XTERRA USA Championship Triathlon Race Report
Leading up to the race, it was such a great feeling to have a large
group of people so excited about the race and so willing to train for
it. It definitely made the race preparations a lot easier, especially
those multi-brick workouts at Hilltop and Arctic Valley. You don't feel
the pain nearly as much when there are a number of others out there
training along side you.
I landed in Reno on Friday morning along with Luke K. and Will B. We
headed up to Incline Village after a brief "lunch" break at the Atlantis
Casino in Reno and got ourselves lined out with the condo situation. No
hang-ups on this end, so things were going well. Dino showed up a bit
later and we headed down to pick up our race packets and check out the
festivities. The XTERRA crews really put on a show at these races,
complete with the XTERRA Academy (pro racers giving instructional
pointers on the different aspects of the race and race course) to
equipment sales (wetsuits, bikes, miscellaneous race gear, etc...). As
Jeff mentioned, weather was on a lot of peoples minds. I wasn't all
that worried about our race since it was still over a day away, but the
people racing on Saturday may find things interesting.
Those of us racing on Sunday all tried to help out as much as we could
on Saturday, whether it was by volunteering out on the course at the aid
stations (we covered both bike aid stations) or just by cheering on our
fellow Alaskans. It also gives a good chance to get used to the flow of
traffic during the race since our race uses the same routine, just
longer distances for the swim and run.
Saturday night, those of us racing on Sunday went out to the "Night of
Champions" dinner, complete with a number of award presentations. We
skipped out a bit early to make sure everyone was rested up for the race
on Sunday.
Woke up at 6:00am on Sunday and started getting ready. Right off the
bat, things were not great. Dana and Andy were both having stomach
problems. I was feeling okay so far, but was a bit nervous that I might
have or get whatever was bugging them. I went about the normal routine
and headed down to the start area to set up the transition gear. With
the transition area about 1/3 of a mile from the swim, it makes things
interesting. Wear shoes between the swim and run? Go barefoot? It's
all pavement and grass after you leave the beach, so no real rocks to
worry about but there is frost on the ground.... I decided to go
barefoot which I may change next time. The swim started off better than
other experiences. There was the normal chaos for the first few hundred
yards, but it seemed that most of it was hitting me from the knees down
rather than getting kicked in the face and dunked. I just tried to get
into a decent pace and keep that going as much as I could. I had to
slow down at each of the turns as the people in front seemed to have a
hard time turning. Nothing too bad. At the end of the first lap, its
back up onto the beach for a 50 or 60 yard run and back in the lake for
lap number two. 2nd lap was about the same as the first, just a little
less chaos to the first buoy. I was feeling a bit tired so I backed off
the effort a bit in hopes that it was just a lack of quality warmup and
things would come along on the bike. Coming out of the water, the feet
were pretty much numb. The run back to T1 was a bit uncomfortable as I
gained feeling in a couple parts of my feet and they just hurt. I don't
think running on pavement for that long with frozen bare feet is such a
great idea. As I approached T1, I saw Dino and Todd B. heading out on
the bike (I think Will Ross was pretty close to them, but didn't notice
right off). At T1, there was Luke K., and Amber getting their stuff
together. Somehow Amber snuck out ahead, and Luke and I took off about
together. Total swim time including the long run and T-1 was 33:02
(107th overall)
Within the first mile (all pavement so far), Luke and I (playing a bit
of cat and mouse) caught Amber and then started the first climb. I was
still feeling a bit flat, so I went with my gameplan of backing off the
pace and making sure I didn't put myself under on the first climb. This
resulted in slowly falling behind Luke and then Dino as he came by me.
I stayed ahead of Amber for a while, but she later passed me near the
top of the first climb. After the 1600' climb, we were on to the Flume
Trail, traversing across the face of the hillside above Lake Tahoe.
This trail provides for an awesome view, if you are crazy enough to take
your eyes off of the trail and risk becoming part of the view. While
heading across, I had the first of what ended up being a few dizzy
spells. This wasn't what I am used to from bonking, altitude, or just
being extremely worn out, this was something new and I couldn't place it
right away. I just kept a somewhat relaxed pace hoping to come out of
it at some point. The 2nd climb after Marlette Lake went a little
better. I was still feeling flat, but was able to hold with people
better and keep a relatively steady pace. The fun began after the final
climb and we headed back down.
I have found recently that I have gotten a lot faster on the downhills.
I don't know if this is the result of getting better at them or just
that I am further away from my injuries and I am willing to take more
risks. Either way, I am always looking forward to the fast, technical
sections now. The downhill starts off with a fair amount of
single-track with a lot of switchbacks, some easier than others. These
are the kind where you want to unclip your inside foot and pretty much
pivot around it. Most of these are around off-angle rocks rather than
trees like we are more used to up here, so it isn't all that hard to
miss hit something and run into problems. I managed to stay clean
through this and made up some time on a few others out there. I was
gaining on some people fast enough where I was yelling a switchback
ahead in hopes that they would be out of the way by the time I got to
them. Once I got past the first bunch of people, I had some room to
ride and was able to really open it up. I did have a brief mental lapse
on a nice little weave around a tree and ended up going pretty much
straight through a small (fortunately flexible) pine tree, but stayed on
the bike and kept going (sure glad it wasn't a rock....). After the
single track, it was back onto the fire-road and a quick descent back to
T2. This is where you can go pretty much as fast as you feel you can
keep control. All I know is that the one guy who stayed on my wheel
through the technical stuff was nowhere to be seen behind me in this
section. A couple close calls on the way down, almost going over the
bars on a waterbar (dip/bump across the trail) and then just about
missing one of the blind corners that I forgot about, and I was back on
the road to T2. I felt a couple little cramps in the legs while heading
back, so I tried to work those out before getting back while I had nice
pavement to ride on. Got off the bike and, for the first time, missed
my transition spot. I walked right past it somehow and took about 20
seconds to find it. Once I was in the right spot, things went quickly
and I was back out on the run. Total bike time (including the
transition) was 2:15:37 (160th overall).
The run is a 10km (2 x 5km laps) run, winding through a park. There are
about 12 creek crossings, some on plank bridges, some on large logs that
you have to climb onto and then jump off (fun if your legs are cramping
on you). There is also the tree you have to almost crawl under (also
fun with cramping legs). I managed to maintain a fair pace, nothing
fast by any means, but still making headway. I had a few issues with
cramps, but was able to work through them without too much problem. I
did end up walking through the aid stations, making sure to get enough
to drink. As I came through the lap, I hear Dino cheering me on saying
something like "great, they're running right together". It only takes a
few feet to figure out what he meant as Amber came up by me from behind.
She put a bit of distance on me on the 2nd lap, but not a ton. As I got
about halfway through the 2nd lap, I hear "Go Alaska!" from behind. As
I look back, I see Justin V. running back there on his 1st lap. He gave
me enough encouragement to pick up the pace a bit. I hit the line with
a run split of 53:39 (193rd overall) and a total time of 3:42:18 (164th
overall, 14th in age group).
I ended up faster than the last time around, but not as fast as I know I
can go. There is still a good amount of room for improvement. It's bad
when my swim is my best compared to the rest of the field.... I felt
okay after the race and had a nice lunch. By around dinnertime,
however, I revisited that lunch again as I came down with whatever the
rest of our group had. Still not sure what it was, but basically acted
like a flu or some kind of food poisoning. I think this is what I was
feeling on the bike with the dizzy spells which would explain the tired
feeling throughout the race. By Monday morning, I was feeling better
and managed to get Will Ross off to the airport by 5:00am. Had to drive
through a bit of snow on the way back to the condo, but it was gone by
later in the morning when we headed to the later flights. I managed to
eat a small lunch in Seattle, but wasn't hungry again until this
afternoon. The good part is that I lost about 7 pounds in two days.
