Scott Swanson
Sweet Home’s Kambria Schumacher has been steadily rising through the ranks of Northwest triathletes over the past several years and she’s winding up her 2015 season once again at the Best of the West Triathlon at Foster Lake.
Schumacher, 27, will aim to win both the sprint and the Olympic events over the weekend, a feat she accomplished last year. She’s dominated the sprint event at Best of the West.
“Kambria is one of the top athletes in the Northwest in terms of the sprint distance,” said Best in the West founder and director Blair Bronson.
This year’s event, on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 12 and 13, at Lewis Creek Park, will be the fifth for Best in the West, which has grown steadily, with a record number of entries going into this week.
“The sign-ups are looking good,” Bronson said. “We have 500 at the moment and we expect another 100 to 200. That’s a 25 percent growth from last year. It’s pretty much been that way every year.”
This year’s event will again include five individual triathlon competitions: Sprint, Olympic, Half-Ironman, Try a Tri, and Splash and Dash.
The largest of the five is the Sprint race at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, which is composed of a 500-meter swim in Foster Lake, 12-mile bike ride and a 5K (3.1-mile) run, mostly on flat roads along the lake. With water temperatures expected to be in the low 70s, wetsuits will be optional. A duathlon comprising the bike and run portions will also be offered. The bike route runs along North River Drive to Northside Drive, then back to the park, followed by the 5K east and south of the park on North River and Quartzville roads with a turnaround between the two bridges on Quartzville north of Highway 20.
The Half-Ironman also begins at 8 a.m. Saturday with a 1.2-mile swim, followed by 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run – half the distances of a full Ironman. The bicycle portion has been changed slightly this year to eliminate riders using Brewster Road.
“We’ll send them up and through Lacomb to Fish Hatchery Drive, where they’ll turn around at the covered bridge,” Bronson said. “Brewster was high-traffic and high-speed. We want to try to minimize the impact we have on traffic.” The Half-Ironman runners will follow Quartzville Road from Lewis Creek Park to Green Peter Lake, then return.
Bronson said the Half-Iron race will again serve as the Pacific Northwest Long Course Championship and this year’s Olympic event will also serve as the Pacific Northwest District Championship, as well as the Northwest Collegiate Conference Championship, with athletes from seven Northwest universities, including Oregon and Oregon State, expected to compete. The collegiate competitors will start before the main field in the Olympic event, which begins at 8 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, with a 1500-meter swim in the lake, followed by a 40K (just under 25 miles) bike ride along North River, Pleasant Valley and McDowell Creek roads to a turnaround point a couple of miles south of Waterloo, then back to the park, where contestants will finish with a 10K (6.2 miles) run following portions of the 5K and Half-Ironman courses.
Bronson said Best in the West has been selected to serve as the Northwest District event for at least the next two years.
“They usually try to move them around, he said. “It is cool to have recognition from the national board.
“The Olympic distance is the one most highly sought after. We will have racers from all over the Northwest.”
Schumacher said doubling in last year’s event was tough in the Olympic event, in which she experienced some cramping during the 10K run – something that she plans to address this time around by trying to drink more liquids during the bike portion.
“I feel like I have a better handle on it,” she said. “”I guess it was kind of a learning experience. This year I plan to hydrate more.”
In addition to the three main events, the Try a Tri, a beginner-only race for adults, will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday and feature a 250-meter swim in the lake, a five-mile bike ride along North River Road, which will be closed for the event, and a 1.5-mile run.
Also back is the Splash & Dash for youngsters aged 7-12, featuring swims of 100 to 200 meters and runs from 1 to 2 kilometers, depending on age, all within the park. Splash & Dash is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Sunday, but could be subject to adjustment. Youngsters wanting to add the cycling event can enter the Try a Tri.
Schumacher said this triathlon season, her fourth “complete” campaign, has gone “pretty well.”
She finished first at the Siskiyou Triathlon in Ashland in early May and followed that up with second-place overall female finishes at the Onion Man Triathlon later that month in Walla Walla, Wash., and the Blue Lake Triathlon in Portland two weeks later.
On Aug. 8 she finished 18th in her age group at the USA Triathlon Olympic-Distance National Championships in Milwaukee, Wis., in 2:17:25.
That qualifies her to compete in the International Triathlon Union amateur world championships in September 2016.
Ultimately, Schumacher said, she hopes to earn her professional card, which requires qualification by placing high in specific races.
“I’m planning on heading that way,” she said. “I think it has been good to get quite a few years in as an amateur, to get that base. That way, I won’t have that much pressure when I turn pro.”
One challenge for triathletes in the Northwest, both she and Bronson said, is that there are a limited number of qualifying races in the area. There are more on the East Coast.
“The Northwest has quite a few races but not as many big races where we have competitors from across the nation,” Schumacher said. “You have to travel to get to those races. Definitely, traveling out of state is good. Traveling is good experience as well.”
She said she has been focusing on her swimming, which has been “one of the weakest” components of her performances, and her swim times have consistently improved this year. She also makes it a point to ride in company.
“Riding with other people who are better than you is really good,” Schumacher said. “It’s learning how to deal with fatigue on a bike, when your legs are burning.”
She does have a running coach, Cathie Twomey Bellamy of Eugene, who has been a big help.
“She’s pretty awesome,” Schumacher said.