner and having downtown Vancouver and the Convention Centre come into view. The Vancouver Convention Centre was the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and my home for five weeks during the Games. Seeing the IBC brought back some great memories. The run was about 16k so a good workout.

On Saturday morning I made my way to the Kitsilano pool, about 15min walk from my hotel. I’d heard of the pool and it’s 137m / 150yrd, salt water lap pool. It’s an amazing place to swim with views of the mountains, ocean, boats, people running on the neighborouring path and people on the adjacent beach. Not to mention your fellow swimmers who all seemed to be flying past me. Having such a long pool made it easy to get into a nice routine and it made for a really enjoyable 12 laps (just over a mile) swim.

So while my fitness level needs a lot of work and my hip is not getting any better, last week was an incredible way to kickoff my training for Ste Agathe.

I’ve been remiss in my post and blogs due to hectic times at work that has limited my time to post and my time to train. With eight weeks of training it is time to get going. Look forward to seeing everyone for the 10th Team Frank triathlon on August 7th.