I thought I was done racing until Utah, but a quick scan of the points series told me that if I let my buddy Cliff win Lake Tahoe, I would not win the region. So, I drove to LAX on a Friday night, got to Reno by 10 and got a hotel room by the airport. Up at 4, put my bike together in the room with my Java, and drove to Incline. As I was setting up, Cliff came by and set up next to me and asked “Have you seen Wayne?”.
Wayne Avery is the guy who beat me last year at Utah, and then at Tahoe. Although I had some issues in both cases, Wayne is a monster, and I thought he wasn’t racing this year, as he had dropped out of sight. But there he was, ready to go, and suddenly my little attempt to beat Cliff was turning into a replay of 2008 Nationals.
So now I was fired up. There was a good crowd for the race, 181 in the long course - including Nico Lebrun and Damian Gonzales, and probably 100 in the short (?). The long folks went off first, and I quickly got a gap on everyone except for some guy in a relay (who went 4 min faster than me). The water was not as cold as Oct - I ended up doing 26:03, 43 seconds ahead of the next group that Nico was in. The short course folks went off while we were swimming, and although I caught most of them, there were a few that got out early and were on their bikes.
Knowing Wayne was coming I really worked the bike. I love that Tahoe course, and drilled it up Tunnel creek to get to the Flume. Nico and Damian caught me on the climb, as well as some young dude wearing tennis shoes and straps, baggy shorts, a tee-shirt, a bmx helmet, and riding a k-mart bike. He ended up 3rd overall (really - who is that kid?). It was fun to ride the flume hard with literally no one around. Richard Blanco caught me going around the lake, and I rode with him to the top of the climbing, where Tom Lyons latched on, and they both dropped me (well, I can’t really hang with those guys). I did 2 hrs, which was OK, considering the course was very loose compared to Oct (most folks went about 3 min slower).
I worked the rim trail rock garden and the descent, and hit the transition with no sign of Wayne. Apparently I was in 11th. I just started running as hard as I could, and kept it going. Nico passed me again (stop that!), but pretty much I held my own on that course, ran a 48, came in 14th, and thought I had won.
I had not won. Wayne came around me somewhere. He ran most of the race thinking I was ahead of him, but saw me near the end. I out swam him by 7 min, but he out rode me by 8 min, and out ran me by 3, and ended up 9th overall.
Oh well, the guy has talent, and I just need to find those 4 min somewhere. I didn’t have much time to think about it. I was packing my bike within minutes of finishing, and driving home from LAX that afternoon to the sight of what seemed to be the biggest fire in the world rising up out of the San Gabrieal mountains. My view of the XTerra World is changed. It’s Wayne’s world, and I’m just winning the races he doesn’t bother to go to. I hope to change that in a radical way, but it might take a longer effort than the 4 weeks left to Utah.