Awesome creek crossing!
View from the top!Swim: 800 Meters
About 65 degree clear water. Perfect conditions for a fast swim. Started the swim and felt like my lungs were going to explode! But after a couple of minutes I settled in and got on the feet of the guy in the lead. After the first turn buoy he started drifting right so I stayed on my line and started pulling away. Let out of the water by about 30 secs and for the 2nd straight race was first onto the bike.
Bike: 22 Miles
Bike course starts out on a road for about 2 miles, turns into gravel for about 2 miles, then turns into rocky double track for the last couple of miles. All this 6 miles is pretty much up, nothing too steep just a nice long grinder. Would have been nice to have a little singletrack on the way up but was still a challenge to gain 2000 feet in the first 30 mins of the race. The next few miles is up and down doubletrack. On the climb up I was passed by a couple of guys doing the race solo and 2 stud bikers doing a relay. I really didn't know they were relay but was able to sort that out later. After the double track, we entered a couple of miles of some really sweet singletrack. Lots of big rocks to maneuver around. Some very challenging lines. PreRiding this section definitely paid off on race day and I was able to get up clean. I was riding the bonty 29-3 tires and as usual they were hooking up well. After the single track you enter for me what was the most challenging part of the ride. About 4 really steep climbs that required the 26/36 combo for me to make it up. One of the climbs which starts right after this creek crossing, was super sketchy and I ended up running part of this climb. Didn't feel too bad though saw some fresh footprints from the guys ahead of me.
After the steep climb we had a sketch descent that was pretty much a motorcycle track. Very slippery 3-4 inches of silt. I've ridden in sand before but compared to this stuff sand is grippy. I went down once and was passed by 1 more guy while trying to get my chain back on. After that I slipped and slided around the 90 degree steep turns and finally made it back to the gravel road we came up. A short cruise back down and I was back into transition.
Run: 10k
Run was pretty uneventful. The trail is a great mixture of tight single track, paved trail and rocky sections. If you do this race don't let the flat first 1.5 miles fool you, the middle section is technical and hill. I would definitely recommend a good pair of trail shoes. I caught up to one guy which put me back into 3rd place overall. I never saw any one ahead of me, but at the finish I was just 30 secs back of 2nd and 1:50 back of first. So all in all I was pleased. Also Idaho gave me enough points in the series to take first place in the 35-39 division for the Southest Region. So one of the goals for the season, Regional Champ is done!
Next up is Xterra Nationals is Ogden, Utah. Race is a week from this Saturday and I'm just starting my taper. Feeling good so far, hopefully I can bring an Xterra National Championship in my age division to the Trek 29r Crew.
MC
