Mieko marvelous on Maui

Nearly 600 of the planet’s most extreme triathletes met on Maui’s beaches yesterday morning to chase their dreams in the 2006 Nissan XTERRA World Championships, and local multi-sport maven Mieko Motoyoshi was more than just another face in the crowd.

After winning her age group in the XTERRA Saipan Championship on April Fool’s Day, the Pacific Islands Club’s ever enthusiastic Clubmate proved that her months of training were no joke.

While her mission was to become the best age grouper in the world, her best efforts brought her a ninth place finish out of the 19 women in the 25-29-year-old division, when she crossed the finish line 4:22:59 after she started on the sand.

When the cannon sounded at 9:50am, Motoyoshi ran into the Pacific Ocean amidst a torrent of like-minded competitors focused on the first orange buoy, and she beat more than a handful of professionals around the 1,500-meter course when she hit the beach at the 26:02 mark.

Motoyoshi raced to the first transition area where she traded her swim cap and goggles for a helmet and gloves before hopping on Kanae Quinn’s mountain bike to challenge one of the harshest courses on the globe.

Off-road courses on Saipan are difficult, but there was little Motoyoshi could do to prepare for the 30-kilometer bike course that took her through infamous points such as the Bone Yard, The Plunge, Oil Tank, Heartbreak Hill, and Crossroads.

Bone-rattling drops, jagged lava rocks, and razor-sharp kiawe thorns were but a few of the obstacles that Motoyoshi faced, but nothing kept her from reaching the second transition point at the 2:48:05 mark.

Motoyoshi’s finely tuned physique had already spent nearly three hours on the torturous course, but the native of Saitama, Japan was heading into her strongest discipline—the 11-km trail run. The temperature continued to rise as Motoyoshi made her way through the Sand Pit, Cactus Alley, Makena Beach, and the Spooky Forrest, but pain was a fleeting memory when she hit the Black Sand Beach en route to the finish line.

The grueling run course took Motoyoshi 1:08:52 to complete, and while she was unable to beat age-group winner, Kim Hill (3:50:48), she crossed the finish line with hands waving and her trademark smile on her face when she passed through the famed archway at 4:22:59.

Motoyoshi was 306th out of the 533 racers who managed to finish the race, but she wasn’t the only one with experience racing in the Marianas to compete in Maui.

Local favorite and three-rime XTERRA Saipan Championship winner Jaime Whitmore was unable to finish the race after suffering a nasty knee injury, but reigning Saipan champ Renata Bucher showed off her skills to place fifth among the professional women at 3:22:14.

Two-time world champion Melanie McQuaid of Canada was without equal yesterday as she topped the list of professional women with a remarkable time of 3:07:53, and the new wife of Saipan race alum Jason Chaulker, Meg, finished 25th among the top women with an overall time of 4:17:35.

On the men’s side, the winner of 2004 Athens Olympics triathlon became a world champion once again as Hamish Carter crossed the finish line ahead of everyone at the 2:42:36 mark.

Carter was chasing XTERRA Saipan Championship’s three-time winner, Olivier Marceau, for most of the race but finally caught up to him in the Spooky Forest. The Kiwi never looked back as Marceau settled for a second place finish 19 seconds later at 2:42:55.

A veteran of the Tagaman, Rota Blue, and local XTERRA race, Japan’s Taro Shirato placed 38th among the professional ranks with an impressive time of 3:23:38.