Scheifele, Sams Win XTERRA Appalachia

By Ann Mickey, XTERRA Representative

Here we are nestled in the rolling hills of Yellowcreek State Park in Indiana, PA. Mother Nature greeted the athletes on race morning with cool temps and billows of steam rising off the water, it was damp 60 degrees a bit chilly considering it would warm up to the mid 80's. The course was in excellent condition that consists of tight twisting climbs and tricky downhills with hidden water bars. The run course for the first couple miles was single track with some healthy climbs and steep switch backs, but later athletes were rewarded with smooth grassy sections and stunning fern gardens.
 
As the athletes lined up for the out and back swim you could feel the excitement in the air from the many newbies doing their first off-road race. The water was like glass with no wind with the water temp at 78 degrees. Many athletes choose to swim with their wetsuits for some added speed.

First out of the water was none other than Shawn & Alicia Markey from Delaware. They exited the swim together chatting about the game plan for the bike and run. All didn't go as planned for Shawn on the bike. Only 2 miles into the bike he had a little run in with another racer that left his back tire with a nice slice in it. He did not have another tire and since it was tubeless there was little hope for him to get it fixed. He ran the rest of the bike course with his bike. Chris Sams was first into transition off the bike closely followed by Claude Laberge. Chris had a 1:03 lead into transition but couldn't get his stuff together to get out and lost the lead to Claude by 10 seconds. Great lesson to be learned, you can certainly loose time if you don't have a smooth transition. Claude took off on the run but was quickly caught by Chris who regained the lead. Chris smoked the field by completing the run in just 25 minutes, total finish time 1:27:07. Claude stayed in second with a finish time of  1:31:26.

In the women's field, Alicia Markey came out of the water first with a swim time of 9:06 but lost the lead to Cati Scheifele on the bike.  Cati has an extensive background in mountain biking having only done one other triathlon ever. This was her first tri this year and is quoted as being "hooked" on XTERRA now and will now do other races in hopes of qualifying for Nationals. Having come out of the water over 6 minutes after Alicia she used her mountain biking skills to pass most of the field. Thinking she wasn't in great position after her swim she saw Maureen Jende in front of her and that gave her incentive to push harder. She passed Maureen but Maureen didn't let her go she grabbed her wheel and they passed Alicia in the last mile of the bike and came into transition together. Maureen and Cati left transition together on the run. Cati's cheering section had told her she was in second place so she pushed harder leaving Maureen behind her. To her delight at the finish line she found out she had just won her first race ever.

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