The last race of the US XTERRA Pro series was this past weekend at Snowbasin Resort in Ogden, Utah. Lesley Paterson finished off a perfect season winning the final race, Barb Riveros took second place, Chantal Widney of Canada third place with Emma Garrard and Danelle Kabush rounding out the podium. Great to have two Canucks up there! The quality of field for this race was the best ever seen for both men and women and it was a great prelude to the final race of the season in Maui, Hawaii. It is exciting to see our sport mature and I am so proud to have so many strong Canadians in the race. I am in excellent company representing triathlon in Canada.
The Canadian ladies in Utah!
I was eighth on the day and fourth on the XTERRA tour overall. My stranglehold on top 2 (the last 10 years?) ended on Sunday. With a better day on Sunday I might have held on for another year of top 2 but it wasn’t to be. Lots of girls handing me my arse when I didn’t show up with my best.
I was asked before the race: would you be happy with your race if you didn’t win? I said yes, if I performed at my best and it still wasn’t good enough I would be satisfied for sure. I am impressed with how strong the field is in XTERRA and I really look forward to sharpening my tools before I show up in Maui. All of the women in front of me this weekend are strong and focused on XTERRA and there were more superfast girls still behind me, so I can’t be that disappointed. However, I do know that focused or not on XTERRA my fitness is better than that but I still have to prove it. That was the day and if I want a better result I am just going to have to work harder and make it happen.
I’m sure I am not the only one who felt a bit frustrated with their performance on Saturday. It all has to come out on the big day and small things can affect that day’s performance. The only thing you can do is go back to work, be diligent, disciplined and confident that eventually it will all come together. Keeping your confidence is the trick. I am sure I will have a good race come together if I stay on track and refuse to be discouraged when things don’t play out as expected.
Now for some things you may or may not have known about the race in Ogden:
– The swim was about 2.1km instead of 1.5 km. In very un-XTERRA style… we did a super crazy long swim to start the race. Weird.
– The weather was probably the warmest we have ever had at this race. Normally race morning is freezing and we have frozen feet the whole day. It was downright beautiful!
– There were more ITU and WTC types in the race than any other XTERRA other than Maui. Looks like the qualifying requirement is definitely working to improve the depth of field!
– Emma Garrard had a baby 9 months ago before she went and had her best Nationals ever, finishing 4th! Another super fast mom in the field.
– There were 1000 people taking part in the triathlon and who knows how many more in the trail race. That is a solid turnout for a mountain bike triathlon event!
– The race was point to point, starting down at 6000 ish feet and topping out at 7700 ish before descending to about 7000 where the run started and finished.
My www.polarpersonaltrainer.com file from the race showing the effort was there even if the power went out. You can see that I suffered on the run… where the heartrate went down instead of up.
I have turned this season mostly into positive despite a start that was looking a little troubling. Starting training for the season in April is not ideal but coming from not being able to run resulting in my worst Oceanside performance ever, to working myself back to three top 3 Ironman 70.3 races, two bike course records on the Ironman 70.3 circuit, a 1st and a 2nd place on the XTERRA tour and a win at the TransRockies mountain bike race against quality girls is not that bad a year. I may not have knocked it out of the park but generally you need to start with good momentum to make that happen. And that is what I have now, some awesome momentum. I think it is turning around now and I am excited to see how the coming races pan out
I take inspiration from World Mountain Bike Champion Julie Bresset who had an injury during the mountain bike season. She blew up at the World Cup weeks out from the World Championships where she rode at the front and faded, only to roar back and win the World Championships a few weeks later. That pointy end form takes a bit to come back and first you have to feel it before you can keep it. I think for a few precious minutes I felt it.
Thanks to all of my amazing sponsors and supporters. You inspire me every day to work my hardest… thank you! Thanks to Adam Zucco who is patiently riding this roller coaster of return to form with me… all the while talking me off the ledge when I get impatient 🙂 Thank you to Rob and Linda Karz, my Park City host family who give me such an amazing base to work from for this race. Such a pleasure to have annual visits with such incredible people. This really is a charmed life I lead.
Back to work.
