4th Place: Xterra Big Blue Off Road-Castaic CA-Castaic Lake Lagoon

In 3 words: Steep, Hot & COMPETITIVE! It must have been at least 90 degrees in the sun during the race. Man, I had fogotten what that feels like, whew!

Swim 1300 yards: 17.02

The producers utilize a different approach for the swim. All racers stand along the shore in a single file (almost) & a "rabbit" runs along the shore just in front of the farthest racer to the closest. The purpose is to give the swimmers on the outside an earlier start than the ones on the inside. Then course consists of 2 buoys. Swim out to the first closer one & back for a 50yd shore run then swim out to the farther buoy & back then run to the bikes. Kind of like a lopsided M. I had a good swim. Straight to the buoys (I actually ran into the 1st buoy) around them in the correct direction. No huge wrecks or dunking sessions, but no good drafts either. From the looks of the field during my sighting I was just behind the front pack. I don't want to jinx myself, but I had another good transition. I'm getting better at getting the wetsuit off!

MTB 16 miles: 1:23.03
Here's where "STEEP" comes in. There's about 1 minute of flat riding out of transition before you're climbing like a billy goat. So steep it's granny gear all the way. If you don't stay focused you'll flip over backwards & if you have to put a foot down you'll be walking. Thankfully I did neither, however the combination of exertion & concentration does take it's toll. There's also a climbing section I call "lop & scatter." That's right, cut tree limbs & vegitation spread over the course. This really zaps the energy from the legs and the slow hard power effort gets me to feeling "HOT." But hey, it's a 2 lap course so at least I'll get to do it twice! I biked this course like a madman & what goes up must come down. So, yes it was steep coming down too. Arms burning from bracing & braking. Other than going off course once & running out of water I had no mishaps. It was a good, hard bike for me!

Trail Run 5 miles: 31.51
Now this was my kinda run. Out 'n' back, 2 laps & relatively flat. I flew! First lap I had some severe cramps on the inner thighs, but I was able to back off & the cramps backed off. I was not passed by anybody I passed several. It's cool because you get to see the other racers as your running out & back. I really thought I was doing well, but this is where "COMPETITIVE" comes in.

Division: 4th of 23
Overall 12th of 132 (16 did not finish this one)


Race Venue Details

2nd Place: Xterra Xtreme Desert Triathlon-Mesa AZ-Saguaro Lake

I really enjoy the desert landscape. It's so different from my home surrounding of pine trees and snow. Yes we've been having some big-for-this-time-of-year snow storms lately. I was really ready for some warmer weather, & while it wasn't warm by Mesa standards, it sure was by mine. I soaked up the heat like a gila monster.

This race had some interesting new challenges for me, which started off with a 1.5 hour drive to pick up the race packet. Then there were the transitions. Not only was the swim point-to-point, but so was the bike. And then there was off-site parking and a shuttle ride to the swim start. Just gettin' it all together took my mind off racing so I acutally stayed relatively calm. Perhaps too calm.

The Swim: 1300 meters (1600 meters for me) - 24.07
I never really listen to the race announcer during all the prerace mayhem; it's just too distracting, but I did happen to hear that the swim was gps'd at 1300 meters (down from the advertised 1500). The shuttle bus was late so I had just enough time to hit the head & scramble down the jagged rocks & swim for the starting line. For this complex race, of course an off shore start was in order. We're off! I'm swimming hard & feeling strong. Headed over and under folks as I make my way for the 1st buoy. Man, I'm doing great, no one in sight & 1st person to the buoy. Too good to be true? Yes, at that point the safey kayaker runs me over to get my attention & says, "You might want to head to your left some more." It's right around the buoy, so I scream, "AROUND the buoys, right?" "No, INSIDE the buoys." There were buoys way out to the right as a farout boundry I guess. Forget the "fish hook" white line on the map, everybody swam straight to the big left turn that heads towards the yellow bike transition in Butcher Cove! For 5 seconds I was mentally crushed & then decided to shake it off by going even harder. I figured I swam at least 300 meters farther than necessary. What the hey though, for once the wetsuit came right off & I did have a great transition to the bike.
Almost forgot to mention it rained from about 3 to 7am on race morning.

The Bike: 26k - 1:09.01
Interesting story. When I pre-rode this course I didn't like it too well. Probably because I crashed in the first 5 min. See, right out of the start is deep sand followed immediatly by a super steep brief climb (walk), then another steep & very loose climb (should have walked). It was during the 2nd climb when I was riding & developing so much power that when the rear wheel lost traction on an off-camber rut, it literally threw me to the ground. I was only going 1mph, but I didn't even have time to get a hand out to break my fall. The bike was fine, but the handle bar must have jabbed into my left quad (vastus medialus). It really hurt, like the charlie horse of the century. I continued the preride trying to loosen it up. There was only one more climb, which was ridable, at least in practice. The rest was flat to downhill and rocky. And in the middle was about 2 miles of deep sandy whoopty doos. The whole course is double track. In the race, it was mostly during the sand-woops as well as the fast rocky gradual descets that I did most of my passing and ended up with the 5th fastest bike split for all racers & 1st fasted in my division. I'm jumping around a bit, but that little quad injury had me seriously considering whether I'd be able to race or not. The next morning it was soooo tight that I could barely move it. Anyway, it obviously didn't have too negative of an effect on my race.

The Run: 10K - 41.08
This is a fun run with "picture book" images of the AZ desert landscape. It's on single track rocky/loose & very twisty horse trails so ya gotta keep an eye on your footing. Right from the beginning it's straight up but there really aren't any long sustained climbs. There's a section in the middle that's a steep scramble up a very narrow ... what looks like a place for run-off when it rains. It's so narrow there was not even room for the width of my foot. Challenging trying not to twist an ankle. For the most part though the course suited me just fine, some sand, lots of twists and rocky stream bed descents. Second fasted run split in my age group.

Here I am receiving my 2nd place pint glass. There were 18 racers in my division. Yeah! I placed 11th out of 115 males overall. Turned out to be my kinda race!

Race Venue Details!

4th Place: Xterra Real MTB Triathlon-Granite Bay CA-Folsom Lake

Ok, wow, the season has officially begun. Funny how many show up for this race and from such distances; guess we just can't wait to get racing! Though I excel in foul weather like last year's race, today was absolutely perfect. Not hot, not cold, just right. The .5mi Swim: I had a pretty good swim, which surprised me becasue I have not been swim training that much. 19th out of the water. Must be that upper body strength literally pulling me through. The 16mi MTB: I had been able to get a couple rides in on this course during some early season races. Though there was a new section added, it was more mountain-bikey & technical, & was really fun, sandy & muddy with reeds. One of the reeds got wrapped around my rear sprocket and the chain began jumping all over the place. I stopped after one of the big mud pits and removed the foreign object. Seemed like it took an eternity, but in reality it probably wasn't too time consuming. I never did get it all out and couldn't use my fastest gear for the rest of the race, but I didn't miss it much as I just pedaled a higher cadence durning the speed sections. I didn't seem to get passed by too many riders and I passed quite a few so I thought I did pretty well. The course was 2-8mile laps and I negative split them. 27th OA fastest time on the bike. The 3.5mi Run: Ya know, I never did feel that good on the run. Here I am lookin' good coming out of transition. I never felt good until towards the finish. I guess it took me that long to get it in gear. Hmmm, maybe it was after I finished that I felt better. A whopping 43rd for the run. The race was a good early season learning experience for me. My pacing was too slow. I never got out of 3rd gear! Average HR figures were a low 156ish. I usually get the heart averaging 165 and even higher. So I'm looking at this as good news. I can go much, much, much faster.

Division 4th of 30
Overall 29th of 286
News Article, not much about me, but notably the fastest time from the local area racers.

A special thanks to my Mom, sister and 1 month old baby niece (it was her first big outing!) for the support and the cool pics!