Owasco Flyer - June 24

LiLynn's steriod induced Report:

It was a dark and stormy night. Well actually it was a beautiful sunny morning with temps around 70 at 9:30am as the beautiful bella babes were conversing with the new bella baby getting her prepped for her first race as a bella. This took at least a half an hour of warm up. First we had to attach the pink fluff to her end of the tandem and then doll up her hair with the blue hair dye and finally find a pair of bike shorts that would stay up for at least 2 hrs.

The bella team was ready for action once again - out for a great time, maybe even some great results. The race started with over 200 riders of all abilities (very scary), all at once following a pace "car" through town.
I could not believe they chose to have a semi truck as a pace car with our own bella, Sue Attwood driving. over the speaker I kept hearing, "stay up near the front bella's, 10-4 good buddy" - totally freakin me out. Always good to know your pace car driver though.




But just before the hill the back of the semi opened up and there was Madonna again with her microphone cheering us on saying "..keep up the cadence, babes. ..You're lookin good..." Well I almost fell off my bike at that point and the rest of the peleton is wondering if this was just a bella affair or what.

Well I had been having some asthma issues all week and still suffering and had to back off so I lost sight of the semi but saw
Gaetane hammering up with the mens trying to stay on the wheel of the ironman triathlete woman and wait, there was Kate with the mens too! Kate was a total animal in heat, going for the ironman.

Woman on a mission. pedal to the metal. Kinda had that psycho look in her eyes. Even Gaetane backed off. I bade farewell to my mates and set into a pace I could manage to breathe without fainting. If I had a wheel to ride I was fine and on the hills I practiced Child bearing breathing with lots of concentration and a high cadence I could get up the hills but had a hard time on the flats. Very frustrated. Suddenly lost my wheels to ride for a few miles after ditching a couple woman on the last big hill.

Out of nowhere came mighty mouse Sue Kahler.


Whoopie! She instantly became coach and we were off. She put me on her wheel and we road several miles together on the gradual downhill flying like the wind. This little thing "sue" was belting out orders to me left and right. Cracking me up. I didn't dare have an asthma attack. We hit a hill and I did a goober shift while stressing about the tracter mowing the hay field off to the side as the wind blew towards me anticipating my poor lungs rebelling when I blew my chain off.

Jenn came up behind me and I had that chain on in record time and we sprinted up before I had to breath that hay in. Off to my right I see Jano dripping wet running up the hill. She had just swam accross Owasco lake to come see us finish. Crazy triathlete bellas. Well we were doing everything we could to try to catch Jano. Streak lightning. As we came into the the last roller to the finish I was distracted by this woman whose car was pulling out in front of me with the marshal almost on her hood and the woman yelling at her that she had road rights too. I actually almost stopped to punch her out but figured i'd
leave that up to the semi truck driver.

All in all the bella's had a great showing. Only the visible Bella's made the standings but the bella's overall 'in my mind' fared very well in the standings and looked good too. If you only could have seen Sue driving that semi!

I will be making a comeback. Since the race I have been put on steroids for my asthma issues these past few weeks so watch out world. LiLynn is on steroids! Photo to prove it.



Results:
Ellie Bayles (new bella!) and her dad were 3rd in the tandem division.
Lylynn 2nd Women 50+
Sue 1st Women 50+ (There were a LOT of 50+ women!)
Kate 2nd woman overall

NY Bellas Tri-ing - Green Lakes Triathlon Report - Jano

Ok...it was a perfect day weather-wise and with 275 folks showing up to get wet, hot and pooped. The biggest decision was wet suit or no wetsuit? I know Sue was trying to decide since water was warm and very calm until people start thrashing and struggling for a spot (which can be very intimidating.) Sue can tell you how the swim went for her.



No wetsuit for me. I somehow was put into the first wave of very svelt, muscle-ly handsome guys (and gals!) so I tried to seed myself accordingly for survival. I opted to be on the outside middle which fast became a muddled crowded squisshy mess for about 5 minutes with several hesitant swimmers looking up out of water (NOT a good idea in a beginning swim race) managed to weasle out into calmer surroundings and pushed forward...God this swim seems longer than couple years ago!

Finally on land to the bike yeah! Best part. T1 was good and off I went a little disorientated and veered off onto grassy part side of road (remember Lance in ! the tour a few years ago?) crap. managed to regain control (thanks to MTB experience!) back on road and zoom on nice flat course for about 8 miles. Being in first wave you end up biking with a billion pro-ish bikers passing you like nuthin'. No worries, mostly guys (I think) ride good averaged 20mph which is great for me (no drafting aloud) ) until the hill. Crap. Survived.

On to run my weakness but managed to run with a great young gal who we pushed together and chatted about pleasant things (Her mom who was a couple years younger than me was doing race also!) yeah..finish! Got first in age group (50-54) which is first for me but very close with a couple other ladies. So Sue did GREAT for first tri and soon will kick butts after a little work on the swim! The times of the first several winners were amazing and can't imagine how they do it!

LiLynn's Report: NY Senior Games and Lake Fest Races - June 9 & 10, 2007

It was me, my bella babe team and only 3 Mission in Motion girls. [Editor's note: LyLynn is making fun of the rest of us NY Bellas being slugs - her "team" at the races she competes in is unfortunately invisible, since she is the sole NY Bella to race every freaking weekend...] I knew if we worked hard and you guys pulled me all the way, we might have a chance. My legs were pretty wasted from chasing down Mighty Mouse Sue [Kahler] and lightning bolt Linda [Tersegno] all day on Saturday.

On Saturday I held a close fourth in the 5k and worked even harder in the 10k beating the 3rd place woman but Carla showed up and kicked booty taking second in the 10k time trial knocking me right back into 4th. I rode like I blubbering idiot in the road race trying to beat Carla on the first loop, only to find out she had been sitting on my wheel. oops, forgot to look back. Then she toasted and sizzled me on the flats with a group of guys like I deserved and took second in the road race. I got to ride a third time trial for third place.

Back to our bella ride on Sunday. As you all remember our Mission in Motion opponets looked fresh out of day care. not a hint of a wrinkle and still carrying a little baby fat. How could this possibly be? A tough day for the Bellas. We'll I'll have to admit that ignorance is total bliss not knowing it was Chelsey (cat3) and Charlsey and ???. Thank god you girls were there. [ha] It was like poetry in motion. But every time we made a really beautiful move, they were right there.

When we turned up the hill in Marathon, you guys all sprinted up with the pack and I got totally dropped. I was the last rider with one pudge guy zig zagging up behind. My legs were shot. All of a sudden Kate yelled back to me to get my ass in gear and Amanda yelled "pain is your friend". Gaetane didn't even notice because she was chasing down the mens. [Gaetane's accent inserted here for those of you who don't understand how French Canadians spell.] Jenn started blocking everyone and Sue was just very focused. I think I even saw Madonna yelling to me to get it together. I decided I didn't want to time trial for 15-16 miles so I put my head down and started hammering. Started passing some mens and then looked up and those MM girls were real close so just kept punching it and it sort of flattened out. I was real close so dropped it in my big chain ring and caught on to my bella's and we hammered over the top and down the hill with the MM girls hot on our tails. From that moment on it was the two baby MM girls and the bella's looking for big mens to ride behind and the rest of the race the baby
MM's stayed right on my wheel but I had the best draft right behind the big strong tall boy. With 2 miles to go there was 6 mens and the bella's with the 2 baby MM's in hot pursuit when out of the corner of my eye I notice that Chelsey had sprinted up the first hill with some mens off to the side and got away. None of you guys even saw that. You idiots! Were you all brain dead? I needed you there.

We'll I certainly had no sprint left in my old tired legs. Pain may be my friend but I draw the line. I did put the hammer down though and powered as hard as I could because Charlsey had also noticed and tried to drop me. Now I was pissed. I blew by her and hammered down the other side then pedaled as hard to the finish as I possible could, looked up and I was
closing the gap on Chelsey but not enough road left to catch her. I sprinted to the finish and you all catch me and held me up as I puked. Just kidding. Thanks for another great race girls!
[Above the Senior Games Old Fart Bellas and some of the mens - those are some impressive 50+ grrls!]