Triathlon University now enrolling
Wannabe triathletes, it’s time to go back to school.
Triathlon coach Nancy McElwain and Fleet Feet Sports Louisville have teamed together to create Triathlon University, which will offer 10 weekly classes for beginners.
The classes, which will be held every Wednesday from May 31 to Aug. 2, will involve lectures, practices and homework (training) assignments, all relating to the sport’s three disciplines - swimming, biking and running - and other relevant aspects like nutrition and injury prevention.
The course is primarily intended to prepare athletes for E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park’s 25th annual sprint triathlon - which features an 800-meter swim, a 14-mile bike and a 5-kilometer run - on Aug. 5. But it also may be effective training for the Woodmont Triathlon’s sprint on July 15 and TriAmerica’s sprint on July 23.
McElwain, a former practicing attorney, has a master’s degree in exercise physiology. She is a USA Triathlon-certified coach and has been operating Train Smart, a multi-sport coaching service, since 1999. Among her many accomplishments as an athlete, McElwain won her age group at the World Long Course Triathlon Championships in 2004.
Two informational meetings will be held at Fleet Feet Sports, 1500 Bardstown Road: tonight at 6 and Sunday night at 5.
Rahman sells tennis now
Two young men were playing tennis on the Iroquois Park courts when Sharon Rahman arrived there May 13 for the Louisville Tennis Association’s Block Party, one of the local events that’s been held to celebrate May as Tennis Month.
Rahman, who is the State League Coordinator for the Louisville-based Kentucky branch of the United States Tennis Association, said the two men expected to be kicked off the courts. But they were invited to play instead.
“We recruited them for league tennis,” Rahman recalled. “We said, ‘Come play doubles with us.’ They had no idea we had these programs.”
Therein lies one of the challenges that Rahman, a former computer saleswoman, has faced since USTA Kentucky hired her in February. Although almost 600,000 people nationwide already play USTA League Tennis, there still are many who could benefit from it but don’t yet know about it.
“Tennis has always been known as kind of a solitary sport,” Rahman said. “I don’t think a lot of people understand that it’s a team sport at the recreational level.”
And that also makes it a communal sport, which Rahman considers particularly appealing. She has played USTA League Tennis for about 10 years.
“Most of all, I like the social aspects,” she said. “There’s great social support for each other.”
Established in 1979, USTA League Tennis allows adults to play against others of similar ability levels in an organized setting. Players are grouped by National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP) levels within four divisions - adult (19-and-over), senior (50-and-over), super senior 60 (60-and-over) and super senior 70 (70-and-over) - and join teams that compete within those levels in local leagues.
State Championships for adults and seniors will be held in June, and the Southern Sectional Championships and National Championships will follow in the months ahead.
Rahman, who is a Louisville native, sold computers at Entre Computer Center for 17 years before she took the USTA Kentucky position.
“It came at a good time,” said Rahman, who is divorced and has a son, Nick, a Virginia Tech sophomore who reached the 2004 Kentucky High School Athletic Association State Tennis Tournament doubles quarterfinals with former Ballard teammate Tyler Durham. “I can travel and work odd hours.”
She estimated that she has been working about 60 hours a week recently, but she describes the job as “cushy” nonetheless.
“It’s tennis,” she said. “How great is that?”
Runners, cyclists paint New Albany in da Vinci Downtown Festival
Racing was an integral part of the ninth annual da Vinci Downtown Festival in New Albany, Ind., again today as a five-kilometer run/walk and a cycling criterium were held in conjunction with the community event.
Scott Holzknecht and Cara Nichols were the men’s and women’s winners, respectively, in the da Vinci Downtown 5K Run/Walk. Holzknecht finished first overall with a time of 16:11.41, and Mike Horan was second in 16:24.26. Nichols, who was sixth overall, topped the women in 18:18.25; Katie Braekkan was nearly a minute back in second.
Patrick O’Donnell (Kentucky Flyers) won the Pro/1/2/3 category in the da Vinci Downtown Criterium, which was the first of two races in the Tour da Vinci this weekend.
Other criterium winners included Christopher Heintz (Team Barbasol/Rapid Transit) in the 3/4 category; Matt Straub (Team Louisville Bicycle Club) in the 4/5/Citizen category; Robert Bobrow (Better Cycling of Louisville) in the Master 40-and-over category; and Tracy Huber (Kentucky Flyers) in the Women’s category.
The second Tour da Vinci race, the Martinsburg (Ind.) Fire Department Road Race, will be held Sunday.
Hundreds run Throo the Zoo
There is one morning every year when hundreds of people run through the Louisville Zoo and all but ignore the animals.
It’s the Throo the Zoo 5K Run/Walk, a family-friendly event that included participants as young as 3 and as old as 80 in its 14th annual edition today.
Nearly 700 people completed the five-kilometer race, which started on Trevillian Way and finished in the zoo. Joseph Lynn and Deborah Fletcher were the overall men’s and women’s winners, respectively, and earned the Ostrich Egg Award.
Lynn won with a time of 16:10.11. Alan Tobin was second in 16:22.67, and Benjamin Draper was third in 16:40.85.
Fletcher led the women with a time of 19:29.35. Erika Fairweather was second in 19:50.50, and Amy Doolittle-Crider was third in 20:30:45.
The full results for the race, which was presented by Norton Audubon Hospital and the Friends of the Zoo, can be found here.
