Ok, who said that using a ski lodge is a perfect venue for a typical Xterra race? ( some sicko I think) Well, it is and this “short” course race is a real killer. Want hills? Check. Want surprises? You got it.
Being from the Bay Area and cutting costs for Dave and myself, we did our annual car trip to Running Springs, Ca. It’s about an 8hr drive from our home so we opted to leave Friday night, drive part way until we were tired and find a Motel 6 in Lost Hills. Got up the next morning and headed off. The drive itself is pretty boring except for all the crazy drivers we saw. We saw a car whiz by us only to pass an 18 wheeler on the right hand shoulder! R U kidding me???? Yes, it was a car full of teenagers probably thinking ,”hey, this could be fun…” Glad I’m beyond that age and smarter to say the least. I’ll get my jollies on the trails thank you very much instead.
Well, we did get some more excitement by driving by this huge motorhome that was owned by Guns and Roses! As we passed by, I gave one of the guys who was sitting in the passenger seat a thumb’s up and he winked at me! Wow…that made my day. I even had a Guns/Roses CD in the car for some odd reason.
We eventually got to the race site at about 2:30p.m. We picked up our registration goodies and were warmly welcomed by the nice volunteers there. AVIA shoes had a small booth there also. They had samples of their wonderful shoes. I must say, the AVI Stoltz are the best trail shoe for Xterra racing. I fell in love with them last year. Finally, someone came out with a lightweight and grippy trail shoe!
Dave and I went out for a short bike just to check the conditions and a run to get our legs moving. Ate early dinner and sat around our tent and off to bed in the car! Oh, my aching back. It was an uncomfortable night with waking up about four times to use the bathroom. Thank goodness the race director keeps the bathrooms open for the campers there. They even had a volunteer stay overnight to lock up the gates so we would be safe sleeping in the parking lot. Pretty cool I thought.
Race morning: Got up at 6:15a.m. and weather was clear and a bit chilly. Ate breakfast and the surprise for the first-timers is the bike ride up this hill to get to T-1. It’s part of the race course and the “lake” is above the parking lot. It takes about 20min of ez riding toget there but it is hilly. What a great warm up. Of course you have to pack your swim gear up and they give you the big plastic bags to pack up your gear after your swim. They bring them down to you to T-2. I’m not fond of having two transition areas, but there really is not much they can do to change things. Move the lake?
Swim: The lake is pretty small and you rack your bike on the opposite side of the swim start so that means you get to walk around the lake too. More warming up. Water temp was in around 75degrees so many opted for no wetsuit. Not me. The swim is fairly straightforward. However, I did see a group of swimmers on the wrong side and thought what the heck? They cut the course big time if they skipped the other buoy, which is my only conclusion.
I love my wetsuit, it’s a Profile Design Gold Cell and comes off so easily!
Bike: Stuffed my swim gear into the trash bag and off to the trails. It a mix of fireroad, singletrack but was pretty dusty, loose and has it’s rocky portions so a good all around course. I did really well on the dh section this year. Mind you, in my opinion, the dh section was not for a beginner rider at all. There was a line to find but it can be sketchy for many and I whizzed thru it w/o harm. Yay! I thought the bike course was much shorter than before but it wasn’t. I didn’t even have enough time to down my GU Roctane and before I knew it, I was heading into T-2.
Run: Yes, the run is ONLY 4 miles but it seems like 10! It’s a bit confusing as they have you traverse up/down along the ski slopes and then reach a BIG hill that I managed to jog very slowly up. You get a little rest before you meet up towards the green water tower that I call the “green monster” Here comes the crack up though, so you are in complete oxygen debt at this point and you look up towards the tower and on the side you see this guy dressed up in a Grim Reaper outfit! Oh, when you thought that you have really found hell. It made me laugh so hard. It was so clever. He even had the fork to poke us with if he wanted but he didn’t. He just told me to run faster. I got up the hill but I think a sloth would’ve beaten me. You then go down the other side to and it flattens out to the turn around but then you go back up to the tower on the other side this time! After a few more climbs, you can see the finish line. Lucky, it’s on a downhill. The two volunteers there even hold up the Xterra tape for you to cross over! All in good fun for such a tough course.
I ended up with a second place finish in my AG. It was a fun day for the most part. We all received a leather coaster with Xterra Snow Valley stamped on it. Podium peeps got handmade wooden plaques. It seemed very eco friendly there too, which is a plus.
The long drive home was not fun at all! Thank goodness that Xterra always makes their races so very memorable and challenging. See you next year Snow Valley!