from the Yakima Herald Republic (thank you)

PUBLISHED ON MONDAY, JULY 21, 2003

Blowing Past the Field
By SCOTT SPRUILL

YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

ELLENSBURG - With his arms
cramping and his lower back
tightening from pushing his bike uphill
and into a blast-furnace wind, Kelsey
Backen just wanted the ride to be
over.

And it was when he pulled into
Kittitas. Trouble was, a nine-mile run
remained. And that, too, was into the
wind.

Such is the unmerciful nature of the
Whisky Dick Triathlon. But even with Backen saying Sunday's 21st annual
swim-bike-run race was "by far the toughest of his life" he was unbeatable.

Such is the toughness and mentality of
one of the Northwest's rising stars in
triathloning.

The 24-year-old Backen, a graduate
of East Valley High School, followed
his victory in the Valley of the Sun
race two weeks ago with a
one-minute win over Bainbridge
Island's Steve Fisher in the much
longer and challenging Whisky Dick,
which started with a mile swim in the
Columbia River and finished in
Ellensburg.

By the time Backen finally got to shut
down - which he did directly under the finish clock and not a step beyond - a
comfortable victory was in hand but what he did to earn it left him downright
whipped.

"That was the longest, toughest race I've done by far.
Nothing's close," he said while chugging water after the
race. "I was so tired after the bike from fighting that
wind that I wasn't looking forward to the run. I usually
enjoy the run because that's probably my strength. But
today I was just trying to finish."

Which he did in 3 hours, 2 minutes, 7 seconds. That's
well back of his goal of 2:35 but all time goals were
ditched when the triathletes emerged from the river and
were greeted by the warm, persistent wind that blew
along the entire length of the 26-mile bike course,
which includes a 1,900-foot climb up to Ryegrass Pass.

"With that wind you had to stay so low and control
your bike against the gusts," Backen noted. "I could
feel my arms cramping and my back getting tight.
There's no way you could sit up - you'd come to a stop."

Once on the run course heading west
out of Kittitas, Backen found himself
trailing only Fisher, a surprise
runner-up who was 10th here a year
ago. Two miles later, Backen had the
lead for good.

"I played a little cat-and-mouse with
him because I wasn't sure how good a
runner he was," he said. "I thought
about just sitting on him because I was
just so drained, but that's a chicken
way to run. So I pushed it, got the
lead and ran for the win."

Cary Steinman of Moxee ran for the win also and encountered a defending
champion determined to repeat.

Amy Jo Turi of North Bend responded to Steinman's repeated attempts to pull
away on the bike route and then took charge on the run into Ellensburg, winning
in 3:41:24.

Steinman, who's in training for the Canadian Ironman next month, clocked
3:43:17 as the runner-up for the second year in a row.

The wind and heat slowed the women's times considerably as well. Turi won
last year's race in 2:57:56 and Steinman was 41 minutes faster in 2002.

"The swim was fast, but as soon as I got on the bike there was this wall of
wind," Turi said. "I just cranked down the gears and got the wheels spinning. A
high gear into that wind would've killed the legs."

Turi led Steinman out of the water but Steinman caught her on the bike just
before cresting Ryegrass and the race was on.

"I'd surge and I'd surge but she'd come back on me every time. I didn't expect
that kind of challenge from Amy on the bike. I was very impressed," Steinman
said. "I came in thinking about winning and I don't usually do that here because I
know how tough the race can be. After pushing the bike hard, I didn't have
enough to catch her on the run."

In the shorter Valley of the Sun race, Steinman was second with Turi third.

"The longer the race and the tougher conditions - that's better for me," Turi
added. "I did Hawaii (Ironman) a couple years ago in the hottest, worst
conditions they've ever had. Once you've been through hell, purgatory isn't so
bad. I just kept telling myself today, this isn't Hawaii."

Behind Steinman, local women finished 5-6-7 with Ellensburg's Jaymi Williams,
Selah's Kyle Dees and Yakima's Kathryn Soldano, respectively.

Yakima's Mick Desserault finished sixth in the men's race and Ellensburg's
Vince Nethery was seventh.

Backen, Steinman and Turi are all planning to compete in the Troika Triathlon,
which is half the Ironman distance, in Spokane in two weeks.

WHISKY DICK RESULTS

Top 10 Men: 1, Kelsey Backen (Yakima) 3:02:07; 2, Steve Fisher (Bainbridge
Island) 3:03.08; 3, Kevin Rieke (Leavenworth) 3:10.32; 4, Michael Brergquist
(Airway Heights) 3:16.18; 5, Daryl Smith (North Bend) 3:18.22; 6, Mick
Desserault (Yakima) 3:20.16; 7, Vince Nethery (Ellensburg) 3:21.26; 8, Tom
Livingston (North Bend) 3:21.59; 9, Ryan Brown (Richland) 3:23.48; 10, Tom
Wick (Seattle) 3:26.23.

Top 10 Women: 1, Amy Jo Turi (North Bend) 3:41.24; 2, Cary Steinman
(Moxee) 3:43.17; 3, Heidi Hubler (Bonney Lake) 3:47.44; 4, Elizabeth A.
Jones (Bellevue) 3:47.56; 5, Jaymi Williams (Ellensburg) 3:50.31; 6, Kyle Dees
(Selah) 4:00.46; 7, Kathryn Soldano (Yakima) 4:02.36; 8, Jennifer Block
(Puyallup) 4:11.42; 9, Shannon Barnes (Seattle) 4:25.22; 10, Kari Baker
(Ellensburg) 4:28.20.

Top 5 Teams: 1, The Gym (Ellensburg) 3:18.14; 2, Han's Gym (Ellensburg)
3:20.37; 3, Sara, Shawna, Jana (Spokane) 3:48.05; 4, K-Town (Kirkland)
3:59.27; 5, The Good, Bad, Ugly (Seattle) 4:03.38.