XTERRA ONE

[MarkD]

Great event. A few initial thoughts from my first experience (I'll post a report when I have more time)...

1. Great mountain bikers are a thing of beauty to watch as they blow by you like you're standing still.

2. Most of them aren't great runners.

3. Trees don't move when you hit them.

Believe it or not, the course was dry - Ravenna got no rain over the weekend (until right after the awards ceremony). The gods were smiling on this event...

Nice work everyone.

[chuckm]

Wow Mark 6th overall. Not too bad for your 5th time on a mountain bike.

[bwilms]

I can't say enough about this race. It was a ton of fun and a perfect entrance for me into the world of triathlons. The sense of community was so strong and I got to meet a lot of great people training for and competing in this race. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great experience.

Those of you who picked up Mountain Biking for this race, I hope you consider trailbuilding as an option once the winter rolls around. CAMBA schedules trailbuilding days (usually every other weekend) to build and maintain our area trails during the off season. It's a great way to learn more about the mountain bike community and get out of the house in the winter time. Keep an eye on their website (http://www.camba.us) - dates usually spring up around October or so.

For those of you who are interested, I have some photos of Alan, Jess and me from the race on my Athlinks profile:

www.athlinks.com/gallery/15208/Xterra-O-N-E-2008.aspx

Hope to see you on the trail!

[Alan]

Ramos, Caylor Win XTERRA O.N.E.


By Ann Mickey, XTERRA Rep

XTERRA O.N.E. was held at the West Branch State Park in Ravenna, Ohio - One of the most scenic and up to date parks we've visited. The entire park had recently been closed for a year to renovate all the facilities and camp sites. Great place to camp and water ski with plenty of trails to test your mountain biking and trail running skills.

The atmosphere during registration was like stepping back in time when something new was exciting and fun. Many of the folks racing were road tri types that knew Gregg and Katie Genovese (XTERRA O.N.E. Race directors) from other races so they wanted to give the off road a try. The excitement to race an off road triathlon was electric. Since this was the first XTERRA here the numbers were expected to be low, approximately 50 or 60. When registration closed there were 91 athletes signed up!

The swim started without a hitch, it was an out and back swim with a sandbar in the middle so some athletes actually were able to stand up in the 1 ½ feet of water and run part of the swim. First out the water was none other than XTERRA Ambassador Peter Hanson followed by Kayo Ramirez who was drafting him. After the last race at Torn Shirt where Peter missed the start of the race because he was warming up on the run trails and couldn't find his way off the trail in time for the race to start, Kayo had some mercy on his buddy and allowed him to exit the water first but kept right on his heels.

The bike was checker blocked with turns, knuckle scraping tight trees, rocks, roots, logs, ruts, climbs, narrow bridges, a stream, and yes, at this race they even threw in the kitchen sink. Ted Ramos was first back into transition with no one else in site. He looked to have fresh legs going out on the run and it was questionable if anyone could catch him. Second back was Tom Franek followed by Peter Hanson.

The run was well marked and included nearly everything the bike course had to offer and perhaps more since they threw in more climbs than what was on the bike course.
Even though the weather was threatening with extremely dark clouds, the distant rumble of thunder and the occasional drop or two, everyone stayed for the awards ceremony and to talk with each other about the off road experience. They couldn't get enough with numerous people asking when and where the next race would be.

For the women's field Sarah Caylor dominated the field. She came out of the water first and never looked back. When she came back to transition off the bike, she had a 32 minute lead over the women's field. Sarah is from Toronto Canada and is new to XTERRA but with two wins (also won Trimax earlier this year) under her belt she is going to be one to watch in the future. Her background is Mountain Biking but she needed to learn how to swim. Her friends took her out and had her train with them, she got hooked and tried her first XTERRA at Trimax and loves it. Hopefully XTERRA will come back to Canada she said as they would love to host a race up there.

The top four female athletes:
1 SARAH CAYLOR
2 LAUREN MIKA
3 KELLY LANG
4 AMY SCARPITTI

The top four male athletes:
1 TEODORO RAMOS
2 TOM FRANEK
3 PETER HANSON
4 JOHN WILLSE