First thing I must say that anyone who has been to this venue, is that this lake is amazing. White sand beach around the whole lake and shallow water for 100ft or more from the shore.
I had travelled to the race with Alex and Mark who were also set to compete on Sunday. We picked up packets, checked in our cottage and went for a quick swim to loosen up after the drive. We cooked dinner at the cottage in our old timey stove which matched our accommodations perfectly, ate and got to sleep early.
The next morning we rode the 2 miles to the start…setup transition, went through the usual warmup and was ready for the start. The gun went and we were off. It was a wetsuit swim and I thought I was doing well until near the end of the swim I noticed a group exiting the water well before me, not good. I got to transition and Mark was already leaving with his bike. I quickly changed and followed in pursuit. The bike course was 2 loops around the lake. Knowing I was back from the swim there was some ground to makeup. As I approached Mark he appeared to be going well and I gave him encouragement as I passed. It took me until the second loop to pass another but I ran out of time and couldn’t reel in anyone else. Coming into T2 I had hoped there was enough of a gap over the person I just passed to give me a cushion on the run…this was not the case. As I was putting on shoes, he was racking his bike. Then I made a big mistake and ran the wrong way in transition. Realizing my mistake I quickly turned around to head toward the exit, seeing now that my 10sec advantage was now a deficit…he was already exiting. Now onto the run course seeing him just ahead I tried to close the gap immediately but couldn’t…it stayed the same. I decided to wait until the last mile to push and try to close and overtake. As much as I tried the gap remained the same until the finish…10 seconds behind.
I saw Alex and Mark out on the run course and both were looking strong.
In the end the result was 12th Overall and 4thAG. This race was somewhat frustrating but the result was good but definitely not great as I expected coming off a race the previous weekend. Improvements will be made though and will give it another go at the Xterra Southeast Championship.
Heavytreads 