Byline: Jared Turner

Oct. 10--BLACKSBURG -- Sara Hanson's bike was broken. Her plans to compete in the XTERRA USA championship triathlon Sept. 30 could have been shattered.

With a cracked bicycle frame and less than a week before the 27.2-mile off-road race, the Virginia Tech junior knew that tackling the 20-mile mountain biking portion up 2,500 feet along the Sierra Nevada mountain range could be dangerous. Or even impossible.

But she was sure as heck going to try.

"I had worked so hard the entire season for that race, and I wasn't going to let a little chance of catastrophic failure get the best of all my training," said the 20-year-old, who rode the ...