My Road to Xterra


Follow my journey as a mountain biker and Xterra racer! I've updated my race schedule for 2011! Date Race State 2/26/2011 Burns Park Trail Run AR, USA - 3rd Place  3/12/2011 Spa City 6 hour AR, USA  17th Place 3/11/2011 Du It In the Dirt- Duathlon AR, USA  - 1st Place 5/22/2011 XTERRA Southeast Championship AL, USA  2nd Place 6/11/2011 XTERRA Eureka Springs AR, USA   6/19/2011 XTERRA Muleshoe TX, USA   6/25/2011 XTERRA Dawg Dayz AR, USA   6/26/2011 Dawg Days Little Rock, AR 7/16-7/17 Eureka Spring Eureka Springs, AR 8/7/2011 XTERRA Iron Will AR, USA   8/28/2011 XTERRA Magnolia Hill TX, USA 9/3/2011 Slaghter Pen Jam Bentonville, AR 9/24/2011 XTERRA USA Championship UT, USA   10/23/2011 XTERRA World Championship HI, USA   10/29/2011 XTERRA EPIC - Iron Mountain AR, USA   11/5 Attila the Hun Hot Spings, AR

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23rd August 2010

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Camp Eagle Xterra 08/15/2010

This race was important for me to do for several reasons. First, it’s my 35th Birthday. And I love that I spent it doing the thing that I love!!! Second, I was sick during last year’s race, so I had to sit out and watch everyone else race. Bronchitis kicked my butt! It was also a nice break to a part of Texas that is absolutely breathtaking. Camp Eagle is located about an hour and a half east of Kerrville, Texas. It is out in the middle of nowhere, and it’s perfect. The weekend started off on Friday and we loaded up the car and headed out for our 7 hour drive. I needed to get to the camp in time to pre-ride the course that evening so we were booking it. We made it in time to get my pre-ride in with time to spare. The course had been “sanitized” which was not a great thing for me. I think that it made the course slower due to the ground being very loose. But overall it was a fun course. There was about 10 miles of mountain biking during this Xterra. We spent Saturday chilling out and checking out the little town of Junction. The day ended with an all you can eat spaghetti dinner at the camp with all of the other competitors. It was good to see all the girls from Austin and chat it up about the race. 5:00am came WAY too early the next morning. We stayed at the Historic Rocksprings Hotel, which was about a 40 minute drive from the camp. Once we arrived my nerves started to calm a bit. I unloaded my bike and my gear and began to put my seatpost back on my bike…. I had just begun to tighten it and I heard a “SNAP” Uh oh. That’s not good. I looked down and saw that my seat post clamp had broken. Wow…. I’ve never seen one break like that…. Ok, so I grab the clamp off Stephanie’s bike figuring that surely it would be the same size. Uh… not even close. I spent the next hour running around trying to find a clamp that would work on my Trek. Not a bit of luck. It was a size that no one had even heard of, including me. It was a 39! So as we were tinkering with it, a guy came over and suggested that we try electrical tape. He insisted that he used this fix for his brothers bike before and it actually worked. So, we broke out the tape and started wrapping. Denise also let us use her black duct tape to finish off the job. When we finished… it looked aerodynamic!  Well, it’s going to have to work. So I finished setting up my transition with my frankenbike and headed over to the swim start. My nerves were a little frazzled, and today (my birthday) was starting off a bit shaky. But that all fell away when I got in the water to warm up for the swim. I had decided to wear my skinsuit vs. my wetsuit due to the lower half of the swim being in much warmer water. We all staged up and then started about 2 minutes behind the first set of guys. It was a knuckle dragging swim for the first 500 meters. In fact, there were several people that ended up walking most of it. I swam wherever possible and then walked the last 100 m to the ladder, which led to the swim portion on the other side of the dam. I was feeling pretty good and catching up to a lot of the boys. We came out of the water and had to climb up a long set of stairs. There was a short run from there to the transition area. I had a bit of trouble getting my skin suit off over the ankle timing chip and stumbled with that a bit, but got out of the TA as quickly as possible. I was feeling a bit tired going into the bike portion and was passed by one of the girls…. Like I was sitting still. DANG!!!! Ok.. time to kick it into gear and start going. For some reason my legs didn’t cooperate with me. I felt like I was going at a snails pace, and was getting passed by several girls. The race crew had added in a new section after my pre-ride and when I came up on it, I was not prepared for what I encountered. There was a sharp left turn going down into a very loose corner with rocks. I totally did not see that coming. My front wheel washed out and I was going down…. I went over the bike to the right side and landed on my left shoulder and knee. I got up, brushed myself off and went to grab my bike, but the handlebars were totally spun around and caught on my cables. Crap! A very nice guy stopped to help me, and neither of us could seem to get it turned around. He finally gave up and headed on…. I stopped for a second and took a breath. I tried again and got it. SWEET! Back on the trail. Only a few minute pit stop! WAIT!!!! Uh… going down the hill I realize that my front wheel is not lined up right…. Aw… man… really? Ok..  I stopped again and got my wheel straightened up with my handlebars. My bolts must have been loose! So, I’m back on the trail… shaken a bit, but I’m still moving forward. My shoulder hurts a bit and I’m a little scared to look over at it. I had dirt EVERYWHERE!!! It took me about 5 minutes to shake off the wreck. But I think that it affected my riding after that. I was being a chicken! So very frustrating! About 10 minutes after the wreck I hear my buddy Dax coming up behind me. Dang. He caught me! So I kindly let him pass and made him a promise that I’d see him again on the run. I came in from the bike a bit frustrated, but ever so thankful that my seat stayed in place during the race. Turns out duct tape IS a viable seat post clamp temporary replacement! Into transition and I get my running shoes on, helmet off, bike on the rack, my number, and I head out for the 4 mile run which basically starts off with a run to the base of a hill… then straight up the hill. Ugh! I’m walking most of the hill at this point. Exhausted. Hot. Needing some water badly. And who do I see in front of me….. yup… it’s Dax. I did catch him! We spent the remainder of the run singing songs, pushing each other to go faster, and talking about the fact that it was both of our birthdays… and what a great way to spend it! We agreed to come through the finish together. It was nice to have the company on the run. I finished the race a few minutes under what I had anticipated, so I was very happy with that. I ended up third in my age category. The girl that won it was smokin’ fast! You go girl! What a FUN weekend… and FUN race. Thanks to Stephanie who made everything seem easier on this trip and race. It’s amazing how much of a mental boost it is to hear someone cheering for you….. thank you!!!!!! Your cheers pushed me along even when I was frustrated!!!! Thanks to Dax for pushing me to go harder on the run. And to all the girls who I raced with that pushed me to go faster!!!! Now to chill before my race next weekend in Austin!!!! 

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