World's Toughest Triathlon results
John Walker
decided to post them along with a description of the course and the
conditions under which this year's race was run. Enjoy!
-- John
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World's Toughest Triathlon - Saturday, August 29
Tri-Fed USA National Ultra Distance Championship
2 mile Swim, 100 mile Bike, 18.6 mile run
30 Amateur Ironman Qulification slots
Results
------- Swim Bike Run Total
Women:
1) Lisa Verke 49:05 5:36:23 3:19:16 9:49:21
2) Sally Booster 1:02:20 5:45:12 3:27:24 10:20:37
3) Christine Rowley 48:50 6:21:37 3:44:20 11:04:12
4) Elizabeth Vanderliet 58:25 6:20:21 3:42:48 11:11:56
5) Janet Nugent 1:21:27 6:31:54 3:24:23 11:30:11
Men:
1) David Turner 50:56 4:54:29 2:56:36 8:45:42
2) Matt Haugen 52:25 5:07:39 2:46:34 8:50:30
3) Charles Cox 52:40 5:06:53 2:54:44 8:59:02
4) Scott Miller 45:39 4:52:02 3:20:11 9:01:01
5) David Cihasky 52:08 5:01:22 3:06:44 9:03:17
The Course
--- ------
The difficulty with this triathlon stems not only from the distances,
but also from the course conditions. The swim is held in the cold
waters of Lake Tahoe at an elevation of over 6200 feet. The bike
course climbs 8000 feet, tackling Monitor Pass, both sides of
Luther Pass (Monitor and one side of Luther are a part of the
Markleeville Death Ride). But the worst part of the bike course is the
wind tunnel named Emigrant Trail. Finally, the run (mostly trails)
course chooses a couple miles of trails that are more suitable to
mountain goats than people (includes a scramble down a dry waterfall),
and a couple of steep climbs (1000ft in a mile for the first, 700ft
in just under a mile for the second).
This year's conditions
---- ------ ----------
This year, the water temperature was a rather balmy 66F. This is
compared to last year, where 20 or so people were treated for
hypothermia in the warming tent despite the wetsuit rule (full wetsuit,
or sleeveless suit and neoprene cap required). The bike started out
quite warm, but the leaders were fortunate to still have some cloud
cover while they climbed Monitor Pass. Emigrant Trail was truly nasty
this year. I recall repeatedly looking down to see that I was going
8mph on relatively flat ground (my average to that point was over
17mph). Ouch! Reportedly, the winds get even worse as the day goes on.
Considering that I was even with the lead woman at the time, I would
hate to think what the conditions would be like later in the race.
--
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John Walker Metaphor Computer Systems
wal...@metaphor.com Mountain View, CA
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