Gorgeous venue! Well worth the 750mi (one-way) drive. I really prefer to drive unless it's going to take over 2 days because I can pile all my stuff into the truck and be ready for all the unknowns that seem to happen at races. Plus it was a beautiful drive and I have time to really think (about anything) without feeling like I'm wasting time. Yes, it is an island, so I had to take a ferry from Tacoma. Way cool. Vashon is a rain forest sancuary, which is surrounded from a distance by Seattle and Tacoma.
Oh yeah, it's a race, not a road trip. Saturday AM, pre-race day, I was going to do my little swim/run drill & save the ride for later when the course would be marked. As coincidence would have it, my buddy from home pulls up and says he raced here last year and would take me on a ride of the course. Cool, as I'd much rather get it all out of the way and go relax! We rode up to where last year's mtn bike started and there's a new house being built. We rode around for over an hour trying to find the trail, to no avail. It will be marked by 2-4p, but I don't want to wear out, so I swam and ran a bit & figured I'd just race the mtn bike course. I'm feeling good that evening and get the idea: "Why not pre-ride 1 loop of the course as part of my pre-race warmup?" It is only a 6mi loop and we'll race 2 loops. That was risky, but ended up working out perfectly!
The race went well for me, we swam in a harbor. I was out of the water well before most, decent transition and on to the mtn bike. I was really flying. The single track was all grown over so you had to be ready for the "rogue" log. There was such a log jam. A double whammy, which hits front & rear tires at the same time, right after a sharp hairpin turn. On the first lap that one really tested my core to keep it together and on the 2nd lap it took me down. Not bad, but I did get passed, which I later found out was by one in my division. T2 I racked my bike one rack off, but moved quickly to my correct position, this might have cost me 5s. The run was wierd in good way, it was a loop, and except for the brief uphill in the beginning, the whole thing felt downhill. This was great to have gravity on my side 'cause I'm not a runner. Really grown over, cool & lush. You just pop out of a thick forest to cross the finish, and there were only a few racers done so I knew I did well. Quick results showed I was 13th overall. That's great for me, so I knew I'd get 3rd or better in my division. Boy was I wrong about that: I got 5th in my division! I really wanted to sob at that point (but I couldn't). Apparently some good racers from Alaska came down & beat me. Oh well, it was very fun, I just felt like I earned a 3rd.
Race Details
Race Results
Division: 5th of 14
Overall: 12th of 73
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1 comment:
solid race.
as far as suggestions for the road tri... just go for it. Not to take anything away from athletes that just compete in nice clean road races... but they are nothing when compared to Xterra.
I did another race this past weekend, and olympic distance, and i had the same mentality. "it's just training so i am going to go as hard as I can for as long as I can". that seems to work for me. You will be suprised at much better Xterra makes you on the road.
good luck... can't wait to hear about it.
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