The swim went so much better than expected. Although I only logged 6 hours of swimming since last July I somehow managed to come out of the water around 17th. I was pushing around 85% of my max during the swim and was trying to drafting different people as much as possible. I wasn't going to do any Tris this year which is why I had such low swim volume.

Try to swim at least once a weak throughout the summer. Also try to swim and or surf a little bit in the off season.

There's just a lot to do in an Xterra transition. You have gloves, camelbak and the rest of your normal riding gear. Transition was in two parts. You came out of the water and ran 30yards to get your transition shoes on. You then ran through a campground to a very steep hill where your second transition was waiting.

I think I would try to run up the hill in my bare feet.

If I do this course next year I will do so much hill work it will make ME sick! I will bet everyone on that course said "man I wish I did more hills"
Take away the shear climbing and I thought the course was awesome. I wish I trails like that around my house.
side note: The guys that did this course in under 1:10 are super human!
One guy did the course in 1:01..... get a life buddy :) I'm surprised he didn't break his chain with that kind of power.

I felt I held my own through the technical stuff and the downhilling so all I can do differently is ride more.

Not much to say... everything went as planned.

nothing

The hills were so steep that you ran up them up on your toes push hard with your quads. I started cramping around the second hill and it just kept getting worse. Most of my cramps were at the bottom of my thigh in the VMO and lateral side of the leg. every time I went to stretch them by lifting my foot to my butt, my hamstring would cramp. I ended up walking a few yards of each major hill but would almost sprint down the other side.
The funny thing is that the hills were so steep that I would almost keep up with the guys running while I was walking. Because of this, i did not lose too much time.

I'm going to try the sodium/potassium pills. I'm also going to try and drink more on the ride.

Went straight to the beer tent and knocked down a cold one.


Cramps, cramps and more cramps


Leg cramps aside, this is a really fun race. Yes it has a lot of hills but the course is really nice. The race continues to grow in popularity so if you have a mountain bike give it a try. Next year I'm going to try talking my wife into doing the short course, my son into doing the kids race and I will do the Xterra distance.
I came in 4th in my age group but got a third place award. The guy who came in 2nd overall was in my age group and you can't double dip.