Triathlon

This past Sunday, Team RKL placed second overall and first in the all female team category at the Assateague Assault Sprint Triathlon Relay at Assateague State Park in Ocean City. Faced with very challenging ocean conditions, Robbie Reeves swam the 1/2 mile first leg of the race in 20:46. With hot and very humid conditions Kat Brady biked the 14-mile second leg in 36:13 and Lydia Johnson ran the third leg, 3.26 miles, in 25:19. The trio finished with a fantastic time of 1:23:55. Pictured in front from left, are Robbie Reeves, Kat Brady, Lydia Johnson.

When Ross Kennard gets ready to go for a run in his hilly Ellicott City neighborhood, he slips on special shoes that resemble mesh gloves. Each toe has its own slot with a thin rubber underside, and the shoe's overall design offers no arch support and little padding. These "barefoot shoes" will play an integral role in the Columbia Triathlon next weekend for Kennard, 53, when he tries something new in his ninth competition. He will do both the running and biking portions of the race in the special footwear, which is akin to wearing no shoes at all. The Severna Park chiropractor is part of the minimalist running movement, whose followers seek to avoid injury by running more naturally, like the barefoot Kenyan Olympians do, he said.

Major traffic delays are expected Sunday, Aug. 21 on Route 108 in Ellicott City because of the Athleta Iron Girl Columbia Triathlon. From 7 a.m. to noon, Route 108 will be closed to westbound traffic between Ten Mills Road and Centennial Lane. Also, southbound Centennial Lane from the park entrance to Route 108 will be closed. More than 2,000 competitors are expected at Centennial Park to take part in the .62-mile swim, 17.5-mile bike ride and a 3.3-mile run. Some roads will be temporarily closed to ensure the safety of the bicyclists.

Nya Ferrell found finishing yesterday's Athleta Iron Girl Columbia Triathlon an uphill battle - literally. She managed to endure the sometimes steep 3.3-mile run, and when she crossed the finish line Ferrell, of Randallstown, heard the public address announcer bellow words that made her relish the accomplishment. "Nya Ferrell, you are an Iron Girl. " Those words echoed throughout Centennial Lake in yesterday's sixth annual event, which featured more than 2,200 female competitors ages 12 to 71 from 25 states.

Amanda White, a standout distance runner and swimmer at Dulaney High and Stanford, will be among the 200 athletes from the United States competing in tomorrow's International Triathlon Union World Championship in Perth, Australia.White, who graduated from Stanford in June and spent the summer and fall training for triathlons at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., qualified for the U.S. national team in August by finishing fourth in her age group (20-24) at the Columbia Triathlon.

Joel Johnson of the U.S. Naval Academy and Kayla Lehmann of Annapolis posted the best overall male and female times in the annual Spring Triathlon at Anne Arundel Community College last Sunday.The eventattracted a field of nearly 80 contestants, almost double the numberin last year's event.Johnson's time of 48 minutes, 27 seconds beat last year's winningtime by 33 seconds. Times for male athletes overall improved markedly over those of a year ago.The triathlon opened with a one-third-mile swim at the indoor Daniel C. Olson Memorial Pool, followed by aneight-mile bike race on College Parkway and wrapped up with a five-kilometer run around the campus perimeter, ending at the Siegert Stadium finish line.

They came for conditioning, competition, camaraderie. They shared bloodlines, lots of sweat and more than a few tears, joyful for most who made it to the finish Sunday at Howard County's Centennial Park, painful for those who didn't. More than 2,400 women started the fourth Iron Girl Columbia Triathlon, the largest gathering of its kind, which is an event that starts with a 0.62-mile swim, continues with a 17.5-mile bike ride and concludes with a hilly, 3.4-mile run. Thousands of relatives and friends came to offer moral support.

The Delaware Bud Light Triathlon, to be run June 14, has been named to replace the discontinued Baltimore Bud Light Triathlon, race director Lyn Brooks announced yesterday. The Delaware triathlon will take the place of the Baltimore triathlon on next year's Bud Light Triathlon Series schedule.The Delaware triathlon, which will consist of a nine-tenths-of-a-mile swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10K road race, will be held at Lums Pond State Park. The park is 4 miles southeast of Newark, Del., and 50 miles from Baltimore, which had held the stop on the Bud Light Triathlon Series for seven years.

The 1994 Tri-Fed USA National Amateur Triathlon Championship will take place from 7 a.m. to noon today in Howard County.Nearly 1,000 competitors from across the country will swim 1.5 kilometers (.93 mile), bike 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) and run 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).This event will qualify competitors for TEAM USA for the 1994 Triathlon World Championship, slated for November in Wellington, New Zealand.The swim will take place in Centennial Lake from the boat launch area and end near the main pavilion.

Alas, it is no more, but thousands will remember the Baltimore Triathlon with fond memory, particularly Jimmy Riccitello.When the former Baltimore stop on the Bud Light Triathlon Series begins Sunday at 7 a.m. in Lums Pond State Park near Wilmington, Del., Riccitello will be on hand as defending champ."

Joan Benoit Samuelson twice won the Boston Marathon and then won the first women's Olympic marathon in 1984 in Los Angeles. Now 54, Benoit Samuelson was in Columbia on Friday to promote the first Columbia Iron Girl Half Marathon, scheduled for April 2012. The Columbia Iron Girl will hold its annual triathlon today. How did you become involved with the Tri-Columbia organization? [Founder] Robert Vigorito asked me if I'd be interested in coming down and helping promote the event and be part of the event.

Listings are accepted on a space-available basis. Deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday prior to date of publication at the latest. To submit volunteer items, mail to Volunteers, Patuxent Publishing Co. Editorial, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21278; email hccalendar@patuxent.com ; fax 410-332-6336; or call 410-332-6497. Volunteer Center Serving Howard County - Hosting monthly disaster volunteer information and orientation sessions to inform community members on how to plan, prepare and effectively serve in times of disaster to improve community preparedness and resiliency.

Major traffic delays are expected Sunday, Aug. 21 on Route 108 in Ellicott City because of the Athleta Iron Girl Columbia Triathlon. From 7 a.m. to noon, Route 108 will be closed to westbound traffic between Ten Mills Road and Centennial Lane. Also, southbound Centennial Lane from the park entrance to Route 108 will be closed. More than 2,000 competitors are expected at Centennial Park to take part in the .62-mile swim, 17.5-mile bike ride and a 3.3-mile run. Some roads will be temporarily closed to ensure the safety of the bicyclists.

Anthony Van Lierop, 38, of Baltimore won the men's division of TriColumbia's Celebration Sprint Triathlon for the second straight year Sunday, setting a course record of 1 hour, 20 minutes, 12 seconds. More than 1,400 endurance athletes participated in the race, which consisted of a .62-mile swim, 17.5-mile bike ride and 3.4-mile run that ended in Centennial Park. Suzanne Serpico, 31, of Columbia was the top female finisher with a time of 1:27:31. Rounding out the top five men were Benjamin Winterroth, 30, of Baltimore, 1:21:15; Ryan Hardy, 26, of Bethesda, 1:25:11; Daniel Proulx, 35, of Hanover, 1:27:25; and Steve Meininger, 42, of Clarksville, 1:29:42.

This past Sunday, Team RKL placed second overall and first in the all female team category at the Assateague Assault Sprint Triathlon Relay at Assateague State Park in Ocean City. Faced with very challenging ocean conditions, Robbie Reeves swam the 1/2 mile first leg of the race in 20:46. With hot and very humid conditions Kat Brady biked the 14-mile second leg in 36:13 and Lydia Johnson ran the third leg, 3.26 miles, in 25:19. The trio finished with a fantastic time of 1:23:55. Pictured in front from left, are Robbie Reeves, Kat Brady, Lydia Johnson.

I scoured the May 26 edition of the Columbia Flier for a report on the Columbia Triathlon, to no avail. I simply couldn't believe it. This is one of the best-regarded triathlons in the country. The race director, Robert Vigorito, is a long-time Columbia resident who has contributed millions of dollars to local charities over the years from race fees. The race this year featured many nationally ranked professional triathletes and the race winner broke the course record. Please explain why the race did not merit any coverage this year.

Melissa Hallmark's last trip to Ocean City wasn't what most people would call a vacation.While training for the Cambridge Triathlon the last week in May, Hallmark swam more than a mile of the Atlantic Ocean, "just as the waves break" several feet from the shore.Her daily running routine included double-digit mileage and a 40-mile round-trip bike trek to Rehoboth Beach.But the difficult regimen paid off for Hallmark, a Severna Park graduate who is training for Hawaii's annual Iron Man Triathlon on Oct. 19.Qualifying for the Iron Man, the 22-year-old Hallmark finished first in the 20-24 agegroup in Cambridge on June 2.Cambridge's triathlon featured a 1.6-mile swim in the Choptank River, a 13.1-mile run and a bike trek of55 miles -- exactly half the distance of the Iron Man. Hallmark crossed the finish line after five hours.

The controversy over Annapolis's first triathlon is expected to come to a halt tomorrow, with the likely approval of a new lease that shifts parking and the finish line away from prime downtown locations. The compromise, brokered between Alderman Richard E. Israel, who represents downtown, and Tom Smith of the Annapolis Triathlon Club, also calls for keeping Main Street open the morning of Sept. 9 in an effort to appease businesses and churches. "We're trying to prevent 1,500 cars from driving down to the City Dock on a Sunday morning," Israel said at Friday's meeting of the city council's Economic Matters Committee.

Women's college lacrosse Mount de Sales' Church leads Gettysburg to D-III crown Hannah Church (Mount de Sales) was named Most Outstanding Performer as Gettysburg captured its first NCAA Division III championship of any kind with a 16-5 rout of Bowdoin (18-4) in the women's lacrosse final Sunday in Garden City, N.Y. Church, a junior attacker, finished with a Gettysburg postseason record-tying eight points on five goals and three assists.

Ironman World Championship Columbia Triathlon director severely hurt in Hawaii Rob Vigorito , founder of the Columbia Triathlon Association and race director for CTA events, was seriously injured in a bicycle accident Wednesday in Kona, Hawaii. He was there for Saturday's Ironman World Championship. While trying to avoid a truck that had pulled in front of him on the Queen K Highway, Vigorito wound up going over his handlebars and into the truck. According to an e-mail sent by his wife, Sharon , he has nine broken ribs, several that are multiple breaks.