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Catskill Spring Rush |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Sean McCarthy
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Wednesday, 06 June 2007 |
Catskill Spring Rush
Catskill, NY
June, 2 2007
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The Catskill Spring Rush is a unique event that has a long history I believe it began well over 20 years ago in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley Range. The modern version is much shorter in length and now runs on the foothills of the Catskill Creek. The Spring rush comprises of a three part race. It starts with a five kilometer run, a fifteen kilometer bike and approximately a two kilometer kayak.
The shortened race caters to the locals who would likely be intimidated by the older, longer race course. The race is a community event and one of the more fun and relaxing races I have ever done. This was as local race for me since I grew up in the town of Catskill.
Winning this race carries a lot of bragging rights in the local bars for years to come. So without hesitation I hooked up with two beer veterans to enter the team event. My teammates were Barefoot Billy Cothren and Tim The Tuna Cothren. We were registered as Team Cothren Painting since Tim the Tuna runs a painting business based in the town of Catskill. This was the first time the Cothren brothers participated in this race and the first time for me in about 8 years. We were all pretty excited about the race, as well as the post race activities which consisted of some fine homebrews bottled by Tim’s wife Betsie The Brewmaster. The best basement brewer in the Hudson Valley.
The run took place first and Barefoot Billy was off. I give him a lot of credit because there were quite a few young guys out there setting a crazy pace. I believe Bill is around 50 years old and I don’t think it was easy keeping up with the young guys.
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I awaited his arrival in the transition area. When Bill arrived, we were in 15th place and almost 8 minutes down. I took off on my Salsa Campeon decked out with my time trial bars and ready to hit my redline. I paced myself good and didn’t go to hard to quick. I slowly picked off rider after rider and felt stronger in the head with each person I passed. After 15k I returned to the transition area in 2nd place and only 2 minutes behind the leader.
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The crowd was going crazy as Tim the Tuna took to the water. To see the wake that Tim left behind him explains why he is nicknamed after one of the fittest fish in the open waters. Tim was in the hunt and could almost taste victory. We all waited in excitement for Tim’s return. Would we be victors? Unfortunately Tim never returned, at least no time soon. Tim missed the poorly marked turnaround and paddled almost twice the distance required before realizing what had happened. By the time Tim returned, all was lost. Tim was extremely upset with the mishap but we were all just happy he was ALIVE. Shortly after his return, we realized that Tim had that postal look in his eyes (yes, he is a retired mailman) and we prayed that one of the race officials would not be leaving in an ambulance.
All and all this was the best experience I’ve had competing so far this year. It felt great to get out there and do a time trial (even if it was short in length). It was truly a wonderful experience to do a local race and with so many familiar faces. I had the fastest bike time which was also pretty cool and to top it off, everyone saw the Bikeman.com kit putting down the hammer. The Cothren brothers are already looking forward to getting their vengeance next year. Thank you to the Catskill High School Business Club for putting on the race. Also it should be known that the Catskill Yacht Club filed a complaint on Tim the Tuna for exceeding the creek speed limit and creating too much of a wake.
Sean |
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