DINO Adventure Triathlon: An Athlete's Perspective

By Ryan DeCook (XTERRA Ambassador)
Photo by Shawn Barney (www.simplethink.com)

This year's DINO Adventure Triathlon took place in Indiana's scenic France Park on what turned out to be a picture-perfect day. Although wetsuits were allowed, I decided not to wear one as the water temperature was in the mid 70s and a little too warm for me. I exited the crystal-clear water after a lackluster swim on my part and hurried into transition behind a handful of competitors.

Once on the bike I was within a couple of minutes of XTERRA ambassador Bruce Pisarek, Ironman Michael Kern, and race director Brian Holzhausen. After surviving the first climb and technical downhill, the course flattened out and the race really started to spread out. I quickly passed Michael in some of the technical riding and after another mile or two of fairly non-technical riding I caught up to Brian and Bruce riding hard. I knew I had to make my pass hard to drop these two XTERRA veterans and lost them after a very steep uphill. After a quick river crossing and some rocky terrain, I came into the second lap without seeing anyone else and started passing riders on their first lap. It was not until I reached transition after my second lap that I realized that I was leading the race! I was quite thrilled and after a sloppy transition headed out onto the run.

Although the run was only four miles and fairly easy, there was one very difficult climb that I had the pleasure of running twice! I felt good and was thinking that at this pace, there were very few people that might be able to keep up. Then I remembered Andrew telling me that Tim Menoher was supposed to have been at the race. I continued at a quick pace just in case someone might show up. But I had not seen Tim, so I figured he must not have started the race.

After I finished climbing the steep hill the second time, I had about a half mile to the finish. I had just passed some runners on their first lap and looked back to see if anyone was close. Then I saw him ... he was about twenty meters behind me. At first I thought it must have been someone I had just lapped. So I looked again, and to my distress, this guy was closing fast! After about another 30 seconds, he passed and said, "Are you Ryan?" and I said "Yeah, are you Tim?” Of course he answered “Yes” as he flew by seemingly fresh and full of energy. Tim completely took me by surprise and passed as I was really starting to feel the fatigue from the hill we had just climbed. Although I kept him in close sight for the rest of the race, there was little chance for me to beat a runner as good as Tim.

Although Tim was overcoming a little sinus infection, I was still content to finish so close. I wouldn't want to beat him when he was sick anyway. Like I told him, I’ll wait until he is well! (Editors Note: Hmmm? Do I hear a challenge?)

Not long after Tim and I finished, Bruce, Michael and Billy Anderson raced across the line to finish out the top five. Many other impressive performances were had, including overall women's champion Shannon Johnson with a stellar run. Alison Strong showed XTERRA Spirit - overcoming her Torn Shirt demons, winning the Spirit Award of the day given by the XTERRA ambassadors.

Congrats to all the competitors and hats off to the following for a great event: to Brian Holzhausen and the DINO crew for putting on a great race; to France Park for making the event come together, and to all the volunteers for their time. Also thanks for Andrew Marsh for all he does to make each event special with hours of behind-the-scenes work and commentating that makes every last finisher feel special! See ya'll in Tahoe!

Live More ... Tri Xterra!!!

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