XTERRA Race at the Rez

At the XTERRA Race at the Rez, I put on a clinic and then led a pre ride of the bike course. The clinic was a great success and we had 14 people for the pre ride! I had the helmet cam on, but unfortunately I forgot that the memory card was full, so I didn't get any footage. gggrrrr. Its a bummer because this course was SUPER TECHNICAL! I've done a lot of riding all around the country and this one one of the most technical courses I've ever seen. Rocks, roots, off camber sections, short little power climbs, this course has it all! Most all of it was ridable, but trust me it wasn't easy!

After the pre ride, I stuck around to help out with the kids triathlon. It was so cool to see all the little guys and girls going all out. I wish I could have got into triathlon when I was their age (8 to 12 years old). Way to go Max! Awesome T2 and run!

This was my 4th race in 4 weeks (Idaho then Richmond then Little Rock then this one), so I was a bit tired going into it. With the game plan of just have fun, it turned out to be a great day.

The swim was in a beautiful rez just outside of Essex, VT. After swimming in the some of the nastiest water I have ever swam in the past two weekends (James River in Richmond and the cesspool in Little Rock), I was over joyed to be in clean, clear, pristine water. I exited the 1200m swim in 8th place and jetted up to T1 intent on moving into 1st as soon as possible.

The bike course was a real doosey! I quickly caught up to the leaders and within 5 minutes or so I was in 1st. I pushed it pretty hard to catch those guys and I thought I would just keep pushing in order to build a big lead. About half way through the first lap I crashed and tweaked my thumb. As soon as I hopped back on the bike I decided to back it off and just ride smooth. This turned out to be a fantastic decision because the easier and smoother I went, the faster I went.

Sliding off the bike and onto the run, I decided to keep the same game plan of 'keep it easy and smooth.' This worked quite well and I cruised to the win with just under a 4 minute lead over Kristoffer Nielsen. He had finished a few minutes behind me at Richmond a couple of weeks earlier and is one of the fastest guys in the Northeast.

One of the things that I love best about doing smaller races such as this is all the cool people you get to meet. After the race, the race director Mark and his wife Robin, took me to downtown Burlington (which looks remarkably like Pearl St in Boulder), to meet up with some other racers (Paul, Sophie, and the boys) for some sweet pizza.

Now I get the 4th of July weekend to get a little R&R before flying back out to VT for the XTERRA Northeast Cup on the 12th.