Reigning XTERRA Pan America Tour Champions Josiah Middaugh and Suzie Snyder successfully defended their titles at the 12th annual XTERRA Oak Mountain Championship race on a sweltering hot day in Pelham, Alabama.
Middaugh (Eagle-Vail, Colorado) has now won four of the last five races at Oak Mountain State Park and this is his second win of the season. He won XTERRA Costa Rica last month. For Snyder (Reno, Nevada) the win is her second straight in Alabama and third this season. She also won XTERRA Argentina and Costa Rica earlier this year.
Entering his 17th season of racing XTERRA, and his 12th year racing here in Alabama, Middaugh mixed an un-matched level of experience with unbelievable speed to take the win in 2:25:23.
The 2015 XTERRA World Champion was eighth out of the water, a full two-minutes behind the lead group of Ian King (USA), Karsten Madsen (CAN), Veit Hoenle (GER), Branden Rakita (USA), Francisco Serrano (MEX), and Jean-Philippe Thibodeau (CAN), and he trailed Kieran McPherson (NZL) by roughly 30-seconds. By the time he got to the climb only two of those men were still ahead of him.
Middaugh posted the fastest bike split in 1:26:00, nearly two minutes faster than the next best time posted by Madsen, but still didn’t reel in either Madsen or Serrano by the bike-to-run transition.
Serrano took the lead out of the bike-to-run transition, followed roughly 10-seconds later by Madsen and another 10-seconds by Middaugh.
As Middaugh pulled away on the run the chase behind him for second was on.
For Madsen, who finished third last year at this race and crashed-out two years ago, it was a rewarding runner-up performance.
Brian Smith, one of many Coloradoans who is coached by Middaugh, outran his mentor by three seconds to post the fastest 10K of the day in 36:43 and finish in 4th place. Branden Rakita, who was solid all day, rounded out the top five.
For the second straight year at this race Suzie Snyder led from wire-to-wire. Today she posted the fastest elite swim, bike, and run times to take the tape in 2:45:29, more than six-minutes ahead of two-time XTERRA World Champ Lesley Paterson.
Julie Baker, who upset Snyder last year at XTERRA Beaver Creek, was close out of the water but the gap Snyder put on Baker and the rest of the field simply grew throughout the day.
For Paterson, who has a million-and-one things going on in her life from coaching, to promoting her book, to marketing and movies, there were no excuses.
Baker, who rode the whole last half of the bike right behind Paterson, finished in third. After the race, she half-jokingly said “after that run, I have no idea why I do this.”
Baker was referring to the relentless heat and humidity that zapped the strength of every competitor out on the course.
Snyder explained that a lot of what makes the run so hard is the bike. “Well, it’s definitely the heat but it’s also the nature of the bike course being so twisty and turny. You’re constantly accelerating and decelerating so it takes a lot of power out of your legs.”
Middaugh, the men’s winner, added that the dehydration factor is also a result of the challenging bike course. “It’s such a hard course to drink on,” he said. “I got through mile 10 and had gone through maybe half a water bottle, and then there’s almost nowhere to drink the rest of the course. I had a little bit of Gel and a little bit of water but pretty much no drinking through the last 8 miles so I think that caught up to all of us on the run.”
Maia Ignatz handled the day seamlessly and put in a great run, the third-best split behind only Snyder and Paterson, to finish in fourth while Liz Gruber, a fellow Coloradoan, placed fifth.
ELITE MALE:
1 Josiah Middaugh, USA 2:25:23
2 Karsten Madsen, CAN 2:26:04
3 Francisco Serrano, MEX 2:26:52
4 Brian Smith, USA 2:28:29
5 Branden Rakita, USA 2:29:28
ELITE FEMALE:
1 Suzie Snyder, USA 2:45:29
2 Lesley Paterson, GBR 2:51:36
3 Julie Baker, USA 2:54:42
4 Maia Ignatz, USA 2:55:49
5 Liz Gruber, USA 2:58:40