"...it would take a huge effort to win this race."
August 8, 2006 - FROM THE RACE DIARY OF MARCEL VIFIAN

Sunday I competed in the 25th anniversary Wilkes-Barre Triathlon in Pennsylvania. The race had a small but fast field of pros, including the US Pro National Long course champion, David Thompson. David's a phenomenal athlete, and I knew it would take a huge effort to win this race.

I tried to open up a small gap during the super warm-water swim but, it wasn't to be. The sight buoys and the turn buoys were the same color so I managed to take a wrong turn. Luckily, I sensed something was wrong (it probably had something to do with all the people waving to me frantically from the boats) and swam back to try to catch the guys I'd been swimming in front of! A rookie mistake like that can cost precious seconds!

I started the bike in 4th, pedaled as steadily as I could and hoped my amazingly aero Aegis bike and Blackwell wheels would help get me to the finish as quickly as possible! I got off the bike with a whopping 2.5 minute deficit on the leader. I decided to challenge myself to see how much of it I could make up and thought, "Oh, a minute or a minute and a half if I'm really lucky!"

I left transition at a very brisk pace and just kept up steady pressure the whole way. At about 4.75 miles, I finally caught a glimpse of the leader. With just 2 miles left to make up almost a minute on him, I thought, "Wow, that's a tall order, but it isn't over until the finish line!" So, I kept the pressure up and gained 30-seconds on him by the 6 mile mark. He'd seen me and was giving it all he had. Finally at 600 meters out, I put in one more big effort and just held it, reaching him with only about 200 meters to go! We ran stride for stride for a few seconds and then I found one last surge of speed. Glancing back, I saw he wasn't coming with me and I powered into the finish to win the race by just a few seconds. We both had to sit down for a few minutes to recover after the tremendous effort in the heat and humidity. I thanked him for pushing me to one of my best races in years. It truly was one of the most thrilling races I've ever been part of!

A special thanks to the team at Recover-Ease. I was amazed at how great I felt going into this race after racing hard in the US Pro Long Course Championship just two weeks ago! I'd also like to thank John Cummings (Park City Mountain Resort) for his incredible generosity and Pete Orne at Aegis for the great support and fantastic bike frames. Thank you all so much. I love racing and you all make it possible!

2006 WILKES-BARRE TRIATHLON
1. MARCEL VIFIAN, 1:59:33 (20:53/ 58:59/38:38)
2. DAVID THOMPSON, 1:59:41 (20:56/56:40 /41:14)
3. JEFFREY BOYD, 2:03:25 (24:18/59:22 /38:47)
4. PAUL FRITZSCHE, 2:05:13 (20:53/ 4 1:01:13/41:59)
5. JOHN KENNY, 2:06:29 (18:16/ 6 1:04:28/42:30)

Marcel's next scheduled races are Xterra Mountain Championship, UT on August 19 and the Ironman 70.3 Cancun on September 17.

Marcel Vifian is represented by Bennet & Bennet, PLLC. For more information about Marcel Vifian, contact Carri Bennet at cbennet@bennetlaw.com or 202-371-1500.

About Wicked Fast Sports Nutrition: A division of TalMark Nutrition, Wicked Fast is a developer of science-based, patented, research-proven natural products for endurance athletes. Its popular Recover-Ease post-exercise recovery product is the ONLY research-proven, patent-pending, dope-free recovery capsule on the market today. Its new pre-exercise Energ-Ease product is the ONLY research-proven, patent-pending, dope-free capsule delivering both fast energy and sustained stamina. For more information about Energ-Ease or Recover-Ease, contact Shawn Talbott, Ph.D. at smtalbott@talmarknutrition.com