SavageMan event benefits melanoma foundation
For the Cumberland Times-News Cumberland Times-News
MCHENRY — The sold-out sixth annual Win-The-Fight SavageMan Triathlon Festival, slated for Saturday and Sunday at Deep Creek Lake State Park, will feature 1,200 athletes from 34 U.S. states and numerous foreign countries.
Organized and produced by Win-The-Fight Events, the traithlon benefits the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation.
The starting field includes 2010 SavageMan 70.0 champion and Hawaii Ironman World Championship runner-up De-siree Ficker (USA) in the female race as well as Zach Ruble (USA), second, and Josh Beck (USA), third places, respectively in SavageMan 2011.
Numerous viewing opportunities abound in Deep Creek Lake State Park and Garrett and Allegany counties for the general public. For course maps and daily activities, visit the primary SavageMan website, www.savagemantri.org. To review brief safety secondary road closures, visit www.savagemantri.org/ road_closures.pdf.
The 2011 SavageMan charity race raised nearly $100,000 in donations by individual champion athlete/fundraisers for the foundation’s mission of mel-anoma education, advocacy and research. The broad slate of sponsors that provide services and support for the 2012 event includes Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources, Railey Realty, Railey Mountain Lake Vacations and High Mountain Sports, among numerous community organizations and businesses and national sponsors.
The SavageMan 70.0 signature event features a 1.2-mile swim in Deep Creek Lake, followed by the crown-jewel bike stage featuring nearly 5,800 feet of vertical climbing, including the “most savage ascent in all of triathlon — the Westernport Wall.” The triathlon culminates in twice tackling the 6.5-mile loop run course along the shores of Deep Creek Lake and State Park Road.
The SavageMan Triathlon is the result of race director, founder and architect Kyle Yost’s passion for triathlon. “First of all, SavageMan is the toughest of the tough,” said Yost. “There will be endless debate in the triathlon community about which race is harder than which, but no one who has done SavageMan ever claims there is another tougher.”
According to foundation president Greg Safko, “The Win-The-Fight SavageMan Triathlon Festival has garnered much international attention as arguably the world’s toughest and most savage triathlon at the long-course distance. Besides attracting the world’s most accomplished and savvy triathletes to test themselves and compete on this very challenging and unique triathlon course, we also hope to inform them as fundraising champions and their donors, that melanoma skin cancer is the No. 1 most common cancer among 25- to 29-year-olds; and, is a very insidious and formidable skin cancer that, if not prevented or detected early, is extremely fast and lethal.”
The Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation underwrites melanoma research at numerous prestigious cancer centers across the U.S. and maintains a comprehensive high school health curriculum for students to learn the deadly risks of melanoma skin cancer and “UV-safe” preventative and detection practices.
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