The boys are back in town

One year after hosting triathletes from around the world in what they term as the Jewel in the XTERRA crown, Dave Nicholas, Chris Appleton, Ted Wallof, and company from Team Unlimited have returned to kick off the new season of premier off-road challenges with the 2005 XTERRA Saipan Championship.

While Paul Ehman and a team were busy tuning up the transition point at the American Memorial Park, “Big Kahuna” Nicholas and his squad were marking the bike and run course with arrows and ensuring that the athlete’s get the full value of their XTERRA experience.

“That’s what makes us different from the other people. We don’t have to do this; we can leave all this stuff out here. We want the race to be tough, and challenging, but we don’t want it to be stupid. We don’t want the guy who’s winning handily to be on a whole bed of leaves or something and not see something and trip and fall and lose the race because of something stupid. You can’t cover everything, but you can sure try.”

While the Maui-based crew will be putting the finishing touches on the course throughout the week, they received local assistance from members of the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation who have labored to clear away things from the trail like fallen trees, coconuts, and large rocks.

Now in the final stages, Rocky Dunmire was attending to some of the finer details of the trail preparation by raking the course to provide the runners a clearly defined path.

“This is what we call confidence. Even though you’re on a trail and can’t go anywhere, you can still see that somebody’s been here. Athletes love it, even the pros,” said Nicholas.

On the way back to his vehicle through the jungle, the Kahuna explained that the Saipan race is unique to the XTERRA series, as he unfolded a pair of pruning sheers and hand clipped any little potential eye-poking sticks and close-lining vines.

“This is one of the few XTERRAs on the planet where we allow the run to be such a big part of the event. We normally don’t want it to be more than 25 percent of the total time, and here it’s much more than that. Typically it’s 60-65 percent bike, 20-25 percent run, and 10-15 percent swim. Here we violate that rule, but look at the run. You’ve gotta allow it. There’s no way around it. How can we deny this run? You can’t, because we can’t take out the caves, or anything else,” said Nicholas.

“It’s our signature run course,” added course assistant Tyson Pualoa.

Pualoa has been a part of every Saipan race, and the nine year veteran said that it was good to be back in the island again.

“It’s fun to come here. There are a lot of nice people. It’s a little bit vacation and a little work at the same time,” he said.

While the race has provided the world with another opportunity to see what Saipan has to offer, Nicholas explained that XTERRA is in the CNMI due to the efforts of the Marianas Visitors Authority years before the first triathletes set foot into the waters along Micro Beach.

“The whole reason that this thing is here is because of the brilliance of the MVA. They found out about us because we do television and make events. Then our CEO, Tom Kiely, said that he thought there was something out here and that we had to come out and see. When we first heard about it we were like ‘Where the heck is Saipan?’ Then, when we flew out here and said ‘This is wild!’ We had no idea that we would find this jewel.”

The jewel begins at 8am this Saturday along the waters of Micro Beach, as over 120 triathletes don their swim caps to kick off the fourth edition of the XTERRA Saipan Championship.