Menoher, Blandford Win XTERRA DINO Logansport

By Brad Myers, XTERRA Athlete

Picture perfect weather greeted the nearly 140 participants in the 6th annual XTERRA DINO Logansport at France Park.  Everyone was looking forward to the clear, clean water of the old rock quarry for the swim.  With below 60 degree morning air temperature and 80 degree water temperature, the steam was rolling off the surface to create quite a fog, but by race time the air temperature warmed into the seventies and visibility was perfect.

Back in 2002, the first year of the race, I had real surprise as I was warming up for the swim.  I spotted a huge creature lurking below me nearly as big as I was.  I had to take a moment to remember I was swimming in fresh water in Indiana as I didn't like the looks of what I saw.  After a little research, I found out I had spotted a couple of the thirty-plus Paddlefish that were put in the quarry about 10 years ago for the scuba divers that frequent the quarry.  I also found out that one of them has already reached nearly seven feet in length as the dive master at the quarry let me look at some of their photos.  The Paddlefish do look strikingly similar to a shark except for the long paddle nose they have that gives them their name.  According to the dive master, Paddlefish are one of the oldest species of fish in the world.  A quick Google search will find you many interesting pictures to look at. 

Now back to the racing action!  Patrick Valentine made quick work of the 1K swim and exited the water without any Paddlefish problems and with a minute lead over the next swimmer out, Thilo Fiedler.  Thilo was followed by Mary Blandford, the first female to exit and she had nearly a minute lead over the rest of the field.

Once on the bike course, it didn't take long for Tim Menoher to take over.  He was helped by the fact that Patrick flatted early on the bike and gave up his big lead on the swim.  Tim completed the bike with a comfortable lead over the field.  He is just getting back into racing and almost back to full strength after having a major hamstring injury in 2005. 

The surprise of the race was that Tim, who has been known to turn in a faster run split than Conrad Stoltz, had two speedsters that did their best to run him down.  Scott Gall outran Tim by more than a minute and got within 30 seconds, but had to settle for second overall.  But it was Caleb Vanort that scorched the run course - an exact minute faster than Scott and finished 5 seconds behind Scott for third place overall.  Mary Blanford kept the momentum of her great swim going to win the women's overall, but had to outrun last years age-group world champion, Beverly Enslow who had a bike split faster than many of the leading men racers. 

A great time was had by all.  There was an abundance of food for everyone after the race and what seemed like a truckload of 6-foot long Subway sandwiches.  A special thanks goes out to Brian and Amanda Holzhausen and their crew from Dino Series Racing for putting on another well-organized, and fun race!

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