Adventure Sports Week

The first half of Adventure Sports Week is in the books. This event is very similar to Ironman, but without the publicity. International Triathlon contestants gathered at Farragut State Park for this extravaganza. When it's all over, at the end of next week-end, 24 races will have been held.

This the first year that this event has been held at Farragut, and confusion reigned. While the races themselves went off just fine, nobody seemed to know or care about the publicity angle. Advance notice of what, when and where were missing, making it very difficult to cover the events. I attempted to do so, and caught some piecemeal information that doesn't begin to describe this week long event.

Saturday started off with one of the featured races, a triathlon, involving a 1500 meter swim, then a run up a very steep slope to the Sunrise Campground, the start finish line for all events. Quickly shucking the wet suits, they hopped on their mountain bikes for an 18 mile ride. Several of the entrants were international professionals that will be seen again at Ironman in Couer d'Alene, also in Idaho.

To illustrate how competitive these races are, three time world champion triathlon leader, Conrad Stoltz of South Africa, placed 5th in this race. Perhaps the most amazing entrant though, was Megan Fisher. Megan is a medical student at the University of Montana. Her goal is to become an Orthopedic Surgeon. Observed climbing the treacherous sledding hill that comes up out of the big ampitheater. She sccoted up and out of that part of the course way ahead of some of the men. The surprise though, was that she does it with only one leg.

Fisher was in a serious auto accident when she was 19 years old. The result was the loss of her left leg. fitted with a prosthetic limb, she started training just 11 months after her ordeal. She ran Maui last year, winning the disability division. Results have been spotty and undecipherable to this non-triathlon person, but I believe she won her division again this year. This is the 6th year since the accident and she appeared to be doing very well.

A persistent rumor that was repeated to me by one of the race officials was that a boy under the minimum age, lied his age and participated with a $10 bike bought at a garage sale. This against professionals that some spend up to $10,000 for their racing bikes. He apparently has swam the long bridge race several times, but had never raced a mountain bike competitively. While he didn't win the race, the pro's were astounded that he finished, and did so on a Husky brand cheap bike.

Several contestants informed me that the swim portion at the beginning was real tough, with the wind blowing hard, into Idlewild Bay, causing severe chop, but all contestants made it to shore, including the gutsy young lady, now age 25, from Montana.

Results are in for the pro segment of the Saturday triathlon as follows:

Here are all the winners of the pro division as well:

Pl Name Age Hometown Time Pts Purse
1 Dan Hugo 23 Stellenbosch, South Africa 2:25:32 100 $1,800
2 Nico Lebrun 35 Digne, France 2:29:38 90 $1,250
3 Seth Wealing 30 Boulder, Colorado 2:31:20 82 $800
4 Branden Rakita 28 Manitou Springs, Colorado 2:33:19 75 $500
5 Conrad Stoltz 35 Stellenbosch, South Africa 2:34:03 69 $400
6 Craig Evans 31 Spring Hill, Tennessee 2:36:13 63 $300
7 Ryan Ignatz 30 Boulder, Colorado 2:36:20 58 $200
8 Jasper Blake 35 Victoria, B.C., Canada 2:37:42 53
9 Cody Waite 30 Lakewood, Colorado 2:38:16 49
10 Brendan Halpin 25 Missoula, Montana 2:40:29 45
Also: Will Kelsay (41), Adam Jensen (37), Matt Boobar (34), Jeff Smith (31)
TOP 10 PRO WOMEN

Pl Name Age Hometown Time Pts Purse
1 Melanie McQuaid 35 Victoria, B.C., Canada 2:51:10 100 $1,800
2 Danelle Kabush 34 Canmore, Alberta, Canada 2:52:50 90 $1,250
3 Christine Jeffrey 36 Guelph, Ontario, Canada 2:55:46 82 $800
4 Jenny Tobin 39 Boise, Idaho 2:57:53 75 $500
5 Emma Garrard 27 Truckee, California 2:59:05 69 $400
6 Rebecca Dussault 28 Crested Butte, Colorado 3:05:22 63 $300
7 Tracy Thelen 29 Colorado Springs, Colorado 3:07:21 58 $200
8 Erin Kummer 24 Boulder, Colorado 3:11:27 53
9 Alexendra Borrelly 33 Digne, France 3:13:27 49
10 Jennifer Luebke 23 Missoula, Montana 3:14:54 45
Also: Jari Kirkland (41)