Bites of Spring are in the air. That whirring runners hear coming up on their left behind them are bike spokes biting air as multisporters start riding faster and longer outside. If you are near a swimming pool, you can hear those outstretched hands grabbing a bite of water as they begin their catch and accelerate into the pull of their stroke.

Spring fever customarily goes along with the hot restart of multisport with the early duathlons and pool-based triathlons, and the open water just briefly behind.

We have already had some difficult duathlons with the Virginia Du, the Carrboro Endurance Festival, and the new Brandywine Valley Du. Each of these have enjoyed difficult weather and terrain for enthusiastic duathletes who did not obsess over wet and cold weather or hilly course difficulty.

The Virginia Du moved out to Chippokes Plantation State Park, a scenic locale located between Petersburg and Smithfield on the southern banks of the James River to provide an interesting and scenic new venue with a one-loop bike course and not duplicate the Cape Henry Du course.

Carrboro hosted the long course USAT-MA regional long course duathlon championship and a starring role as a qualifier for the long course duathlon world championships in Geel, Belgium this August. Carrboro's endurance festival also included a sprint duathlon and a very fast 8K road race. Weather was wet and the course was great.

Piranha Sports moved from the flat course in Delaware with the Summit Bridge to Pennsylvania where lots of the hill rode like the bridge without the side winds. Very tough course early in the season, but great for testing fitness in the cold and wet.

Triathlons are well underway due south and pool-based swims will be quickly outnumbered by open water. Pool-based swims are a terrific way to get into triathlon and a great way to test early fitness. Experienced triathletes can go at the red line throughout the event and test out new transition techniques under stress of competition. Newer triathletes can do the same while improving both their experience and confidence inventories.

Tri It Now provides great opportunities for everyone with their event and clinic series based at the Freedom Aquatic Center and Fitness Center in Manassas. Tri it Now thrives on innovation and this year they introduced a "cyber competition" with military personnel stationed in Baghdad. The race in Baghdad had a course similar to Manassas, which included a 250 yard pool swim, a 4-mile bike ride, and a 1.85 mile run. Goody bags with product samples, t-shirts, award medals, race numbers, and more were supplied by Tri It Now and shipped by Mark Smith's Bonzai Sports super multisport store in Falls Church, VA. Everyone had a great time at both very successful events.

Before biting off too much, we need to finish up winter multisport where we had more excitement for multisporters than winter weariness of "dreadmills" and indoor bike trainers could possibly provide.

By way of an update we had the best-ever performance by the U.S. at a winter triathlon world championship, debut of Xterra's winter world championship, and the PowerSox U.S. National Snowshoe Racing Championships at the Snowbasin ski resort in Utah.

First, Sigrid Mutscheller of Germany won her sixth ITU Winter Triathlon World Championship and became the triathlete with the most World Championships in ITU history. Summing up her victory, Mutscheller said, "There were no tactics; I just gave it all I had." So did everyone else over the 7.5K hilly run through Knebis, followed by a challenging 15K mountain bike course, and then the very tough 10K XC ski course.

Arne Post of Norway was a repeat world champion for the men's elite. Post's tactics were similar to Mutscheller's: stay with the lead group and take it out hard on the skis.

Knebis also produced best ever results for the American elite triathletes. Rebecca Dussault, a former Olympian, finished sixth overall for the U.S. elite women. Elite triathlete relay teams have three members each competing in the same three events on a shortened course. Mike Kloser, Brian Smith, and Spencer Powlinson had all raced the day before and still took it out at a shocking pace. Mike Kloser, former World Mountain Bike Champion, well-known adventure racer, current U.S. National Champion, and fastest skier on the U.S. team, closed out the team relay with sixth overall. Also, they had the best ever finish at world's for an American men's elite triathlete team.

Great news for Team USA's age groupers. Sounds of the rocket's red glare were heard through the race's sound system as Staff Sgt. Lori Nix skate-skied through the snow into the finishing chute to become the first American to win a Winter Triathlon World Championship.

Now to Xterra's "xtreme wintr xcitement" provided by the same U.S. elite winter triathletes who competed so well in Germany. I'll cut immediately to the finish. Brian Smith cut to the left inside and past Josiah Middaugh less than 20 meters from the finish line to win the inaugural XTERRA Winter World Championship at Snowbasin Resort.

After almost two hours of red line racing that included mountain biking, snow shoeing, running, and ski mountaineering in snow flurries above 6,000 feet elevation, Smith executed a perfect upset victory by a little more than one second in 1:58:29.92 with Middaugh right behind in 1:58:31.21.

What? How did this happen?

Xterra ended with 200 yards of downhill skiing through eight gates just like a world cup slalom race in full view of the main plaza at Snowbasin. Middaugh comes into sight of the spectators and falls rounding the first gate at the top of the slalom course. All he needs to do is stay upright and he wins. He slowly rounds the next two gates and falls on his back again and slides down the hill. As Middaugh gets up and going, Smith blasts out of the tree line like Bode Miller. Seconds later and with just two gates to go Smith zooms past Middaugh on the inside and crosses the finish line with arms raised high.

In the women's race, Sari Anderson staged perhaps the most unlikely comeback of the afternoon by making up more than two minutes in the final stage to jump from third to a winning time of 2:29:47.

"I can't think of much that I've done individually that's better than this," said Anderson.

What made the move so remarkable was she caught eight-time U.S. National XC Ski Champion and 2006 Winter Olympian Rebecca Dussault who was sixth overall at Winter Triathlon World's.

Now, the PowerSox National Snowshoe Championships.

Josiah Middaugh and Keri Nelson won the men's and women's U.S. National Snowshoe Championships 10K race in pristine conditions at Snowbasin. PowerSox sponsored the race and did a superb job of taking care of the athletes and providing terrific equipment.

"This was a true snowshoe course with 50% singetrack through deep powder and 50% on groomed Nordic trails," said Middaugh. "It was a great day for a race and I was happy to come out on top." After a tighter than close second at Xterra, it was great to have Middaugh win his third national snowshoe racing championship making him the sport's only three time champion.

Middaugh finished the 10K course in 45 minutes 54 seconds, more than a minute ahead of Jeffrey Beck of Fairport, NY who was second in 47:17. In the women's race Kerri Nelson edged Lindsay Krause of Littleton, CO by a little over a minute with a winning time of 57:05.

More than 100 snowshoe racers from 18 states and Mexico competed with three racers from our area. Our three had podium finishes with Carissa Stepien of Laurel, MD and Edward Myers of Obelisk, PA finishing with silver medals, and my good fortune in hauling in a gold.

Middaugh is totally right about the course; it was the real deal. The course was beautifully prepared and race conditions were perfect for everyone. We had it all with groomed ski trails going out to some super twisty switchbacks to the very technical Xterra section with catwalks, steep drop-offs, and serious ridge climbs at an altitude that for us flatlanders was like running with a towel stuffed in your mouth. Typical multisport racing, though. Just as soon as you finish, you want to go out and do it again.

Winter does not start until December, so we've got a great chunk of time for more preparation and a great variety of multisport racing ahead of us. Don't miss out. I'll see you out there.