Nissan Xterra Southest Championship - TriathlonOlympic

Wow, this sucked. Sucked bad. Very bad. Worst. Swim. Ever.

I was not too worried about the swim, though I probably had some trepidation about swimming without a wetsuit. We blasted off into the water and it was a kickfest with a good dose of water swallowing. The first 500 yards were pure misery and I could not settle in at all. I rounded the first buoy and felt like death. As I rounded the other buoy and headed back toward the beach, I pretty much wanted to quit. I wanted to swim to shore. I began developing a bunch of excuses in my head and how I'd explain my abject failure to my family and friends. I could see the race director on the beach and was fully planning on telling him I was absolutely not swimming another lap. I finally got to shore, panting and freaked, and then these great volunteers started yelling at me to go to my left and do the second lap. Like a robot with no courage, I followed the rest of the swimmers back into the water. I looked down at my watch and saw 14:20, so I thought, "Wow, that's right where I need to be. Except for the fact that I'm totally freaking out and may drown." So I stood there in the water for at least two minutes, maybe three, and waited until I calmed my ass down. Tons of people were of course going on without me. Finally, I started swimming again, and it was less crowded and I got pissed at myself...I just got into my groove and barely needed to sight the rest of the second lap. I have no idea how it all happened. It was weird, and when I got to the beach to head to T1, my watch said 31:12. I wanted to be (and should have been) at 30minutes or below, but I was just glad to get out of there alive. I had conquered the swim but it took a lot out of me mentally.

I'm in plenty good shape to do the swim. I need to sack up and get over myself.

I took my time because I was mentally still a little wacky, and I wanted to make sure that I got my act together before jumping on the bike. I double checked stuff that I normally don't. Also, they weren't using chip timing (!) so I am guessing on transition times.

Go faster. This is by far the worst T1 I've ever done.

Wow, this was quite the introduction to XTERRA for me. I rode my mountain bike for the first time in years this past week on a very technical course here in Atlanta, and it prepped me to be scared of what can go wrong and how difficult things can be. I had guessed that my time would be closer to 1:30 but that was way off and as soon as I got into the woods, I knew I would be taking my time. I was passed by 7 people within the first mile, and then never passed again. I ended up passing about 3-4 people, so the irony is that my BAD SWIM TIME kept me at the back of the pack for the whole race. I wanted to have fun as I enjoy trail riding, but I desperately wanted to avoid injury so I played my cards safe the whole time. Naturally, I fell three different times but none were too nasty. My bike had marginal suspension in the front, and it was very obivous that full suspension probably would have improved my enjoyment and speed by at least 10%-20%. There were a lot of rock gardens and roots that simply demand a lot from a bike, and if you don't have suspension, your upper body ends up absorbing A LOT and you get fatigued. You especially get fatigued if you haven't ridden your mtn bike in years! I only walked my bike through one section ("Blood Rock"), because it was towards the end and there's no reason to grease yourself in a spot like that. It was rideable, but I kind of suspect that few were riding that. I also walked the bike up part of 4-mile hill (wow, basically a rock garden incline for miles on end) because I fell and couldn't clip in on the incline I was at. I didn't hammer the the declines hardly at all because the times I did, it felt unsafe. It was really amazing to see people in their 50s and 60s kicking ass on the mtn bike ride, because it takes a lot of strength and skill. I really LOVED the mtn bike ride even though it was hard and a little scary at times.

Get a better bike to ride. Ride it 5-7 times before the race.

A guess here again on time since they weren't using chips. I was very tired at this point, but felt good inside and was glad to proceed to the "run". I was methodical again...maybe it was more like 2 or 3 minutes.

Maybe try to go faster.

Wow, so this is what separates the competitors from the curious chumps like me. You start off with about a .5 mile run on pavement before you turn into the woods, and I felt great. I probably was scooting along at 8:45-9:00 mile pace and was kind of rejuvenated. You follow the bike trail for about the first 3 miles or so, so the terrain isn't unfamiliar. I don't know how people run fast on this stuff. I fell 4-5 times, tripping over rocks and roots, but kept a pretty good pace. There were small amounts of incline and decline at this point, but they were inconsequential. I'm pretty sure I was doing 9 minute miles for the first 2-3 miles and that was what I wanted. Every time I pushed, I would inevitably fall. I'm sure this is because I'm a moron, but I kept reminding myself that I wanted to enjoy this and not break an ankle or wrist. At about 5K, you break off into a long series of serious climbs. I live in a very hilly area and run our hills a lot, but no way was I prepared for this. I ran the first one and basically walked the rest of the steeps (of which there were a lot of.) The crazy thing is that there were an equal number of super-steep DECLINES, which are probably just as hard to run down; most of the time I walked those as well! I had a couple of very impressive falls (seriously, did anyone else fall or am I totally incompetent?) on the declines that made me LOL. The cool thing that made me happy was that whenever I came to flats or even slight inclines/declines, I started up running with ease. No cramps, no lethargy, none of that. My body, for some reason, was always up for "regular" running. The last half mile or so is on pavement again, and I cruised in and felt like I could run farther. It was really tough, but it was fun!

train specifically for the run.

crossed the finish line (what, no medal!?!) and went directly to the rain tent or whatever you call it. Drank a water, drank a EnduroGatorade, sat there for five minutes, then went and got all my gear. Loaded up and drove home, with an AWESOME stop at Krystal. My watch said I burned 3200 calories in the race!


Lack of specific training.


The only bad things about this XTERRA are:

- They don't use chip timing. That's really not acceptable at a championship race with $20K in prize money
- the 9:30AM start time is too late
- it would be nice to have only one lap in the swim
- accurate distance signage at the event is appropriate but nowhere to be found. Volunteers generally had no idea what distance their aid stations were located at.

Since most people are smarter than me, a novice should do the XTERRA Sport race instead of the full-on race. Still, I'm glad I went after the big show and completed it on my terms. If the swim were better, I would have had the perfect day.