Swim, Bike and Run......yea a Triathlon

Up at 5:30 am heading to Landisville PA. I was asked to photograph the "Tri for Kids Sake Triathlon" this past Sunday http://www.hempfieldtri.com/ I have never photographed a Tri before and thought this would be a great learning experience for me, and hopefully a step toward doing more such events. It was difficult to say the least for a single photographer. Since this Tri would be run in a Time Trial format there woudl actually be three events running at the same time......how to photograph everyone in each event? Actually it's just not possible. I decided just to shoot pieces of each event and move with the racers as they switch events hopefully getting racers in at least two of the three events.

The day was georgous, but difficult for photography. The Sun was shinning just so bright that shadows were a big distraction to over come, but I am not goin to complain as I was finally able to wear shorts and a tee sirt. I decided to use a flash for fill the entire day.
The event was very well run and organized. Funny thing I noticed during the race was I have never seen so many people in physical pain and smiling and grinning from ear to ear the entire time. There were a lot of spectators cheering athletes, want to be athletes and those just there to try someting new...just cheering everyone on. I do notice that I find myself wishing I was in the race instead of photographing, but I have come to grips with some injuries that I have that I may just not be able to race anymore. Time will tell.

Day over? Nope I had also commited to shooting some of the MASS (Mid Atlantic Super Series) races. The Short Track races was scheduled for the prior week, but due to a Nor'Easter it was rained out and rescheduled for this week...same day......so off to Coatesville Pa for the Short Track MTB race scheduled to start at 12:30. Some great racing from all groups - beginner, sport and expert. Fast, hard, aerobic! A one mile double track grave road that was rund the same way as a cross race. Photos should be up for the Short Track race in the next day or two so I will follow-up with those photos.

Kirkwood Road Race

Tried my 2nd attempt at a road race this year - Kirkwood PA which is in Lancaster County. Great race location since it's only 20 minutes from my house. I've done this race twice before an it usually rains....but this year we were spared the rain and only had to deal with the cold.

Registering as usual takes longer than it should.
This week I learned from my bunder last week and registered for the Cat 4 race - I had soom time so I did a lap as a warm up - I surely do not remember all the hills from the last time I raced here - going to be a hard race!

Our race goes of at 9am ish right after all the Masters - 4 laps scheduled for ~ 28 miles. First two laps were unevenuful, no real attempted breaks - I was amble to keep with all the moves and surges. Kept my riding position exactly where I needed/wanted to be to keep out of the wind as I really wanted to try and stay with the main group to the finish. Everyone seems to be riding pretty well as there were no fatalaties, no yelling "#^%^" for bad moves. I was feeling very comfortible with my pack riding - but cautious.

Ahhh - the third lap - this appears to be my downfall - dropping in the third lap...and it happened again. An attack about 1/2 into the third lap and I was just off the back with lots of others. I was able to get back to within - believe it of not - 5 yards.....5 stinking yards, but I was toast, just could not close those last 5 yards.....I had to let the break go. Cooked, toast, fried, however you want to say it - those were my legs.

Done for the day!....or so I thought.

I jumped on a wheel of a guy from Kellys (Actually he probably saw me gasping and told me to grab his wheel) and we managed to get with a group of 3 FSVS riders. I started getting some life back in me and managed to work pretty hard on the 4th lap. I seemed to be a bit faster on the down hills and climbing so I usually took the lead here and managed to close a gap to another small group of riders and worked beyound them. In the end I was pretty tired and the FSVS boys finished ahead of me but I really didn't care. At this point it was just about finishing for another day.

I didn't drop out, worked hard, thought I raced pretty smart (beside missing the 5 yards). I have no idea on results, but I may actually look this week for a good laugh!

I Photographed the remainder of the race - missed the Pro/Elite finish. They still had 7 laps to go and I really had to be home. I wanted to try some panning this weeks using two flash units - one on camera on one remote in front of the group - but for some reason I could not getthe remote flash to work - going to have to re-read the instructions again. Murphys Law - Works 100% of the time in my basementwhen foolwing around, but try putting it to real use outin the field and it will never work. I'll get it figured out as I want to use this technique on the next mountain bike race.

Next race I will be photographing is the start of the MASS Mountain Bike Race Series - Relay race.