Race Coverage

Like No Other...

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 02:30

MATT PAYNE & HOLLY WALKER ARE 2011 BEST OF THE US NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

By Trudy Marshall (from BestoftheUSTriSeries.com)

Gulf Shores, AL / September 10, 2011 and who hit the run course in first place but faded to finish fourth. Florida's Colin Riley was second behind Hall at the start of the run and overtook him, but was passed by the speedy Parish and Payne; he held on for third.

Payne, 2010's 30-34 National Champion and a new father, was third at BOUS a year ago.

When you're a teacher/coach, mom to two young children and a triathlete training and racing in Montana, you don't tend to get a lot of notoriety. But when Holly Walker showed up at Best of the U.S. 2009 in tenth place at what was likely the most competitive women's field ever, on the heels of her 9th overall/2nd AG placing at 2008 Nationals, she put the rest of the field on notice that she was in it to win it. Coming back in 2010, she improved to 4th place among women, impressively coming in just behind the likes of Joanna Fiddler (Champion, Oklahoma), Shannon Donley (Alaska) and Suzanne Huelster (Colorado).

After today's swim, Walker had nearly 3 minutes to make up on fast-as-a-dolphin Rebecca (Villers) Carpenter from Georgia (photo, right). Rebecca, in fact, was second out of the ocean, her 19:11 swim second only to Ohio's Ross Hartley's 18:45. (Hartley, was 2nd at the '09 Championship.) Carpenter looked sharp as a tack heading out first on the run. But Walker had made up about two minutes on the bike, and her strong 40:09 run was more than enough to overtake Carpenter and pad the margin of victory with another minute. RESULTS

* Trudy is one of the MTN "Guys," i.e. she is one of the site's three partners. She is also the founder and Executive Director of the Best of the US Triathlon Series.

NOTE: Matt Payne's BOUS race report was supposed to appear today, but he didn't finish it 'cuz of baby-sitting, working and training and drinking PBRs. It will post later in the week.