Xterra Nationals- Ogden UT & Xterra Worlds- Maui
Well, it appears that my blogging took a backseat to my training. Also seems to have taken a backseat to my off season. So to catch up a little, here is a recap of the past six months. Xterra Nationals was held in beautiful Ogden Utah in September of 2010. The weather along with altitude proved to be a bit much for me. It was in the low 40’s when the race started! The water felt warm compared to the air temp! And I somehow forgot to grab my arm warmers from my home stay, so when I came out of the water and took off my wetsuit.. I was FREEZING!!!!! I hopped on the bike and just started pedaling. I saw my friend Cori pass me on the bike and knew it was going to be a tough day. Coming out of transition, you have about a 1/2 mile on the side of the road, then you go into climbing. Lots and lots of climbing!!! And in the shade climbing. I think I started to finally warm up after about an hour on the bike. The hills were brutal. We finally hit a small downhill section and I was finally warm and starting to chill out a little. I still had lots of time on the bike, so I just kept pushing. I finally made it back up to the ski resort, where transition was located. I peeled off my bike gear and took off for my run. My legs felt like lead. I couldn’t believe how drained I felt already. My stomach was a wreck. The run was more of a run/walk mixed with some tears. I think that this was emotionally the hardest race that I’ve ever done. It’s amazing how outside stress can have such a profound effect on the body. But I was NOT going to quit. I came here to race. I came here to finish. That was my goal. And to hopefully do it in less time than the year before. And I did. I finished nearly 15 minutes faster than my time last year. I was so glad to be finished with the race. I could finally breathe again. Oh wait… now to complete my goals for this year. I had one month to finish preparing for Maui. Bring it on.
I arrived to beautiful Maui on the Friday before the race. I had two days before the biggest race of my life so far. I was so excited that I could barely sleep!!! I was staying about 45 minutes away from the race location, which was a killer drive (going 25mph!!!). The Saturday prior to the race I headed to the Race Venue to get checked in and to pre-ride the course. And also to check out where we were going to be swimming. Everything on Maui is just magical. I was nervous about the race, but there was something calming about being in such an amazing place. I ran into two of the girls I race with in Texas so I was able to pre-ride the course with them. I could barely keep my focus on the task at hand because it was so dang pretty!!!!! The course seemed to be very loose rock, and mostly on fire roads/jeep roads. This was going to be interesting for sure. Then I headed down to the water. The beach was perfect. I headed out into the warm Maui waters… and almost immediately saw a huge sea turtle…. and I began to giggle. Now how in the world am I going to keep my focus swimming when there are so many amazing things to look at under the water! I swam out about halfway to the first buoy and turned around to head back in. Enough working out for today. Time to eat and to rest before the big dinner that night. The dinner of champions was motivating. I was ready to get this show on the road. I headed back to my hotel to get everything prepared for the next morning. I knew my chances of sleep were slim, but I was going to give it a shot! 5:00am the next morning came WAY too early. And unfortunately my stomach wasn’t cooperating at ALL. I tried to choke down my regular pre-race breakfast, but was not having much success. I think I got down about 1/2 of what I needed to fuel myself for this day. I arrived to the race site and got everything set up. I was so nervous!!! I couldn’t sit still! And I was also excited about wearing my new Orca swim skin that I got a few days earlier. Hopefully that will help on the swim. It was finally time to head down to the start. The priestess blessed the entire field and blessed each of us before our big start. I could not even process everything. This was the moment. This was it. I trained all year for this. I made it. I did this. And I couldn’t be more proud!!!!! And the gun goes off. We all run into the water. I think this was the first race that I have done where I could actually SEE the person in front of me. I found it much easier to navigate through the crowds that way. And still be able to giggle at the fish below and the scuba guys. I was feeling pretty good. I just kept pushing. When I exited the water I looked down at my watch. 27 minutes!!! WHAT? Sweet! That’s a record for me in a race. After my very disappointing swim at Nationals, this was a big confidence booster. I ran up to T1 and got on my biking gear and headed out. We had about a mile or so on the road so I had plenty of time to get some food in me, as well as put on my gloves and glasses. I was ready to tackle this 3000 ft of climbing. It was slow going. I felt like my bike was being thrown all over. Man this would be so much better on my new 29er!!!! But it had not come in by the time I left, so I’ll have to wait till next year. This was a BRUTAL course. Don’t let the earlier comment of fire road/jeep road fool you. This course is not for the meek. My bike took right at three hours. About half way through that, i figured out that I could not take in any more nutrition. That is NOT a good thing in a long race like this. I started out on my run and attempted to choke down something. Ok.. time for this run. Let’s finish this. I just kept telling myself.. almost there… almost done…. you can DO this. The uphills were a lot of walking, but I tried to keep those legs going. When I came out onto the beach and saw the deep, soft sand I knew I was only about a mile from the finish. AHhhhhhhh …. but then I started running on that sand and I realized this beach run was going to be harder than I thought. Each step felt like I was pulling up another pound of sand. I’ve never run in sand this deep. Even the wet sand was so soft and hard to run on. After the sand, we went over to the lava rock. It was jagged and really hard to run on also. But I knew this meant I was done. Only a quarter mile to go! I finished. I was really hoping I would make it in under 5:00 hours, but I missed that by one minute. I was just ready to be done. I felt like a weight had been lifted. I finished. And I did it in about the time I thought I would do it in. With a smile on my face. I really hope I get the chance to come back next year. This was a great experience. And let me tell you, the post race beer was absolutely priceless.
I really want to say a sincere thanks to everyone out there that made this possible. I have such a great group of supporters in my life. I am a very lucky girl.
