Tinley Runs Off With Another Triathlon Title

One way to win a race is to make sure the only race is behind you, which is what Scott Tinley did Sunday in the Orange County Performing Arts Center Triathlon.

“My whole tactic,” Tinley said, “was out of sight, out of mind.”

Tinley came out of the water of Lake Mission Viejo in third place after the 1,500-meter swim, bolted to the lead in a pack of three in the first mile of the 40-kilometer bike ride and pulled away by the midway point. He was soon out of sight and on the way to victory in 1 hour 54 minutes 14 seconds, finishing more than three minutes ahead of Emilio DeSoto for his third victory in this triathlon’s four-year history. His only loss was last year to Scott Molina, who wasn’t in Sunday’s race.

In the women’s race, Laurie Samuelson, 33, of Carlsbad, opened a lead of as much as a mile on the bike ride and never let up, winning in 2:13.37, 49 seconds ahead of Sue Latshaw of Berkeley, a 28-year-old plant pathologist who won the first triathlon in which she competed in 1986. Melissa Mantak, 27, of Denver was third, 31 seconds behind Latshaw.

Behind him, Tinley left quite a good race, the one for second.

In Tinley’s wake, 43-year-old Bill Leach of Irvine tenaciously dueled 25-year-old Peter Kain of Los Gatos. After bicycling the hills and turns of a course he called his “home court,” Leach pulled into the transition area, second among more than 1,500 entrants.

That would have to be his victory.

“I knew that as soon as we got off the bike, I wasn’t going to stay with him,” said Leach, a Corona del Mar High School history teacher who played water polo for UC Irvine and made the 1976 U.S. Olympic team as a kayaker. His wife, Julie, also made the 1976 Olympic kayak team, and in 1982 won the famed Ironman at Kona, Hawaii.

Kain overtook Leach in the first half-mile of the 10-kilometer run, but he would have other chasers to worry about. In particular, there was DeSoto, a 29-year-old from San Diego who came off the bike in seventh, a minute-and-a-half behind Leach, and ran down five runners to finish second.

“It’s a matter of time,” DeSoto said. “If someone is within a minute of me, I’ll be able to run them down.”

It wouldn’t take long. He caught Leach in the second mile, and as he passed, DeSoto offered a word of encouragement, the credo he runs by, “Don’t look back.”

“Good job,” Leach replied, confident that DeSoto could catch Kain.

Others would catch Leach, who finished eighth, one place and 51 seconds out of the money. Winners of the men’s and women’s races each earned 2,000.

“My goal originally was to try to get off the bike with some of the top pros,” said Leach, who was racing in the professional division for the first time in several years. He usually races in the elite masters division--the top over-40 competitors--but chose to race with the pros Sunday because there was no elite masters group, only the masters division that started well back in a crowded field.

“I wanted to race against some of the better athletes, like Tinley,” Leach said. “It’s a lot of fun to be out there with him.”

It might not always be so much fun for young athletes, some of whom are passed by a man more than twice their age.

“I don’t think they resent it that much,” Leach said. “I think they respect me. They don’t worry because they know they can outrun me. If Tinley looks over and I’m back there, he doesn’t even see me.”

With Leach well behind him, DeSoto caught Kain halfway to the finish, passing him with strong, fluid strides.

“I wanted to pass him with an assertiveness that said there’s no way you’re going to hang with me,” DeSoto said.

No one would be able to run down DeSoto.

“There’s always a fear someone’s going to run you down,” DeSoto said. “I’d rather worry about what’s ahead than what’s behind. When people are in front of you, it’s like you have little goals. I always worry about what’s behind me, but I never look back.”

Bryan Murchison, 27, of Denver, passed Kain for third, and Rob Bistodeau, 30, of Pacific Beach, passed him for fourth.