Tri Team Southwest

Heat, Humidity, and Hills (Oh yeah and wind too).
By Rusty DeBlassie

2004 Keauhou-Kona Triathlon

This was my first year doing the Keauhou-Kona Triathlon. Aside from the difficulty, the scene was astoundingly beautiful. To try and give a perspective of how difficult this race was there were 850+ starters in the water at the beginning. By the end of the day there were only 521 people who actually crossed the finish line. Of those 521 finishers, 34 were outside the 8 hour mark. Only 16 people went under five hours. [Heat,Humidity and Hills]

6/7/04
The Frances Stevens duathlon (5k 30k) is a definite GO! As of noon today they had over 55 applications processed. Well done for all those that answered the call and got their paperwork in. It's Saturday, June 12th--gun at 0800 hours.

The Frances Stevens on June 12 will be a duathlon. The format is definite and it is a 5K run and 30K bike. The pool ran behind repair schedule, but the frustrating thing is that it will be open officially two days later on June 14. I'll forward you that announcement in a separate e-mail. So Roadrunner will definitely be a triathlon.

Cheers,

Mark Balsiger

Checkout the Swap meet page - If you want to post something or need anything just let me know
Markm@triteamsw.com. Swap meet

The Proper Care and Feeding of Sponsors

Sponsors...........we've got em. And if El President has any say in it..........we'll have more before too long.

Why would someone sponsor Tri Team SW anyway you might ask?

Well.........first of all......sponsors love to see their products (or services) used by groups of people (or individuals) that are involved in multisport and are visible. The caveat to this is that you probably won't see any sponsor looking to support a team of drug addicts, criminals and general ne'r do wells.......no matter how successful they are. Look at how Kobe Bryant's sponsors pulled the plug on him when the first hints of bad press came his way.

The idea of sponsorship is that I (sponsor) give you something in return for you using my product, talking about the benefits of my product to others...........and hopefully getting some press coverage of you with my product. Simple? Yes....... Easy? Not always. [Sponsors]

Introducing........(drumroll please...) Tri Team SW 2004!!

Team Level Members

President....Todd Clark

VP.... Michael "MG" Giudicissi

Webmaster Mark "Bones" Mackenzie

Social Director Rebecca "Trouble" Sullivan

Legal Counsel Len "Pretzel" Piazza

Token Junior Kevin "Blacksheep" Clark

Pace Pusher Miguel Sanchez

Most Improved Swimmer? Laura "LB" Bernal

"NNN" (no nickname yet!) Carl Armstrong

Debi "Iron Maiden" Wess

"NNN" John Himes

Naomi "The Tiny Terror" Finson

"NNN" Keith Peterson

"Bigg" Mark Biggs

Rusty "No Show" DeBlassie

Kathy "The Queen" Ritz

Carole "The Southern Belle" Cook

"NNN" Cody Lewis

"NNN"John Fassel

"NNN" Sean Ostrowski

John "The Keeper of the Points" LeRoy

Club LevelMembers

Ann Cogdill

Mike "Old School" Taynor

Kris Peterson

Product Review

Kenda Kontender Training Tires.

I bought these tires from Nashbar for the training wheels on my Cervelo race bike. My first objective was to get some tough, inexpensive clincher training tires that would resist cuts as this winter has taken a toll on my rolling stock. The Kontenders were priced at $12.95 each.

These 700x23c tires come with a special tread compound call L3R Crystal that is supposed to last longer and roll smoother than Kenda's traditional tread compound. The first training ride proved that these 273 gram (kind of heavy) tires do in fact roll very smoothly and give a pretty comfortable ride. The crystal tread (in yellow.........my choice) is kind of funky looking on these slicks but very thick and durable. The tires are rated at 125 psi so you can really rock them up. These tires don't have a kevlar "flat protection" belt but sure feel like they do based on the thickness of the tread and hardness of the compound.

The one downside of the tires was mounting them up.............they have a folding bead and when they came out of the box...........they looked like a pair of jeans that had been washed and dragged behind your car for a week! I mounted them up on rims without tubes overnite to try to stretch and straighten them out prior to going live...........it helped...........but not much. Once mounted though.........the tires sat fine on the rims and looked great.

So............are these the skins to get me thru my training for Lubbock and Florida? Time will tell............just check for the guy riding to San Ysidro with the bright yellow rubber...........slow and steady.

RACE HARD.