How Xterra US Nationals Went

Finally. My toes grip the boat ramp and my eyes suck into my goggles. I'm at Xterra US Nationals, watching the camera crew fly by in the helicopter.

ka-PLOW! Championships call for CANONS, not guns.

The frenzy-- so many bodies!-- the cold--

**GAAAASP!!!**

THE COLD. #GASP!gasp#GASP!gasp#GASP!gasp#GASP

Okay, it's okay-- just calm down. You're excited. Just breast stroke and get your breath back. Put your face back in the water..

#GASP!!!!!!! gasp#GASP!gasp#GASP!#GASP!!

My breath isn't coming back! What is this? Altitude? The cold water?

I try my face in the water again--##GAAAAASP!!!## Is my suit tightening up? What is this feeling?

The field charges away. I am the lonely duckling-- gasping, back stroking, wondering what is happening, digressing, surviving, focusing, breathing. Volunteer kayakers take a special interest in me and paddle alongside. One suggests I swim more horizontally.

Panic suppressed, I approach the shore for the first time just as the pro field laps me. Their greek bodies are born from wetsuits. For the first time, I am able to put my face in the water without gasping and I swim the second lap as I wished my first had gone.

Then, thankfully, the swim is done. I wobble up the boat ramp to the transition area.

Bike rack lane one, two.. my bike should be riiiight.. riiight.. WHEREISMYBIKE?!

DAMN IT, whereismybike?!!

Oh, where is my bike? Please--

Oh. Yes. I am in the wrong section. My bike is over there-- all alone. Clearly-- there is my bike.

Dry feet, pull on socks, shoes, spray sunscreen, food in mouth, drink water, helmet/glasses, stuff food in pockets, Camelbak, gloves, get out of there!

Oh, thank goodness I'm on my bike. I know how to ride a bike. I can breathe on my bike. I pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal. I pass, get passed, pass, get passed. There is climbing and single track, double track, polite competitors-- "can I pass whenever it's safe?"

Rocky, dry, double track climbing. The forest closes in-- single track climbing, white barked trees, red leaves sprinkle the ground like a contrived painting of fall, but it's not contrived-- it's REAL and it's ridiculous. Climb, climb, climb. Thousands of feet we climb.

Oh my goodness! A downhill! SWOOP, SWOOP, SWOOP. I love mountain biking. I am glee, I am zone, I am mountain bike.

Oh my goodness, we're climbing again.

Climb, climb, climb, climb, climb.

I can hear the music from the transition zone! I am close!

No, I am going away.

The sounds disappear.

And I am climbing.

Climbing, climbing, pushing-- I am pushing my mountain bike.

I am exhausted and I am CRASHING my mountain bike. For no good reason, I crash me and my mountain bike. Twice.

I am stiffly, cautiously, drunkenly steering through switchbacks and I am surviving my mountain bike.

Please, please, please, let this leg be over.

More climbing.

And then, TRANSITION ZONE!

OHMYGOODNESS! TRANSITION ZONE! I AM SO EXCITED! ADRENALINE!!!! TRANSITION ZOOOONE!!!!

Whip on my shoes, Oops! shoulda drank more water, I prance out of there and--

more climbing.

I march.

I alternate: jog, shuffle, march. Jog, shuffle, march. Oo-- pretty butterfly. Jog, shuffle, march. It is GORGEOUS up here. Jog, shuffle, march. "Trail running is fun, even when you're slow," I think. Jog, shuffle, march. #FALL!!# Jog, shuffle--

And eventually--

I finish. In four and a half hours.

Beat, but alive.

I feel alive.

Why I went to Xterra US Nationals

I went to Xterra* US Nationals.

*Xterra is an off-road triathlon: swim, mountain bike, trail run.

It's sorta funny how it happened. I tried Xterra Black Diamond on a whim. Ended up at Xterra Portland by accident. And I qualified* for Nationals by surprise.

*(it's not terribly difficult to qualify, as Xterra is still a small sport).

Many people who qualify for Nationals don't actually go to Nationals.

So why did I go to Nationals?

Did I think that I could win my age group? Maybe if I had a REALLY great day.

Did I think I could place in my age group? Maybe if I had a really GOOD day.

Did I think that it would be really fun, expanding experience? Absolutely; even on a slow day.

I had a slow day; but I still loved it. One of the hardest athletic things I've done juxtaposed in some of the most eye-popping landscape on which I've had the privilege to lay tire tracks.

Totally awesome.

Xterra Portland

Just weeks previous to Xterra Portland, I raced my first Xterra (off-road triathlon) in Black Diamond, WA. I raced just to participate, finish, and investigate how the distance felt-- then I unexpectedly won my (albeit small) age group.

So at Xterra Portland, in a bigger field-- I was there to turn up the heat! Unfortunately, I really DID get heated up!

SWIM: I remembered the wetsuit this time! My swim split was a whole 6 minutes faster.

BIKE: Oh, my-- the transition zone always gives you a zap of adrenaline! I went busting out of there determined to NOT be overly courteous and complacent about passing. I just passed, passed, passed, passed, passed, --whoa, BREATHE--, passed, passed, passed.. then when I figured I had to be leading my age group, I yanked the reins. WhooAAAAA. Don't forget about the run, pal!

RUN: Turns out, as soon as I left the woods for the run-- KAplow!! 95 degrees. Oh my goodness. At Black Diamond, I hit the run feeling springy. After churning my legs up and down the faster and less technical mountain leg, I was not treated to this luxury. AND-- I was dehydrated to boot. I jogged, I shuffled, I took walking breaks, then for the second half of the run-- I took a big, continuous walking break. I knew that if I ran, I could put myself into REAL trouble. And my mom was there, so I thought it better to not end up in an ambulance. I flew a white flag of surrender. Get me to the finish!

Turns out, I developed enough buffer on the bike leg-- that I held onto 2nd in my age group! Hey, cool!

And now.. *cough*..

I'm going to Xterra US Nationals in Ogden, Utah.

Yeah, more on that to come. ;)

Getting to Xterra Portland

A few weeks ago I wrote about my experience at Xterra Black Diamond. It was my first off-road triathlon.

At the end of my lil' play-by-play, I noted that I'd soon attend Xterra Portland. WELL. I didn't tell ya' how I got there!

It began at Xterra Black Diamond. I was packing up my gear in the transition zone, listening to the race director announce awards and raffles, when he says--

"First athlete to run to the lake and back gets free entry to Xterra Portland!"

We looked at each other. Is he seri-- wher-- He-- um,--

"First athlete to run to the lake and back gets free entry to Xterra Portland!"

SPRINT! sprint/sprint/oh!I'magonnamakeit/I'mgonnamakeit/awwww, I didn't make it.

Here's a box of Gu for your hard effort. *Sigh.

Walk back to my stuff in the transition zone. Resume packing up.

"First athlete to run around transition gets [SPRINT!} free entry [sprint/sprint] into Xterra [sprint/ohmy..] Portland [legs wobble like jello! Keep GOING!!! The crowd is cheering for you!!]"

Aw. I got passed in the end by the dude who won the men's race.

"Wait, come back here-- he already has free entry because he won the race. What's your e-mail address?"

..and then so I went to Xterra Portland. :)

Xterra - The Story

In words, how did Xterra go?

Well, to start-- my two pals Jess and Elly brought me to Black Diamond! (THANK YOU!!) I need to get them "Support Crew" or "Cheerleading Squad" shirts, because they're always there to shout at me... though they went hiking that day instead-- and if you saw their pictures, you wouldn't blame them.

But my parents soon arrived, and were troopers in the transition zone-- taking pictures, video, smiling and waving each time I came through. We all had our age written on our right calf, so they had fun guessing people's ages as they ran by!

Oh, but I forgot the wetsuit that my friend Teal had lent me. D*MN! I was really looking forward to the buoyancy and slippery seal speed. And just looking bad ass.

So I swam in my sports bra and bike shorts, which worked fine, though it (or I) was a bit slow. I stayed calm in the water (it's easy to get all excited and thrash) and was VERY excited to reach each bright buoy that marked the swim course. We swam to a teeny tiny island, manned by a girl in a hawaiian skirt and a volleyball that resembled Tom Hanks' friend Wilson, ran across it, then back into water. I have to say-- it was a great opportunity to wipe the snot off my face.

I've grown much fonder of swimming than I ever was-- but BOY was I glad to see my bike!

I've never actually raced my mountain bike, so it was neat to rip around the course and keep pushing. No photo breaks!

I was a bit too shy about passing people, or maybe too complacent to sit on their wheel-- but after I had to stop and readjust my saddle (the nose flopped up so that I looked like a freestyler!), it lit a fire under my bum and I had to really scoot to make up time. I also had NO idea what "15 miles" really meant on a mountain bike, but now I do!

After mobbing down the open stretches, looking gallant for the photographers and bumping along the rest-- I approached the transition zone once more.

Oh.. I still had 6 miles to run. Hmm. I don't really run all that often except when orienteering/adventure racing, soo..

my legs felt GREAT!

I know, right? Legs feel AWFUL after sitting in exact same position, spinning the exact same cadence in the exact same motion on a road bike. But a mountain bike? Heck, you're all over the place on that thing! My legs were FRESH!

Well, perhaps "fresh" is too strong a term. My legs felt better than worse.

I was a bit apprehensive, though-- because I had no idea what 6 miles would do to me. Turns out-- I just had a blast! I only really trotted along.. then I would see a rabbit, accelerate, stop a moment to "draft," that I would ATTACK and zip around them, ensuring that they wouldn't tag on. While I throughly enjoy "chicking" the men (at that point, I had them beat by 5 minutes, as they started ahead of the women), I kept hoping that the next person I'd see would be a woman, to claw my way up the rankings. I never started with competitive intentions, but, you know, why not?

Also-- why do people run on pavement? That just seems stupid. Trail running is about 10,000 times better.

Then the finish came, sooner than I ever thought it would, and I opened it up down the finish stretch, happy to complete my first OFF-ROAD triathlon.

And then-- OH! Ohhhhhhhhh...

OWWWWWW.

Yeah, I had forgotten how my hands had been cramping since the swim, my shoulders clenched and throbbed, and little zings went shooting up my lower back. So I laid down. Happy.

I'll be doing the Portland Xterra on August 14!

Xterra Black Diamond - Photos in Transition

Setting up in the transition zone.

RED BAG: swim

BROWN BAG: bike

GREEN BAG: run

PURPLE BAG: schwag bag

The set up.

Wipe feet > put on socks > shoes > helmet > glasses > gloves > jersey > swig water > and GO!

Oops! I forgot to bring the wetsuit.

Swim > Bike

Bike > Run > FINISH!

REALLY, finished.

*

Sweet reward!