JUST when it looked like the weeklong rains would subside, Mother Nature threatened to spice up the already damp bike course early race morning. Instead, consistent cloud cover and nearly 25 mph winds greeted the over 100 participants in the 2007 XTERRA Guam. The blustery conditions forced a quick re-routing of the 1000m swim course in an attempt to minimize the effects of a very strong current in the Piti Channel. The gun went off promptly at 7:30am and the racers surged forward, adding to the already churning water conditions. Showing just how strong a swimmer she is, Julie Dibens of England emerged from the water first in 14:48. Thirty-two seconds later another female pro, Sybille Matter of Switzerland exited the swim, followed by the first male, Olivier Marceau of France.
Once on the bike, Marceau’s dominance quickly became evident as he took the lead and never looked back. The 27km bike course started with about 3 miles of climbing on paved road before entering into the technical terrain. The strong winds managed to dry up most of the course but left enough mud in some sections to warrant a hike-a-bike. Hurrying to make up for a nearly 5 minute deficit to Marceau on the swim was English pro, Sam Gardner. With a professional mountain biking background to his credit, the technical, muddy conditions suited him perfectly as he pursued Marceau – in the process recording the fastest bike split of the day. Marceau remained steady and would only yield :28 seconds of his lead to Gardner as they headed into T2.
Meanwhile, Julie Dibens, in only her third XTERRA event, valiantly held off the hard-charging chase pack of Renata Bucher (Switzerland), Jamie Whitmore (USA) and Sybille Matter (Switzerland) to reach T2 with a seemingly comfortable 5 minute lead.
The improperly billed 5k trail run turned out to actually be 6k, and in the words of age grouper Courtney Cardenas of California - “epic!”. After a short run through the village of Piti, the course turned off-road with a quad-burning hill climb, an 8’ foot ridge jump and then about a half-mile of grass covered path. Racers then had to navigate down a spectacular waterfall. It became clear to many that sliding on your rear-end would be the safest way down. Once at the bottom of the falls, the course stayed in the watery riverway, which varied in depth from ankle-high to waist-deep.
Marceau continued to hold onto his lead through the trail run, but Gardner was pulling out all the stops to catch him. Despite setting the fastest run split, Gardner could not reel the speedy Frenchman in as Marceau broke the tape in 2:01:49. Gardner was second with a time of 2:05:27 and rounding out the top three in 2:14:18 was Gardner’s training partner, amateur Jim McConnel, also of England.
The womens race began to exhibit a bit of drama as Bucher started her pursuit of the leader. Down nearly 8 minutes to Dibens out of the swim, she posted the fastest womens bike split and was now carving out chunks of time during the run. Dibens, an experienced ITU racer, expressed concern pre-race about the steep and slippery waterfall section. She cautiously made her way through the run knowing that there were some impressive runners on her tail. Both Bucher and Jamie Whitmore made their final charge in the tree canopied river, posting the fastest and second fastest womens run times respectively. It was not nearly enough as Dibens crossed the finish line in 2:15:58, with Bucher a minute and half later followed by Whitmore with a time of 2:18:22.