XTERRA World Championship Race Report

View from the hotel room before my Thursday pre-ride

The XTERRA World Championship on October 27^th was the conclusion of my racing season and was a good ending of a long year.  I spent a week in Maui with my wife and tied the race in with a nice vacation.
 

I arrived on Maui Wednesday morning, which gave me enough time to run the entire run course on Wednesday afternoon.  It was hot and humid—I sweat quite a bit even though I wasn’t pushing hard on the run.  My plan was to run the course Wednesday, ride the course hard on Thursday, ride it real easy on Friday, take a complete day of Saturday, and race Sunday.

 

I got on the bike course at 9:30 on Thursday at the approximate time I’d be racing.  I was soaked head to toe with dripping sweat and was gassed at the conclusion of the ride.  A little spill near the end of the ride caused me to be covered in dirt from head to toe.  Due to the sweat, the dirt turned to mud—I was a mess.  But two things I learned during that ride would be critical for race day: 1) hydration would be extremely important 2) over exertion on the bike would lead to a devastating run.

View from the top of the first long climb at about mile 5

 

I got on the course again Friday and had a more pleasant go on the course, albeit my bike was a bit cranky.  I didn’t wash it or lube the chain, so the drive train was noisy and sometimes uncooperative.  There was a lot of fine dust on the course that made its way into every part of the bike.  I gave it a good post-ride wash down and spent a lot of time getting the chain and derailleurs cleaned.

 

On race day, these trails would be very dusty, which impacted visibility somewhat

Race day was warm and humid with not much of a breeze to cool things off.  I got my bike in the rack as transition opened.  Luckily, my division’s assigned racks were right next to the pros near the bike exit.  It was neat to see them all come into the transition area and get prepared.  There were about 80 male and female pros total.  I hydrated more than normal and dissolved Hammer enduralites in my water bottle and camelback.  My hydration plan was to drink my water bottle (which had 2 enduralites) before the first bottle exchange, then drain the camelback by the end of the ride (I had 4 enduralites in there).  Enduralites would provide much needed electrolites that I’d be sweating out and would help prevent cramping.  At the second bottle exchange, I made sure that my second bottle was drained and picked up a fresh one.  So the plan that I followed gave me a total of 5 bottles of water during the ride.

Race morning after a little warm up swim

 

The XTERRA cannon went off and we began our race through some fairly calm beach breaks.  With about 450 male racers toeing the line for a mass start, I expected a lot of contact during the first 500m.  But I was pleasantly surprised that the swim was pretty clean.  I stayed away  from the first turn buoy, which typically puts you at a standstill with other flailing swimmers who are trying to navigate it.  I think that helped.  I got out of the water with a decent swim time and got ready to hit the bike course.

Mass start of the male competitors as the females get ready to go

 

Transition area.  My bike is in the top right corner near the exit

After an okay swim, getting to my bike for a tough ride

The first 5 miles of the course were pretty tough—a lot of elevation gain and a lot of riders passing on narrow trails.  I kept telling myself to hold back a little, as I knew there was a lot more racing to be done.  At the top of the first major climb, the pack of riders thinned out and I felt like I was riding alone.  During the first descent, I saw one guy lying in the grass after a crash—he was completely covered in dirt but looked okay.  My Garmin had me going 35mph down that same hill a few days before.  My hydration plan seemed to work and my legs felt pretty good as I came toward the end of the bike course.  I managed to stay upright along some tricky areas near the end and actually felt pretty good as I rode into transition.

 

Elevation profile of the XTERRA Worlds bike course.  Those first 5 miles were tough.  Run course was the same up to mile 3.

Fast descent here.  This is about where that guy crashed and was laying in the grass on the left.  The descents were fast, so there wasn't to much time to recover before the next hill

The first 3 miles of the run course was the same as the bike course.  It was mostly up hill.  I felt real good during the run and my legs didn’t have debilitating pain from the bike.  My legs were fresh, I was mentally positive, and I was hydrated.  So I ran hard and was able to keep my pace up for the duration of the 6 mile run.  Of all the amateurs, I had the 16^th fastest run at the race.  Comparatively, my bike time ranked about 110th.  In retrospect, I could have pushed harder on the bike, but there is a very fine line that I didn’t want to cross.  I didn't know how hard I could push on the bike without breaking, which I didn't want to find out the hard way.



Bike to run transition.  All the dirt turns to mud with sweating so much--note muddy cycling shoes

 In the end, I finished 15^th in my Division and was the 5^th 40-44 year old American to finish.  I was pretty satisfied with the result, although my goal was to get top 10.  I'm ready to take a few months off from rigorous training and get ready for another year of competition in a different age division. 

On the way to the finish line after 3hrs 16min of racing

Tired, dirty, and dehydrated

Watching finishers cross the line