I positioned myself to the rear of the group. Being my first tri, I was nervous. It turned out that my nerves were well founded. Within 30 seconds I was in trouble. I completely forgot how to swim and was totally out of breath. I did variety of floundering strokes but the crawl I had practiced for months was not among them. It was likely a combination of nerves, the 6,500ft of elevation, the sea of bodies I was splashing among, and being freaked out by not being able to see past the end of my hands in the green water.

For a moment I was thinking, “I’m going to have to swim to the shore and quit without ever even getting to the bike!” The prospect of quitting and having to explain myself made me sick so I looked for the first buoy and promised to at least make it that far.

Alternating between 3-6 crawl strokes and 6-10 deep breaths on my back I made it to the first buoy, then the second. I remember noticing a life guard on his surf board and was ready to reassure him that I didn’t need any help in spite of appearances.

About 100m from the dock I remembered how to swim and did my best crawl of the day to finish the swim leg. I was exhausted. I staggered out of the lake and peeled the wet suite down to my waist. The wet suite strippers did the rest.

Even though I was warned I did not practice in open water before the race. My first time putting my face in the lake was when the “gun” went off. I thought being able to swim 1500m in the pool would allow me to swim 800m in the open water. I suppose it did but that was not what I had in mind.

Next year I will do more training in open water. I will also try to get in at least a couple of swims in Flagstaff (6,900 ft). Lastly, I will get in the water before the race to relax.

I was glad to sit for a minute while I geared up for the bike. Realizing how long the swim took I sucked down another Gu. I mounted the bike in the transition area and was politely reminded that I needed to walk it until the mount line. I push jogged my bike to the line and was off.

The middle of the pack in my age group completed their transitions about 90 seconds faster than I did. I will drill on my transitions to make sure there is no wasted movement. Doing better on the swim will help too.

After about 15 minutes the fatigue from the swim went away and I was feeling good. I settled into a pace with three riders ahead and three behind me when six to eight other racers came from up ahead of us. They thought they had gotten off course. The person in front of our group did the race last year and said we were going the right way. After 15 minutes of no flags we realized he was wrong and turned back around. Doh! Thirty minutes off course was going to be unrecoverable. Only my most modest goal of finishing was attainable now. Unless someone got lost, hurt or had mechanical problems I’d be last in my age group.

Back on course we ascended a burned area with loose rocks and a couple of people hopped off their bikes to push. I was tired but this was not as bad as the trails around my house so I dropped into a lower gear and pedaled on. I noticed my seat was sliding down making it feel like I was riding a kid’s bike. It had been bothering me the whole ride but was unbearable now that I was doing some real climbing. I stopped, raised the seat, tightened it with my multi-tool and had another Gu. I hopped off for short distances a few more times on my way to the top.

After reaching the top, the course took off for some fast down-hill in deep silty dirt. It made the bike pretty squirrelly. I was having fun on the descent when my back tire hit a rock throwing me off balance. The front wheel washed out and I went over the bars into the dirt. I could not have asked for a softer landing. I pulled my bike off the trail to do a quick damage check just as another rider barreled down past me.

The course remained fast and fun until I came to some waist high down pine trees across the trail and had to heft the bike up onto my shoulder for about 15 yards. After that the last notable feature of the bike course was a straight steep rocky descent with a 90 degree turn at the end. The volunteer at the bottom was frantically motioning at the turn. I unleashed a string of explicatives under my breath, got back behind my seat, and bombed down the hill. It was a blast. I wonder how many people she saw either walk it or biff it on that hill during the race. Naturally I hope there were not many, but she did have the best seat in the house for that kind of thing.

Of the three legs I was happiest with my performance on the bike even though the detour killed my time.

I’d turn around sooner when I don’t see flags?! I saw at least 12-15 people miss the turn and there had to be others. I turned around a couple more on my way out. If 10% of the participants lost their way, the course markers messed up on what was an otherwise well marked course.

I’ll add checking my seat height and tightness to my mental pre-ride checklist so I don’t have to mess with it on the trail.

I’ll ask Santa Claus for dual suspension bike that handles the fast down hill smoother and that doesn’t give up too much performance on the climb.

It was a little disheartening to roll into transition and see the majority of bikes racked and so many racers finished with the run. When I took off my helmet it was full of dirt from my crash. I drank some Gatorade and changed into my run stuff.

I was 90 seconds slower than the middle of the pack again. I need to practice and hustle a little more.

I was pretty bushed by the time I started the run but knew I could at least jog five miles. There was a steep climb at the end of the first mile called the Eliminator. I walked it. After that it was flat for 1.5 miles out and another 1.5 back. I jogged this and walked through the aid stations to drink.

Near the end of the run the trail was blocked and we had to wade out into the lake 15 feet or so and then back to the shore. It was pretty refreshing.

I slacked off on my run training to learn how to crawl and ride a mountain bike. Given limited time I don’t know if I could have changed that. Next year I won’t be starting from scratch on the swim or MTB so I’ll run more. That should help me stay strong even after the prior two legs of the race and my site seeing detour.

I wandered around in a daze sucking on the Popsicle that someone handed me at the finish line. Got a bagel out of my car and had a BBQ sandwich while watching the award ceremony.


In the order of the things that had the biggest impact:

1. Got lost on the bike course (30 min?)
2. Lost running fitness training swim & bike (10 min?)
3. I was not mentally prepared for the swim (5 min?)
4. Slow transitions (3 min?)


I had an absolute blast and I will definitely do it again next year with hopes of a sub-2:50 finish with the improvements above! Being my first tri, I don’t have much to compare it to but I thought the whole event had a good vibe. The setting was beautiful. Participants and volunteers were friendly and helpful. The bike course was fun. The awards ceremony was a nice finish with awards for various injuries and misfortunes in addition to the winners. It kind of showed that no matter how you prepare XTerra can throw you a curve ball. You could get lost, hurt or break your bike. It is part of the experience. Thankfully I didn’t hear about anyone getting seriously injured—just some stitches and maybe a broken arm.

As for improvements, I hope they mark the course better next year. Serving beer at the end instead of popsicles would be great too.