Buffalo Creek Off Road Triathlon

By Jennifer Trapp, points series assistant manager

(Buffalo Creek, CO – June 18, 2005) Well, there weren’t any Henry the Buffalo sightings, but the 2nd Annual Buffalo Creek ORT was still an awesome day! Great weather, good camping, rippin’ bike course, a waterfall on the run, and over 20 kids in their own triathlon all helped make this event an unforgetable one.

With Wellington Lake a cool 61 (or 65 or 67 – depending on who you asked) degrees, Saturday morning started off with 154 racers and more than 70 sprint course athletes chipping in to begin their off-road adventure. Among those toeing the start line were XTERRA pros Josiagh Middaugh, Ryan Ignatz, and Monique Merrill. It’s always great to have some of the pros come out to a points race and show everyone why they are pros! Thanks guys! But, when it came to the swim, it was a few of the amateurs who showed off their skills. Eric Snowberg (34, Golden CO) sprinted through the two-lap, 1500 meter swim in 18:07, almost a full minute ahead of Andrew Feeney (28, Boulder, CO) and Kervin Quinones (29, Colorado Springs, CO) who completed the loops in 19:01 and 19:11. Jean Hadley (42, Vail, CO) led out of the water for the women with a 20:43. Right on her tail was Molly Bockmann (35, Boulder, CO) with a 20:54 and Rebecca Batizy (29, Boulder, CO) in 21:12.

The Buffalo Creek bike course has it all. Open fire roads, sweet single track, dirt, sand, trees, burnt trees, climbs, climbs, and more climbs. And oh yeah – let’s finish the 22-ish mile bike ride with a two-mile climb as well, okay?

This is where the pros showed off their skills. Blazing in with a 1:23:38 bike split was Middaugh (26, Vail, CO) – just smokin’ the competition and entering T2 almost four minutes ahead of Ignatz (26, Boulder, CO). Ignatz completed the bike in 1:26:57 and was also ahead of his nearest competitor by almost seven minutes heading out on the run. As for the amateurs, it was Will Kelsay (23, Boulder, CO) who put the pedal to the metal and came in with a 1:30:05 bike split. John Phillips (28, Denver, CO) posted the next-best bike split with a 1:31:05. On the women’s side, Merrill (36, Breckenridge, CO) wowed them all with a 1:43:44 for the bike course. The next closest female was Louisa Jenkins (39, Niwot, CO) who posted a 1:48:29. Jackie Burt (33, Gunnison, CO) was also pretty impressive with a 1:49:31. Rounding out the top-three bike splits was one of our younger XTERRA standouts – Kate Chapman (19, Breckenridge, CO) who finished up in 1:51:17.

Now if they weren’t tired at this point – whew! I’ll have what they’re having! But now, comes thefive-mile trail run around the lake, complete with a waterfall in the middle of it all! Again it was Middaugh and Ignatz posting the best two splits of the day with 27:36 and 28:54. Not too far behind those times was Lars Finanger (25, Boulder, CO) who sprinted through the run course with ease and a 29:22. Kelsay wasn’t too far back with a 31:40 and Luke Jay (24, Littleton, CO) ran through the course in 31:53. Those are some fast times boys! For the ladies, it was Merrill who came in first from the run with a 35:01. Burt and Christine Adamowski (37, Evergreen, CO) came in with almost identical run splits of 37:33 and 37:34. East coast transplant, Liz Vollmer (27, Boulder, CO) rounded out the amateur top three for the run with a 38:21.

So with the all the transition times and swim, bike, run splits – how did this all play out? I’m glad you asked. To be expected, the two pros took home top honors of the day with Middaugh crossing the finish line in 2:13:36 and Ignatz in 2:17:35. Congrats guys! And thanks for coming out! For the amateur men it was Andy Feeney showing off some stellar moves coming in with a 2:26:38 to take home the top spot. Will Kelsay’s fast bike split and quick transitions had him taking second-place in 2:27:37. Rounding out the top three was Lars Finanger in 2:29:16. Nice going guys!

Merrill kept her lead from the bike and run and finished in the top female spot with a 2:47:01. Taking top amateur female honors was Jackie Burt in a time of 2:57:15. The interesting part here is Louisa Jenkins actually had faster combined race times but with a couple extra minutes spent in transition, she finished the day in second place with an awesome time of 2:58:29. Teenage all-star Kate Chapman finished up the podium spots with a 3:01:03. Awesome day to all the ladies!

And here’s a first for you – the prize for Andy Feeney and Jackie Burt for taking home top amateur honors of the day? Free teeth whitening from race director and dentist, Robert Martinich! Never seen that before, but do make sure to ask to see the pearly whites of those two at the next race!

Many thanks go out to the folks at Wellington Lake for providing us with such a beautiful venue, to Robert and his family for putting in so many hours of hard work to pull this off, to all the volunteers who dedicated their time to helping make this race such a huge success. The athletes say thanks!

Well, for those of you in the mountain region, we are off to Ogden, UT for the Ogden ORT this Saturday, June 25. Too far of a drive? Head out to Brighton, MI for the Torn Shirt Trail Triathlon on Sunday.

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