Joe Kline / The Bulletin A wave of triathletes enters the water prior to the start of the swim leg during the Pacific Crest Long Course Triathlon on Saturday at Wickiup Reservoir.

SUNRIVER — Erin Green was already on her way to the start of the Pacific Crest long course triathlon at Wickiup Reservoir early Saturday morning when she realized she had forgotten something.

The 33-year-old professional triathlete from Boise, Idaho, said she always races with her “computer,” a Garmin monitor that tracks her heart rate and displays her splits, pace and other data. But the computer was sitting back in Bend, where she and her husband had spent the previous night, and she was going to have to race without it.

“As we were driving out here, I said, ‘Oh, well, I forgot that — I guess I’m not using it.’ And my husband said, ‘Good!’” Green recalled. “He was like, ‘You’re going to do great!’ And I was like, ‘I need the numbers to tell me (how I’m doing)!’”

But she did not need those numbers after all. Despite the minor equipment mix-up, Green was the first woman to finish the triathlon, completing the 1.2-mile swim, 58-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run in 4 hours, 40 minutes and 8 seconds, 4 minutes and 33 seconds ahead of Mackenzie Madison, who had won the last six Pacific Crest half ironman triathlons.

Andrew Drobeck, a 33-year-old from Missoula, Montana, was the men’s winner, finishing in 4:13:52, while his wife, Trisha, 35, won the women’s half marathon in 1:22:41. Jeff Hoppert, 41, from Portland, won the men’s duathlon (58-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run) in 4:14:17, while Beaverton’s Laura Wiley, 42, won the women’s race in 4:58:36. Albert Hesse, a 16-year-old from Idaho Falls, Idaho, was the first to finish the marathon in 3:19:53, while Amber Hertz-Tang, a 29-year-old from Madison, Wisconsin, was the first women’s finisher in 3:44:17. Redmond resident Rob Russell, 37, took top honors for the men in the half marathon, running 13.1 miles in 1:16:47.

All four events converged at the Village at Sunriver in the late morning and early afternoon as temperatures climbed into the low 90s.

Competitors from each race staggered across the finish line, past the waiting EMTs in the medical tent (for the most part) and into the cooling shower tent, where several participants sat — still wearing their finishers’ medals — for a good 10 to 20 minutes.

“I had nothing left when I was finished. I didn’t have any feedback telling me how hard I was working other than how my body felt,” Green said after the race. “The funny thing about racing in the elite field is you really need to race. You can’t hold on to staying within these numbers. You sort of know what you can do, but really great things happen when you push it and you trust yourself and you trust your training and let it come out.”

Green said she knew that Madison, who is also a professional triathlete, would be difficult to beat, so she planned on keeping the 28-year-old from Eugene within sight during the bike stage and then pushing for the lead during the half-marathon run. But Madison ran into a raceday problem of her own near the end of the cycling leg when she and several of the other elite competitors were directed the wrong way.

“There was a group of us and I said, ‘This is not right,’ because I have done this race so many times. I should know the course,” said Madison, who estimated that the wrong turn cost her up to five minutes. “Thankfully I realized that and we were only a mile off course, and so we turned around and it was only 2 extra miles.”

Madison said the misdirection did not ruin her day, and that she was happy to see someone else atop the podium for the first time since 2008.

“Despite what happened on the course, this is a really well-run race, and that’s the first time that’s ever happened,” Madison said. “I absolutely love this race — I still had fun, and that’s the whole point of it.”

Men’s triathlon winner Andrew Drobeck said his race was largely drama-free. Even the threat of extreme heat, which forced organizers to move the start from 9 a.m. to 8 a.m., was minimized by cloud cover.

“It was hot, but it’s always hot at this race,” Drobeck said at the finish. “I’d say the conditions were not as bad as expected.”

Drobeck said he pushed himself during the cycling leg but deliberately set an easier pace for his run, which was six minutes slower than his split at the 2014 Pacific Crest triathlon, in which he finished second.

“I just sat on a pace where I wouldn’t have to run super crazy, a more conservative run,” Drobeck said. “You’ve got to run within your limits when it’s hot.”

That’s a message today’s competitors might want to heed with the National Weather Service predicting temperatures in the low 90s. The Olympic Triathlon and Duathlon (28-mile bike and 10k run, as well as a 1.5k swim for the triathlon) begin at 9 a.m., as does the 5k run/walk. The 10k begins at 9:15 a.m.

— Reporter: 541-383-0305, vjacobsen@bendbulletin.com

“You sort of know what you can do, but really great things happen when you push it and you trust yourself and you trust your training and let it come out.” — Erin Green