A DIFFERENT XTERRA HITS THE 'BASIN
by WINA STURGEON
The XTERRA Mountain Championship off-road tri was even bigger this year; over 600 athletes swam the Pineview Reservoir, mountain biked the super-slick, muddy climb up to Snowbasin, then ran up and down Snowbasin's carefully prepared trail.
The elite pro's, working for qualification points towards the 2007 Nationals in Lake Tahoe and the World Championships in Hawaii, ran one race; with some 3,000 feet of climbing by foot and bike. The amateur category was made up mostly of locals whose course was half the pro distance, but it was still a hard slog for the sport and relay divisions.
The pro winners were Seth Wealing (2:31.50) and Jamie Whitmore (2:50.52). Overall amateur winners were Jake Pantone (1:50.38) and Lisa Riedlinger, who beat most of the men by finishing 22nd overall in 2:08.22. (full results for amateur, relay, pro divisions here)
One of the top overall amateur men should be a surprise, but the most surprising part is: he's still climbing the list every year. Jeff Harrison is an orthopedic surgeon who is famous among athletes for his skill at patching them back to competitive perfection. And, he's an athlete himself, known as "Mad Dog" by the U. S. ski team racers with whom he hangs in the hard core backcountry. Harrison was 10th overall in a field of 198 competitors, but that didn't please the 41-year-old from Ogden. He was beaten ("again," he fumed), by his medical partner, sports medicine specialist 54-year-old Steve Scharmann, who came in seventh overall, though a good deed by Harrison definitely cost him some time. Both he and Sharmann also won their age categories.
It's a family affair for Harrison. Wife Melisa is the medical coordinator for the XTERRA event, handling the radio communication along the course and coordinating with the sheriff, fire department and search and rescue.
Here is Jeff Harrison's description of the event:
"The race this year was awesome. It had rained the night before, so all the dust was off the trail. The trails were nice and buffed out. They had said we couldn't use wetsuits for the swim because the water was 74 the night before, but then that morning it was 65, so they allowed wet suits that morning.
I had a wet suit, but I didn’t have it there, so I had someone bring it up to Pineview, because it’s an advantzage to wear a wetsuit. It’s a little faster. You get the flotation from the neoprine, and then you don’t have as much drag because the neoprene is so smooth. I came out of the swim fifth or sixth overall, of all age groups.
The bike was nice, because it had rained and kind of packed the whole thing down good. There was a guy that crashed right in front of me, went off a bridge and fell down into the bottom of a ravine, so I stopped and waited to see that he was okay before going on. I lost about a minute or two.
The temperature was cool during the bike ride, it actually rained a little, it was really nice, about 80 degrees. It seemed like the biggest XTERRA race so far, there were a lot more people.
I was 9th in the bike ride, 10th overall. You had to be extra good with the bike because of the rain the night before, the trail was pretty slick and you could lose some time. It was more of a climb than a technical section, though the course was fairly technical.
Even though it was cooler weather than it has been, there were some bad sunburns among the slower ones. There were some people that were out there quite a while, a long time. There were some cuts and scrapes and dehydration. Melisa coordinates all the medical care for the GOAL foundation, she was out on the course and then at the medical tents. She came and found me after I finished.
That night, they had a big party downtown, with a lot of restaurants offering food for the "Taste of Ogden," There was a rockin' band from New Orleans too. The awards were given out at the party, so that's where I got my medal. I also got a cake that Melisa brought, it was my birthday the day before.
I think the GOAL foundation did an unbelievable job, putting on the race and highlighting Ogden and Weber County."
Harrison can't wait until next year's XTERRA event. He says with a sly grin, "I'm getting closer on him (Scharmann)."
Janet Clark, president of Team Unlimited, which owns the XTERRA event, says the Ogden stop on the tour is one of the best in the world: "It has perhaps the best three things: first, an epic course at Snowbasin, which is a world class event venue with fantastic racing; second is downtown Ogden with it's big festival atmosphere. We had clinics, live music, bike rides and runs for the kids the night before the race. And third is the community, it's just the most warm and friendly reception we get anywhere."
Like every other event organizer that comes to Ogden, she had the largest praise for GOAL, the group which organizes and trains volunteers for the world class competitions which increasingly come to the Ogden area; and for the Utah Sports Commission, of whom Clark says, "They really believe in sports as a driving economic force for Utah."