Swim: 1km
Ride: 20km
Run: 9km
Swimming at 9000ft above sea level is like trying to run on a treadmill with your mouth duct taped closed. You just simply don't get enough air! As we rounded the first buoy, i knew that it was going to be a tough day. I felt like i was a sardine in the sardine run and there were 50 sharks chasing us... and someone had cut my fins off. I was going backwards fast. The course designers clearly left their tape measures at home when they set up the course, so they just made it a bit longer to make sure we were not deprived of any water time!
Out of the water, the game was on... now it was my turn. (on the bike) Time to catch up to those sailfish. Well, it certainly was hard work trying to pass over half of the field in singletrack and not create any crashes or make too many enemies. The course was awesome, there were some seriously technical rocky climbs which were near impossible to ride. It was just as tough as the World Cup we did a few weeks back and a lot of people were forced to portage. Nearing 2/3 of the way round the course, i managed to get some sense out of one of the marshalls "Five men and one woman up ahead." Whoaaa, i really had to pin my ears back in order to get as much advantage as possible before the run.
Running out of the transition area, I felt pretty good - i was neck and neck with 5th and 6th position. (we had dropped the lady:) so the pace was hot between us. Heading straight down the tar road of the Crested Butte Mountain resort, Will started striding away and i had to slip back into a maintainable pace. The run course was pretty tough, mostly singletrack too with some rocky decents that kept you fighting to stay upright. The Lake was a welcome sight as we completed a lap on the shoreline to finish in front of the crowd in the entertainment area.
I really hope that Xterra grows and we see more than one event per year in RSA - by the end of the race, your whole body is in a state of severe pain... it doesn't get much better than this!
Results:
1st Mike Vine
2nd Josiah Middaugh
3rd Greg Krause
4th Jimmy Archer
5th Will Kelsay
6th Brian Smith
7th Roan Exelby (1st Ameteur... but way back !!)
