When Finishing First Doesn’t Mean You Win

Padra Meyer of Des Plaines, IL was the first woman to cross the finish line in Saturday’s Door County Triathlon sprint distance event. She even broke the tape, but she didn’t win the race.

When you’re organizing a race in which 1,000 competitors are starting with a quarter-mile swim leg, it’s impossible to start everyone at the same time, so Race Director Sean Ryan starts the athletes in waves. Most athletes are organized by age group, but top-level competitors are asked to identify themselves so that they can be placed in the “elite wave,” which is the first wave of competitors to enter the water.

Since times are kept with a timing chip that gets activated when the athlete passes through the starting gate, and stopped when they cross the finish line, participants in later waves still get the same accurate timing as the elite runners. Typically, race officials are assured that the first person crossing the finish line is the winner. Unless, of course, an elite athlete doesn’t start with the elite wave.

That’s what happened Saturday, when Heidi Kraut of Oconomowoc won the sprint course but finished after the first woman had already crossed the line.

“I think it’s the first time that has ever happened at one of my races,” Ryan said. “One of the reasons we have the elite wave is so we can be sure who the winner is when they cross.”

By the time awards were handed out, the order was corrected and Kraut’s time of 1:18:59 topped Meyer’s 1:20:26.6, giving her a belatedly recognized victory.

He said some competitors have told him that they prefer to start with their age group because they draw energy from working their way up through the crowd. If you start at the top, there are few, if any, people to chase and you’re essentially running against yourself.

That was just about the only hiccup in a huge event staged at Frank E. Murphy County Park in Egg Harbor. The sprint distance race filled to its 1,000-person capacity, while the half ironman event drew 950, a jump of 200 over last year.

This year the Door County Triathlon went up against a Racine Half Ironman race organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. That race doubled its capacity to 2,000 this year, and Ryan said it’s a testament to the reputation of the Door County Triathlon and the destination that the race grew in the face of such a stiff challenge.

“I fully expect to sell out next year,” Ryan said. “It’s a very viral community. They talk, they blog, they spread the word of mouth.”

The weekend brought people of all ages to Door County to test themselves in either a sprint course (quarter-mile swim, 18-mile bike ride, and 3.1-mile run) or Half Ironman course (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and 13.1-mile run). The oldest competitor of the weekend was a 76-year-old in the sprint distance, though a 71-year-old took on the Half Ironman.

The Half Ironman featured the best contest of the weekend, with Green Bay’s Jeff Tarkowski holding off defending champion Mark Harms of Madison in a grueling eight-mile battle to the finish.

Tarkowski, 38, trailed after both the 1.2 mile swim leg and the 56-mile bike leg of the race, but finally caught the 34-year-old Harms about four miles into the run. But Harms didn’t fade. He took the lead back before mile six, and nearly held on.

“I knew I had a sprint in me at the end, but Mark’s usually got a great sprint too,” Tarkkowski said.

With a half mile to go, Tarkowski took the lead, and from there “it was a crap-shoot. Whoever could keep their legs moving faster down the hill was going to win.”

Tarkowski charged down the hill to the finish 22 seconds in front of Harms, 4 hours and 5 seconds after lunging into the water.

“I was really happy with my race – I finished 10 minutes faster than last year,” Harms said. “I just wish it was about 10 minutes and 20 seconds faster.”

Tarkowski competes regularly, but as he and Harms sat in cool-down tubs full of cold water, he said he relished the chance to compete to the wire.

“It’s not too often that you get pushed to your very best, and Mark did that to me,” he said.

Madison’s Jackie Arendt cruised to victory in the women’s division at 4:33:25.4, more than 15 minutes ahead of Kristen Korevec.

Chicagoan Mark Hauser took first place in Saturday’s Door County Triathlon sprint course. The 43-year-old Chicagoan has participated in the event five times and competes in a handful or triathlons each year.

“I’d give this event about a 9 out of 10,” he said. “It’s really well done.”

Meyer of Des Plaines, IL took second in the women’s division. A 40-year-old mother of five, Meyer finished in fourth place last year and praised the rural qualities of the course.

“It’s such a smooth course,” she said. “In Chicago you’re dodging pot-holes, but this was perfect.”

Jeff Paul of Le Claire, IA finished third overall, but was in rough shape in the transition from the bike leg to the run. He had barely exited the transition area when he cramped up and thought he might have to drop out.

The 30-year-old stretched a bit, got his legs moving again, and resumed in a stilted, stiff run like a man running on his heels. But by the time he hit the finish chute, he was cruising in full form.

“After about a half mile I got into a pretty good rhythm, and by the end I was running about a six minute pace,” he said.

Paul, who won a Half Ironman in Austin, TX in October to earn his professional license, had surgery on his achilles tendon in late April. The Door County Triathlon was the first race of the season for the eighth grade history teacher, and he also participated in the swim and bike legs of the Half Ironman on Sunday. This was his first time visiting and competing in Door County.

“It’s right up there with the top races that I’ve done,” he said. “The scenery and the fans were awesome.”

See full results at http://www.itiming.com.