(5-28-08) Submitted by Dave Campbell - Over 200 triathletes and their families gathered Monday (Memorial Day) at the Osborne Aquatic Center in Corvallis for the second running of the revitalized Heart of the Valley Triathlon. The vast majority of the competitors raced in the six heats of the Sprint Triathlon, logging first 750 meters in one of the states finest long course pools, then a brutally hilly 12-mile bike and finally a two lap flat 5k run in the neighborhoods adjacent to the pool. The weather was cool and comfortable with an occasional light drizzle that chilled cyclists and necessitated a bit more caution on the technical course while allowing super-fast run times. This race offers a little something for everyone: friendly and fun for the first-timer but with a competitive field and challenging courses for the veteran athletes.
Nearly 60% of this year's 174 finishers were women and the overall winner by just 23 seconds was 28 year old Jessica Cutler of Seattle, WA. The heart of her victory was her strong bike leg, 36:01 for a 20mph average on a course most found tougher than the challenging course at Hagg Lake. Just behind was 37-year-old Ann Ciaverella of Happy Valley, OR who nearly closed the gap with a blistering run of 19:23 - the day's fastest on the women's side. 41-year-old Shauna Zobrist of Tigard was the top Master in 1:29:19.
Continuing the day's theme of fast women athletes, the first five swimmers out of the water were young women, led by 27-year-old Sarah Holmen in an impressive 9:27, but hot on the heels of this group was one of the Northwest's fastest swimmers Matt Berg of Portland in 10:42. Matt led until just after the first turnaround, when I caught him on a veritable roller-coaster bike course that suddenly got slippery when light rain fell during the final heat. A mix of long drags and short steep climbs had some of the newbies walking and the top performers struggling to maintain 10-12 mph while the beautiful sweeping descents allowed the top riders to hit well over 40 miles an hour. Leary of Matt's run, not to mention the scary speed of Tigard's Jared Wilson I pounded back to T2 as hard as I could with the day's fastest bike split of 31:46.
Perennial Northwest powerhouse Berg, now 35, and a master of fast transitions passed me in the first 400 meters and never looked back to win in 1:02:22 with the fourth best run of the day: 16:57. The day's fastest run, not surprisingly belonged to Wilson, who picked up steam as he went (he certainly WENT by me) running stunning 5:15, 5:05, and 4:54 mile splits to break the tape with a national caliber run time of 15:34, the day's best, and second overall at 1:03:13 while I hung on for third another 18 seconds adrift. Top Master was Ann Ciaverella's husband, 42-year-old Dave in 1:06:46. Team "Awesome Tri" of Corvallis, appropriately named, laid down a smokin' 57:35 with Lee's Swim, Ryan Miller riding, and Lindon Miller running a 16:33 as the fastest relay.
33 athletes raced the Duathlon with 39-year-old Doug Howe of Eugene triumphing in 1:10:13 over the two 5k runs with that challenging 12-mile bike in the middle. Top Master was Dave Florence of Salem in 1:12:51. On the Women's side, local Olivia Klinkner, 27, won in 1:30:27 just 1:20 in front of Masters winner Mindy Stubenrah.
The next major event will be the Blue Lake Triathlon June 14-15 in Fairview, Oregon. Traditionally the "season opener" for both the top long and short-course athletes in the Pacific Northwest, Saturday hosts a sprint triathlon and duathlon, while Sunday is a hyper-competitive but super flat and fast Olympic-distance race (tri and du) with a likely field of 1000 competitors over both days. It is usually the first open water triathlon of the season and eagerly anticipated by athletes from the entire region. Bring your wetsuit and that sense of competition and comradely so bountiful in the sport of triathlon and I'll see you at the race!
