Shayne Thomas – WSI Cycling Team

August 12, 2014

New York City Triathlon

Who can pass up an opportunity to swim in the Hudson River? Not I! It’s fast and dirty. An epic swim that can’t be replicated because each sighting breath brings the famous New York skyline into focus.

A few years back my daughter Christi Thomas passed away from a rare cancer. She was made famous in oncology circles in part through the work of webmaster Eric Cook and Christithomas.com. As we progressed through treatment we made close friends from around the world who had children with the same cancer. One by one all of the children that we knew died. As an offshoot of that experience several of the dads formed a group of commiserating guys that became known as Sad Dads. Two of them founded a charity dedicated to eradicating this disease Solvingkidscancer.org The executive director and co-founder Scott Kennedy is pictured.

Shayne Thomas with Scott Kennedy founder of Solving Kids Cancer

So all that is to say that in New York I raced on team Sad Dads promoting Solving Kids Cancer!!

It was raining in New York so everything that the city belched out came into the Hudson. The current was swift and the water was dirty. As portrayed in the New York Times.

Remarkably I did the Olympic distance swim in 16.11. It took me over 5 minutes though to get to the transition. NYC is the longest run I have ever endured after a swim.

Team Sad Dads finished in style in the middle of chaotic Central Park followed by a relaxing brunch at Tavern on the Green.

June 20, 2014

Maumee Bay Triathlon Toledo Ohio

Shayne Thomas here…I’m glad to report that I have done the second race in the HFP Fit Family Series-Maumee Bay Triathlon at the awesome state park of the same name near Toledo Ohio. Once again doing the sprint triathlon in the age group-fat, old, & ugly. It was the second time that I placed third in the over 40 over 200lbs. I was generally satisfied with my times. I came out of the swim with my buddy and fellow Clydesdale Mark. We talked about how good a pizza sounded right then as we trotted up to the transition. Toledo is table top flat. The only challenge on the bike is wind. There was a bit, but, not as bad as it has been in the past. The brutal run is also flat, but, is run in zero shade. I thought a Guinness sounded pretty good and would quench my thirst, but, realized it would take a special person to drink one during a triathlon.

I literally grabbed my metal and my time slip and trotted off to gather my stuff from the transition. As quickly as possible I needed to be in Mansfield, Ohio for the Miss Ohio parade to drive my daughter’s float. She is the reigning Miss Mansfield’s Outstanding Teen. www.shaylathomas.com. I got a lot of questions about why I had my weight and age on my calves, unfortunately, they started to cramp halfway through the parade!!

Shayne

June 2, 2014

Deer Creek Triathlon-Mount Sterling, Ohio

June 1, 2014
First triathlon of the season! It was a perfect race day at Deer Creek State Park which is located between Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. HFP Racing-FIT Family Series kicked off today. If you haven’t checked out any of their races I would certainly encourage you to give them a tri (pun). www.hfpracing.com
I have been doing their events for 20 years. Shannon Kurek and his team put on first rate events. The races are well organized, predictable, and affordable. HFP offers a wide variety of events that help grow the sport and make multi sport accessible to everyone. Importantly, they have mastered traffic flow which minimizes interference between racers of different abilities.

Deer Creek’s signature feature is the dam run, you literally run down and back across the dam and levies. It offers a spectacular view of the lake on one side and cyclist on the road struggling up a climb on the other.

I don’t typically like to race with the skinny Clydesdales. HFP has a cut off at a mere 200 pounds. That is bantam weight in my circle of meat eaters. Nonetheless, I am forever grateful that age groups exist so that we can all enjoy racing without be an elite. A third place finish in the Clydesdale age group was a nice reward for racing hard today. Overall there were around 600 participants mostly from the Cincinnati/Dayton corridor and the Greater Columbus area.

Shayne Thomas
WSI Cycling
Tiffin, Ohio

December 30, 2013

Tiffin, Ohio YMCA indoor Tri

I want to thank WSI Cycling and Team Active for allowing me to join the team. Many of you know me through Eric Cook and our triathlon adventures. I am an age grouper, viagra typically racing Master Clydesdale-fat, old, (and ugly). I usually stick to Olympic and Sprint events in Ohio. I was able to get an age group win at the Cedar Point Sprint Rev this fall-(only because Eric chose to do the half). Joining the team has given my training new focus. There are many good cyclist and triathletes in my area, but, no comparable community to what Team Active has been able to build in Battle Creek.

As many of my fellow triathletes do in the winter, I have moved inside. I ride a Trek Madone, purchased at www.Teamactive.com. shoes and trainer from there as well. Graciously, my daughter allows me to ride in her ballet studio in our basement. www.shaylathomas.com. The only stipulations are that I have to mop up the sweat and use my own Pandora station-usually AC DC.

Part of the joy of multisport is helping other athletes get involved. Twice in 2013 I have strayed from doing an individual event in order to participate on a team. This has served to introduce aspiring athletes to multisport. For the New York Triathlon I participated on Team Sad Dads as the swimmer. Jumping into the Hudson for my buddies was worth it, because, one of my teammates has already registered for his first triathlon in 2014!! This week was my second attempt to get friends turned on to triathlons. My friend Pam was an accomplished cross country runner and her boyfriend Steve was an All American swimmer. They wanted to attempt a triathlon in 2014, however, were overwhelmed by the thought of the logistics. I agreed to serve as their cyclist on Team Wolfpack for some local races until they got a feel for multisport. We did our fist training event at the Tiffin, Ohio YMCA indoor triathlon. We got a second place finish and are looking forward to a spring team triathlon with fall individuals for each of them. Happy New Year and may your 2014 race calendar be full of races with friends!!