Well that was an absolute schooling I just received today in the World Xterra Championships here in Wailea, Maui. I really enjoyed the whole experience even though I had a disastrous race. I look back on the day with a lot of respect for the guys and girls who are dominating this sport because it’s tough!
A little nervous before the start
So, About my day: I was first out of the two loop swim course but a shabby transition onto the bike put me back to 5th place pretty quickly. All these extra things like gloves, shoes etc I should have practiced before the race! As soon as we hit the dirt and headed up hill I knew I was up against it. I soon watched the lead group vanish up the hill and had women’s leader Julie Dibbens fly past me like I was standing still (I was pretty close to standing still!)
Leading the swim
First out of the water was one consolation
Eneko Llanos flies past me in transition to take the lead
It was tough to deal with the anaerobic threshold that you have to endure during the uphill sections of these races. Racing Ironman where you try and maintain a steady heart rate is so different to the intensity of trying to deal with your heart rate shooting up to 180-190 bpm for long periods!
Heartbreak hill is literally where I think my heart broke! I realized I had zero mountain bike skills and spent a lot of the next few steep uphill’s running/ walking it through the technical sections while I watched many people negotiate them with ease. 10 people would pass me at a time on some sections and it was ridiculous that I had been leading the race out of the water and how quickly I was going backwards!
I was relieved to finally be traversing the mountain and seeing more downhill than uphill but with that came the next big challenge of staying on the trail and picking a good line through the lava rock sections. Not 100m after I successfully made it through a steep rocky lava downhill I got my first flat tire. I rode it another few hundred meters till I got to a clearing and pulled over to fix it. People were flying past me and I was wrestling with my back wheel. Replaced my tube, inflate the tire but I blew the CO2 cartridge and no air went into the new tube … damn! Second CO2 inflates the tire and I am good to go. Back on the bike (6-8 minutes later) and I make it a few minutes further down the trail and there it goes AGAIN! Oh no. Change the tube (last one left and last CO2 cartridge) but the tire doesn’t seem to inflate the tire enough. I am wary to ride it at such low pressure with no spares left so I run my bike for a few hundred meters till I find a nice guy from Canada that lets me use his hand pump. I am pumping away and not much air seems to be going in the tire but I get it to what I think is a reasonable pressure and get going again. I am now really careful, as I know this is my last chance. I can’t have any more flats now because I don’t have any spares left. Luckily the trail turns a little more dusty and has a few grass sections and I make it at least a few miles but again to my dismay I flat and I am left stranded on the side of the trail halfway up Mt Haleakala!
Still in one piece but a little dejected after an unsuccessful first attempt at Xterra Maui. I will be back in the future!
I was determined not to DNF and I considered trying to ride on around the course but since I only made it to about 10 miles it was just too far and way too dangerous to ride the rim or walk it home. I was out of the race!
I had fun dabbling in something different but won’t be planning another Xterra race for a while. I want to work on my mountain bike skills and learn more about tires and equipment, and be more prepared in the future. I took a lot of advice from a lot of different people about my set up for this race and I thought I would be OK, but nothing beats your own experiences so that is something I can work on before I come back to race here again. I still have a goal to win the Ironman/ Xterra double at some point (which I had no hope of winning today) since Eneko Llanos had an amazing race and won!
A big thanks to my bike sponsor Scott www.scottusa.com for setting me up with my bike and being so enthusiastic about me racing here! Scott are making the best mountain bikes on the market and I am looking forward to working on my skills with the boys from Scott and racing Xterra with more success in the future. It's definitely fun!
I am going to head out now for a Sunday afternoon run since I didn’t get it done in the race. Looking forward to a fun night at the awards and Halloween party but as of tomorrow it is all systems go training for the World Ironman 70.3 Championships in Clearwater, Florida. Less than 3 weeks left in season 2009!!!
