Kelsay, Maresh win XTERRA Forest Drive

By Jen Marsh, XTERRA Rep

The Mountain region is getting a bit of a mix-up this year with a new race in both South Dakota and North Dakota!  XTERRA Pipestem Creek was in June and this past weekend was XTERRA Forest Drive in Aberdeen South Dakota.  There are a lot of names in the point's standings now with that SD or ND next to them.  Very exciting to have a new crop of athletes vying for those spots to the XTERRA National Championship!

Craig Harrison - long time XTERRA athlete - had an amazing crew of volunteers and support in Aberdeen for this new event.  And they were awesome!  Yep, Aberdeen is flat, but this course was tough!  In fact, that was the response from many of the athletes who traveled from Colorado, Minnesota, and Wyoming.  They all said - Wow!  This course was a LOT harder than I imagined.  But it was fun!

The weather the day before had been HOT - but race morning there was a slight drizzle in the air and it kept things pretty cool for most of the race.  The 1100 meter swim was all XTERRA with the beach run - except it wasn't the normal triangle and run where you started.  You swam out, horizontal to the shore, then back in at a Girl Scout beach down the way.  There you got out, ran about a 50 year loop, then got back in and made your way back the same way. First out of the water overall was Becky Batizy (35, Boulder, CO) in 17:18.  Just under a minute behind her was Geoffrey Stacey (39, Frisco, CO) in 18:03.  XTERRA Pro Will Kelsay (shown here) was close by in 18:15 and local cross country coach Kevin Bjerke (27, Aberdeen, SD) came out in 18:42.  Paula Maresh (46, Littleton, CO) was the second women out of the water in 19:41 and Aberdeen local Camille Thomas (35) was third in 20:34.

Now I do want to add - that most of the folks mentioned in here from Aberdeen - also worked the day(s) before setting the course, and getting everything prepped, and also worked afterwards to clean up the venue.  Awesome!

Time now for the 14 mile bike.  This was a very spectator friendly course!  It was 2 ½ loops so you passed by transition time and time again as the course also looped shortly after transition to pass near it again.  It was great to watch who was catching up to whom.  Mountain bike pro Luke Nelson (36, Ramsey, MN) gave Will a run for his money out there on the bike course.  The first loop, he was 2 minutes back, second loop 15 seconds, 3rd loop - they came into transition together!  Will says they were playing back and forth the whole time with Luke kickin' it in the technical sections, and Will taking the lead back in the open flats.  They ended up posting the 2 best bike splits of the day in 1:04:21 and 1:06:37.  Kyle Bell (23, Golden, CO) had the 3rd best split in 14:38.  And it was a locals course as Camille Thomas posted the fastest split for the ladies in 1:23:52.  Yup, she knows the course and showed it!  Paula Maresh was 2nd fastest in 1:24:47 and Becky Batizy was 3rd in 1:26:20.  Now the cool thing is these 3 ladies all came into T2 within a minute or two of each other - so it was time to see who had the running legs!

The 4 mile run was a tough one.  Thankfully with the slightly cooler temperatures, it wasn't as bad as the day before.  There is not a lot of shade at all out there.  But the course twists and turns and it is a wonder how much mileage Craig gets crammed into such a small area.  Pretty cool!  It was local boy Kevin Bjerke (did I mention he was a cross country coach?)  who posted the fastest split of the day in 23:33. Luke Watkins (26, Rapid City, SD) wasn't too far back with a 24:56 and Will Kelsay came in at 25:15.  Will had said that he was booking it pretty fast at first cause he was running scared from Luke Nelson.  It wasn't until about 2 miles in that he looked back and said, ok, I can slow down just a little.  Good job in making the PRO nervous Luke!   Paula Maresh posted a blazing run split in 33:09 - 4 minutes faster than any of the other ladies! 

Alexandra Sepulveda (32, Minneapolis, MN) was 2nd fastest in 37:15 and Camille Thomas was 3rd fastest in 37:54.

So yes, Will Kelsay did come across the finish line first in 1:50:56 to take the overall title at the 1st Annual XTERRA Forest Drive.  Luke Nelson was 2nd in 53:00, and Kevin Bjerke rounded out the podium in 2:00:28.  Great job guys!

Paula Maresh cruised into the lead on the run and crossed the line at 2:19:09 to take the women's title.  Becky Batizy was 2nd in 2:23:56 and Camille Thomas was 3rd in 2:24:57.  Awesome job all around!

In the words of Will Kelsay - this race was totally fun, totally friendly, totally uniqe, and totally XTERRA! A huge thank you goes out to Craig Harrison and his crew, the entire town of Aberdeen, and all of the volunteers out there on the course making this an exceptional first time event.  Seriously - you need to make the trip next year!  With a prize purse, 2 bikes as part of the give-a-ways, and plenty of Subway subs - this was one for the books!

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