The swim was in a very shallow pond- I don't think it was deeper than about 3 feet anywhere. Weeds were growing off the bottom of the pond, and we were swimming through the junk throughout. In the last 200 yards I was actually grabbing the bottom on my downstroke. Other than that, it was pretty uneventful, though it did seem slow.

Not start out quite as fast.

Left the bodyglide in the car, so the wetsuit was stuck on my ankles.

Remember the bodyglide

Combine my usual bike suckiness with the fact that I haven't ridden off-road in about 7 years, and you get... well, these results.

The roots, rocks, and trees were actually a lot of fun, but I spent a lot of time crashing and falling. There were portions that were very technical, and a couple of places where I had to walk the bike. The first loop was ridiculous, but by the second I had figured some things out and it went a little better. Probably about 10 minutes quicker than the first loop.



Practice.

It went fine.

I've run trails before, but this was by far the roughest and most technical course I've run- especially the first mile or so. There were portions that were virtually impossible to run, and there were even a couple of points where I momentarily lost the trail. In addition to the rough terrain, it was a very hilly course.

This was also a lot of fun, even though I probably rolled my ankle about 20 times. It was the first time I've ever fallen down during the run part of a race, as well, which fortunately was just out of sight of the finish area.

More trail running in preparation

Jumped in the lake to try to wash off the poison ivy I'm sure I brushed past on the run. Had some BBQ from the sponsors. Sat around for the post-race events, where they gave out a ton of prizes. Unfortunately, it was not my lucky day.


Lack of Xterra experience


Overall this was a nicely-run race, especially since it was the 1st one. I decided to do this last-minute, and since this was my first Xterra race, I didn't really know what to expect. I thought I would do much better than I did- no way I expected to be out there for almost 3 hours. Hey, but it was a fun day in the mountains, and I'm glad I did it.