My Insane Weekend Part I (2011 XTERRA Triathlon)

As I spend the day resting my very sore legs and trying to rehydrate, I have a little time to reflect on this past weekend, and the shear craziness of it all. As far as putting my body through an ultimate test, few things come close to what I did March 26&27, 2011. Friday Stephanie picked up my rental mountain bike from the Navy base. As I was tweaking the brakes and adjusting the seat, a friend offered to let me borrow his mountain bike, which I jumped at since his was much lighter, and much nicer. It took a couple of hours to get everything set up because his tires weren't right for rough terrain, he didn't have inner tubes for the correct tires, my rental tubes didn't fit on his wheels, and the brakes on the nice bike weren't wide enough for the rental wheels. Oh, and there was small leak in the front rental tire. I probably could have taken this as an omen, but I decided to press through, and eventually with several adjustments got the rental tires on the nice bike and patched the hole in the inner tubes (twice). Saturday morning came very quickly and at 4:30 I was up and off to the race. After body marking and setting up we hit the water for our 1K swim. There was about 72 solo racers plus several teams competing.

With the sound of the Conch shell (as opposed to a gun) we were off. Knowing that I would need my energy for later, I decided to take it slow and hang towards the back (I was in it to finish, not to win).

After about 23 minutes, I was done with the swim, and ready to tackle the 31K mountain bike ride. It was by far the hardest portion of the race for me. It started out with an insane climb of Nimitz Hill. Luckily it was on paved road and I had clip-in pedals. I was able to pass several people climbing the hill but once we left the beaten path and had to go downhill I slowed down a bit and most of the people I passed ended up passing me. Still, my goal more than anything was to finish. I took my time, hopped off my bike several times to go down hills that were too steep, and in general played it safe.

In hindsight, it probably would have been beneficial if I had actually practiced riding a mountain bike (this was only my 3rd time to ride one). Somehow I made it through the course safely and was back at the transition ready for the "run" at about the 3 hour point (the cutoff time was 3:30). I was starting to feel a little fatigued, but with only 8.2K left to go, I knew I could finish. I took off running trying to make up for lost time on the bike. The running didn't last long, though once I hit the trail, and I was trekking through the forest, going over, under, and around bamboo, wading waist-deep through rivers, and going down a waterfall.

4 hours, 20 minutes, 54 seconds after starting the race I crossed the finish line. I was tired, dehydrated, and very sore, but more than anything I was glad to be finished.

Stephanie did such a great job as a volunteer that she got a t-shirt too. It was a fun and exciting day. Looking to next year's XTERRA Triathlon, I'll definitely look at getting more comfortable on a mountain bike. I'll also have a back-up plan in case I have a bike malfunction (to be honest I think I got lucky making it through the race).

After a very early morning and more than 4 hours of racing I was tired, and could have called the weekend a success, but I wasn't done yet...