» 2008 Orange County Triathlon

September 28th, 2008 was the inaugural Orange County Triathlon in Mission Viejo. The city has a long history of hosting endurance events. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics saw the road race hosted there and the OCPAC triathlon called Mission Viejo home for nearly two decades. This morning a dense fog descended over the entire region while about 700 participants prepared for the start of the swim. The swim was a 1.5k in Lake Mission Viejo where the densest fog settled. Those assembled at the start line could hardly see the buoys in the water, but they had to put that out of their minds because they had an Olympic distance event ahead of them.

Photo by Bryan and Jamie Sheasby

As the athletes lined up on the beach they at least knew they wouldn’t be shocked by cold water. The water was 76 degrees in the lake which is just cold enough to allow wetsuits but warm enough to be pretty much perfect. At 7AM the first wave started the race and the athletes started their search through the fog for the course. Soon enough a large crowd gathered at the swimout which was at the boat ramp. A mere 18 minutes after the start Benjamin Sanson came out of the water with nobody in sight behind him. He would hold onto that lead for the rest of the race and take the overall win with a time of 1:58:17. Sanson, who is from France, is also racing in Kona at the Ironman World Championships coming up in October of this year.

Soon enough the rest of the athletes made their way out of the water, up the boat ramp and into T1. Here they met their next challenge which was a bike mount area on an uphill. More then a few athletes fell over or otherwise had problems here. Most made it out quickly onto the hill laden bike course which took them all the way to Santiago Canyon and back to T2. (Click Here to see the course)

Finally the athletes left T2 for a grueling 10k run. By this time the temperature had shot up from a mere 60 degrees in the morning to 85 degrees. The runners were taken onto a course which taunted them with two views of the the finish line before they finally turned for the downhill sprint across the finish. The event finished on Olympiad at the same location that the 1984 Olympic road race finished. Needless to say everyone who finished the race was extremely happy at their accomplishment.

In addition to Sanson’s amazing finish, amateur athlete Beth Gerdes took the honor of overall female winner coming in at a phenomenal 2:24:00.1 and beating the only female elite by over three minutes.

Photo by Bryan and Jamie Sheasby

RESULTS

MALE OVERALL AGE GROUP WINNER
Robert Skaggs 2:05:52.4

FEMALE OVERALL AGE GROUP WINNER
Beth Gerdes 2:24:00.1

MALE ELITE
Benjamin Sanson 1:58:17
Kyle Hughes 2:08:17
Grady Funk 2:13:29

FEMALE ELITE
Kerri McClellan 2:27:46.5

MALE 15-19
Tyler Weismann 2:30:58
Aaron Hoff 2:35:17
Benjamin Stone 2:44:01

MALE 20-24
Max Biessmann 2:06:36
Shay Scott 2:22:19
Brandon Cammell 2:23:28

FEMALE 20-24
Christina Venturacci 2:30:41.3
Sara Davis 2:31:47.9
Bianca Simonetti 2:32:43.5

MALE 25-29
Ian Mikelson 2:09:08.1
Tom Stepp 2:12:30.6
Carter Bowen 2:17:52.5

FEMALE 25-29
Beth Gerdes 2:24:00.1
Courtney Baird 2:24:30.8
Kelly Weinstein 2:38:45.7

MALE 30-34
Trevor Blair 2:17:42.9
Scott Fentless 2:19:29.3
Daniel Yu 2:19:42.3

FEMALE 30-34
Alena Machova 2:28:47.4
Berin Keen 2:39:20.4
Cheri Yokoi 2:40:24.7

MALE 35-39
Claudio Bokamper 2:13:10.2
Robert Hilton 2:16:53.5
Christopher Hill 2:16:56.9

FEMALE 35-39
Leslie Tomaich 2:28:26.0
Arin Gilmer 2:32:10.5
Brigid Freyne 2:39:17.8

MALE 40-44
Robert Skaggs 2:05:52.4
Michael Collins 2:13:49.5
Mark Haskins 2:17:30.0

FEMALE 40-44
Hope Hall 2:30:26.2
Linda Vigil 2:31:26.4
Margaret Human 2:31:26.4

MALE 45-49
Alex Begg 2:08:27.2
Andy Seitz 2:14:22.4
Peter Scharer 2:19:21.4

FEMALE 45-49
Debbie Richardson 2:27:57.7
Regina Froemmling 2:33:56.9
Sherry Rennard 2:35:46.7

MALE 50-54
Kirk Fitzek 2:20:37.1
Mark Stoner 2:21:41.4
Ben Putman 2:25:23.8

FEMALE 50-54
Ikuko Cianci 3:02:39.2
Sally Lamb 3:05:09.0

MALE 55-59
Richard Feuille Jr. 2:30:47.7
Johnie Hamilton 2:33:02.5
Jim Jones 2:46:41.9

FEMALE 55-59
Heather Woodruff 3:04:42.8

MALE 60-64
Thom McHale 2:31:12.5
Bob Crawford 2:52:57.8
William Langstaff 2:59:13.7

FEMALE 60-64
Ann Fordiani 2:46:18.4
Trish Kimper 2:55:48.6

MALE 65-69
Dave Stuart 2:46:34.6
Denny Jurman 3:35.00.5

MALE 70+
Garry Elmitt 3:21:52.6

RELAY
Parker the Green Tigrs 2:15:21.2
Germain Sho-Air 2:20:41.7
Rejino American Interb 2:23:03.0