Johnny's Bike & Triathlon: June 2013

XTerra Deuces Wild is in Show Low, AZ—about a four hour drive East from Phoenix. I drove to Phoenix after picking up the kids from school and stayed the night in a hotel. It’s actually a neat drive along Hwy 8 from San Diego to Phoenix, so we didn’t mind the 5 hour trip. We got a great night sleep then departed for Show Low in the morning so I could check out the bike course and register for the race.

View on the way to Show Low from Phoenix

I raced in Show Low in 2011 and had some familiarity with the course. I remember being gassed from mile 5-6, so I wanted to get a better handle on where I’d need to put max effort in on the ride. I determined that the uphill from mile 3-6 was key and especially the last mile to the top of the mountain, where you had to red line to keep on the pedals.

We stayed in the Best Western Painted Pony in Show Low and had some great service. Next door there was a very good Mexican restaurant, so we ate early at 5:00 then settled down for a movie (Titanic). I set the alarms for 4:15, packed for an early hotel departure, and got my gear ready for the race. I didn’t make it to the end of the movie, but the kids seemed to like it.

The kids slept in the car while I got my transition area set up. The weather was perfect for a race and Fools Hollow Lake was a very nice temperature--maybe 65. The swim course seemed much further than the advertised 800m—it appeared more like 1200m. The swim times reflect my assumption.

The swim went okay for me. There were about 75 guys at the in-water start, but it wasn’t too crowded since we were spread out pretty wide. About half way through, I got a big gulp of water that interfered with my breathing, so I had to roll on my back for a few seconds to get my breath. I felt gassed about a third of the way through—maybe too quick of a start? Maybe the effects of altitude? I felt a bit better ¾ of the way through the swim and finally got a decent rhythm then. But in my head I was thinking, “you’re sucking on this swim and are losing a lot of time.” I’m not sure what place I exited the water, but my son estimated 10-12^th.

Transition went quickly—the best one yet. I screwed this up in my last XTerra and made some substantial changes to the way I do transitions. It was nice to get in an out on the bike in pretty good time. I made up a little time that I had dropped on the swim.

I felt very good on the bike from the start and measured my efforts in preparation for miles 3-6. One guy passed me, but he was in a huge gear and was a bit slow on the first downhill—I needed to pass him before mile 6, otherwise I could get stalled on the way back down. I ended up passing him at about mile 4, along with about 3 other riders. Since I had my Garmin on my bike, I knew where I’d need to max my effort and when the pain would end. I do remember pain at 5.8 mi and gave it all to mile 6. What made this mile tough were the grade and especially the softball sized rocks that weren’t anchored in dirt. You had to power quickly over them to keep on your wheels, which takes a lot of energy and a high degree of balance. There wasn’t a good line or path to jump on to avoid the rocks.

The descent and second half of the bike course went very well for me. I finally caught sight of another competitor ahead of me. What intrigued me is that spectators were giving me splits to two racers ahead of me. I tracked two fresh sets of wheel tracks ahead of me. I thought, “Am I in third?” With about three miles to go on the bike, I started adding it up—I was in third! I rode in to transition and sure enough, only two bikes were on the rack.

Always nice to get into a pretty empty transition area

I left transition and got my race belt on, ready to hit the run portion hard. A crowd was spectating on the road and were lined up across it so I turned into a parking lot toward another road only to have a woman yell that I was off the course and needed to turn around. I lost about 20 seconds on that detour. After two miles, I saw the guy in second place and was beginning to close on him. It was an out and back course, so I was able to keep a pretty good eye on other competitors. I noticed that the guy behind me, Lewis Elliot, was running real well and was closing on me. Bryce Phinney, the winner, was way out in front in first place. At about mile 3, I passed the guy in front of me but knew Lewis would soon be in touch. Sure enough, with about ¾ mile left in the race, he passed me and finished about 20 seconds ahead.

Overall, XTerra Show Low was a great experience with a super staff. The folks in the town were quite nice as well. What was impressive was the unique wine stopper and generous gift from the race sponsor, TriSports.com. It was definitely worth the long trip to race in Show Low. I’m feeling pretty good with my level of fitness now, but still have a lot of work to do to be competitive at Nationals and Worlds.