Yes, I know, it’s been a few weeks since the Xterra West Cup in Vegas. I haven’t been very good with updates lately! So let’s recap the events of the past few weeks:
On April 22, I traveled to Las Vegas for the Xterra West Cup. It was to be my first Xterra of the season and I was super excited to race but also spend some time with the Melrad Racing team.
The trip didn’t really start on the right note, my flight to Seattle was delayed for technical problems (Horizon Air had to send in a different plane) and I missed my connecting flight to Vegas. I ended up taking a later flight and finally made it to my hotel in Henderson, NV at almost midnight!
I was pretty trashed from the trip and slept pretty well until I was awaken the next morning by a call from Melanie! I can’t really blame her, it was 8:30am, I should have been up already! We made plans to meet that evening to sort out gear sent by our awesome sponsors (wetsuits by Profile Design, cycling gear by Bellwether, peanut & almond butter by Justin Nut Butter, and helmets by Lazer). In the meantime, I went for a pre-ride with Shawn from Avia, and teammates Jo & Tim. The course was slightly different than last year but the big climbs were still there! I surprised myself by actually riding the entire tricky steep descent than I couldn’t ride without crashing last year… I credit this success to my Specialized S-Works Epic (was riding a different bike last year) and the the countless hours I spent on the Epic over the past few months…
On Saturday, I did a little swim, little ride and a little run…just to get the legs going. Around 4pm, the entire Melrad Racing team gathered at the Loews Resort for a nice little get together. It was really cool to be able to meet the entire team, everyone came (even team members that weren’t racing!), Dan from Nathan & I did some gear distribution (one of the many things I do as the team captain), we received wetsuits & bike cages from Profile Design, helmets from Lazer, cycling gear from Bellwether, peanut & almond butter from Justin Nut Butter, chain lube from Squirt, shoes and water bottles from Avia and of course, hydration products from Nathan. After this Xmas in April, we took a team picture since everyone was here!
Sunday, April 25 = Race day!
Pretty uneventful race morning, I went thru my usual routine. I knew this race wouldn’t be a cake walk, for several reasons:
1/ I hadn’t really been feeling myself in the weeks leading to the race. My run was not really up to par for this time of the year and I had been feeling overly tired for no reason.
2/ I usually try to race an point series Xterra before I race a Cup race (usually Xterra Real late March in NorCal) but I wasn’t able to go this year and I felt a little rusty.
3/ My age group was DEEP and populated by very talented and fast women (but I won’t let that intimidate me).
As usual, my goal was to race hard, have fun and try to qualify for Maui…
Just before the race my wetsuit zipper got stuck into my try suit… but teammate extraordinaire Becky Batizy fixed that! Thanks Becky!
The swim started in waves, and as usual, the women (and guys over 40) were the last to go. The swim went pretty well and I was ecstatic to see 26:30 on my watch as I got out of the water. This marks my best 1500m ever, beating my previous best (last year’s 27:30 here in Vegas) by 1 minute. My swim is finally approaching the level of “acceptable” … Back during my first few years as a triathlete, my 1500m swim was around the 35 to 37 minute mark, so a 26:30 makes me very happy! I have to credit this success to my super awesome Profile Design Goldcell wetsuit, this thing is amazingly comfortable and makes slow people somewhat fast!
The run to transition was long… once at the racks, I peeled off my Goldcell and onto my Specialized Epic I was. I had no real sense of how many 35-39 years old women where ahead of me. But I got to cranking and soon I found myself on the moon landscape that is the Las Vegas bike course. I saw many women with a 35 on their calf during the bike, and passed them all, until Cary Kinross-Wright passed me (Cary is a very strong Xterra athlete, I finished 2nd behind her last year on this very same course), I was actually surprised that she was behind me, and realized that I was probably doing fairly well. Seconds after Cary passed me, I heard her rear tire go: ppppfffffff! And I’m thinking: “lets get away!” That’s when I got this Lenny Kravitz song in my head: “I wanna get away, I wanna fly away”! So I proceeded to move into double time to try to hold off Cary, I knew she was a fast runner so I wanted to get as much distance between us as I could…
I was moving pretty well on the bike and towards the end of the second loop, I caught up to teammate Marcus Barton, and proceeded to point out to him that he was being passed by a girl! I guess it’s my role as the Captain of the Melrad team to be a little mean to the troops!
Back to T2, hoping that I was near the top of my age group (turns out I was 4th) and that I could hold on Cary and whoever else that may knock on the door. So far the race was going well; good swim and a very decent bike, but I was a little worried about my run. I was right, I started running and I had …no legs. The engine wasn’t firing up, there was nothing there. Right after I started the second loop, Cary K. caught up with me, and passed me like I was standing still, half way thru the second loop, another female with a 35 on her calf passed me, again, I could not respond, I knew then that I would have to try to qualify for Maui elsewhere because I wasn’t getting it here!
Finally, the finish line was in sight, and I crossed the line in 6th with a time of 3h11…
Some of my Melrad teammates got great results: Tim Holland won his age group, Jo Markham got 2nd, Fred Smith 4th (and 5th overall amateur), Meiling Yee was 3rd…
So that sums up my West Cup experience for this year…
Back home after the race, and still experiencing high levels of fatigue which is impacting my training. I’m hoping the issue will be resolved by the time of my next race which should be Xterra Farragut in Idaho on June 12.
Thanks to teammates Heather & Greg for handing me a fresh bottle half way thru the bike!