Xterra Camp Eagle

Xterra Camp Eagle, Rocksprings Texas
Regionals 24th March 2013
1st overall 1:48:39

A weekend of back to back racing or maybe NOT. Saturday morning in Dallas had me set for a hard weekend of efforts but the weather had its timing down to a T. With the arrival of 5:30am, I pealed off the warmth that is my duvet and started scrounging to get my gear on, sink down a quick breakfast and bike over to Cooper Fitness Center as my warm up before a transition setup for the days racing. Winter taking its last grasp at straws providing us with a brisk morning, I reminded myself it could be worse (after watching Milan-San Remo 2013). I sucked it up and focused on the work ahead. I got 250m into the swim when I heard some strange shouting and yelling. Looking up I was told to exit the water, my immediate thought  was that I was disqualified but shortly after leaving the water I was informed there had been a lightning strike not too far away. The race was delayed and I made the decision to pack up my gear and make my way to race number 2.

My song choice for the weekend.

Now in Rocksprings TX for the second race and we would be treated to some terrific weather again.  The race day temps in the low 40F with wind chills at 38F and wind gust of 20MPH made for some consideration of clothing choice for the bike and run portion. By the time I made it into T1 my face was numb and I had lost feeling in my feet and hands. I had opted for full fingered gloves and a long sleeve jacket for the bike portion, I slipped out of the wetsuit scrambled to put my jacket on and now with frozen hands i could not zip the jacket. I decided to take off with the jacket open appeal to a batman look a like and find opportunity on the course to close it up. I spent the first 2 miles on the bike spinning at a rapid cadence to get the legs warm. Had lost a glove off the end of my handle bars in the transition so instead of turning to get it I dropped the other one and rode without. My legs came around sooner than I anticipated and with a quick glance through the trees I noticed 2nd place on the switch backs several seconds back.

 I put my head down and cranked out a solid effort to put enough time between him and I. I would not see him until we crossed the finish line. T2 was a messy transition but with the first actual race of the season I never set high expectations. I managed to shed the jacket, rack the bike, slip on shoes, take off my helmet in a decent time and head out onto the run. Leaving the transition without a time split I ran the first mile at a comfortable effort and started to crank up the intensity for the middle section. I managed to roll my ankle on what im told are called "baby skull rocks", need no explanation there. I slowed my pace on the 3rd mile to prevent further injury but when I got a sniff of the finish I turned the pace back on to take the victory. Some reassurance that im on the right path with my training and should see more results this season.

Official Results

Big thanks to Joel Grimmett at Race Revolutions for providing a great race. I will unfortunately be missing the next regional Xterra to try my hand at Xterra West Coast Championships in mid April and the following week ITU San Diego Championships.

Xterra Press and Media Center wrote an article and recap

John Chung Photography

Orange Seal crew and their results.

The suspension bridge about 200m from T2 gives you those jelly legs.

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