Battling the extreme heat this summer has bestowed upon the South has been quite a challenge when it comes to racing. After riding for over 6 hours in the Off Road Assault on Mount Mitchell last weekend, I was feeling the toll of this summer.

XTERRA Panther Creek is a relatively local race being just over the Smokey Mountains. It is a fun course that is not extremely difficult but keeps you honest by making you work the whole time without much rest. The race starts with a 2 lap swim in the nice and warm Cherokee Lake. This year it was a part obstacle swim as a fallen tree intersected the back leg of each lap. First lap I thought there was enough water to swim over the tree and picked up a wooden passenger in my suit.

Usually this race does not have the highest attendance. This year there were around 10 competitors looking to get on the podium. They decided to start us in 2 waves. Marcus, my son Danny and I were in the first wave. We started off pretty quick and it was one of the more violent swims. I am not sure if this was because people were trying to swim beyond their abilities or just plain congestion. Once past the first turn it started to open up. I felt pretty tired in the upper body from the race last weekend, but I tried to keep a pace that kept me in contention and did not cause any issues. I ended up exiting the water in the top ten. I saw Marcus in transition as I came up the ramp. I quickly removed my Synergy Syn-Skim speed suit and got mike bike.

The first mile or so I used to get my legs warmed up. It is a strange feeling to do a sprint race the week after riding 70+ miles off road with over 11,000 feet of climbing. At around mile 1 there is a cool rock climb that I ended up throwing my chain on. It was slick and I had to roll back down and walk it up. After I put the chain back on the bike I took off and got the blood flowing in my legs. I was surprised to see that no one had passed me during that mishap. I saw 2 riders ahead and quickly passed them. Riding alone through the next 2-3 miles I picked off 2 more riders and then saw Marcus ahead on a climb. I kept my pace consistent and caught up to him around mile 4.5 of the first lap. Funny thing is that this is the same place we passed last year. I rode along picking off one more before starting the second lap. On the second lap I picked it up a bit more but was still riding slower than normal. I thought I was in 4^th or 5^th on the bike but was surprised when I hit transition in 2^nd place.

It was time to throw on my INOV-8 X-Talon 190s and take off on the run. I couldn’t have been 10 yards into the run when Bence Roemmer caught up to me. Again this race was like Déjà vu. This is the same place we passed each other last year. I ran with Bence for the first mile or so but he pulled away from me. My legs felt heavy and slow especially when running. I figured if I kept a constant pace on the flats and hills it would make the run more efficient. As I was approaching the biggest hill of the climb I looked back and could see Marcus across the field behind me. I figured he would try and sprint up to me. Since we race in different divisions I was not concerned and would have like some conversation over the last 2 miles or so. I kept my pace constant but ended up running out the race on my own. Even though I felt slow I ended up running a 6:53/mile pace. Slower than normal but still good enough for 4^th fastest run of the day.

In the end I finished 4^th overall only 2 minutes out of 2^nd. Had this been an “A” race the effort level would have been much different. XTERRA Canada is coming in a month and that is the only race that matters to me this season. I feel that everything is coming together for that race and I can not wait to get to Whistler.

Marcus got 5^th overall and 1^st in his age Group.

It was great to be able to get to the finish and watch my son Danny came across the line for 3^rd in his division.

Race: XTERRA First Coast
Location: Jacksonville Beach, Florida
Date: July 24, 2011
Distances: 750m swim, 13mile mountain bike, 5k run
Result: 5th place in division, 11th overall
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew, Synergy Syn-Skin, Maxxis Ikon Tires, Jamis Dakota D29 Pro, Rudy Project helmet, Scrub Brakes, Crank Brothers Candy Pedals.

I had originally planned to race at the Offroad Assualt on Mount Mitchell, complete with paying my entry back in March.  If you’re not familiar with it, just think of a mountain bike race that includes over 65 miles and 11,000 feet of elevation change.  Dan Kimball and I (as usual) both decided to have at it with something a bit different from our usual triathlon season.  We had the schedule all laid out, including several pre-rides and training plan.  We had it all figured out…  except…  the fact that I had also scheduled family vacation the same week.  Ugh.

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The family at Team Unlimited and XTERRA sure know how to turn one of the best race weekends of the season up a notch. Enter the 2011 XTERRA East Championships and Trail Run weekend. By far one of the most fun and interactive events on the circuit for the whole family. This event proves how important the total experience is to XTERRA.

The events were set into motion by Team Extreme as they sky dived into the transition area to pay respect to all of those who have served our country. From there the festivities started. Richmond had everything from an interactive Kids Zone that provided a virtual simulator of the bike course to a kids fun/ obstacle race. I could not keep my kids of the bikes as they were having so much fun.

Or off of the obstacle course.

The first day was for the trail run. Many hundreds of participants came to test their abilities on either the 10k or 21k course. Most would not expect the technical trails ahead of them, being that this race is staged from downtown Richmond. But with river crossings, bridges and many miles of technical single track ahead, there were surprises for everyone.

My wife entered the 21k trail run. XTERRA really makes it great that these weekends allow activities for everyone in the whole family. Promoting overall health and wellbeing is very important to them and it enhances the experience greatly. While my wife was out conquering the challenges of the trail run, my children were tearing up the kid zone.

By the end of the events on Saturday, everyone had a great time. Now it was time to et ready for the XTERRA East Championships. Going through a regular routine of double checking the gear and eating right closed out the day. Up at 5AM to get some food in me and off to secure a prime spot in transition.

The early bird gets the worm. In Richmond, with so many competitors, end racks are not in abundance. Getting in early to stake your claim really makes a difference when you want to get in and out of transition easily.

Look at all these people. Transition was not even ½ full yet.

The race was great. They added some distance to the swim and sent us out in a zig zag pattern. This I like much better than staring at a single buoy way off in the distance. After the swim and a decent run up to transition it was time for a 2 lap bike of one of the best courses on the circuit. This bike course is fun with a capital F. I enjoyed every bit of the ride and looked forward to the run. The run is unique as you start by leaving the city behind and climb over the notorious “Mayan Ruins” to enter the single track trails. On these trails you experience all kinds of adventures from river crossings to hurdling roots like Carl Lewis.

Richmond is one of the best races and experiences available. Team Unlimited makes this a true family experience.

Race: XTERRA Southeast Championships
Location: Pelham, Alabama
Distances: 1500m swim, 35k mtb bike 10.4k run
Marcus Result: 5th place division, 15th overall amateur
Dan Result: 4th place division, 14th overall amateur
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew,  Synergy Syn-Skin, Maxxis Ikon & Aspen Tires, Jamis Dakota D29 Pro,  Rudy Project helmet, Scrub Brakes, Crank Brothers Candy Pedals.

The Southeast Champs race came a little earlier this year. You’d think it’d make a huge difference in temperature, but the difference is marginal.  If you recall my report from last year, you may recall my description about it being “Alabama hot”.  Even though it wasn’t as hot, it was still pretty warm when Dan and I showed up at transition some three hours before race start.

After a quick stop-in at the marking tent, a bit of fun banter back and forth with Janet Clark, we setup transition and went into relax mode for a while.  The next hour or so was spent reuniting with our XTERRA family of regulars, Emma Garrard, Fred Smith, Frank Fernandez-Posse, Charlotte Mahan, Meiling Yee, Eric Hammond, Mark Hammond, but to name only a few.  Most of it was casual conversation and just catching up since the last race.  There were a few questions about Spain and some discussion of Richmond.  It was good to see the racing family again.  Before I knew it, Dan was flagging me over to the bike to do a warm-up ride.  We took off and rode for a bit.

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Sloppy. Wet. Muddy. Just like I like it. It rained quite a bit the night before the race, throughout the night the rain woke me up as it hit the tiled roof. Race morning, I woke up at 6:30 am, that’s 12:30 am back on the East coast. I went into Rife and Josiah’s room and tapped Rife on the foot. The World Championship was broken down into three races, with about a two hour break in between each race. Rife and I would be racing at 9:45, while Dan’s race was scheduled for 2:00 pm. Cody and Josiah wouldn’t race until 6:00 pm. Rife, Aaron and I packed our things and headed to the race course.
 
Due to the parking circumstances, we parked a little over a kilometer from the race course. Rife and I grabbed our bags and rode our bikes to the course while Aaron hooved it with the camera gear and snacks. As we neared the venue, we could hear the music and the announcer speaking loudly in Spanish. I looked over at Rife and said, “Now it feels real that we are at an international race.” Actually getting to the transition area was a chore because most of the venue was blocked off as part of the race, similar to navigating through a maze. We had to ride all the way around “the ring.” The ring is a large circular building structure, with multiple levels; meeting rooms and other facilities dedicated to sports research.

Since there were multiple races and multiple wave starts within each race, I decided to forgo my usual pre-race ritual and head straight for transition. It’s a good thing I did, because getting into transition was chaotic. There were hundreds of racers all trying to get into the single entrance with one official checking the names off the list. I got to my assigned rack and set up my transition as normal, with the exception of the little blue box. I was still a bit confused of its purpose and the ITU rules surrounding it. What was supposed to be in the box? What wasn’t supposed to be in the box? When was it supposed to be in the box?

The purpose of the day before was to get affiliated with the course along with a mandatory race briefing. It was a very humbling experience being surrounded by both the best Professional and Amateur Off Road Triathletes in the world. They discussed the race venue, the schedule, and some of the ITU rules. Most of the rules were the same as typical American Triathlons. One of the differences, however, was the usage of a small blue box which they explained very briefly.

Standing over this little blue box in transition, I attempted to recall what the rules stated, knowing that improper use would result in a time penalty. I put both my bike shoes, my run shoes and my hat in the box. I placed my wetsuit, swim cap and goggles over the handle bars of my bike. I grabbed my transition bag and took it to the bag holding area, which was also mandatory. I was not allowed to re-enter transition since the juniors’ race was about to start. I began to panic because I needed to recover my swim gear from transition in preparation for my own race. Glenn Cook, racked right beside my spot, was still standing next to the rack. I yelled over to Glenn and he was gracious enough to bring over my gear. Boy, did he save my arse.

With no time for a pre-race warm-up, they lined us up by numerical order and wave start near the floating dock. We all walked down towards the dock and lined up for our swim. The swim consisted of a thousand-meter out and back with an in-water start. Wetsuits required, some people had complained that the water was too cold, but I thought it was the perfect temperature. With an “on your mark” and a horn blast we were off. It took me a couple of minutes to get into a groove, considering I had no time for a warm-up prior to the start. The other racers were swimming in all directions, having trouble staying on course. I managed to find a low-traffic area just left of the main pack. I knew this would be fine for now, but not so when l we reached the buoys because it would be a left hand turn. This meant that the other racers would be coming from my right and towards me on the turn. Just as I suspected, we rounded the buoy it became a pool of flailing appendages. I managed to find my way around the buoys, taking minimal damage. The rest of the swim to the exit ramp was fairly uneventful other than the fact that I seemed to find a steady pace. As I swam towards shore I was thinking to myself that the Synergy wetsuit was the best suit I owned so far. Other suits that in which I have raced all seemed a bit more restrictive in movement. This suit seemed a bit more pliable (full product review coming soon).

Coming into transition, I had no problems getting my wetsuit off and all the way down to my waist by the time I reached my rack . I donned my bike shoes , helmet and running bib from the blue box. Then, I put my wetsuit in the box on top of my running shoes and hat before grabbing my bike.

The bike course consisted of two laps with a distance of approximately 10k each. The first short section was a few small technical climbs. It became congested because it was slick form the pervious night’s rain and it was more technical than some athletes were accustomed to. I found myself running my bike up the hill past several athletes. Once it opened up to double track, I seized the opportunity to pass several other people.

The first half of the course was a mix of double-track and short single track sections with only two climbs of any significance. The second of the two climbs was at the farthest point of the bike course. Its’ downhill consisted of very slick, greasy switchbacks. The return portion to transition primarily followed the edge of the lake. It had sections of sandy, rocky areas.  The rest was a muddy, grassy, swamp-like landscape. On the first lap, our wave caught up to the para-athletes. This caused a little bit of congestion, but one that we didn’t mind, as these guys were amazing athletes. I had passed numerous para-athletes with single arms, single legs, and one blind athlete riding with a guide on a tandem mountain bike.

By the time I reached the second lap the field had thinned out quite a bit allowing me to ride portions of the course that would otherwise be congested. However, not having someone in front of me to reel in or someone behind me to push I found myself slowing my pace a bit. American, David Southhall, caught up with me and passed. I settled in behind him and we raced the remainder of the second lap together, trudging through the mud and component clogging muck. Along the swampy areas, you could hear the frogs croaking.  It was funny how they sounded different than the frogs you would normally hear in swampy areas back home.  “They must be croaking in Spanish,” I thought.  I chuckled to myself and kept on riding.  As we neared transition, we reached a section of double track where I took the opportunity to pass David. I also caught up with Glenn Cook and passed him shortly before entering transition. Getting to my bike rack I noticed that my wet suit was gone and that someone had placed my running shoes and hat right outside my box.  Now that is service. I also noticed that there were no bikes in my area, which led me to believe that I was the first in my age group to reach transition. Running out of transition I put two and two together and realized that was not the case. The same folks who had removed my wetsuit, had also removed the other racers bikes.  Darn.

The run course was relatively flat, two laps, with a total distance of 6k. Approximately the first-half of the course was rocky and muddy, with the second half being a gravel path through the inside of “the ring”. I tried my best to run with a negative split, gradually increasing my pace. I passed several people on the run, but couldn’t make out the age groups due to the caked-on mud. Our bib numbers were indicative of our age groups as well, but couldn’t remember where the numbering started and stopped. Also compounding the problem was the fact that it was a two-lap run. I didn’t know who was on there first or second lap so I just tried to pass as many people as I could. I finished the race with my typical sprint at the end.

Final results were 19th place and 3rd American in my division.  My goal was to be in the top 20 with a stretch goal of top 10.  Certainly happy with the results considering the field of competitors.  There’s still more work to do in training.

Dan Kimball’s race (my perspective)

Since Dan was racing several hours after I had finished, I took the liberty to head back to the house with Rife and Aaron to get cleaned up.  Getting back in time for Dan’s race start proved much more difficult than I had anticipated.  Given the parking situation, Aaron and I decided to venture out onto the bike course to catch up with Dan rather than heading back to transition.  Our estimate of time and their location paid off as we met up with Dan just as we stumbled upon the trail.  We caught a quick picture of him on his first bike lap.

He was looking strong and had about a 3 minute lead on the next American.  I would later find out that when the above picture was taken, he was squarely in 3rd place.  I would also find out that he had the beginnings of a rear flat tire.  Take a closer look of the picture above.   Aaron and I moved to another section of the trail where we could see them on the return trip back towards transition to start their second lap.  Dan was steadily passing folks in both his age group and that of the 30-34 group.

Again, Aaron and I chose to move to another portion of the bike course for some different pics.  Due to the battery in my good camera going belly-up, I had to switch to my smaller, pocket camera for the remainder of the pics.  We decided to move to the farthest end of the course that consisted of a greasy, switchback downhill.  We caught a few pictures of Rob Jackson who was behind Dan on the first lap. 

I began to wonder what had happened to Dan, especially considering the amount of lead that he had on the rest of the team.  I looked at Aaron and stated that something must have gone wrong.  We waited what seemed to be an eternity and finally gave up on seeing him on that section of the trail.  Just as we had walked about 30 meters away, we turn around to see Dan about half-way down the hill and motioning for the racer behind him to pass.  “That’s odd,” I thought, “I bet he flatted.”  After sprinting back to a previous section of the course, our fears were confirmed.

As Dan approached me, he was saying, all while grinning from ear to ear, “Check out my rear tire!”. 

In the short amount of time that I had, I snapped two decent pictures of his rear tire:

As you can see, it is completely flat.  Seems Dan flatted at about the 8km point in the race.  After several attempts to fix it, complete with teammates tossing him extra co2 and foam, he couldn’t get the tire to hold air anymore.  He rode the remaining 12km of the bike course on the flat.  I couldn’t help but think about what I would do in a similar situation.  I’m not sure I would have continued to ride the bike.  At best, I think I would have ended up running with the bike.  Regardless of riding or running, I don’t think I would have been grinning and chuckling as Dan was in his situation.  After completing the bike course, he went on to the run.

Even with exhausted legs from hammering the bike on a flat, Dan steadily picked off rivals on the run course.  Each time he passed by, I could still see a grin and he was still joking with me.  At the end of his run, he grinned again and threw up two thumbs-ups.  Had he not had the unfortunate circumstance of flatting, he would have definitely been on the podium, if not winning the division.

My hat’s certainly off to Dan for not only completing the race given the circumstances on the bike, but doing so with such a winning attitude and being a true ambassador of our nation to the other countries.  It truly shows our diversity and willingness to take on what to some may seem as insurmountable challenges with the greatest of professionalism and sportsmanship.