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