Team Pinnacle vs Team Pinnacle Too

Team Pinnacle - 2:40:47
Team Pinnacle Too - 2:40:42

This really was a race within a race, and you see above, a very close race. My responsibilities for this event was the 5 mile road run and the 11 mile uphill bike ride.

My goal for the run was to catch Izi (co-worker starting 5 minutes ahead), beat Glen and at the starting line decided I needed to beat the short kid with the long socks and cotton t-shirt. Goal #1 was dashed when they changed the run to a mass start. Goal 2 was accomplished simply because Glen has spent all his time working on his house and had not run for over a month. I watched the long socked, cotton t-shirted short prick slowly pull away the entire run. Who knew the little bastard could run! I ended up turning a satisfying 32:33 and gave Keith a 5 minute edge in the kayak.

Next up for me was the bike. I drove to the bike transition and sat in the car through a nice little hail storm, glad I was not paddling at the time. PJ was the kayaker for Team Pinnacle Too. Not suprisingly, 100 pull-up PJ on the rocket Gurney boat made up the five minutes on Keith. Keith hobbled up to me on his one functioning leg and I was off with a one minute deficit to Dan. Anyone who has seen Dan ride this year knows that one minute was going to be tough to make up. The first couple miles were fairly painful because the hail storm wiped out any chance of an adaquate warm-up. At the base of the big climb I was able to real in Dan and make the pass. I gave it my best effort to gap him on the climb, but he hung tough and arrived less than a minute behind me at the ski transition.

The rest of the race was spent laughing at Glen and Keith as they made three grueling laps around the cross country ski loop. Many crashes, bloody knuckles and broken poles later they cross the line only 5 seconds apart.

Overall a very fun event. Great post race feast and a nice little yellow ribbon for Team Pinnacle Too for earning the bottom spot on the podium.
 
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]

"there is a route 73 on my map" Brian says as we get lost trying to find the place. Luckily we had enough time to figure out a plan with our little $2 2 way radio's. Truckers would have been proud.

I was hoping for Glen to keep within 2-3 minutes of Brian. No luck. Glen had some calf trouble coupled with the fact he hasn't run in a month. He still pulled off a 37 minute run, which by most standards is excellent. Brian happend to run a mere 5 minutes faster.......

Seeing Keith go out without a skirt on his kayak, gave me a bit of hope. I hoped he would top over and fill up with water. Unfortunately it was me who just about dumped it, in gurneys kayak, trying to avoid a metal stake. Luckily I slammed gurney's carbon paddle into the rocks to hold myself up. After passing the blues brothers, I found a nice rhythm, and paddled smoothly passing a whole lot of boats. trouble lurked only on the 2-3 sharp corners that the boat didn't like. A couple rookie kayaker mistakes when I tried to pass guys, who were in the current, while I was being sucked to the inside beach. After the Hail, (which I hoped filled Keith's boat) I finally saw sight of him who was trying to get passed a slew of boats, I caught him and passed him shortly before the finish and hobbled to the baton pass off. Dan cruised out of site.

Trying to get to the finish with Glen for the final Ski section was brutal, after 2 feeble attempts at placing gurney's kayak in a safe and secure spot on the roof, we realized that it had been already 20 minutes and Dan was nearing the end of his ride. We hammered in the car, trying to beat Dan to the transition. At mile 10 of the bike we finally saw Dan standing up and closing in on Currier, who just up ahead. Halleck is in the back seat changing clothes while I try to find a decent line to beat Dan to the transition. Dan won and had to wait for Glen. Now only 1 minute behind, we watch the craziest x-country ski ever. Noone could make it down the hill without crashing. The course was like the Pinnacle only ups and downs, nothing in between but slush. Glen managed to break Ryan's pole on his first lap, and thanks to a quick thinking marshal used a 9 foot bamboo course marker on this second trip up the hill. The final lap was outstanding as Glen and Keith were neck and neck. Result Team Pinnacle Too a 5 second win over Team Pinnacle.

A great day was had by all, and we got some lovely ribbons for our efforts. We even got an extra beer ticket at the end.

my poor pole...

Good job to all participants, it sounds like both teams did great.

Ryan

So, where are the pics of this event?? Anybody have any?
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini