2011 Xterra Wild Horse Creek Race Report

Adam and I went up to Bozeman, MT for vacation and both raced Xterra Wild Horse Creek.  It was a beautiful setting and an amazing place to be.  It was a good place for me to challenge my mountain biking skills and enjoy some nice scenery while doing it.

Swim: 1200 yds, water temp in the high 50s, 19:10 (18:47 at water), 3/24 women, 1/7 AG

I swam the day before the race and was a little shocked by how cold it was.  Adam had looked up the water temperature online and it said 68, but he must not have been looking at the right think because it was take your breath away cold.  I made it through a few minutes of a practice swim, took a break and then did some more.  The race directors said it was high 50's and wetsuits required.  Yikes!

This swim was one of the roughest I have been in recently.  I got in with 5 minutes to the start and was shivering so much that I got out until the very last minute. Brrr!  Everyone started together, and within less than 100 yds we hit the turn buoy (which was a large clown).  So a lot of people went out really fast and it was complete chaos to the buoy, around the buoy, and just passed there.  Not long after I passed the buoy, I looked over and saw someone breast stroking.  I thought it was Adam, but thought there was no way he would have gone out so fast and to be ahead of me.  Turns out, he was in the top 10 around the first buoy, then later had to resort to breast stroke, so it probably was him.

There was only one other buoy and with the sun, I really couldn't see that well.  I tried to just stay with the group I was around and try to sight based on the mountains and shoreline to make sure I wasn't swimming too crooked. I made it to the end of the first lap with a small group of guys and tried to stick with them.

I'm not sure why they always have the loop swims with the run in the middle in Xterras.  It is nice that it breaks the swim up and allows spectators to see you, but some courses are just not set up for it.  In this case it is a little cruel to have people get out and run across sharp rocks on already painful ice cold feet.  It would makes sense to use the huge reservoir for one big lap or if they need two, just have us swim through it instead of getting out.

Cooper showing how to exit the water with enthusiasm

Anyway, so after running over the rocks my feet were in serious pain for most of the second loop of the bike. It felt like someone was poking my feet with needles or something.  The second loop was so much less crowded and went by much faster.  Still some contact, but not too bad.  If the swim hadn't been so cold I wish it would have been longer.  It was a beautiful reservoir and very pleasant to swim in.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with my swim.  I'm somewhat out of swim shape right now, and don't do to well in the super cold water swims so I'm very happy with my time and place considering all that.

T1:  1:31.7 2/24 women, 2/7 AG I was not moving very fast thanks to ice cold hands and being a little disoriented from the cold water.  The transition area was so short, I didn't even have my wetsuit sleeves all the way off when I got there.  I did for once get one of my wetsuit legs out really fast though!  Finally! In my hurry to get out, I forgot to put my gloves on which is not a good thing, especially on this course.

Bike: 16 miles--roots, rocks, climbing, descending, 1:53:48, 12/24 women, 4/7 AG

Adam and I prerode the course on Friday and Saturday.  The course started out with lots of roots and rocks and some steep up hills.  When I prerode, I moved slowly through there and had to dismount a few times, but felt like I was going to be okay going through there.

Out of transition I was shivering cold.  My hands and arms were shaking.  I started going over some of the roots and rocks and was doing ok, but hyperventilating and felling a bit panicked.  Coming from the cold water swim and being cold made it a lot harder for me to control my bike and to just feel confident.  I walked more sections than I had to in the preride, and before I knew it I was getting passed by several people including a couple girls from my age group, Adam, and my teammate Cary.

Resting through one of the scenic and easier sections in the tough first few miles.

I also was wearing regular sunglasses and couldn't see with the shade.  I should have worn clear or rose colored glasses.  When I got off to walk a section I took them off, then stumbled on a down hill and they went flying off onto the trail.I stopped and grabbed them while dodging passing competitors.  I was so relieved when I got to this beautiful field and I knew that the "hard part" was over for awhile as we had some smooth single track, then a ride along the dirt road to a 20 min or so 5 ft wide climb.

I was feeling good, warming up and passing people as I rode down the dirt road and up the climb.  This was a good climb for me, long and steady with out a lot of skill required.  We had to do this loop with the climb and a decent 2x.

Taking a break on the preride to enjoy the scenery

How many races have this kind of scenery?

I made it up to the top of the climb the first time in just over 20 mins.  There was a yellow lab at the top :) Then onto a few winding ups and downs before the decent.  In the preride on Friday, I fell on the decent on my left side and was still a little sore, but I didn't fall on Saturday so I was feeling ok. The first part went well.  I got passed and all but I was moving along and not riding my front break.  I think it was the second part of the decent I hit something weird and had my weight forward and almost flipped but somehow unclipped and caught it without falling hard.  The guy behind me was pretty amazed.  That definitely scared me though, and I think that is what must have caused my last gu to explode.

Towards the start of the decent

I made it down the decent and hoped they would tell us that we only had to do one loop.  I made it to the start of the second loop in under1:07, and around :36 minutes for the first loop, just over my goal of 35, and 1:05. My goal of a bike time under 1:45 was still insight.

I looked down and saw gu all over my bike and leg.  I should have had the gu then while there was still some left.  But I didn't.  I climbed well up the hill again, but was starting to run low on energy.  As I climbed I wondered if grizzley bears liked Gu.  I hoped not.  I had the tiny amount left (maybe 10 calories worth) as my stomach growled at me. I climbed pretty well and caught up to people that passed me on the downhill and was also passing people from the shorter race.  Oh how I wished I was in the shorter race.  I wish they gave points for the shorter races.

I made it up the climb faster this time around, made it down the first part of the decent okay.  I was passing people from the short race and I was shocked that I was descending faster and better than they were.  I'm not the worst descender in the world apparently!  I was coming up behind a girl from the short race and she stopped suddenly to let me buy which threw me off and forced me to dismount.  I don/t blame her, I'm sure Ive been that person many times.  I should have just run down the next short section of the hill, because I mounted, hit a rock, and went down. Ugh.

It took me a few seconds to get back on, then I rode for awhile and a few minutes later I fell really hard.  I don't remember what happened, just that I was flying through the air, landed on my hands, left side, and slid for awhile scraping my knees and left elbow. Everything hurt.  Especially my left wrist and shoulder.  I got up.  Nothing seemed to be broken.  I got back on my bike and my saddle was tilted way to the side, and was not safe to ride on. I could have stood up, but I am not good on downhills to begin with. So I ran, downhill with my bike in my mountain bike shoes the rest of the way down the hill.  Probably at least a half mile, maybe more.Once I got to the road I got back on my bike and rode just slightly off the saddle and tried to ride hard to the finish.  At some point during all this, I lost my sunglasses :(

T2: 42.3 3/24 Women, 2/7 AG, Not a good transition for me, I got there, there were bikes over my spot so I wasn't sure where to put my bike.  I finally moves a couple around to make space for mine, and then headed out to run.

Run: 6 miles, 50:58, rooty, rocky, short steep hills, twists and turns.  5/24 women, 2/7 AG

I was really looking forward to the run course.  It was my kind of course--lots of hills and roots and rocks and steep downhills.  This was almost an ideal course for me.  I started out flying.  I really should have taken a gu at the exit of T2, I regretted it later.   I was moving along well, passing people from both my race and the short race.  I was flying uphills and my legs felt good.

I ran across some muddy logs and down I went.  On my already bruised and scraped knees and hands.  I can't recall ever falling like that in a race.  I got up and limped along for awhile and got myself going again, but not with the same speed and enthusiasm as before.  I continued to try to work the downhills, but was not quite as aggressive after falling hard once.  I made it through the first loop in around 24 minutes.  Considering the course difficulty and the fall and the crashes on the bike, I was okay with that.

Second loop I was still passing a lot of people, and made slowly but successfully over the muddy logs, but was out of energy. I was really missing that 3rd gu I usually have on the bike.  I had no energy and felt like I couldn't move my arms, which is kind of important when running, especially hills.

The water that had been so cold a few hours ago, looked so refreshing.  The sweat and mud were starting to burn the cuts on my knees, hands and arms.  I just wanted to be done! I was so relieved when I finished.

My knees post race.

Overall: 3:06:10, 8/24 women, 3/7 AG  This definitely wasn't my best race, in any of the 3 disciplines.  Just another off road experience to learn from and to hopefully make me better in the future.  It was a beautiful course, probably the most beautiful course I have raced on.

More beautiful scenery from the race course

Me with my award