What did you do the day before racing your first triathlon? Most of us might remember the nerves, the carb loading with a spaghetti dinner, or the effort to "not waste energy" before the big day. For Elvia Rodriguez, the answer was to do a half marathon.
Elvia raced the Hillotes Half Marathon on Saturday. The course description is in the name - hilly. Her husband, Alberto Rodriguez, raced the 10k course at Hillotes. It was a challenging day for the couple. But Elvia was back at it the next day. On Sunday, she did her first triathlon! Her introductory race was the Wurst Tri Ever, held at Landa Park in New Braunfels. "Hillotes was nothing but hills and so was the tri." Elvia shares her thoughts, the ones she kept hearing herself say throughout the weekend. Many of them sound familiar: "Why did I do this to myself?" "Whose idea was this?" "It's just a hill weekend." "Dang, another hill." "Can I just roll down the hill? I am sure I will get there faster rolling." To cap it all off, Elvia placed 4th in her age group. Congrats to Elvia for finishing her first triathlon!
Huntsman World Senior Games
Showing in Theaters last week: "Anna Kurz and the Huntsman"! Kurz stayed low and aero for the hunt on her bicycle in St. George, UT. Kurz was racing multiple events at the Huntsman World Senior Games, including the criterium, hill climb, and road race. She won her age group for each event, culminating in an Overall Win for her division! That adds up to 2hrs 45mins of hard racing for the wins.
Red Bull Last Stand
As Coach Mark Saroni says, never turn down the opportunity to race your bike around the Alamo! The Red Bull Last Stand race came to downtown San Antonio for the third year in a row. It is a high-paced day of laps around the Alamo, with fixed gear and geared bike racing. Qualifying heats run in the afternoon, with the top 50 times in each category racing under the lights later in the evening. Saroni qualified with a top 20 time. Riders are eliminated after each lap - the ones in the back get pulled from the course. Eventually one rider is defending his last stand. It was a great event again this year, and we enjoyed seeing so many Team Paragon spectators partaking in the Alamo and Red Bull energy.
USATF Masters Texas Vs. The World Meet
Kathleen O'Shea was back on the track racing this past weekend. She competed at the USATF Masters meet at Texas State University. We already knew O'Shea was ready to take on the world, and she proved it again. She won Gold in the 400m and Silver in the 200m!
October 9 - 12: Huntsman World Senior Games
Anna Kurz: 1st Division 1 Age Group, Overall Cycling; 1st Age Agroup, Criterium; 1st Age Group, Hill Climb; 1st Age Group, Road Race
Saturday, October 13: Hillotes Half Marathon and 10k
Elvia Rodriguez: Half Marathon, 5th Age Group, 2:07:55
Alberto Rodriguez: 10k, 5th Age Group, 58:11
Saturday, October 13: Red Bull Last Stand
Mark Saroni: Qualified and raced finals
Saturday, October 14: USATF Masters Texas Vs. The World
Kathleen O'Shea: 1st Place 400m, 75.27 sec.; 2nd Place 200m, 32.2 sec.
Sunday, October 14: Wurst Tri Ever
Elvia Rodriguez: 4th Age Group, 1:26:57
Make sure to send your pictures from training and racing to: racing@paragontraining.org so we can showcase all the rad stuff you guys do.
San Antonio Triathlon Team - San Antonio Triathlon Coach