SPORTS

World champion athlete redefi nes ‘trailblazer’

Duathlete Carol Whipple claims gold in Romania

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

By day, Arvada’s Carol Whipple is a project manager for the National Park Service.

When she’s not handling those responsibilities, she’s a pretty good duathlete, a sport that combines two segments of running sandwiched around bicycling. She’s done that for 25 years and recently won an international title. She’s nished in the top 10 at world championships.

In 2021, she won a bronze medal in the spring duathlon and a gold medal in cross duathlon.

If you add it all up, Whipple has competed in more than 20 world championships in 13 countries.

Trailblazer #1

Whipple said she’s been athletic, starting o in elementary school.

“We had eld day competitions and the president’s tness test,” she said. “I would usually be among the fastest and most t in my class.”

Title IX was in its beginning phases when Whipple got into high school. Cross-country for girls wasn’t an option then.

“Since I loved to run, I gathered up my courage along with several other girls and approached the boys’ cross country coach about having a girls’ team,” she said. “He wasn’t too thrilled but agreed, requiring us to do the same workouts as the boys. Finding comparable girls cross country meets were few and far between as there were only a handful of girls’ high-school teams around the state.”

Her girls team entered the boys junior varsity meets. Whipple said the girls squad nished in the top half of the eld. At the end of the season, she participated in her rst “pioneer role” experience; her team won the rst-ever state girls cross country title and, she said, “won the coach over. He was really proud.” at fall, two members of that team entered the Seattle Marathon. ere were four women in the eld.

“Marathoning was just beginning to become popular, but women running them was rare. It had just been a couple years, at that point, that there were actually ‘o cial’ women’s divisions,” Whipple said. “Nationally, there were approximately only 50 or less of us that competed in a marathon.”

It wasn’t her “favorite distance,” but Whipple quali ed for the rst women’s Olympic marathon trials in 1984. She started duathlon competitions in the late 1990s. She won the rst Colorado State Games duathlon and quali ed for her rst USA Triathlon and competed with the national team at the world championships. for endurance. In the spring, she adds “speed intervals” and starts racing two or so times a month. It totals about 10 to 15 hours a week.

“As I’m still racing the sprint duathlon distance, I vary up my cycling workouts between the road and mountain bikes,” she said. “While Colorado is ideal for cross-duathlon training, with so many nearby trails, I do mix it up and train out of state to get experience with di erent types of terrain.”

Her strength in cross duathlon comes from a running background.

“I have really taken to the ‘cross country’ o -road trail running, the courses that feature steep descending and climbing in addition to log and stream obstacles. ese are the most fun,” she said. “On the mountain bike sections, I enjoy the mental focus of reading the trails and riding over di erent types of terrain. In racing, however, one of my strengths has always been to have a very e cient and fast transition from run to bike and from bike to run. is is where a race can be won or lost. Precious seconds can mean the di erence.”

Whipple said it’s important to build skill levels on all types of terrain. For her preparations for the world championships and other races, she said it’s important to get out and either run or ride the course as many times as possible before the actual race.

“ at way you have the equipment (shoes, tires) for the conditions, you know where the most challenging sections are (roots, rocks, drop-o s, switchbacks, etc) and how you’re going to ride it,” Whipple said. “Visualization is key, including keeping mentally focused in the race. It takes the most e ort.”

Trailblazer .. a few years later

“Duathlon race distances range from the shorter 5K run/30K bike/5K run format to the standard Olympic distance of 10k run, 40K bike, 5K run and longer distances equal to that of a half-Ironman (13.1K run, 70K bike, 10K run),” she said. “I’ve competed at all distances for Team USA.”

To qualify for the national team, athletes have to nish in the top six of their age groups at the national championships.

Whipple won the world championship in cross duathlon race earlier this year in Romania. She quali ed for the world sprint duathlon in that country when she received an invitation to compete in cross duathlon at the World Multisport Championships

“I was intrigued by the challenge of learning new skills, training and preparing for this inaugural race,” she said. “Most athletes my age (she is in her mid-60s) have long hung up the mountain bike wheels. And for women my age to learn the skills in order to be competitive is pretty rare.”

After she accepted the invitation, she had six months to get ready.

“I found the training to be fun, riding di erent terrain – kind of like being a kid again – on my bike, riding and jumping on the o -road trails,” Whipple said. “I took several lessons and trained with more experienced MTB riders so I learned the skills correctly from the start.”

Before leaving for the world championships, Whipple and her teammates researched the terrain and a potential race pro le. It included a YouTube video of a ride through the course.

“But you don’t get the true sense of how hilly and technical it is until you see it rsthand,” she said. “ e setting on Cornesti Plateau in Targu Mures, Romania was beautiful. e Black Forest is fairly open but has extremely steep hills and switchbacks, logs and rock dropo s. e mountain bike course was very technical. We arrived several days in advance to become familiar with the course and get our equipment ready.”

Race prep, race day

Twelve members of team USA entered this rst-ever cross duathlon, about half of the eld; Whipple was the oldest. Her age group competitors were from Turkey and Austria. e temperature was in the mid-70s. e challenge was a late-in-the-day starting time.

“Most of us are used to racing in the morning hours,” Whipple said. “Our race would go o at 3:30 p.m. so managing timing on nutrition and rest was a challenge in itself. e men would start approximately 30 minutes before us. is would prove to be problematic on the mountain bike course later on.” e four-mile cross-country run featured a winding trail through an open forest and trails lined with ferns. Runners had to jump over logs and several streams. e trail went back up the hill in time for a repeat loop of the same course. en it was time to transition onto the bikes.

“We launched onto the downhill single-track trail with very tight switchbacks,” Whipple said. “ e course wound its way along the hillside with several short steep climbs before descending further into the deepest part of the valley before dropping into the valley ravine. ere were several challenging tall rock drop-o s as well.

“Sections were so steep that even the most experienced elites were having to walk their bikes up short distances,” Whipple added. “ e men had been nishing up their last laps when the women began the bike segment. is was problematic in that there were very few passing zones, and the men were ying down the trail and running over anyone in their way. I had to bail several times but was not injured.” e ride also included several bear sightings.

After the 15-mile bike ride ended, Whipple and the others ran one more loop.

“As a seasoned competitor, one of my favorite sayings is, ‘It’s not over until it’s over,’” she said. “In multisport, you might think you’ve won, but there may have been a time penalty or a competitor slipping by that you might have missed. I had a sense from our Team USA leader (Tim Yount) that I had a slight lead over my competitors after the rst run but it would be an all-out race on the mountain bike to stay ahead. My European competition was more experienced on the MTB. is would prove correct. After over three hours on the bike, literally only four seconds separated me from my competition.”

‘On the edge’

Whipple rode the bike course “on the edge.”

“ e faster you ride, the more technical it becomes,” she said. “While it can be inherently dangerous, there is a real sense of accomplishment, and I didn’t want to feel like I had left anything out once the race was over. It was over four hours of adrenaline rush.”

She also ran into another program: A race curfew.

“ e race time cuto was fast approaching. I knew that if I won, it would be tears of joy in the win. But also, it could be tears if I didn’t make the time cuto ,” she said. “I felt strong and determined heading out for the last run. I began to sense that I might actually win. is is where one has to dig deep to stay focused, will the body on and believe that you are going to nish.”

She climbed up one last hill, saw the nish line 120 yards ahead and a large timing clock.

“I had an exhilarating feeling of pride being a Team USA athlete,” she said. “As I crossed the nish line 20 minutes ahead of my competitor, my teammates were all cheering. e best part was that all of them had made a podium nish too. It was a formidable group of women – having been the very rst to compete in this inaugural cross-duathlon. Over four hours of epic racing had bonded us all.”

Competing overseas

Whipple said there wasn’t anything unusual about competing in a foreign country, aside from COVID travel restrictions and staying healthy.

“ e European countries embrace the sport of duathlon, and it’s common to have thousands of people cheering at the race,” Whipple said. “Quite often they crowd the streets and plazas, and you ride through a sea of people, similar to the Tour de France. Children will ask for autographs and photos. Later, they will sometimes run alongside as you’re racing and chant, ‘USA USA.’ Each course has been uniquely di erent, from medieval towns with cobblestone streets to racing high in the Alps.”

Twelve of the members of the USA team competed alongside. She called the cross-duathlon event “the most epic racing experience” as a “pioneer” cross-duathlon competitor.

“ e setting of the Black Forest was awe-inspiring, as was the challenge of the race course,” Whipple said. “It all came down to being physically trained, mentally prepared, having perfect weather and having an inner con dence that this was going to be my day.”

Carol Whipple

they are dropped off here. We take care of them for a while and Santa uses my reindeer for a little bit,” he said.

Reindeer, a labor of love

The trio of reindeer lives alongside McIntosh’s other hooved animals. A fifth-generation dairy farmer, he owns the McIntosh Dairy in Brighton, which has been in operation since 1906, providing milk from their 600 cows for much of the metro area.

While cows are their livelihood, the McIntosh family always been interested in raising other farm animals.

“We have been agriculture all our lives. My family has been into caring for all kinds of animals and doing the best they can for them. My grandpa liked llamas, and he raised llamas in his pen,” McIntosh said.

When his grandpa passed away, McIntosh’s dad took over the pen and raised elk. When his dad moved to another property, McIntosh took over his elk pen.

David had been curious about reindeer since he was a little boy but began researching them earnestly about eight years ago.

“I researched if you could actually have reindeer in the lower 48 and also to see some people with reindeer,” he said. “For the most part, they were so few and far between, I didn’t really think they actually raised reindeer down here.”

David said he wanted to know if it was feasible and effective to raise them and to ensure a good quality of life, to keep them happy on his farm.

“I got in contact with lots of people in other states. There is a whole reindeer community throughout the U.S.,” he said. “I learned how to best take care of some health problems and to watch out for other health problems to raise them at their happiest and healthiest they can be.”

The Macintosh’s reindeer halfsisters Juniper and Cranberry came from the Jessen ranch in Loveland. And Khristoph comes from a South Jordan ranch in Utah.

“The European species, the reindeer have been domesticated – depending on which article you read – for about 6,000 years and have been domesticated longer than horses and canines,” David said. “They have found cave paintings they have been domesticated for that long, pulling sleighs and helping the northern Europeans.”

Reindeer come from Lapland, in the extreme northern part of Finland bordering Norway, Sweden, Russia and the Baltic Sea. Only the Lapland-native Sami people kept the animals domesticated, with herds of thousands moving between Scandinavian pastures.

“In 1890 the U.S. government imported the first domestic reindeer from Europe to the Inuit tribes of Alaska to trade for land,” McIntosh said. “The caribou herds there bred with the reindeer. “

His small herd is a mix of the two, and there are differences beyond size, he said.

“The North American reindeer is mostly reindeer with a few caribou genes. My bull has caribou, with his larger body and longer face,” McIntosh said.

“There is a big difference between reindeer and caribou. A herd of caribou will stick together, and are very diligent to their hierarchy, and staying in big herds,” McIntosh said. “The reindeer will grow in small groups, but those small groups will change if a couple of caribou get into a reindeer herd.”

The Sami people kept the herd size under control by eating them, McIntosh said. That’s not the case with his herd.

“In the United States we don’t eat them, they are my family,” he said. “We bring them to events for children to see them and learn about how amazing the reindeer are.”

He notes that, although they are not magical creatures, they do have some peculiar adaptations that other animals do not.

“They are the only mammal that can see in ultraviolet light,” McIntosh said.

Wild herds rare

And while there are wild caribou in Canada and beyond north, they don’t exist in the continental U.S.

Kayla McIntosh said there are no wild herds of reindeer caribou in the lower 48. The native Kalispel tribe in Washington state has been trying to reintroduce them, however.

Reindeer grows the largest, heaviest antlers of any species of deer, she said. Both males and females have antlers and yearlings usually grow their first set of small two-prong antlers three months after birth.

“Khristoph, when he was a year old, grew his first set of antlers,” she said. “And after a year, the antlers dropped and he grew another set of even larger antlers, with up to 50 points.”

Bulls lose their antlers every year, growing a new pair with a velvet finish, McIntosh said. That’s why they rub their antlers on trees or fences, scraping off the velvet and leaving the hard antler underneath,” she said.

Having antlers does determine their rank in the herd, she said. Khristoph, with his huge antlers, is dominant now. But once they drop, Juniper and Cranberry will be back in charge.

“It’s natural in the wild that the female becomes dominant in the winter when food is scarce and hard to find,” he said. “They must defend their food from the bull, because they are growing a baby.

“The bull does not need that much food but can starve finding their own food,” he said. “The female will also take whatever food the bull has to feed the baby in their bellies, and they can be feisty.”

David McIntosh with his Reindeer at Denver Premium Outlets a few weekends ago.

The mighty Kristoph with the giant antlers. His magnifi cent antlers currently make him the leader of his small herd. He’ll lose them soon, and will be less dominant until they grow back. PHOTOS BY BELEN WARD

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