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Message: Here's a great article I found at www.northwestnavigator.com: -- Athletes, outdoors enthusiasts, weekend warriors, adrenaline junkies. Whatever you want to call them the Northwest is full of them, but NAS Whidbey Island has more than it’s fair share. That was proven Saturday, Sept. 18 when Sailors and civilians from Whidbey Island showed what they had at the Screaming Banshee Wilderness Triathlon held at Naval Radio Station Jim Creek. The event included an 11-mile mountain bike ride with lots of hill climbing, 2-mile kayak paddle and finished with a torturous 5.5-mile trail run. Individuals and three-person teams booth competed with each team member completing one event while individuals in the Iron man and Iron woman divisions each did all three events. Some of the participants camped at Jim Creek the night before and when Saturday morning dawned it was stereotypically Northwest - cold, gray and rainy. Throughout the race, the wet weather would make trails muddy and footing on rocks and logs very slippery. But after participant listened to the pre-race brief and volunteers from the Snohomish County Amateur Radio Emergency Services headed to their checkpoints along the route to keep coordinators updated everyone was ready to start the mountain bike leg. After a brief section of flat ground the racers began to climb up a gravel road into the hills before dropping back down on a narrow winding trail two Whidbey racers, AT1(AW) Rob Juhlin (Team Vieke) and JO2(SW/AW) Jon Rasmussen (Iron Man) had an early lead that they would keep throughout the ride. Then the trail started to climb again then it gained some elevation. After that it went up the toughest hill on the bike course before descending down another narrow track to the bottom of the hill again. It was in this narrow twisting section that Rasmussen’s seat post snapped at the top of the frame. “He rode the rest of the race with no seat sitting on his sweatshirt or standing up and he still passed me on the downhill right before the finish line,” said Juhlin who even stopped along the course to give a fellow rider his spare inner tube. There weren’t any surprises in the paddling portion held on Jim Creek’s Twin Lakes, but when Team Vieke’s kayaker, Gary Nikkola left the water and sent their runner, AE2(AW) Curtis Vieke, on his way there weren’t any other teams that had started the kayak portion. “You have to try to do your best because the runner needs as much time as he can get in front of everyone else,” said Nikkola. The run, took the racers up another narrow, winding track that switch-backed up yet another steep hill. Vieke was in the lead with Rasmussen trailing behind. Soon, Scott Bray (Iron Man) and AMAN Jacob Shepherd (Iron Man) caught up to and passed Rasmussen. Shepherd surged ahead and passed Vieke to be the overall winner for the event - by himself. When it was all said and done, Team Vieke won the team category with a lead of nearly 26 minutes over the second place Team Rawlings (Marine Corp). Shepherd, Bray and Rasmussen swept the Iron Man division taking first, second and third places respectively. Other Whidbey winners include PR1(EOD) Matthew Harrison who placed second in the Iron Man Masters category (age 36 and up) and Monika Manson who won the Iron Woman category by more than an hour and a half. Everyone who participated deserved a pat on the back, but the Green family deserves special mention. Each member of the family did all three legs of the race, but they did them together, finishing the course in just over twice what it took the winning racers. Each one of them finished, crossing the line side by side. They showed the teamwork, dedication and perseverance that events like these thrive on. “Although Jim Creek personnel did a lot to prepare before the race, I’ve found out this event is a team effort,” said event organizer Mike Petrowski. http://www.northwestnavigator.com/index.php/navigator/regionalnews/banshees_scream_at_jim_creek/
