Big Blue Off-Road Triathlon

By Fred Phillips, XTERRA Rep

XTERRA Southern California style.  Located in Castaic State Park about an hour North of Los Angeles is a killer mountain bike trail that the locals love.  It's a great tune up course for the Nissan Xterra West Championship in Temecula, CA.

Race morning opened with light cloud cover and warm temperatures.  Water temp was in the high '50s.  The 1500 meter swim started on the beach with a 750 meter beach run between laps.

First out of the water was Ben Travis with a time of 16:33.  The first female out of the water was Rosella Pescatori in 18:24. 

Yes, there was some climbing, about 1800 feet in total across the two lap bike course of 16 miles.  But after the climbs were great downhills. If you were able to take a few moments and took in the scenery it was truly beautiful.  The best bike splits of the day came from Phillip Glen in 1:05:38 and Laura Home with a 1:33:33

The two-lap run course totaled about five miles, was fast and fairly flat with several creek bed crossings fully exposed in the hot mid day sun.  The best splits of day here were Thad Reichley with a 25:44 and Brigit Johnston with a 32.38

The overall winners were Thad Reichley in 2:02:24 and Brigit Johnston in 2:28:07.

The day before rhe race at the same site was a 8-12 hour adventure race.  Several of the competitors did that as well as the XTERRA.  In fact an individual on the winning team from the adventure race ultimately became the over all amateur male winner, in the XTERRA and the kicker was that he did the XTERRA on a single speed!!!!  Can you say animal!!!

All in all, a great day at Castaic State Park in Southern California. 

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