As mentioned in my last post, I raced my first off road triathlon last week. It was an awesome event that included a lot of mud, sand and crashes for us all. The event was small in a gorgeous area of Colorado. The community where is was held is called Westcreek. It sits right in the middle of one of the places hit hardest by 2002's Hayman fire, the largest fire in Colorado's history. It's very sad to see all this beautiful forest destroyed. The swim is on a private lake with the bike and run held on forest service roads and trails.
Race morning started with me getting to the staging area with my gear and getting set up. There had been some rain that week so the lake was on the brown side but still beautiful. I got everything set up and ready to go. I hadn't done an open water swim since last November's Ironman Arizona so the feel of the wetsuit was a little foreign to me. The swim got under way with it's typical frantic start. It settled down after the first 150 yards. I held a steady pace and passed people throughout the swim, never being passed which was nice. The swim was approximately 950 yards according to the folks that were there. I ended up 6th out of the water.
After a smooth swim, I took it easy in transition making sure I got what I needed. I headed out onto the bike feeling great. The out section is all flat or uphill. I really enjoyed this section as I could stay in control on the bike. My biggest concern leading into the race was my lack of mountain biking skills which really show up on descents. Those would come later. I passed a few people on the way out and was still feeling great. At the middle section, there is a steep, sandy climb. The climb itself was no problem. The sand, however, was a huge problem. I came unclipped about halfway up. It was too steep in that section for me to clip in and get going with any momentum so I had to walk it for about 50 yards which really slowed me down. Once I got going again, I continued to climb well. All that climbing on the way out meant the descents were coming. I handled the first roller coaster section of downhill pretty well. Toward the end, there is a really steep downhill section. It's only 200 yards or so but enough to scare the heck out of me. I was riding my rear brake the entire time. I eventually went over the handlebars. I tore my hands up pretty good but didn't get injured. Whew! I would have been so upset with myself if I been hurt during something like this, ruining my chances to compete in Hawaii this October. After I got myself together and got the chain back on the bike, I was off and running. This cost me a few minutes.
I wasn't in a hurry to make it up on the downhill section of the forest service roads so I went fast but didn't push hard enough to have something bad happen. I got back into transition having posted the 3rd fastest bike split but considerably slower than the two guys ahead of me.
Having not pushed real hard on the 2nd half of the bike, I felt great going into the run. I went out pretty easy and just built into a nice cadence. I saw the guys ahead of me were too far to catch. I had one woman, a local pro, who was ahead of me and I passed her and after that, I just kind of cruised in. I was going more of a tempo pace than a race pace as I was in no mans land with no one ahead of me and no one behind me. I ended up with the fastest run split of the day and came in 3rd overall. I had an absolute blast and got in a good workout in the process. I'd like to do it again but not until I've gained some mountain bike skills.
