PORT ANGELES — Patience paid off for an Adventure Physical Therapy team that had gutted out all four Big Hurts since the race returned from a hiatus in 2015.
In 2015, Adventure Physical Therapy came in fifth in 2015. The team did slightly better in 2016, finishing third. They did even a bit better in 2017, coming in second.
Finally, after more than 200 miles of Big Hurting, Adventure Physical Therapy can claim a championship. APT won the team title at this year’s Big Hurt, held Saturday in squalls, sun and generally unpredictable weather in and around Port Angeles.
“We keep saying we’re going to win it. I find myself looking forward to it already for next year. [But] we’re going to enjoy the victory a little bit,” said Sean Cash, owner of APT and a kayaker on the team for the past four years.
Sean Cash and Reed Wandle began the Adventure Physical Therapy team four years ago and are the only original members left. Cash said from the beginning, the team has tried to “have fun with it and not make it too serious.”
Thirty-seven individuals, seven tandem teams and 38 teams participated in this year’s race.
The Big Hurt, in its fourth year after being brought back from a 10-year hiatus, consists of four brutal legs — a 15-mile mountain bike leg down a logging road from the foothills of the Olympics into Port Angeles, a 3-mile kayak leg through Port Angeles Harbor, a 30-mile road bike leg to Elwha River Road and back and a 10K run along the Olympic Discovery Trail (for a total distance of more than 54 miles).
The top individual time was put in by Eric Holmlund at 3 hours, 48.17 seconds, winning for the second year in a row and beating his time last year by eight minutes. A close second was Troy Treaccar with a time of 3:49.51 and third was Ben Marean with a time of 3:53.16.
The top women’s individual time was by Laura Gould at 4:32.31, again winning for the second year in a row. Gould beat her time from last year by nearly 7½ minutes.
The best mountain bike time was by John Kiess at 1:02.29. Keiss finished fourth overall. Marean had the best kayak time at 31:57 while Kiess had the best road cycling time at 1:26.26.
Keiss was leading after the mountain biking, kayaking and road cycling legs. But, Holmlund, who was right among the leaders after finishing third in the mountain biking, fifth in the kayaking and second in the road cycling, blew him and the rest of the field away with the top 10K time of 39:30 to win the overall. Holmlund won the 10K by more than a minute.
For women’s masters 50-plus, Jill Anderson won with a time of 5:44.21 and in the men’s masters 50-plus, Tom Wahl won with a time of 4:40.45.
Among the tandem teams, Hammer Down was dominant in the mountain biking and road cycling to win with a time of 4:02.00.
In the team competition, Adventure Physical Therapy won with a dominating time of 3:49.02, beating the second place team Chicken Dinner by 12 minutes.
Adventure Physical Therapy even won with a bit of drama. The team was 6½ minutes behind Chicken Dinner entering the road cycling leg, but completely took over the race by winning this leg by 12 minutes.
Among first responders, the Port Angeles Police Department won with a time of 4:48.09 and among the high school teams, the NJROTC Roughriders won with a time of 4:38.56.
Participation was up overall in this year’s race as 38 individuals and 28 teams took part in 2017.
For complete results, go to www.bighurtpa.com and click on “results.”
