IM Florida 70.3

Trigger Point headed out to Disney World for the Ironman event last week. Though the weather was hot and humid Trigger Point came out in full force. The first day brought many athletes that needed help with all kinds of issues. We rolled them out and showed them how to maintain a healthy body.

The second day brought even more heat and humidity. Steve Ratchford, a TP sponsored athletes and expo staffer, had a tougher time dealing with the heat since he is from Chicago IL. He not only worked a great event, but also raced the event on Sunday. Steve may not have had his best race, but he pulled through the heat and exhaustion and came close to his goal.

We had several other sponsored athletes come by the booth, Hunter Reed and Alex McDonald to name just a few. They all had the same response when asked about the race. The heat and humidity was a killer, but it was a good training race. Many of them will be at IM Coeur d’Alene and we will look forward to seeing them succeed there.

Sprint DU – Multisport Mayhem

After a hard week of work and training, Guy Petruzzelli a sponsored Trigger Point athlete,  headed to Central IL, for a sprint DU – Multisport Mayhem in Mattoon, IL.

“It was a Tri/Du combo so, it was good to see how I would match up with running and riding with triathletes and to see how the legs were doing. The course is not super hard, however, Saturday morning brought cold temps, and howling 25-30 mph winds. As is typical with Spring racing in the Mideast, the winds were also gracious enough to be swirling, so you never really got a tailwind for any substantial period of time.

The first run went as I expected, with the first mile plus, into the wind, and a cross wind, with me hitting T1 in 2nd and feeling relatively decent. Hit the bike, and rode as hard as possible, passing lots of triathletes, and chasing down the guy leading the Du.

Now, the bike would have been a lot more tolerable if it wasn’t resembling the Team Time trial from the Giro D’Italia. I know the country roads weren’t closed off, but, when I caught the leader, I felt like I was his lead out man for the sprint at the end of a stage. I thought about pulling up to see what he would do, but, into the head wind I knew I would come to a standstill.

I finally just hammered the last mile into T2, and took off on the run. Same course, same wind. I was hurting a bit, but started to come around, when this guy came back on me. He even thanked me for pulling! We raced to the line, but he got me. After I crossed, he saw I was pissed, so, he came over to congratulate me, and thank me again for pulling and protecting him from the wind. I kid you not. The idiot didn’t realize the RD was right there, as were about 5 other people who were stunned he thought this was ok. He got a 3 min penalty, and I got the win.
Its not really the way I wanted to win, but, it was a win. Its my fault for not really dropping him sooner and running his race instead of my own. So, there’s your lesson – always race your race, not someone else’s. Yeah, he may have got his, but I still believe if you race your race, you’ll feel better no matter what the result.”

Mary Beth Takes Gold At Pan Am!

Timex athlete Mary Beth Ellis of Boulder, CO dominated the field this Saturday at the Pan Am Championship Triathlon in Oklahoma City. With a race best 38:42 run split Mary Beth crossed the finish line a whole minute and seventeen seconds ahead of second place. This victory marks one of her finest triathlon achievements to date ranking right up there with her 2nd place overall victory at the 2008 70.3 World Championships. Mary Beth will continue to focus on ITU and 70.3 events this year, keep an eye out for more great results!

The Rookie Triathlon

Trigger Point is proud to be associated with countless Austin businesses, including Jack and Adam’s Bike Shop over on Barton Springs.  Jack and Adam’s sponsors/hosts a series of events called “High Five Events,” and one of those events is “The Rookie Tri.”  Still with us?  Cool.

The Rookie Tri is coming up this weekend, and the great folks over at Jack and Adam’s allowed us to park our newly wrapped motor home at the event so that registrants and competitors would be exposed to our logo and name.  Jack and Adam’s also sells our product, so it works out really great.  Here’s a shot of the motor home sitting over at Jack and Adam’s:

 

Parked outside Jack and Adam's for the Rookie Triathlon

Anytime the folks over at Jack and Adam’s do something, they “do it right,” and this was no exception – they had a mini-expo on the premises as well.  Registration and packet pick-up runs today (Friday) and tomorrow; the race is on Sunday.  Good luck to all of the participants, and thanks again to our pals over at Jack and Adam’s!

 

A small "expo" at the packet pick-up

11th Overall Finish At Wildflower

Erich Wegscheider, a TP sponsored athlete, had a great race at Wildflower. Read below for his story.

I knew I would have to get great positioning on the swim as to not lose too much time to the top swimmers. Unfortunately, I didn’t. The Collegiate Men’s wave was 166 deep and the start was a battle! I lined up at the front, but got pushed back since we were past the timing mat. Once we were underway, I fought to find the front, but ended up being pushed wide of the first buoy. By that point, there were no fast feet to be found. I swam ahead of the main pack and behind the leaders. I came out of the water 25th in 22:20.

As usual, I was excited to get on the bike and make up ground. On the way out, I passed quite a few riders and was in the Top 10 nearing the turn-a-round. Then I was passed shortly thereafter. I subconsciously settled into half Ironman pacing, but snapped out of that and rode with more urgency coming back in. I came into transition in 8th and my bike split was 1:09:31 (5th fastest).

Before the race, I figured that I would have to run a sub 38 minute 10k in order to be competitive, but that was much easier said than done considering the hills on the course and my lack of speed work. Regardless, I was out there to reel in as many people as I could. I tried to stay as steady as possible on the climbs and let loose on the descents. I caught the 6th place guy around kilometer 4 and saw the
5th place guy not too far up the road ahead. I was steadily gaining time and eventually pulled even around kilometer 7.5. I decided to stay with him and said “Let’s push each other, keep the people behind us, behind us, and finish strong.” As we continued to run together, the intensity was picking up.

More and more spectators were lining the roads and our little battle was getting attention. He stayed behind me the entire time, so he had the upper hand, but my confidence was sky high. As we rounded the corner leading down Lynch Hill, a spectator yelled “Who wants it more?” It was at that very moment I decided to go. I let go of my form altogether and just started hammering down the hill. I had no idea if my break was going to last since the descent is a mile and I had cyclists zooming by on my left. Essentially, there was no opportunity to look over my shoulder on the hill to see if my decision was going to pay off. With 300 meters to go, I glanced back and saw that I had opened up a comfortable gap and then turned my focus to the finish chute where I saw 4th place guy about 80 meters ahead. Had I had more real estate to work with, he would have been mine, but I was content with my position and enjoyed the run down the chute crossing the line in 5th. I ran a 37:19 and that gave me the 5th fastest run time for the Collegiate wave. I finished 11th Overall.

It’s coming…

Cassidy is overseas, and things are getting exciting!  All we can say is, “It’s coming.”  

 

The highly anticipated new product: The Grid (TM), Patent Pending

If you’re not already following Cassidy’s adventures, be sure to check out our Facebook and Twitter sites – there’s video, photos, and tons of updates on both sites.

Peg Mitchel’s Sprint To The Finish

This was one of those days when I was especially reminded of both my physical limitations (fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome), and my will to persevere. With a record high temperature of 91 degrees and sun, it was a drastic change from the 40 and 50 degree temperatures I have been riding in thus far this season.

Surprisingly our women’s field had over 40 riders, and I was expecting I’d do ok, although once again I was the sole rider from my team. Not knowing the course however, I was not quite prepared for several very steep climbs in the heat. The first of the three 11 or so mile laps I was able to pretty much hang on with the group until I realized I was dehydrated and was developing goose bumps and chills. I had to slow down, and with each mile I wondered if I could continue. I was 112 lbs of agony! Luckily I’d made friends with a rider on another team prior to the race (I did this for a reason!), and not only did she happen to find me alone and suffering on the course, much like herself, but someone from her club handed me a bottle in the feed zone which seriously saved my life! So with her help, along with the help of another struggling rider, we all worked together to finish the race.

Despite finishing far back from the field, I sprinted for the finish line just missing my goal of doing it in 2hrs or less! Luckily for me my finishing place is not usually the focus, although I don’t want to come in last! My focus is to participate, improve, persevere, always finish the race, and always sprint for the finish line…oh, and also to have fun along the way! I took 29th place today and am looking forward to my next race on the 9th. And of course I will be using my TP Therapy Products daily to help ‘Empower me to take care of myself and acheive goals I never thought possible’!

TP Staff Update

Marco Antonio Salinas is one of the newest members of the TP crew. Below is a little information about our new Shipping and Receiving Manager.

“I was born in Houston, TX, but was raised in the Rio Grande Valley. I attended Edinburg North High School and graduated 4th in my class, out of 450. While there, I played tuba in the high school marching band, concert band, and symphony orchestra Since he took piano for two years, prior to high school, I also participated in the high school jazz band. For sports, I was on the varsity tennis team.

For college, I went to the University of Texas at Austin, where I majored in Engineering Route to Business. My engineering focus was Mechanical Engineering and my business focus was Supply Chain Management. I graduated in December 2008 with a Bachelor of Business Administration.

After the economy taking a downfall, I was having a tough time finding a job in Austin. It was by chance that I saw Trigger Point’s ad for a shipping & receiving assistant. I replied to the ad, interviewed with Thomas Boyken, and the rest is history. At Trigger Point, I am the shipping department. Nothing gets in or out without going through me. I fulfill orders, perform quality assurance, and get things where they need to be, on time. I also handle all of the expo supplies and product for tradeshows and Ironman events that Trigger Point attends.”

Charlotte Paul: Wins again – this time it’s Busselton

Our good friend and one of our sponsored athletes, Charlotte Paul, is on a tear – she is absolutely destroying the Ironman Women’s division, as evidenced by her second victory for 2009, this time at the Busselton Half Ironman race in Western Australia.  

 

Charlotte winning at Busselton

Charlotte is now ranked as high as second in the world which is quite an amazing accomplishment!  According to Charlotte, she approached the Busselton feeling relaxed and without any pressure – she just wanted to go out and race to “see how she’d do.”  Wouldn’t you know it, but she not only won the race, but set a personal best record time of 4 hours and 23 minutes.  Way to go, Charlotte!!!!

When she’s not out winning races, she’s busy visiting schools, doing interviews, and working with interested folks from around the world.  Her husband, Kristian, is also a triathlete, and they have a lot of fun together giving talks and attending events.  Here’s a picture of Charlotte at the TriWA Junior Elites triathlon event, signing autographs:

 

Charlotte at TriWA

Charlotte’s revised race schedule for 2009 looks like this:

July 12: Quelle-Challenge – Roth, Germany

August 23: IM 70.3, Philippines

October 10: IM World Championship, Hawaii

November 1: IM 70.3, Port Macquarie

December 5: IM Western Australia

So join us in wishing nothing but the best for Charlotte and Kristian – they’re doing an amazing job and we’re certain they’ll continue to dominate the racing circuit this year.  Congrats again – all of us at Trigger Point are excited and proud beyond words!!

GSX Hell’s Half Acre: Success!

We’re back from a Bonsai weekend at the Crossfit Southwest Regional Qualifier – GSX Hell’s Half Acre, and whew – what a weekend.  As you saw earlier, we faced some weather challenges, but even with Mother Nature doing her part to dampen our spirits we managed to have a super successful weekend.  We sold out of nearly all of our product, met a ton of excellent people, helped countless people, and had a great, great time.  

Here are a few photos from Saturday night and Sunday – we’ll go short on text here, and just share some pictures.

 

Jessica ordered a chicken fried steak that was bigger than the state of Texas… 

Things got started early on Sunday morning; rolling out folks

 

 

The top five women's finishers - they're going to the Crossfit games

The top five women finished as follows:Carey Kepler, Pollyanna Bobseine, Crystal McReynolds, Lindsey Smith, Nikki Hall.  Congrats to CrossFit Central – they had two (2) top five women’s finishers (Carey and Crystal)!!

 

The top five men's finishers - also going to the Crossfit games!

The top five men finished as follows:Dutch Lowy, Breck Berry, Lance Cantu, Vic Zachary, Jason Boag.  Congrats again to Crossfit Central – Lance is a coach there, and finished third!  Crossfit Central was tearing it up!!

For what it’s worth (we’ll brag a bit here), we spent a lot of time working with (rolling out) a bunch of the top 10 finishers.  Dutch came by for a refresher on Saturday, and then rolled out extensively after his heats on Sunday.  Carey and Crystal took a Quadballer back to the hotel with them on Saturday night; each made sure to rollout before their heats.  Lance has taught classes for us and was spotted using our stuff over the weekend.  We’re not saying you’ll be a top 5 finisher if you use our product, but it definitely won’t hurt to roll out!

And many, many thanks to Tucker and his crew over at GSX.  They did a fantastic job with the event – everything went off without a hitch, and we really enjoyed ourselves at this inaugural event.  We can’t wait to go back next year.  Here’s Tucker getting a little emotional – he and his crew put their hearts into this event, and it showed:

 

Tucker from GSX thanks the crowd.

With the event over, it was time to pack-up the Trigger Point RV and hit the road back to Austin.  We got everything loaded up (there wasn’t any product to load-up as we sold out of it all), and got to motoring.  Thanks again to everyone who attended the show, stopped by to work with us, bought product, and gave us wonderful feedback.  Triathlon/marathon may be our “home crowd,” but you CrossFitters are really making us feel welcome and like a part of the family – we can’t say thank you enough for your interest and support.