USAT National Age Group Championships & Northwest Microbrewery Tour
By Jenny Boakes

USAT National Age Group Championships

We arrived in Oregon on Wednesday, a beautiful sunny day with no hint of foul weather. I took a quick 15 mile out and back bike ride on a straight, flat section of the road leading into McMinnville. Nice bike lane. McMinnville is a quaint town of ~30,000 people located 18 miles south of Hagg Lake where the race is held; not quite as close as Forrest Grove or Hillsboro where the USAT race headquarters were.

On Thursday I competed in the Aquathlon National Championship as a warm-up for Saturday's race. The race was half the swim and run distances of Saturday's race (750m swim and 5K run). Normally, the aquathlon is a run-swim-run, but the lake temperature was cold enough for wetsuits, so USAT modified the race to a swim-run to eliminate the spectacle of wiggling into wetsuits after sweating from a run! It poured rain all day, but cleared up briefly for the race. My original plan was to bike a lap around the lake after the race, but it was raining again by the end of the race. I wasn't last in my age group, but there are many very fast old ladies and even faster, older men! I spent 2½ minutes trying to maneuver my wet feet into dry socks ripping them in the struggle! Jane Trippet and Dave Campbell from Sac Tri Club also competed in the race. Dave was the only one who took home a medal, but we all "qualified" for the 2008 World Championship Aquathlon in Vancouver. The top 10 in each age group qualify, and there weren't ten people in any age group!

On Friday it rained off and on all day. After driving nearly two hours in traffic through small towns looking for the Fairgrounds, we finally arrived at race registration and missed most of the seminars. We followed a poor hotel map instead of following the mapquest directions. The line for registration snaked through the entire building moving at glacial speed because they took photographs of each athlete. I skipped the photo shoot, because I was sure that USAT was not interested in me. I did have to dive through the line to get my shirt and parking passes. (hope I didn't upset anyone).

Then we drove out to Hagg Lake where all competitors were required to check-in their bicycles and leave them in transition overnight. Before leaving my bike I went on a 30 minute ride to make sure the tires held air, the gears worked, water bottles and gu packs were in place, etc. I didn't like the idea of leaving my bike out when the weather had been so unfavorable the last two days. Experienced Northwesterners brought bike covers or big garbage bags, whereas the inexperienced Californians left their bikes exposed. Race officials assured us our bikes would be there in the morning and they were right. Of course the masking tape holding my gu's in place was totally soaked and almost useless, but I didn't have any extra tape.

Saturday was the big event with the National Anthem officially starting first wave. If you were over 50, you got to be in one of the first 4 waves. Then the really fast young men and women were followed by the really fast older men and women. I was in the very last wave. The swim was interesting in that even after watching every wave veer to the left instead of to the right of the first buoy our entire group went left, so we did the 1700m swim instead of the 1500m swim. The two lap bike leg around the lake consisted of incredibly beautiful rolling hills and views of the lake. The first lap was quite congested with all of the younger athletes completing their second laps, but the second lap was wide open with no traffic. I did my best swim split, but the run with beautiful rolling hills was a killer as the temperature warmed. Most competitors were leaving before my wave finished the run, but some die hard fans remained at the finish to cheer us in. I wasn't last, but I was in the top 50! Jane and Dave (12th of 48) finished long before me.

I'll train harder next year.

Northwest Microbrewery Tour

Wild River Brewery, Grants Pass
Very nice setting; a small pitcher of IPA came served with beer already in glasses! Great beer, lasagna, minestrone soup and salad combo.

Golden Valley Brewery, McMinnville
Barley mash fed Angus beef burger, so-so fries, house salad excellent dressing happy hour (Sunday thru Thursday 4-6pm ) IPA a bargain for $2.50

McMenamins Hotel Oregon, old historic hotel in McMinnville
Fabulous grilled marinated salmon, salads
Try the Hammerhead Ale (better than the IPA)
Happy hour daily 4-6 pm

Pelican Pub and Brewery, Pacific City
Snapper wrapped in prosciotto, w/ polenta and cherry tomato ale sauce
Soy-lime grilled chicken salad on soba noodles
Award winning IPA: India "Pelican" Ale
Located on the beach, dining while watching the sun set after 2 days of rain
Location, beer, food all A+++

In fact my husband liked it so much that he rode back to Pelican for Saturday brunch where he was also able to watch the MotoGP race from Assen, Holland

Roseburg Station and Pub, Roseburg
(run by McMenamin's) casual setting
Very spicy Cajun chicken cobb salad w/ blue cheese dressing to die for!

"Beer has food value, but food has no "beer value'" -John Rives

Beer Nutrition 101

Beer actually is 92 percent water and has 0 grams of fat! Even more, it is a good source of folate, niacin, magnesium, potassium and niacin. There are also traces of calcium, phosphorus, and many of the B-vitamins. These quantities tend to improve commensurate to the quality of the beer. Beer is only an agri-food.

In fact, Beer is better than Milk. A glass of beer contains more protein than does the same quantity of milk. What's
more, beer has fewer calories than apple juice, milk or cola and contains neither fat nor cholesterol. Beer gives four vital minerals and five important constituents of vitamin B and proteins.

Almost all dietitians say there is a lot of evidence to disprove the theory that beer makes you put on the pounds. "Beer has only 153 calories and has 0 grams of fat for a 12-oz bottle," argues Diana Joyson of the Dietary Institute. "It is even more impressive when you compare it red wine, which has 106 calories for a 5-oz serving. The bottom line is that beer won't make you gain weight, provided it is part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle."

Drinking one beer per day may additionally be factor in bringing and keeping good health. That beer per day has
been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Most experts suggest that is because the 'folate' found in beer helps to reduce homocysteine in the blood and lower homocysteine levels has proven to be a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.