Part 1: The Distaff Side: If the first thing that popped into your mind upon reading the above headline was "Tonya Harding," you need help.No, what we're talking about is trying to predict winners in the fiercely competitive age group divisions at the Worlds in Las Vegas. While it's nice to watch all those people come charging down the finish line long after the pros have come in, it's even more fun when you realize that there are a lot of terrific athletes and grand rivalries, some of which have been going on for years at various distances all the way up to the full 140.6-mile Ironman. When it comes to the amateur ranks, there’s no one on the planet with more expertise than man-about-triathlon Jerry MacNeil. If you’ve ever heard him announce a race, you know that he’s the Howard Cosell of the sport, able to spout the splits and place finishes of even the most obscure back-of-the-packers off the top of his head, but without being quite as obnoxious. Lake to Lake newcomers get top finishes
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110626/LOVELAND04/110625011Colorado Springs resident Megan Riepma wasn't sure what to expect Saturday morning when she arrived for the Loveland Lake to Lake Triathlon at North Lake Park.
She had heard about the race but never had the opportunity to compete in the 11-year-old event until now.
She's glad she did.
Riepma, 27, paced herself to a victory, crossing the line as the top female finisher in just a little over two hours and 31 minutes.
“I've heard of the race and of last year's competition, and I knew some of the names, so I'd figured I'd come up,” she said. “It's one of those Colorado historic (races) that is kind of classic.”
When Riepma crossed the finish line, she had no clue she was the women's winner. She had begun the race in a different swim wave and a couple of women had crossed the line before her. She knew she had finished well, but the surprise that she had finished in the top spot made the day that much better.
“I figured I was in the top three, but I wasn't quite sure where I actually fell,” she said. “I kept thinking that maybe there was another person ahead of me. I caught people on the bike, but usually a couple people beat me on the swim.”
With Saturday being the first time Riepma had seen the course, a 1.5K swim, 30-mile bike ride and 10K run, every curve was something new for her. She said the swim was fairly easy, although that's her weakest event, and the bike ride was one of the most exciting courses she had seen in a while. The run was just a chance for her to think about the finish.
“I really like the bike, the steep hills and having to navigate it all,” she said. “The bike could have been a little bit faster. I'm a bit better of a biker than what we saw today.”
Riepma, who plans to go professional at the end of the year, said she enjoyed Saturday's race so much that she hopes to come back next year and defend her title, if time allows.
“It's possible,” she said. “I am planning on going pro at the end of the year, so we'll see how that turns out.”
Although Riepma was the first woman to cross the finish line, she was still a few minutes off the overall leader, 32-year-old Chris McDonald of Tucson, Ariz.
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McDonald, an Australian native, led the triathlon for much of the race and bested nearly 900 runners, completing the course in 2:10:32. His time was nearly 10 minutes faster than last year's top winner.
For McDonald, the race was really just an end to a training camp he attended in Boulder.
“There's a group of us who did a training camp all this week out of Boulder. Today was the last day of the camp, and we capped it off with a race,” he said. “It was just kind of a fun overload.”
Saturday's race was the first time McDonald had participated in the Lake to Lake Triathlon, but he found the course to be challenging and felt the race was a good way to work himself into the rest of the summer's races. Plus, winning wasn't a bad way to finish.
“It was a good way to blow the cobwebs out,” he said. “Go back to why I took up the sport.”
The best part of the course, he said, was the 30-mile bike trek from Lake Loveland to Horsetooth Reservoir and back.
“The bike course was awesome. It was one of the better courses I've done,” he said. “There was just something for everybody.”
Finishing with a dominating time could also prove to be a motivator for McDonald to return to the Lake to Lake Triathlon in the coming years. He said he spends the majority of his summers in Boulder, so getting back to Loveland wouldn't be too much of a hassle, and defending his title, that's just good sportsmanship.
“It's so close to where I spend my summers,” he said, “it's silly not to return.”
McDonald, Riepma winners of 11th Lake to Lake Triathlon
Posted: 06/27/2011 10:46:36 AM MDT
http://www.reporterherald.com/sports/local/ci_18361766Click photo to enlarge
Confidence is not a problem for Chris McDonald.
The Australian native and current resident of Tucson, Ariz., is comfortable enough in the nomadic pursuit of excellence in triathlons that hes moved to Boulder for training purposes this summer, and thats what drove him to compete in Saturdays 11th annual Lake to Lake Triathlon. And where others might do a bit of research on the route, McDonald decided to go in more or less cold in terms of the layout.
He did take two wrong turns on the bicycle portion of the race, but he was strong enough in the final 10-kilometer run to breeze to first place, winning the mens race with a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes and 37 seconds. For the women, Colorado Springs resident Megan Riepma took first in 2:31.47 Nadia Sullivan was the top local finisher, taking ninth in the womens race at 2:39.37.
McDonald, 32, used the race as a training launcher for other competitions to come this summer, and he in fact cycled back to Boulder after wrapping up his day in Loveland.
Theres a group of 17 of us at training camp this week in Boulder, and we capped it off with this race. It was a 30-hour training week, where you overtrain a bit and then blow out the cobwebs the last day, said McDonald, who will tackle longer triathlon races in Oregon and Kentucky later this summer. Ive been coming to the States six summers in a row. Ive never run this race before the lake is awesome, wonderful to run around, and the way they put this bike course together was beautiful.
I kind of like to go in a bit blind. Its more fun. Missing two turns wasnt the best thing (runner-up) Kirk (Nelson) pretty much caught up to me, and that wasnt what I was looking for. I had to run a bit harder than I wanted, but I was able to hold on.
On the womens side, Riepma had never run this race, either, and liked the idea of using it as a training test as she prepares for the USTA National meet in August in Vermont.
Its a classic triathlon in Colorado, so I thought Id add it to the schedule. Im gearing up for the Olympic-length races, she said. Its always great to win, but I didnt taper much for this one ... I trained right through it.
Riepma came out of the second wave of female competitors, which meant she really didnt know where she stood. As it turned out, the top finishers came out of the second wave.
Id prefer to know where everyone else is; I like to run it head-to-head, she said. Today, I was always thinking someone was ahead of me, and I tried to pick off someone if they were still ahead.
Nearly 900 athletes took to the course on a day that gave everyone a break as the sun didnt really heat up until more than half the field made it to the finish line at the North Lake Amphitheater.
I was very pleased with the amount of water support we had, with kayakers everywhere. We had the last swimmer out by 7:45, and last year it was closer to 8:30, said race director Peggy Shockley. You put 800 people out there in open water ... thats probably the most stressful thing. But each part of it has its concerns.
We had an elite wave out there today that was pretty fast. We had the nice cloud cover when they were riding, and its just going well.
Kyle Koso can be reached at 669-5050, ext. 512, or kkoso@reporter-herald.com
Publish Date: 6/26/2011
