Shumacher repeats against bigger triathlon field
Kambria Schumacher wasn’t the first woman over the finish line Saturday in the sprint division of the Best in the West Triathlon Festival.
In fact, Schumacher, of Crawfordsville, was looking at her older sister Devynn’s backside as they came down the hill leading to the finish line inside Lewis Creek Park. But that was because Devynn was the anchor leg of the winning relay team. She finished 30 seconds ahead of Kambria, who defended her title in the event, finishing in 1:06.39, nearly two minutes better than her 2011 finish of 1:08.56.
Kambria Schumacher said there was a little good-natured competition going into the event . “Their hope was to beat me and my hope was to beat them,” she said.
Schumacher said she was satisfied with her finish, though her 5K run was a little slower than last year.
“I was happy that I was able to cut some time off,” she said. “I was a little disappointed that my run was slower. My runs this year have not been quite up to par, so I’ll have to work on that. It was still good, though. I’m glad that my swim and biking were faster.”
The two-day festival, based at the park on Foster Lake, included Olympic, Collegiate Olympic and Half-Ironman competitions as well as the Sprint event. The Olympic events were held Sunday morning while the Sprint and Half-Ironman were held Saturday.
Meet Director Blair Bronson said the two days went “really well.”
“We had great weather both days and we grew by about 75 participants more than last year,” he said. “That’s a pretty good size increase and we had a lot more interest from the community in terms of racing and volunteering.”
He said local volunteers included Kiwanis and Rotary club members and “a couple of students from the high school who came out.”
Overall winner of the Olympic event (1500-meter swim, a 40K bike ride and a 10K run) was local professional triathlete Jeff Smith of Portland, who finished in a course-record 2:05.51. The women’s winner was Angie Smith of Salem, who clocked 2:21.11.
The collegiate men’s winner was Grant Eldridge of Oregon State University, in 2:08.05, who led the Beavers to a team victory over the University of Oregon, University of Montana and the University of British Columbia in what Bronson said is the the first Northwest Conference Championship ever held.
“Next year I hope to get all the schools in the Northwest Conference here,” he said. “This year getting them together was like herding cats.”
Julia Snieder of Montana won the women’s collegiate race, in 2:39.18.
The Half Ironman men’s winner was professional triathlete David Garcia of Portland, who finished the 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile (half-marathon) run in 4:22.15. Garcia won the Eugene Triathlon earlier in the summer. The women’s winner, who placed fifth overall, was Dierdre Douglas of Vancouver, B.C., who clocked 4:58.23.
Schumacher was sixth overall in the Sprint competition – a 500-meter swim, 12-mile bike ride and 5K run, behind overall winner Brian Gruenemay of West Linn, who won in 1:01.13.
Also competing in the Sprint competition from Sweet Home were: Rebecca Wolthuis, who was 36th out of 99 finishers in 1:20.48; Ivan Wothuis, who was 43rd in 1:23.22; Eric Mauer, 51st in 1:25.05; and Beth Suhr, 91st in 1:48.32.
The four events totaled 249 finishers, counting relay teams, hailing from as far away as Montana and British Columbia in nearly every race.
Bronson said he has plans to improve the event even further next year, including adding some more pre-race clinics.
“We’ll bring them in earlier so if anyone is interested in the sport, we’ll do a Triathlon 101 clinic where they can learn what it takes to complete one and, hopefully, convince people they can do it.”
He said he’s aiming to bring another 100 competitors to the event, which means he will need “double the volunteers.
“The more volunteers, it makes the event run smoother. There’s less work for every volunteer out there. Volunteers really make the event possible. That’s true of the sport as a whole.”