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Hurricane Man 2006 Hit St Pete Beach from the West

        May 6, 2006: Hurricane man 2006 wasn't exactly a big blow like St Anthony's Triathlon last week but it sure felt like it half way through the race. After an East wind all week it stitched offshore from the West and made this the most challenging race in several years.
        The USMS 2.4 mile times were off by about 10 to15% or 6 to 8 minutes for most swimmers finishing near 1 hour. But you'd never know it the way Mellisa came by the men, all the men. She was kicking like a 100 yard interval when she came by me. After kickin' butt, that be Halfast's butt, in the 1000 M last year she took on the longer race this year with a smokin' time of 52:33. Sorry ladies... and gentlemen. She even beat her teammate Rick Walker 52:50 the first male.
         In the USMS 1000M Charlotte Petersen was busy, you know with the annual kickin' of Halfast's butt by a girl, finishing in 13:25 a mir 7 seconds ahead of Mike's 13:32. I'm I getting repetative. Well the ladies have kick.....beaten the men in both events this year.
         The USA times...lets just say the waves must not effect them. And I would like to say the boys are men but in the 1000M Tracy Rorer, 13:46, had the fastest overall time of the day while Robert Vanneste, 15:06.00 was the fastest boy. Cameron Chambers was the lone male to take an overall with a great swim 48:04. Stase Michota, 52:07 was the fastest girl. The competition was tough and our younger swimmers always do so well at H man.
        There where plenty of triathletes. A few testing out their wet suits for an upcoming race. Those are the guys with "asterisk" as a middle name. Many were last seen mounting their bikes at the Hurricane restaurant for a little ride back to town. Go ahead DQ Dan. Thanks for the nice workout. Is there really only one Jeff Cuddeback? I remember that name atop age groups all the way back to the 80's. Nice 54:52 swim Jeff.
        There was a lot of salt water consumed. And a few swimmers were looking for ralph after the race. Did St Pete Beach remove all the No Boat Buoys? I couldn't find them. Never saw the 1000 M start buoy either, often mistaken for a premature finish line. In fact I don't even remember seeing the Don Caesar? Just a lot of waves and this guy from Tallahassee, Rob Beaton, I thought was Ron Collins zig zagging back and forth with me. Thanks for making the trip Rob.
        Only a few records broken this year and only in the 1000M race. I wonder why? Gary Bastie (our T-shirt designer and 55-59 men), Suzette Trainor (50-54 women), Kristy Udagawa (25-29 women), Charlotte Petersen (40-44 women), Mike Halfast (40-44 men), and Bob Atwood (85-89 men) set a new record at 38:00. Bob you're my hero. You are setting my future goals. 
        The best excuse of the day for not doing the 2.4 miles was by Pat Kirchner, that's Mr. Forkois to you. He was babysitting for Christie Bruner. Nice effort Pat. Remember practice makes perfect. His better halves, the Forkois sisters, um best friends, always seem to be together as Christine eased 15 seconds ahead of Adrienne at the end 1:04:52 to 1:05:07. This only after Adrienne got tired of swimming face to face and yelled, "GET AWAY!" Sharon Salzman, 1:01:31, and Joann Harrelson, 1:01:34, are always even tighter in the water at 3 seconds apart this year. That's a total of 7 seconds difference between those two for the last three years.
        The worst excuse of the day, the race was the morning after Cinco de Mayo by Teddy.

More to come. Thanks to all the volunteers, particularly Patty Nardozzi, and Bruce Day. You can email Livia Zien at livia_h2oh@earthlink.net to thank her for all she did.

Aerial Photos of 2005 race

2006 USMS 2.4 mile Hurricane Man Results
2006 USA 2.4 mile Hurricane Man Results
2006 USMS 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge Results
2006 USA 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge Results

For the full story on 2005 click Here.

2005 USMS 2.4 mile Hurricane Man Results
2005 USA 2.4 mile Hurricane Man Results
2005 USMS 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge Results
2005 USA 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge Results

2004 2.4 mile Hurricane Man Results
2004 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge Results

2003 Results

2002 Results