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That’s a Wrap…

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

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That’s a Wrap…

My best memories of my Xterra days do not center around the race courses or the place I finished; instead, they revolve around my overall experience. I have always said that in addition to the wonderful gift of allowing me to push my physical limits; the greatest gift I have received from my years of racing are the friendships I have made. Those friendships have paved the way for six years of the most fun a girl can have, at least legally. This past weekend was my last point series race in Fort Collins. As I have watched the Xterra field grow over the years, it has experienced some growing pains. Throw in a bad economy and the loss of Nissan in the mix and those pains were a little more severe. There was a certain magic that you experienced as you walked through the “village” and watched the kids play and race beneath your feet. People were smiling and shaking hands with each introduction. The pros intermingled with first timers and were never too arrogant to wish you luck or share one of their “race secrets.” Missing was the arrogance and the anxiety that was in the air at other triathlons. That is what I loved, I felt welcomed, embraced, and part of the family. I wanted to do my best, for myself. As the roadie triathletes have learned more about our secret gem, they have begun to invade in masses. I am always happy to share why we have so much fun and why Xterra is so hard; but yet, so fun at the same time.

One of Paul’s coworkers, Taylor, was one of these roadies. He had raced as a junior elite road triathlete and wanted to dip his toes in the Xterra experience. Paul tried to warn him. I mean my husband can ride 100 Miles, fast, but when he speaks of racing Xterras, he describes it is “a whole new level of pain.” Triathletes can be stubborn and steadfast in their resolve though; I have raced hard, how hard can it really be? Taylor and I had preridden the course the weekend before the race. He tagged along as I did hill repeats up the climbs, alternating between easy and hard gears. He was right on my heels and make no assumptions, this kid is fit. He is a fast swimmer and runner as well, so I knew he would be a threat on race day. I was happy to be on the trail, because Paul had the boys were busy almost killing themselves at the jump park. As I rode up, I noticed that my nine year old was hitting the big jumps. He gets that skill from his Dad, as he cleared line after line with minimal effort.

My husband just happens to work in a pretty competitive atmosphere in the outdoor industry. Everyone runs, bikes, and races, so there is more then a little friendly competition on a daily basis. Friday night I got to meet a number of Paul’s coworkers as we said farewell to one. It did not take long for people to realize that both Taylor and I were racing on Sunday. Do not get me wrong, I have beat my fair share of men, but poor Taylor was adamant that he was not going to be chicked, especially by an old lady like myself.

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When my alarm sounded at 4:30 am on Sunday, the room filled with some rather colorful language as I was woken from a deep sleep. I groggily got up, grabbed my race bag, and waited for Taylor’s car to appear in my driveway. By 6 am we were entering enemy territory, both of us are CU grads, and in serious need of a nap. I am always like Santa on race day; I gave an extra race number belt to a racer that had forgotten his, never saw that again, thanks Nathan! I also made sure that Taylor had enough GU and encouraged him to try the Roctaine, thanks GU! Then I grappled with the same decision I had struggled with my last couple of races, wetsuit or no wetsuit. Although it was technically legal, a 74 degree water temperature made the decision easy, no wetsuit for me. The wave starts had Taylor out of the water before I even got wet. It was a quick 800 swim and I was out in front before the first 100 had passed. I knew I was going slower then normal, but with swimming through other races coupled with attempting to sight with the sun blinding me, that was just how it was going to be. It did not help that I had no men to pace off either. 46087_897519077513_10211833_49963700_7123759_n

Now the fun begins the bike. The course was fast, middle chain ring climbing followed by a quick descent and a flat section that can only be described as, go as fast as you can. I have to say it was a strange day for me. First, I had no idea where I was in the pack and I actually was doing the passing. It was much more confident aspiring then getting passed every other second. Only one woman passed me on the bike. I expected more, but none ever showed up. On to the run, I know what you are thinking, there goes that great race. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other as I slowly climbed up the hill. Around mile two, I began to be passed, but I just kept going. Remember how I said how much fun my first memories of Xterra were, well as I crossed the finish line there was a water slide in front of me. Everyone was eating, laughing, slipping, and sliding. I ran into Taylor who looked toasted. He looked at me and just said a few words, “Paul was right. That was the hardest thing I have ever done.” I just smiled and we walked over to look at our finish times. I ended up 3^rd in my age group, out of 14. Poor Taylor’s face glazed over as he realized I had beaten him by 10 seconds. When I got home, Paul could not stop laughing as I begged him to take it easy on him. Even with all of the heckling he endured at work that Monday, he is hooked and is looking forward to his next Xterra. For him a new chapter begins and for me one closes. Just Ogden stands between me and my Xterra farewell, see you there!

Becky

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XTERRA Panther Creek

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

by Marcus Barton

I raced the XTERRA Panther Creek Tri back on August 1st. I know, I know. That was 4 weeks ago. After some pestering from a few of my buddies who wanted the low-down, I figured I would post it anyhow. Plus, with going into my next race, I have been thinking a lot about Panther Creek, as any racer should. What went right? What went wrong? What changes should I make to improve? You get the idea. So since it’s been on my mind lately, it does make it easier to throw it on paper. Well, uh, not really paper, but again, you get the idea.

For the second year in a row, it was a wet course. It was on and off raining in the area the 24 hours leading up to the race. I wasn’t overly nervous about it, as I had a pretty good race there last year and it was muddy as all get-out.

Fred and I had chatted a couple of times leading into the race and we hooked up on race morning to talk strategy among miscellaneous small talk. It was still on-and-off misting as you could tell from the foggy camera lens in the picture below.

Like last year, the bike course was modified slightly to prevent the racers from going through a slick boulder and bridge section. It’s a fun, fun section when it’s dry, but could be very, very sketchy when wet. Here’s a dry picture of the section that was cutout.

After getting transition all laid out and things ready for the race, Fred, Dan, and I decided to head out on the course for a little quick pre-race warmup. This also gave us an opportunity to check out the course and to see if my decision to go gloveless would work given the wet conditions. It was slick as expected with every wet root acting like a gremlin to throw your wheels out from under you. The ESI Grips worked well, even wet and even without gloves. I was pleasantly surprised as I knew that going gloveless could save me time in transition, especially if it continued to rain. Have you ever tried putting on wet gloves?

On a second lap of the section we decided to pre-ride, I opted to push things just a little too hard. Inevitably, I crashed. Not only did I crash, but I did so twice. The second time down, my decision to go without gloves bit me. While hitting the dirt, I tried to catch myself and both of my hands scraped across sharp, pea-sized gravel. The result were cuts and scrapes to both of my palms. The pic below was from post-race while cleaning the wounds. Can you imagine what they looked like bloody?

Getting back to transition, I grabbed my Bellwether Scout gloves from my transition bag and placed them in their appropriate spot. There was no way I was going through that twice. I headed down to the water for a warm-up swim. During the swim, as soon as I took off, the first couple of strokes were painful. I expected the cuts to sting, but that wasn’t the problem. The real pain came from the fact that my right palm was not only cut, but bruised quite a bit. Matter of fact, it had already begun to swell and discolor. “This is not going to be fun on the bike,” I thought. After my warmup swim and RIGHT before the race start, I ran back up to transition and swapped my Scout gloves for a pair of the Bellwether Supreme gloves. I normally reserve these for road biking because I favor full-fingered gloves on the mountain bike. My decision to use them was based up the fact that they have a padded palm. They ended up being saviors on the bike course.

The swim consisted of a 400 meter course of which we would have to two laps. On the first lap I attempted to keep a strong, fast pace to stay ahead of the main pack. I knew I couldn’t keep up with Fred’s super-fast pace, so rather than blow up trying, I just kept him in sight and settled into my own pace. I was in 6th place coming out of the water and couple of minutes behind Fred (pretty significant on such a short swim).

My transition went super smooth and I entered the trail in 4th place. I passed another racer very early in the bike which put me into 3rd. I held 3rd place for a good portion of the first (of two) laps. That’s when my friend Dan caught up to me. “Abracadabra,’ he says as he passes me. We stuck together into the second lap. About a third of the way through, I crashed again on slick roots, hitting more sharp gravel, taking a huge chunk out of my tri suit and my arse with it. I shook it off quickly and kept on trucking. About the time I caught back up to Dan, I heard Ryan Oconner behind us and I informed Dan that we had a tail. Ryan kept his pursuit and eventually passes me once the trail widened. Shortly after his pass, I tried to pick up my pace in an effort to keep on his tail. It wasn’t long before the conditions took over and I crashed, AGAIN. Same side, same area, leaving more arse on trail. This allowed both Dan and Ryan to get out of sight. I continued my pursuit to both catch the guys in front and to ward off anyone trying to catch up. As I was about to finish up the bike leg of the race, Bence Roemer catches up and takes a pass.

Sore and beat up, I entered T2 and ditched the bike gear as quickly as possible. It went pretty smooth and I went into the run in 6th place overall.

After about a mile or so of technical single-track, the run course opened up onto a gravel fire-road. I could see Bence in the distance and tried my best to reel him in. Once we entered into a lolly-pop loop section of the course, I wouldn’t see him again. Matter of fact, I didn’t see or hear anyone for the rest of the run. I spent it all alone till the end of the race.

Since the conditions were quite muddy, I was a little concerned that the Avia Avi-Stoltz shoes would get clogged up and lose grip. Only in the most extreme, greasy mud did this happen (which any shoe would have had trouble). The rest of the time, they worked like champs. I held 6th place overall and first in my age group.

Great race and good times!

Congrats to teammate Fred Smith for taking 1st place overall!!!

Full results: http://www.xterraplanet.com/races/view_results.cfm?race_id=1088

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Tags: Racing, triathlon, XTERRA
Posted in Athlete Blog, Marcus Barton, Race Reports | No Comments »

Mama said there’d be days like these…

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

By Fred Smith

Man, I tell ya what, when I signed up for the Fool’s Gold 50 mile mtb race, I envisioned having a tough but good training day out in the mountains of north Georgia for about 4+ hours. I had never done a 50 miler, but I knew I’d put enough training in this year that it wouldn’t be a problem. The timing was good, it was after all of the qualifier races and right in the sweet spot for hard training leading up to the Nationals and World Championships. It was close enough that I could get there and back in 24 hours and not leave my wife with Penelope, our 7 week old, for too long on her own.

I had a couple of guys from K-town with me and met up with Craig Evans, Casey Fannin and Mark Rudder from the Xterra ranks. A good crew to race with. Well, despite the clear weather report, a powerful line of thunderstorms moved through the Camp Wahsega start/finish, unleashing seemingly nonstop lightning strikes followed by booming thunder and heavy rains. The local news issued flood warnings on race morning, the result of stationary storms that were dumping as much as one inch of rain per hour on some areas. Although the electrical storms moved through well before the start of the race, steady rains remained to take their place. Thus began the 2010 Fool’s Gold saga. More of the full report from cycling news below….

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-7-fools-gold-100-ne/results

Now on to my report….The dirt around north Georgia is a red clay, which is a greasy nasty kinda dirt if you aren’t familiar with it. The first singletrack section is a fun but technical downhill that had turned into a river. Slippin and slidin all the way down. It was actually pretty dang fun to be honest. The next 15 miles or so were a mix of dirt road and singletrack and now that everything was completely drenched, the rain really didn’t matter. it actually helped to clean the bike. It was a tough slog though. The flat sections that were supposed to be fast had turned to quicksand and stream crossings that should have been a splash turned into water bottle deep. What we all didn’t realize is that red clay and minerals turns into something like sandpaper when it gets watered down and while we were all rocking and rolling through the mud, our brake pads were rapidly being ground down to nothing.

At the 30 mile mark there was a SAG stop and it looked like a block party had started. Half the 100 mile group that started first had already lost their brakes and a bunch of guys were organizing to take the road back to the start. My front brake was pretty much toast, but the rear felt good so I filled a bottle and kept moving. Some of the more technical climbs had basically become unrideable with all the water, but other than that and the previously mentioned quicksand, you could still ride hard. Descents were a bit sketchy because you had muddy water flying in your face the whole time, but it was still a blast. So I drop into one of these singletrack descents at about mile 38 and grab the rear brake. Rather than a quick deceleration, I got more speed and realized my brakes were officially 100% gone.

Now if you are from the South you may remember old Dukes of Hazard shows where they launch the General Lee off some hill or pile of dirt and the scene freezes and the narrator says something witty like, “I reckon the Duke boys gonna have trouble trying ta git outta this one”…well I had my own little scene freezer. I mean, this was a pretty flippin steep hill so I really had one option, a high speed bailout. I pulled one of these back in college riding a long board down a steep road in Boulder. I basically scoped out a bush and threw myself into it. Worked then so I called on those skills once more. I launched the bike in front of me, twisted both my feet and leaned to the right…two or three fast footsteps and then a barrel roll into the woods…worked like a charm. Popped up with no cuts and bike still in tact. That’s where the fun really began.

12 miles to go. No brakes. The rain had stopped and now the mud was as think as molasses. Climbing was a breath of fresh air, descents meant I had to get creative. Some were walks, some were peg leg rollers. Some were done alternating dragging one foot after the other. Sometimes I’d stay clipped in and grab small trees, branches, bushes…basically anything sticking out into the trail that didn’t look like it would win the tug of war with my arm. Those next 12 miles were quite possibly the longest 2 1/2 hours I’ve spent on a bike.

Finally rolled into camp at just over 6 hours and rode right up to the keg of ice cold beer so kindly offered by the race director. The Specialized Epic handled the crap conditions like a champ. Seeing as everyone’s brakes were gone, I can’t knock them for that, the bike never gave me any other problems the entire ride. Little did I know that not only my breaks, but all the bearings, hubs and entire drivetrain were also being ground to bits….but that’s a story for another time…After a dunk in the river to get the layer of crud off, we grubbed some mexican food and hit the road. Really glad I finished the race, but not exactly an experience I’d care to repeat.

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Three Weeks of Crazy

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

What the heck am I supposed to do with myself now?

The last month has been a whirlwind to say the least. I have no one to blame but myself really. I am the one who put together my schedule, but it always appears much simpler on paper, then when you are sitting in the car for eight hours straight right after running your legs off. Between my job, training and racing, and family, I have had about 20 minutes a night to myself, before I drift to sleep. The last three weeks were filled to the brim with three states, three races, and thousands of miles in between. In addition, one of my coworkers had a week off which translated into even more workload, stress, and hours for me. Did I mention that the boys just started school last week? No problem, Paul and I have been so busy we even messed that up; school started on Tuesday, not Wednesday. All of this chaos has left me completely exhausted, mentally and physically and just reaffirms what I already know; I can not do it all. It is time to take a break from racing and slow things down. As much as my husband needs a fit wife, my boys need their Mom to be around for a couple more years. If I keep at this pace, I am liable to end up with a heart attack or a serious breakdown. When Paul was home full time, it was not that hard, he did the cooking, cleaning, and making sure the boys were where they needed to be. Since he has been at Pearl, the chaos has engulfed our lives and we are just holding on attempting to survive the day.

Back to the least three weeks, the weekend after we got back from South Dakota, I had a weekend’s reprieve from traveling. I headed up to Eldora with three friends for Xterra Indian Peaks. The drive left me in stitches as I listened to them all heckle me for 45 minutes. I ran into a bunch of Xterra regulars and noticed how many new faces were in the crowd. The race is a swim TT and you never really know how you are doing, because figuring that out would require some serious math. When you are sucking air at more then a mile high, the last thing you want to do is compute start times. The Bike was super fun and actual trail, versus the typical Xterra hill climbs. The run was up and down and had a deep water section that made you feel like a kid playing in the woods. I ended up ninth, but once again, the 35-39 was the biggest woman’s field by far. Nationals should be interesting this year if the Colorado races are any indication of depth and speed.

The next weekend I was off to Nebraska. Last year I had to do this race to secure a Nationals spot, but this year I had already received my invite. I wavered on going, but had so much fun last year; I decided to give it another go. I have to admit, about half way to Lincoln, I missed my family and almost turned around. When I finally got to Lincoln it was around three and hot. I suffered through a preride with two fellow Coloradans and when I got to my hotel, I noticed the heat warnings and the index, which was at 110. Race morning gave us some reprieve until the run. I opted out of a wetsuit once again deciding that it would be better to give up speed over comfort. A new state found me once again fighting to get to the front of the line, but not for long. I had a seven minute lead heading out onto the bike course. I was all alone and felt great until we hit a long road section and I regretted being alone. I knew if the women behind me were working together, I was toast. I was right and as we reentered trail, I could see them. I fought as hard as I could to keep my swim lead, but heading into T2, the EPC ladies had managed to catch me and I knew the run would leave me hanging on at best. I left it all out on the bike course and as my legs attempted to run, but they trembled with every step. It was almost like they were screaming at me with every step. I was just stumbling from aid station to aid station, my body was in serious heat shock and dehydration began to take a grip on me. I stumbled towards the finish delirious and disoriented. I managed a fourth overall and only third in my age group, but once again, Colorado racers swept almost all of the categories. It is funny, although the numbers by my name have not reflected my efforts this year; I am pretty happy with how I have been doing. The fields have been huge and fast and I am happy just to be able to be out there. It has been a super fun, nonstressful year; at least as far as racing is concerned. I headed back to colorful Colorado as soon as I was finished, hoping to be home in time to kiss my boys good night.

This week, I am back in Colorado gearing up for my last weekend of Xterra point series racing followed by my brother’s wedding. I will be saying goodbye to summer with about 50 of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. The Batizy clan is about to invade Colorado again and there is a turquoise dress hanging in my closet eager for me to slip it on. Always a bridesmaid, right? Paul is the smart one in our family and is escaping to South Dakota just in time to spend our anniversary with his one true love, his mountain bike and 50 miles of trail. I only have four weeks until Nationals and since time seems to be passing at the speed of light, I am certain it will be here before I know it, signifying the end of my Xterra days. Not sure what am I supposed to do with myself after that, but I am sure I will figure it out. Right now I am just attempting to keep up appearances pretending that I have it all together. If you only knew…

See you Sunday, the race is Sunday, right?

Becky

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Half-Time

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

By Tim Holland

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This past weekend I took a break from the off-road scene to compete in the Lake Stevens Ironman 70.3. It is always a blast to go back to my racing roots and put some saddle time in on the road. Mountain biking is so much fun, but I love to push my body during those long consistent efforts that define road triathlons.

The weekend started on Friday when Jo drove up to Seattle while I was at work to pick up some rental wheels for the race. I used to ride Zipp wheels when I raced at school and LOVE the sound and feel of riding them, especially the full disk. Some new bar tape too and I was ready to go.

After a quick ride and run in the morning on Saturday we drove up to the race hotel for the required race brief and to get my race packet. I was a little worried about not getting there early but then found out that the transition area was individually marked, and I later found out that it wasn’t just by number but they actually put my name right where I was supposed to go That took a bit of stress out of the race knowing I didn’t have to fight the 1,499 other people doing the race for a spot in transition. After I dropped my bike off Jo and I drove the bike course real quick to get an idea of what was in store.

The course is absolutely beautiful and after driving it I couldn’t wait for the race to start so I could get out on my bike on those roads. I have noticed recently that I get that way about races, a little nervous the week before but once I get to the race site I am so excited and can’t wait for it to start. I think this has helped me a lot because instead of dreading the start and worrying about how I will do I am excited to be there and can’t wait for it to start. Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long because the race kicked off at 0630 the next morning! Some blueberry pancakes that night and I was out to get some sleep.

It was a really cool feeling being in transition well before the sun came up that day. Some people brought headlamps –write that down for next time- so they could see their stuff. I couldn’t help but laugh when thinking that since it was Sunday most people in the area probably wouldn’t be up for another 3-4 hours and all us crazy triathletes would have been out on the course for a long time by that point.

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For my pre-race warm up I went for a run a little ways on one of the legs of the run course which followed the lake and was flat for a bit. Luckily as I was out there I came across a lone porta-potty with no line. Having seen the massive lines for the few that were near the race start I was pretty excited I didn’t have to deal with that wait. By this point things just felt good and I was even more excited to get started.

The race was broken down by all the different age groups and had 14 different waves going off every four minutes. I was in the 29 and under wave and there were more people in that wave than in most races that I have done! The male 25-29 age group alone had close to 100 people!! My Profile Design Goldcell was incredible in the water and even though it was really warm I was happy to have it on. A decent swim of 32 minutes set me up pretty good for the bike.

Photo courtesy of Brightroom.com

The first few miles of the bike I settled in, ate a Gu Roctane to get some fuel and tried to get into a good rhythm. I flew by a couple people early on which really helped boost my confidence. Up until the day before the race I was pretty nervous about the bike because I had just put my aero bars on a week before. My coach did a great job of helping me to come into form in perfect time for the race. I wish I had my Cycleops Powertap with me on the ride so I could have monitored my power and so I could have seen how fast I was going for parts of the race. From all the climbing I have been doing over the past month, first training for the Mountain Championships and then spending about 10 days in California between work and a pseudo vacation, I felt really confident on the climbs and had a ton of energy for the downhill sections. The Zipp Wheels lived up to the brands motto of Speed Weaponry. A solid 2:34 for the 56 mile bike put me in good position for the run.

Photo courtesy of Brightroom.com

Ever since I got my Avia Bolts I have been really excited about doing road triathlons. Those shoes kick butt!! They are so comfortable and extraordinarily light. My legs were a little tired coming off the bike but not too bad. I had to force myself only to think of the first few miles because thinking of running 13 after the bike seems like it would take forever. I tried to take the first half a little easier so I could negative split the second half. The run course was set up in a really fun way, a two lap course that came back to the start/finish area each lap, which meant running by that area a total of 5 times. There were a ton of people there cheering all the racers on which was really cool. Jo had bought an Ironman cowbell and before the race said she would be out there with it so any time I heard the cowbell I thought it was her which helped keep me motivated to keeping pushing. Even though it was getting pretty hot I was still able to run a 1:26 which gave me a total time of 4:36. Whatever my time was I felt like I had put together a good race and was stoked about it.

Photo courtesy of Brightroom.com

After the race and after some Gu Recovery Brew I went to check the results and found that my time was good enough for 2^nd in my age group which gave me a slot to go to Clearwater Florida for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in November. Considering it was my second race, 13^th amateur overall and 2^nd in my age group was really sweet. And to top it off Mel won the women’s race. Overall I think a good day for Melrad racing!

Top 4 Male 25-29

Mel Takes the Womens Race!

I still owe everyone a race report from the Mountain Championships so check back soon for that!

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