Collins puts his all into triathlon

Ben Collins wades in the green-brown water of the Henry Hagg Lake shoreline, his white swim cap soon to be lost in the distance among other competitors at the 2007 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship.It’s 8 a.m. Saturday, and in roughly two hours Collins expects to be physically spent, mentally unstable and altogether unsure. He and 1,270 others will swim 1.5 kilometers, cycle 40k and run 10k — a total of nearly 32 miles — in a competition among the country’s best amateur triathletes.

Collins, 24, from Seattle, took second place at the same race in Kansas City last year. With the 2006 winner now a professional, Saturday’s challenge — held for the first time in Oregon — is Collins’ to lose.

 – Excerpt from The Oregonian, July 1, 2007