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!