6.20.2006 - Xterra East Champs Race Report

This past week has been super busy with racing and visiting family and friends. I had a blast back in Virginia and the Xterra race in Richmond was the best course I have had a chance to race on so far. Here's the report from the weekend in Richmond:

Friday:
I got to up to Richmond around 1pm on Friday. I rode with my parents and just relaxed while they drove. We immediately found our hotel which was right across the street from the Race Site. The location was perfect. I headed straight for the mountain bike course and spent a good 3 hours riding the course. The course was incredibly challenging. It was predomintantly technical single track (not my strength, i need hills!) and there were some urban features as well. The course required that you scale 6 flights (8 steps per flight) of stairs for a railroad crossing not just once but twice and then descneding down another 6 flights. You also had to ride over a 3 foot wide bridge that was 10+ feet over a a rocky creek with no railing. It was sketchy to say the least. I got my fill for the day and headed back to the hotel.

Saturday:
I headed out with my coach to pre-ride some of the more technical areas and practice riding down a couple of flights of stairs. I got my lines down on the bike and then we rode the run course and found our lines for the 100 yard boulder hoppping section that had you crossing an area of the James River. After that we cooled down by going for a swim in the River

Sunday: Xterra East Champs - 1030am start - 95 degrees

Swim: 1000+ meters
I am not sure how long the swim was becasue the course was anything but standard. It started with three long stretches making right turns around the buoys and into a zig-zagging "W" before heading back to shore. This was my first race without a wetsuit so I was kind of nervous, but the swim went great. I was in the second wave, AG's 15-30. I came out of the swim near the front and found out later that I was second in my AG out of the water. After the swim there was 300m run to transition over rocks and gravel. Following suit of the pros I had my running shoes at the waters edge and put them on for long run to T1. This turned out to be a a very good descision as I past quite a few people who making their way very slowly without shoes.

Swim(+ run to t1): 18:44

Bike: 18 miles
I was glad to get on the bike and really looking forward to the challenging course. The first couple mile were pretty mellow and then I went up the first set of stairs and was had already passed and dropped one guy in my AG. Then it was on to the super fast gnarly single track. To make a long story short I crashed 6+ times (can't remember if it was more). A couple of them were casued by other riders following me to closely into tight corners. I went over the handlebars more times than I can remember. The good thing was that everybody was crashing. I saw a lot of people going down. I made it over the some of the real technical sections cleanly and even rode down a sketchy set of concrete and brick stairs. When all was said and done I knew I had been passed by 2 guys in my AG, but i still had no clue where I was in the pack. It was getting really hot and I was glad to get of the bike with a quite a few new bruises, scrapes, and cuts.

bike: 1:32:30

Run:
The run course was pretty flat in comparision to other xterras I have done, but there was alot of different terrain. At one point you had to climb the "Mayan Stairs", which are basically old wooded railroad ties. It was tough, hot, and there was no shade for the first half of the 11k(yes 11k, that's xterra for you. nothing normal). I was picking off people one by one and really pushing it. I cleard the boulder hopping section with ease and made my way to finish passing a quite a few more people.

Run: 40:25 (fastest run of all amatuers)

Overall:
3rd in AG
10th Amatuer

I lost this race on the bike. I was out of the water ahead of both of the guys that beat me. They crushed me on the bike, but I ran 2.5 minutes faster than the first place guys and 5 miuntes faster than second place and still less then 2 minutes behind both of them overall. I know I could have won if I could have stayed on 2 wheels for more of the bike.


The finish of the race was like a war zone. There were a lot of injuries and quite a few people falling out due to the head. the medical tent was full of people getting IV's, getting stitched up, getting wounds dressed up, and icing various parts of their body. It's what Xterra is all about.

I had a blast at this race. The course was incredible and I am defintely going to make the trip to Va for this race next year.