Vashon Isalnd Off Road Triathlon

By Dev Letendre, XTERRA representative

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(Vashon Island, WA - July 10) Not coming out soon by Michael Crichton is “TRIassic Park” complete with heros, scary looking invertebrates, and body twists and turns that will literally leave you in stitches (ask Kate Samuelson from Livermore, CA). The 4th annual Vashon Island ORT is becoming the prequel to Crichton’s great tale of adventure and danger. The story line is set and the main character has been established, race director Rory Muller.

“The tight turns and narrow trail lined with trees left me holding my side”
- Kirkus Review

“I wanted to applaud, but my hands are all scraped up.”
– Book Review List

The first prehistoric fauna racers encountered were the spineless purple jellyfish that relish the 62-degree water of Quartermaster Harbor. The harbor is a shallow and low tide exposes much of the harbor's muddy bottom. The sun warms the water above nearby Puget Sound Proper, which hovers closer to 50. I should back up, the first fauna are the barnacle billies firmly attached to the boat ramp and look completely creepy enough to be worthy of Crichton’s imagination.

The word is out about this great off-road triathlon, and it showed a 30 percent growth in registrants over last year. This year, Muller had to move to a swim start to accommodate the influx of athletes. The swim is 800 yards out and back. What it really looks like is 86 people taking a dare to swim to the harbor buoy and back before some creature of the deep gets them. A mad swim sprint with flailing bodies all dressed up to imitate seals (that would be food for the orcas, right?).

Once the danger of the sea has passed, athletes braved the jungle replete with a heavy canopy, various ferns and forbs, and menacing white-tail deer and gray squirrels. I’m pretty sure the squirrels were wondering what the strange grunts and moans coming from the racers were.

The mountain bike and run course are the vehicles that drive the plot in our new book. The courses are short, but this only lets us get to know them that much more. The bike course is a 4 mile loop (x3) allowing for the great character development we’ve come to expect from Chrichton. Each loop goes by faster as your anticipation increases. The winding, tapeworm like single track keeps you on your toes the entire time, it’s a real page turner.

The run course is 4 miles (x1) of more of the same, except with only one lap you begin dreading the turn of each page for you know it is going to end soon, or are you? You may be suffering so bad at this point you WANT a dinosaur to eat you. Sadly, this tale is more Hitchcock than Spielberg and the real scare comes from inside your own mind. You tell yourself that you’re almost done, but you aren’t sure.

Not wanting to risk much in the water, it was Brandyn Roark Gray (NW 25-29) taking the buoy dare and making light work of it. Brandyn showed her swim talent at the Solstice and was the first out of the water here. Very close behind Brandyn was Rob Cook ((NW 30-34), the eventual champion. Thomas Hayes (NW 30-34) has been putting the time in at work and in the gym and it showed when he came out of the water in third place. Jason Jablonski (NW 30-34) was 14th out of the water, but just like he did to win the overall title at the Solstice, he ripped the bike course today passing all comers, and putting more than a minute on second place Rob Cook. If you’ve heard of Rob Cook, you know why he wasn’t too worried about Jason leaving T2 ahead of him, you see, he did the run in 21 minutes. As scary as that sounds, Rob was only the third fastest run on the day. Jaime Krofta (NC 25-29) had the fastest run split at 19 minutes, with Rick Gully (NW 25-59) narrowly missing the fastest run time with a 20:32.

David Cloninger (NW 35-39) continued his good results by posting the third best bike split of the day behind Rob and Jason. Kelly Hovland (NW 30-34), the eventual champ, used the bike course to start her comeback against Brandyn. Kelly chipped two minutes off the bike coming in just under an hour and passed Brandyn on the run to become the women’s champ.

The finish line was the safe haven from the wilds of the jungle and it was proud to boast Rob Cook (1st), Jason Jablonski (2nd), David Cloninger (3rd), Thomas Hayes (4th), and Thomas Schulz (NW 30-34) (5th). On the women’s side it was Kelly Hovland (1st), Brandyn Roarke Gray (2nd), Lori Harvey (NW 35-39) (3rd), Yvonne Kraus (NW 30-34) (4th), and Sarah McMillan (NW 30-34) (5th).

What wild tales will next year bring? It’s up to you to find out. One thing is for sure, the 89th year of the Strawberry Festival will surely bring lots of live music and vendors for the street fair, so bring your bike, wet suit, and family because there’s plenty to do for the whole weekend.

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