Congratulations to 11 time SOS Veteran (and ’08 winner) Alex Sherwood on being named the Voice of HITS Triathlon. Alex’s debute gig was in Naples in January and he has since covered Corpus Christi event and will continue through the rest of the 2012 season with HITS.

Alex Sherwood & winner James Lawrence.

Now that we know of so many SOS’ers participating in the HITS series we’ll start to add coverage of those events. If you have any photos or race reports to add email them in to: sostriathlon@gmail.com .

Additional Links:
HITS homepage
Alex Sherwood | Venture outdoors for winter fitness fun | PoJoNews
James Lawrence – Tri & Give a Dam

Want to start your SOS bike training early this year?
Do you have an Ironman or 70.3 race on your calendar for this year?
Looking to get in a Time Trial as a prep for that race?
Just looking for a really long bike race to enter?

Well, for those of you that are not already racing in the (sold out) American Zofingen Duathlon, two additional races have been added to the May 20th events. Announcing the Iron & Half Iron distance Time Trials.

The races will be run in TT format, so individual starts every 15 seconds. Riders will share the bike course with the Am-Zof racers; you’ll get to experience 2 (56mi) or 4 (112mi) loops of the climbs up to both Minnewaska & Mohonk (2000+ ft climbs each loop). SOS veterans will recognize this course as largely similar to the 2011 modified bike leg, but in reverse. See Course Here.

There will be cash prizes for first ($250), second ($100), and third ($75) place finishers in both Men’s & Women’s categories of the Ironman distance race – and all 4th place finishers will get a training video from The Sufferfest (a prize also to be featured at this year’s SOS).

This is a difficult race and a sure test of your ability to endure that challenges of either a half or full Ironman distance ride. Last year’s weather conditions were deplorable and half of the field DNF’d – which may make this year’s 56mi race fairly popular. Register Soon.

LINKS
CM2 Promotions page

Registration

**UPDATED**
Apparently IronmanLive decided to run a live blog for the event – unfortunately they didn’t announce this before the event, but if you’d like to scroll through the commentary you can follow their coverage of the race (be sure to turn your heat up to about 90º for the full experience).

*Spoiler Alert*
Pro Men’s Top 3
Faris AL-SULTAN: 03:51:39
Bryan RHODES, Bryan 03:59:14
Alessandro DEGASPERI: 04:00:54

Pro Women’s Top 3
Lucie ZELENKOVA: 04:30:17
Katja RABE: 04:34:13
Christie SYM: 04:36:38

** ORIGINAL POST **
We’ve been trying to find competitor information and a way to follow the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Sri Lanaka and 5150 but we’re coming up blank. Emails and Tweets to the official race contacts haven’t yielded any results thus far, but we’ll up date this post if that changes.

In the meantime, you can watch this beautiful race report from the Tour of Oman – sent to us by The Sufferfest.

The Sufferfest will be giving away 1 video to all 4th place finishers in the 2012 SOS. How else are you going to make the podium in 2013?

** UPDATED **
IronmanLive’s coverage of the Panama 70.3 was great. Check out continuous live-blogged coverage of the race, complete with images and video.

*SPOILER ALERT*
As expected, Lance Armstrong was a race day entry and performed – finishing 2nd in his first 70.3 race. Three more 70.3 races are planned this year for Lance, then to France for the full Ironman France race June 24th.

Pro Men’s Top 4
1 3:50:13 16 Bevan Docherty Santa Cruz CA NZL
2 3:50:55 0:42 24 Lance Armstron Austin TX USA
3 3:52:59 2:46 5 Richie Cunningh Boulder CO AUS
4 3:53:38 3:25 4 Rasmus Henning Tuineje DOM

Pro Women’s Top 4
1 4:15:31 40 Angela Naeth Prince George BC CAN
2 4:19:11 3:40 36 Kelly Williams Austin TX USA
3 4:19:34 4:03 52 Margaret Shapiro Herndon VA USA
4 4:21:42 6:11 35 Leanda Cave Tucson AZ GBR

(sorry for the image quality – they are screen grabs from the video coverage as IronmanLive only posted still images of Lance’s finish. Hrumph!)

**ORIGINAL POST**
The Ironman 2012 70.3 Series kicks off Sunday Feb 12th with Panama 70.3.
This is the inaugural event for Panama 70.3 and it’s the first Latin American pro race ever held by the WTC. If you are interested in following the Panama 70.3 race Sun Feb 12, you have a few options.

1. Ironman Live

2. Ironman’s official YouTube Channel

3. Track Individual Athletes via Ironman Athlete Tracker

4. Lava Magazine’s Twitter page

Top 10 (tentative) Pro Men’s Field:
Chris Lieto
Matty Reed
Paul Amey
Rasmus Henning
Richie Cunningham
Bert Jammaer
Jesse Thomas
Balazs Csoke
Oscar Galindez
Bertrand Billard

Top 10 (tentative) Women’s Field
Leanda Cave
Kelly Williamson
Yvonne van Vlerken
Magali Tisseyre
Natascha Badmann
Angela Naeth
Sofie Goos
Radka Vodickova
Dede Griesbauer
Tine Deckers

In case you missed the last Zendurance Cycling Clinic, SOS Veteran Shane Eversfield will offer a 120-minute Introduction to Zendurance Cycling Clinic at Catskill Mountain Multisport on Saturday, 18 February at 9:00 am. Spots are limited so RSVP.

This session is open to road cyclists and triathletes of all abilities – just bring your bike, stationary stand/trainer, a towel, and some form of hydration. Entry is $20 – and 50% goes to Biketown Africa.

The Clinic will include:
1. a brief examination of cycling posture and alignment
2. warm-up techniques and a examples of drill work
3. 60-75 minute performance-oriented work out session

For more info, contact Shane
Also check out the new (still under construction) Zendurance Cycling website!

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Do you know of any triathlon/endurance sports events or clinics that may be of interest to the SOS community? We’d love to hear, email: sostriathlon@gmail.com

Some interesting stories to pass along from this week so far.

1. Lance Armstrong commits to four 70.3 races and a return to the land of his seven victories to contest Ironman France. Sign up for more information or to Race with Lance.

2. Chrissy Wellington may be taking a rest from Ironman competition but she’s been traveling the world and taking in the sites. Not one to turn down a challenge, the 4 time Ironman Champion took on the Empire State Building Run-up… where she placed 3rd!

3. Catskill Mountain Multisport will be moving locations soon. If you haven’t stopped by to take advantage of their 30% off sale, you should.