XTERRA Dawg Days Report

By Circ Toepel, XTERRA Rep

Fred Phillips has an uncanny ability to find sweet single track tucked away in the South with a body of water next door just right for an XTERRA triathlon.  On this day he also had the uncanny ability to schedule the whole thing including awards right before the sky let loose.  Bummer for the guys breaking down the event but the racers enjoyed/endured a typical hot humid day in the south with temps in the upper 80’s.

This course, located in Burns Park, just outside of Little Rock is short and sweet.  Swim about 850yds in the Arkansas River, ride 11 mi among towering oak, elm and maple trees, then finish it off with another 3.75 mi on the same trails as the bike.  Perfect for the many new athletes who showed up.  As you enter the oak gateway into the twisty flowing single track one completely loses any thought of the sprawling metropolis just a few miles away.  The rolling hills provide a few healthy climbs to make it even more interesting.

Kyle Grieser from Marble Falls, Texas was the top Dawg for the day.  He covered the distance fastest with a time of 1:30:36.  Local boy Craig Zediker, was 2nd with Luke Porter nipping at his heels another 6 seconds back.

Lucia Colbert came over from Tennessee to show the younger women how it is done.  She finished in 1:47:13.  Christiane Reetz finished 2nd with a time of 1:48:39.  3rd place was taken by Veronica Battaglia in1:55:52.

Bruce Berkheimer got his whole family involved.   Bruce did the whole event by himself but tagged his 10 year old son John who took off on the bike with dad in tow.  They came in to T2 together and John tagged his 12 year old brother Kevin who then took off on the run.  Kevin proceeded to show dad how it is done by coming in a full 9 minutes ahead of him.  With 3 triathletes in the family, that $25 XTERRA Gift Certificate they won in the raffle will come in handy

A huffy toss was held to give away the free entries into the remaining championship race at Ogden.  Armando Guerrero let one rip that sailed almost twice as far as the nearest competitor.  With those arms he would have been untouchable in a pushup contest.  Linda McCall Williams got a bad bounce when her handlebar dug in and got edged out by not much more than an inch or 2 from Lisa Longinotti

The local Pacifico rep was on hand at the awards to hand out some cool Pacifico Schwag and then accompanied us to a post race party at Cornerstone Bar and Grill for some much needed refreshments!  Thanks Keith.

© 2013 TEAM Unlimited LLC