Arizona Xtreme Desert Triathlon

By Dev Letendre, XTERRA Representative

(Mesa, AZ – April 24, 2005) The 4th Annual Arizona Xtreme Desert Triathlon was all about the Xtreme. From the top down this race has the spirit of its race director. In fact so much of David’s spirit was in this race that XTERRA Ambassadors unanimously agreed to give him the XTERRA Spirit Award for the day, perhaps the first RD to get such an award, and duly deserved. (Editor’s note – actually, Phillip Ruiz, the RED for the Puerto Rico ORT had received the XTERRA Spirit Award about three hours earlier! Time difference and all. We really do have some great Race Directors in the Series!)

The venue for this race was moved from Butcher Jones Cove (site of last year’s race) to Saguaro Lake Ranch Resort, an oasis in the desert. This was a great move allowing for an improved experience for all involved in this year’s race. This year was a point to point race featuring such a tremendous volunteer staff that the athletes' only worry was what the previous night’s storm brought to the race.

The prior to the race, athletes attend a swim and bike clinic hosted by Pro Jimmy Archer. David Benjes hosted a pre-race tour of the bike course. Athletes were treated to a carbo-load dinner at the Saguaro Lake Ranch and slide show hosted by David and produced by photographers from Adrenaline Photo. The feature story was definitely the new Xtreme feature to DCB Adventures, THE BUS. A funny short video detailed how David had “pimped his ride.” (pictured at left)

Enough about the frills, let’s get to the water. Spectators were surprised when they saw pro Jimmy Archer putting his wetsuit on before the race and proceed to swim the 1.5-K to the swim start.

After the starting guns, athletes began the point-to-point swim, contending with leftover winds from an xtreme desert storm, and boaters seeking relief from the Arizona heat. Amateur and local boy, Mike Melly of Chandler, AZ (SW 25-29) was astounding on this day leading all racers and nearing the rocky exit in just over 16 minutes, more than two minutes ahead of his nearest competitors, pros included. With the wind and chop, and it being a point to point swim with the finish not in sight at the start, this was xtreme.

The race of the day belonged to the women. Aracelly Clouse (SW 30-34) and Amber Montforte (SW 25-29) were battling it out like a bid to nationals was on the line. Monforte (Reno, NV) edged Clouse (Cameron Park, CA) on the swim by a mere 30 seconds. Aracelly diligently worked away at that 30 second lead and finished with a 40-second faster bike split. After 20 miles of swimming and mountain biking through the desert (swimming in the desert?) these two women were still just seconds apart. Amber would best all amateur women on this day by finishing the run in 30:57, almost a full minute faster than Aracelly. Amber’s finish time 2:23:33, and Aracelly with 2:23:16 What a race! In third place was Laura Home (SW 30-34), all the way from Santa Cruz, CA coming in at the 2:28 mark.

Amateur racer Tom Lyons (SW 40-44; 2:12:12) from Reno, NV, needed all of the bike and run to compensate for second-place finisher Mike Melly’s xtreme swim split (2:13:03 final overall). Tom, accustomed to his place at the top of the podium was challenged when facing a nearly six-minute deficit coming out of the water. All the way from the North East region was Michael Nahom (NE 35-39) of Connecticut to make the podium in third. Not far behind was Courtney Cardenas (SW 30-34). Courtney, finishing 4th only two minutes back, was fresh off a successful trip through the western Pacific where he finished as the amateur champion at XTERRA Saipan, and second place amateur overall at the Tagaman Triathlon a week later.

The Arizona Xtreme Desert Triathlon is one of only a few points races featuring professional triathletes. Pro Jamie Whitmore returned to her winning ways after the Saipan flora literally deraillured her into second place at XTERRA Saipan. Today she edged newcomer pro Lisa Matlock of Golden, CO. On the men’s side, John Koenig beat out Jimmy Archer by two minutes, leaving Jimmy asking for a longer run next year. John finished at 2:04:32 with Jimmy finishing at 2:06:51. They finished six minutes before the stream of amateurs started flowing into the finish.

A huge shout out to David Benjes for pulling off what looked to be a logistics nightmare! A bigger shout out to his staff for making him look so good. The volunteers were so great at this race, it was absolutely amazing. Lastly, The Maricopa County Sheriffs Office and the Tonto National Forest were a huge help in the success of this race.

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