Tim Jenkinson, who has already won three Cat 1 cross races this season, took home an Omnium Bronze medal at the DII Collegiate National Championships racing for Mars Hill College. This came by way of a 5th in the Cross Country race and a Ninth in the Short Track race. Making this all the more impressive, the races were all at an altitude of 9000+ feet in Angel Fire, NM. Mars Hill College sits at about 2000ft.
With that Tim's mountain bike season ends and the serious work of Cyclocross begins. The goals are another national championship medal to add to his last year's silver and also score enough UCI points to get to represent South Africa at the U23 World Championships. Watch this space for more results to come!
Master's crosser George Berger has gone from solid middle of the pack to legitimate top 10 threat with a 12th this weekend in the packed Singlespeed category at the NCCX series and a 3rd at the masters tune up race in Spartabburg a few weeks ago. The original goal of "wanting to beat some friends I raced against last year" has turned into, "Let's see how far up in the top 10 I can get."
On the multisport front Daphne Kirkwood, Adam Nessen and I all went down to Wilmington, NC for the sold out Beach2Battleship half iron distance race. If you ever get a chance, this is an incredible event to race.
Daphne won her age group, set a new PR and was 12th overall! To say that I'm proud of Daphne's performance would be an understatement. She has battled with an SI joint issue for a good chunk of the season which had us working on her swim and bike. It was only in the last 10 or so weeks that we able to do any consistent run volume. On top of all that she also has managed the tough training schedule despite working her day job and putting on 5-6 races in the area as well as launching the new Asheville Marathon at The Biltmore Estate.Despite being an obvious overachiever I was still convincing her with a couple of weeks to go that she had the fitness to do well. She raced a bit conservatively which definitely bodes well for next year now that she is healthy.
Adam had a great race as well. He's worked super hard and been dedicated to the plan. That paid off with a Half Ironman PR. He beat his previous best by nearly 1.5 hours!
I think that there is nothing that makes me happier than for my athlete's to do well. It validates all the hard work they've done and the joy and satisfaction of a job well done confirms that the sacrifices were all worthwhile. Happy athletes=Happy Coach, I'm a very happy coach this week!
Speaking of new beginnings, be watching the space for announcements soon. I can't tell you what it is exactly (it will be coaching) but it is going to mean bigger and better things for all of my current and future athletes.
