Maskenthine Psycowpath XC Race

Maskenthine was the 7th race of the Psycowpath series. Going into this weekend I was 1st in Cat 3 Open points, so a good finish was needed to stay on top. The course is a 5 mile loop and the race was 2 laps. I went out on the course early with Alex to get the blood flowing and get legs warmed up. The race starts out down by the marina on a gravel road then makes a left turn up the hill and then into the singletrack. I took off strong but as we made the left turn up the gravel road the legs were not l00% so going into singletrack I was 7th. At this point I was a little worried as I didn't want the leaders to get out of reach, the race had a lot of good riders. I made the turn into the singletrack and coming down the hill I made my first move passing a rider, and as I made a corner my rear tire burped... OH NO not again, if you know my prev history on my rear tire going flat you would understand why I was worried!. I took a quick glance back and everything seemed OK so on I went. At the end of the first lap I had worked my way up to 4th with 2nd and 3rd in my sights. As I made my way down the hill right after the start/finish line of 1st lap the 2nd place rider bobbled a bit and that slowed down 3rd place also, I was just far enough back I used my momentum and took the grass on the outside and made my move. Now not only did I have to set my sights on 1st I had to hold off the 2 riders I had just passed. I pushed hard thru the technical section and put a couple marathon riders in between for a bit of a cushion. I could now finally see the 1st place rider, at about 1/2 way point of 2nd lap I caught up to him and made the pass, I still had some left in the tank so I pushed it hard to again put a gap in between us. At the finish I was 1st, Kyle Blair of Norfolk took 2nd, Michael Dixon 3rd and Clint Robinson 4th. It all worked out in the end even though my start was not what I was hoping for. Great race and thanks to the Elkhorn Valley Cycling Club for putting it on and a great race course. Also thanks to all volunteers. Full race results can be found here: http://www.psycowpath.com/images/stories/Maskenthine_results_2010.pdf

Xterra B.O.L.T - Round 2

This would be the 2nd time that I have competed in this event, last year I placed 52nd out of 100 entrants, not bad for my first ever triathlon event. I was really looking forward to this event for a couple reasons, first my good friend Cory was entered again (51st last year with same time as me 2:59:55) and second it was close to home, only 45 minutes away. Cory and I had set a goal of top 20 for this event, and set out a training schedule that would hopefully allow us to attain our goal. Training started out great, for the first 6 weeks or so we were dead on with the training feeling like we were far above the year priors training. At around week 7 or so the wheels fell off for both of us, seemed like something always came up and training got pushed off to the side. I am also competing in the Psycowpath MTB racing series this year for the first time and bike training took precedence over everything else. As the Xterra got closer and closer I squeezed in some running here and there, and kinda put the swim on hold figuring it would be as it would.

Even though Branched Oak Lake is only 45 minutes away Cory and I had decided to stay in Lincoln the night before, we went over to Cycle Works to check in and get our packets and off we went to get some carbs. We hit up the Garmin for restaurants and Valentino's popped up and only 1 mile away...SCORE. Except for it was a carry-out only...grrrrr so again Garmin was put to use, 2nd Valentino's was not there anymore, at this point I told Cory anywhere would be ok. He was determined to find a Val's so a 3rd try and low and behold we found it and the buffet was incredible, hard not to over eat. 

Race morning came and we headed out to the Lake, this years event was different in that there was 2 different transition areas, 1 for coming out of water to the bike (helmet,gloves,shoes,sunglasses) and second one off the bike into the run (vibrams). This was somewhat hectic making sure that you have all the right equipment at each area. 

Gun went off and off we went, the swim went as planned - just get through it - as I was nearing the beach I looked to see where Cory was and sure enough he was right next to me, we got out of  the water only seconds apart. On to the bike (YES) I started off pacing myself even though I wanted to put the pedal to the metal, the first part of course was through a mowed field and then into the singletrack. My game plan was to wait til the singletrack and then hit it hard. Going through the singletrack Cory was just ahead of me until a rider slipped up on a rocky section and that's when I made my move, I  passed couple riders and on I went picking off rider by rider. When we hit the paved portion of the course (not fond of but watcha gonna do) heading over to Area 7 Cory caught up with me and we rode Area 7 nose to tail and again hit the transition area seconds apart. Now onto the run (uggghhh) my weakest part and knowing I just did a tri 2 weeks prior and competed in 3 short course Psycowpath races the weekend before all in the back of my head. I started off with a slow pace just trying to maintain and not get passed, as I kept going I got in a rhythm slow by standards but to me it was good. When I finished I was happy with my run overall. Cory had a better pace than me in the run and finished a couple spots ahead of me under 2 minutes ahead. We unfortunately did not attain our goal of top 20 but we did fair well Cory finished 34th 3:00:19 and I finished 36th at 3:02:13 and 6 out of 13 in age division. Looking forward to racing again next year. Full results can be found here: http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=15572&relist_record_type=result&lower_bound=0&upper_bound=70&use_previous_sql=1&group_by=default#racetop

Cory & I after going thru the finish line

Xterra Sugar Bottom

Last August I competed in my first Xterra Triathlon ever at Branched Oak Lake, Malcolm NE. After finishing I told my wife it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Just to give you a quick background up until I was asked (told) by Cory that we were entering my extent of swimming was oh bout 100 yards or so, I don't like running and at the time I didn't even own a bike...hmmmm. After a few hours of completing the triathlon I was already talking about next year. I am always up for a challenge so planning began. The Xterra BOLT was already on my list of competitions to do, as I was looking at the Xterra Planet website I saw there was a race in Coralville, IA which is only 3 hrs away. The only bad thing is that it was only 2 weeks prior to the BOLT. I debated back and forth and then my decision was made for me (yes again) not by Cory this time but by me winning a free entry to the event through a contest on Facebook. Thank you Pasha. The course consisted of a .93 mile swim, 15.9 mile bike and then 6 mile run.

A little inspiration from Alicia

The race course had to be altered a couple different times because of all the rain that they have had in the area, which meant some pavement riding. We started off on the swim and it was an out and back, about 1/2 way out my goggles fogged up, hoping this was not how my day was gonna go I was able to get 1 eye cleared and off I went. After making the turn and coming back towards the beach I was able to pick up the pace, just being able to see land. Onto the bike which started out on some pavement, along the way Patty and Alicia were volunteers at a run aid station, I passed them and got an encouraging yell from Alicia "go dad you can pass them" I was able to get in a really good rhythm even though I have never ridden the course before and had a top 25 time. The run was a 6 mile half trail/half road run, it would be a very difficult run for me. I was able to get thru it since Patty and Alicia were at an aid station that I passed a couple times during run and hearing Alicia yell at me "Go Dad you can win"... I had to laugh to myself  "win" wasn't gonna happen but I was a winner in her eyes and that is all that mattered. Thanks for the support to my beautiful wife Patty and beautiful daughter Alicia. :-) Love you both.
 
When it comes to these triathlons it is a roller-coaster ride for me throughout, I start the swim and along the way I look around and there is nothing and it feels like I'm doing a lot of work and not even moving, it is deceiving. Then I jump out and get on the bike (my favorite part) and the place where I feel I can make up some valuable ground on everyone. The run is last and is the hardest, I usually get passed by some competitors which is discouraging because all the work I put in to pass on the bike goes away on the run.Then the end and seeing the final results put me back to a high again! I definitely feel part of an elite group of people, as my motto states "If it was easy, everyone would do it".

picture form press-citizen.com

I finished in 36th place overall and 9th out of 18 in my age group with a time of 3:20:24 Full results can be found here: http://www.pigmantri.com/jmsracing/results10/xsugar10b.html