2011 XTERRA East Championship, Richmond, VA

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The first “half” of my season is finished with the past double header in New Hampshire 70.3 last weekend and the fifth stop on the XTERRA tour in downtown Richmond, VA this past Sunday.    Although I always race to win I am happy to have finished in second place to a super strong and impressive Shonny Vanlandingham who took her first win of the season.   I am not enjoying the health and form that I had when I started this insane schedule on March 10th and it is showing in my racing when I faded out of contention on the run.  The heat and humidity generally exacerbates any of my weakness and although I put up a good fight for almost two hours of the race I sadly faded quickly and exponentially in the closing miles of the races to take second.   Finishing runner up to a World Champion is great especially when she has superpowers in heat and humidity.  I am proud of that effort as I felt I got every last ounce of my body that day to stay in front of Suzi Snyder in third, Chris Jeffrey fourth and Jess Noyola in fifth.   Teammate Conrad Stoltz earned another win this weekend to have four wins and a second going into the US Champs later this season.  Very impressive.  He was followed by Dan Hugo, Nico Lebrun, Branden Rakita and Craig Evans.

It looks like the demanding schedule is taking its toll on many of us as the gaps in this women’s race were pretty large.  There were moments on that super hot run where I had to keep reminding myself of why I love this sport so much and why getting another job would be a terrible idea even if there was air conditioning.  I think I fought the hardest while my Bex Runner was extra cool… having some coolness in your hand really helps you mentally feel cooler and the science says it is cooling your core temperature at the same time.  I think I needed a full body ice bath to really rock it though.  REad more……

 

 

pro podium richmond
A lot of the usual suspects up there 🙂

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2011 Mooseman Ironman 70.3, Newfound Lake, New Hampshire

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Although the course at Newfound Lake was the most excellent I have ever experienced it wasn’t my day on Sunday and I finished a distant third to Lesley Paterson and Cait Snow.  Those two ladies were strong and fast from start to finish with strong swims, strong bike splits and insane run splits.  I was unhappy to have to experience some unpleasant sensations getting my butt from start to finish but I still got a solid result with a third place with some much needed WTC points and some prize money so I am stoked I got it done.   I was sick on race morning with some kind of stomach flu or bad food and didn’t have any power.  I had a bad swim and then just faded out of contention very early in what seemed like a LONG race.

The coolest things about New Hampshire:  everyone is outdoorsy and active, the scenery is spectacular, there are hills everywhere and the lakes are numerous and so clean and pristine.  Gorgeous!  I was happy to have borrowed Kathy’s Mercedes which was retrofitted with a vegetable oil burning motor so I drove to this natural oasis with a tiny carbon footprint.  The race includes a one lap wetsuit swim, two laps of a very hilly bike course that I enjoyed very much piloting my Shiv on and a two lap hilly run course to make this a very challenging race venue not unlike the course in Lake Stevens.   I absolutely loved it.  The coolest thing about the Mooseman 70.3 is they play the Canadian anthem FIRST on race day!  Wow!  Lots of Quebec athletes were at that race which is not unexpected given how close to Montreal we were.  The little race finisher medal is shaped like a moose which is a cute little tchotchke to add to the collection.  Read more….

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