Turning Right Into Trouble:
Yakima Man Wins Triathlon After After Leaders' Miscue
by Scott Sandsberry
Yakima Herald-Republic Monday, July 7, 2003
When
Michael Bergquist saw Chip Cooper start looking around, seeing nothing
that looked like a triathlon course and saying, "This doesn't seem
right," he knew he was in trouble.
When Kelsey Backen looked around, saw nobody that looked like a triathlete and thought, "This doesn't seem right," he knew he wasn't in trouble.
He was just on uncommon ground - way out in front of Sunday's 21st annual Valley of the Sun Triathlon, on his way to becoming the first Yakima man to win Central Washington's oldest triathlon.
"I'm out there in front, thinking, '1 don't know how to run alone like this. Where IS everybody?'" said Backen, a 24-year old who finished nearly four minutes in front in one hour, 53 minutes and 42 seconds. That was better than eight minutes faster than his previous best showing at the Valley of the Sun, a 10th-place finish in 2001.
"Two
years ago, I was about 30th-something (place) coming off the bike,"
Backen said. "Today, nobody told me anything (during the bicycle
stage) about what place I was in. Naches was where I passed Mick Desserault
(of Yakima, the eventual fourth-place finisher), and I knew he was always
one of the strongest guys out there. But I didn't know I was leading until
I got here (to the bike-to-run exchange).
"I was like, What? I'm in first?"
That was a new experience to Backen, but wouldn't have been for either Bergquist or Cooper, who were in front of Backen and everyone else on the bike leg when they reached the "Y" fork at South Naches Road and Old Naches Highway. The course went to the left, on South Naches; Cooper and Bergquist went right on Old Naches.
Cooper, the 2000 Valley of the Sun winner from Tacoma, was at the time a couple of yards ahead of Bergquist, a veteran of more than 100 triathlons and a member of the all-military Team USA bound for the world military championships next month in The Netherlands.
"I wasn't really paying a whole lot of attention," admitted Bergquist, an Air Force staff sergeant stationed at Geiger Field near Spokane. "Chip was right there in front of me and I figured he knew the course, so I just went with him."
The two pedaled more than a mile off-course, Cooper finally slowing to about 5 mph as he searched in front and behind for anything that looked familiar, before finally deciding to turn around. By the time they got back to the "Y" and could see bicyclists racing by on South Naches, they were something between 25th and 30th place.
"There were people that were strewn along the road in front of us for miles," said Bergquist, 30.
"We just decided to put the hammer down and try to pass as many of them as we could. We had to bike too hard to have a decent run."
Still, Bergquist managed to catch everyone but Backen and runnerup Douglas Hill of Tacoma, while Cooper came back to finish fifth, one spot behind Desserault.
But they weren't about to catch Backen, for whom traithlons advance by stages from his weakest (the swim) to his strongest (the run). He was a member of East Valley's 1997 state-championship cross country team, then ran at Seattle Pacific University, and has just finished work on his masters degree in exercise sciences at Central Washington University.
Still, Backen wasn't accustomed to coming off the bike stage in front. "I was almost more nervous," he said, "than I would have been if I'd been behind."
His lead was so large, though, he had nothing to worry about. Women's winner Susan Marr of Tacoma had plenty to worry about on the run from Cary Steinman of Moxee, who finished the bike stage about 25 seconds behind Marr. The two are routinely among the top female finishers in triathlons across the state, with Marr usually just a minute or two faster.
"I could hear people yelling for Cary as she was coming in (to the bike-to-run exchange)," said Marr, a 41-year-old who last year finished second in her age group at the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Championships.
Early in the11-kilometer (6.8-mile) run, though, Steinman struggled. "I was having a hard time there for a little while," said Steinman, 37, a two-time Valley of the Sun female winner (1988, 1992). Marr built her lead to about 1 1/2 minutes before Steinman closed the gap.
"I kept looking back and couldn't see her," said Marr, who previously had won the race in 2000 and 1993. "But then (nearer the finish) I could see her, so I know she must have come down the hills fast."
Not quite fast enough, as Marr finished in 2:08:09 and Steinman in 2:08:35.
For Steinman, the race was essentially a training day. "I'm getting ready for the Ironman," referring to the Aug. 24 Canada Ironman Triathlon in Penticton, where she hopes to qualify for the Hawaii Ironman. "That scares me a little. You just can't train enough for it."
Source: Yakima Herald Republic
