A couple of southern Virginians paced the field at the Pohanka Oldsmobile Colonial Beach Triathlon held on July 13. The race, now in its 13^th year, had scheduled a 1K swim, 40K bike, and 10K run. It actually featured a swim leg abbreviated by 200 meters—a turn of events that did not displease overall winner Tim Morris of Richmond. The 24 year old Morris conceded a disappointing swim and steadily gained ground on his competition through the out-and-back bike course and the run through the town to take the event by a three and one-half minute margin.

Morris passed then-leader Adam Weddington just prior to the three-mile mark on the run that wended its way past residences in this resort-like riverfront community. He focused on maintaining pace over the last 5K to speed to a 1:46:10 clocking. Bryan Cochran from the Virginia Beach area took second place with his time of 1:49:41, edging Michael Bagshaw, 27, of Chevy Chase who finished third in 1:50:29.

The 38 year old women’s winner, Nancy Lewis of Norfolk, also capitalized on a strong run to win her contest. In a pattern reminiscent of Morris’s race, she emerged from the Potomac River in fifth place, gained ground on the bike. and took command during the run segment. Essaying the fast course in 1:58:05, Lewis crossed the line two minutes up on second-place woman Suzanne Scoggin. Scoggin, 34, from Reston bested the effort of defending champ and two-time winner Deborah Dudas with her time of 2:00:03. Dudas, 39, from Annapolis garnered third-place honors in 2:00:49. This was Lewis’s third win at Colonial Beach.

The 17 year old Weddington managed sixth place overall after his fine start, an effort good enough to take first place by seven minutes and fifteen seconds over his closest competition in the 19 and under age group. This was the largest margin of victory for any of the male age groups under age 55. As is true of many triathletes here and at the other venues, this age-grouper was pointing toward the National Championships on August 17 in Columbia, MD.

Race Director Terry McLaughlin made the decision to cut the swim distance by 20%. The Potomac River swim takes place in the unusually warm waters of Colonial Beach opposite a power plant. Typically, jellyfish are abundant there. This year the stinging creatures were nettlesome enough to curtail the swim.

The Colonial Beach race has waxed and waned in terms of the number of participants. It is still a fun and dependable feature of the local triathlon landscape. It is run by volunteers to aid the cosponsoring Rappahannock Area Y. This group also sponsors a most atypical fall triathlon where transition skills are at a premium. Now in its 14^th year, the event takes place on September 21 at 7:30 AM. The race is unusual in that it begins with a bike leg, moves to an indoor pool swim at the Y, and finishes with a run.

Oh, yes. We do have a "hard-core triathlete" story to report from this race. It seems that Matthew and Phyllis Pallo married on Friday evening. They would not leave on their honeymoon, of course, until after Sunday’s triathlon.

Championships and Series

Multisport athletes have shown the umph to work through the midsummer heat that is the typical hallmark of midseason races like that at Colonial Beach. It’s not all pool work, y’know. Several important events have already occurred and series are well under way. The mid-Atlantic region of USA Triathlon has already held its sprint, international, and long course distance championships. The wryly named "sprint" distance usually encompasses approximate distances of 0.3 mile in the swim, 14 miles on the bike, and a 5K run. The region’s sprint distance championship took place at the Breezy Point Triathlon (1K swim, 20K bike, 5K run) in Norfolk, VA. Colonial Beach winner Morris finished second in that event.

The region which encompasses Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina also held an international distance championship at the Edinboro Triathlon in northwestern Pennsylvania. International distance events involve 1.5K swims, 40K bikes, and 10K runs. This is a common distance for professionals and the version of triathlon that will be contested at the 2000 Olympics in Australia. Athletes vying for the National Age Group championship in Columbia on August 17 also compete on a challenging course at this distance. This column reported the results of the long course championship (the Eagleman Triathlon) in the last issue.

Maryland State Championships

The fifth annual running of the Riverwatch Biathlon (Duathlon) and Triathlon were held on July 26 and 27, respectively, in North East, MD. The contests culminate in the crowning of a state champion in both sports. Triathlantic director and RD Brad Jaeger attracts many multisport athletes to the two-day championships.

Using local roads, the du and tri shared the same 16-mile bike and three-mile run sequences that left from a transition area at the edge of North East’s Town Park. In the Saturday competition, contestants did the three-mile out-and-back run both before and after the single bike loop. In Sunday’s event, a triangular seven-tenths mile swim that chased the ducks from their customary stately swims in the North East River replaced the opening run.

The most hotly contested race was among the male duathletes where winner Craig Lowry, 30, duked it out with 28 year old runner-up Trey Cassidy. Four seconds proved to be the margin of difference as Lowry won in 1:16:26. Chris McHugh finished 3:02 behind Cassidy to earn third place honors in 1:19:02. In the women’s race, Brenda Allen’s 1:33:31 held up as she bested Kim Kruse-Langer’s 1:33:19 effort. Allen, 33, and Kruse-Langer, 32, finished just a minute ahead of the first master’s woman, Bonnie Stoeckl, who took third place in 1:34:20.

In Sunday’s triathlon, Christy Underdonk of Potomac, MD took the women’s title with a 1:21:36 clocking that was good enough to hold off Christine Mackrides of Holland, PA (1:23:50) and Brett Bagshaw (1:25:47). Richard Gizzie, 28, cruised the course in 1:12:11 holding off Kevin Mowery’s 1:12:53. Anthony VanLierop, a 23 year old from Surinam, finished third in 1:14:21. Both VanLierop and Bagshaw placed in their age groups at the Colonial Beach event.

Gizzie from Manassas did well enough to stave off the first relay team (Dip, Clip, Rip) with swimmer Janice Bonner, biker David Kemp, and runner Doug Hutcheson who finished 17 seconds back in 1:12:28. Mowery’s struggle was all the more impressive given the fact that he finished eleventh in Saturday’s duathlon. The 31 year old led a half-dozen competitors who completed both events. Jay Kell, 28, also showed remarkable consistency with his eighth-place finish in Saturday’s du and 22^nd place in the tri. Relayers Hutcheson and Kemp completed a "poor man’s double" with their Saturday duathlon efforts.

Appreciations for Judy Flannery Continue

Countless events and awards have memorialized the inspirational life of Judy Flannery, the world-class local triathlete taken in early April when she was hit by a car on her regular long training ride. One of the events for which Judy was training was the (bicycle) Race Across America. On August 4 shortly after 10 AM Team Judy Flannery crossed the finish line of this race in Savannah, GA. The four-woman team had their problems but persevered to complete, symbolically, Judy’s race. They were greeted on their arrival by Judy’s husband, Dennis, and her children. The team consisted of Valerie Gattis, Rita Simpson, Lyn Brooks, and Sally Edwards. Brooks and Edwards are triathlon icons. Brooks from Baltimore has been a Hawaii Ironman competitor almost since its beginnings in 1978. She has served on the board of Tri-Fed USA (now USA Triathlon) from our area. She directed the popular Baltimore Triathlon. Brooks also continues to stage local events including triathlons. Edwards is a training guru, author, and early advocate of training with heart rate monitors.

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