I flew back from Hawaii to arrive in Victoria first thing in the morning on Friday. That overnight flight from the islands is not a treat but the weather on arrival was. Gorgeous sunny weather was on the menu for my first day home. Too bad I wasted some of it falling into a coma.
The next morning was Stewart Mountain… my most favorite of all Bob Reid and the Prairie Inn Harrier trail races of the season. It is 10 miles up and over Stewart Mountain… and through/around everything in between. This year it was a swim race. Instead of giving us the option of many of the run around trails it was an exercise in run-throughs with every puddle and swamp leaving us with soakers. Coming back from warm 27 degree plus weather… this was not my cup of tea.
It wasn’t as big a crowd as Gunner Shaw had attracted but the die-hard competitors were all there. Rainy muddy conditions were on tap. I was super excited to finish the season on a high note but unfortunately I left my legs in Hawaii. I was so tired and feeling SO bad. I thought for sure I was coming down with the flu because I was in such a bad way in the race. After about 2km I was resigned to a long run with a bunch of buddies enjoying the day. I couldn’t get my heart to beat any faster or my legs to move any quicker. It was like I was still asleep while I was in the race so just jogged it out. I hate racing when I am not competitive but this race is special anyways so I was glad just to be there that day. The preparation was not ideal therefore not suprising the result wasn’t either 
.
However it was not your garden variety long run as I described earlier. Fjording swamps and then cleaning our shoes in glacial streams was a rude awakening that I was in winter Victoria. BRRR! Post race I had the shivers and had to bolt home on my cross bike because the system was not adapting to the weather in 24h. Sorry to miss the chicken soup!
I saw Sara Baker run by me early in the race so congrats to her on the win. And congrats to Shane Ruljancich for winning the men’s race. Thanks to Bob and the PIH volunteers for being the stalwart supporters of winter trail running by putting on awesome events year after year. So fun to be a part of it.
I think my body has sent me a loud message… time for no racing for awhile! I did do quite a bit of riding to try to get ready to start training for 2011 so I think it is just garden variety tiredness right now. That XTERRA race is a monster. Still, I have a couple of weeks of general preparation before the 2011 campaign starts in earnest. I have some really cool announcements coming so stay tuned. It is going to be another great year!