Deuces Wild Fat Tire Triathlon

By Jennifer Trapp, XTERRA Rep

(Deuces Wild Fat Tire Triathlon Post Race story - Show Low, AZ – May 22, 2005) Show Low Arizona provided the setting for the second Annual Deuces Wild Fat Tire Triathlon and it was a knockout of a day! Debbie Clagget and the Tri Sports Racing Team have an incredible amount of support and enthusiasm. It helps to make the weekend run smooth and leave the athletes happy – and has them going home with tons of awesome raffle prizes! Racers came to the mountains to get out of the 110 degree Phoenix heat – in Show Low it only got up to the mid 90’s!

Race morning started off cool, as the athletes were setting up their transition and getting body marked. The day before was the Olympic and Sprint distance tri’s – part of the Deuces Wild Triathlon Festival – and some of the competitors in Sunday’s XTERRA still had numbers on them from the previous days events! We also had three athletes (Hans Dieben – 66, Kathy Frank – 57, and Alan Nicholls – 47) who had raced Saturday at the Moab Steelbender Triathlon in Utah, then drove the 8 hours or so to Arizona to race again! You can never get too much XTERRA!!

The swim started in three waves – relays, men, and then women. As the air-horn sounded and the swimming began, everyone knew it was going to be an awesome day of racing! To prove this point, Mike Melley (29, Chandler AZ) who started 4 minutes back from the relay teams, was the second person out of the lake and off onto his bike in 10:54 – and he raced the day before! Must have been the fajitas the night before Mike! Following Mike was Jonathan Shaw (23, Tempe AZ) and Carl Abrams (38, Albuquerque NM) in 11:15 and 12:07 respectively. For the women it was Kim Cardenas (34, Phoenix AZ) leading the way in 14:29, followed close behind by Mimi Ford (45, Tucson AZ) in 14:58. La Juan Stevenson (35, Scottsdale AZ) also showed her swimming strength with a 15:26.

The bike course was 15 miles of dirt, dust, hills, single-track, fire-roads, and heat! Most of the time you didn’t realize that you were at altitude – until you started swimming/biking/running – and this bike course laid it on you! Screaming into T2 first was Mike Melley who completed the bike course in 1:07:37 – the boy was on fire – but would he be able to keep it up on the run after pushing so hard on the first two legs and competing the day before? We’ll see! A couple minutes behind him was Donnie Cole (34, Albuquerque NM) who actually had a faster split (1:07:16) – would he catch up to Mike? Next in – Scott Gray (29, Jonestown PA) who had decided it would be interesting to do the race on his single speed bike! If he’s that good on single speed – finishing the bike course in 1:08:22 - you better believe he flies on one with gears!
Amber Monforte showed her dominance in full force on the bike. She came in with a 1:15:43 split and a good lead on the rest of the women. Keri Postlewait (41, Flagstaff AZ) had the second fastest split (1:20:46) and Deann Bonnell (35, Scottsdale AZ) finished her ride up in 1:24:38.

The run took athletes back out of T2 and down the paved road that they had finished up the bike on. After that quarter mile reprieve – they headed onto the single-track taking them part of the way around the lake and up the Eliminator! As if that wasn’t enough – they had the mini Eliminator a little later. Then, to really rub it in how close, yet how far, they were from finishing, athletes ran by the bottom of transition and back down to the lake for just a little bit longer before finally making their way to the finish line. Once there, they were met with ice-cold popsicles and tons of smiling volunteers!

Turns out, Scott Gray cannot only rock the single speed – but he can run! He turned in the fastest split of the day with a 35:57. Of course, that was just two seconds faster than Donnie Cole! Tomas Petricko (24, Encinitas CA) was catching up to the lead pack as well and posted a 38:59. For the women it was Amber Monforte again showing her dominance by posting a 40:05 run – the best for the ladies and sixth overall! Mimi Ford and Deann Bonnell were chasing her the best they could and had awesome splits of 46:10 and 47:03.

In the end, Donnie Cole made up the over two minute deficit he had starting out on the run to finish first in a time of 1:59:32. Mike Melley had an awesome weekend finishing up second overall in 2:00:40, and single speed wonder Scott Gray rounded out the top three in 2:01:03. Way to go guys!

Amber Monforte also had an amazing day – finishing up in 2:14:22 and taking home female honors, as well as coming in seventh overall! Mimi Ford kept strong and came across the line in 2:30:16 to take home second place and Keri Postlewait completed the podium with a 2:30:33. Awesome job ladies!

Congrats to Al Nicholls who had an incredible weekend getting second place in his age group at Moab, then turning around to get first in his age group and fourteenth overall here in Show Low! Not bad!

Post race the athletes stuck around for some delicious BBQ, beautiful awards, and one of the largest raffles I have ever seen! Bike frames, wheels, trainers, shoes, sunglasses, and much more! Proceeds of it went to the Challenged Athletes Foundation – what a great end to the day!

Thanks so much to the whole Tri Sports Racing Crew. They are awesome hosts and great race directors – this weekend is one that you don’ want to miss next year! First rate show going on here! Thanks also to the sponsors, the spectators, and most of all – all the volunteers – you guys were great!

Stay tuned for the next race in the South West Region – July 31 it is the Kirwood Mountain Off-Road Triathlon. Check out www.ByTheBeachProductions.com.

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