Well, it seems not to blog has been the unfortunate reality. I have officially deemed 2013 to be a rebuilding year and take the results such as they are in that context. Also a year to try some different events, which have proven to be much more exciting and therefore successful than I imagined. Having finally recovered (a week and a half later) from the freight train running me over that was Leadville Trail 100 MTB, I thought I would catch up on the old blog. I had a terrific race in Leadville (4th Women) and would much rather write about that experience but as I am first and foremost OCD, I will in the briefest of forms, ie mostly pictures, run through the last couple of races.
May... Xterra Alabama & BE Beast of the Southeast (Nashville)
Alabama is always a fun time with the whole gang converging on JR's place in Hoover. After the Xterra Vegas incident, I was hesitant in my expectations and just wanted to get a solid race in. I also remembered to bring my wetsuit so wasn't caught out in that bizarre situation. Good swim, solid bike, ok first 5km run, held on for 8th. But I did finish the run actually running so forward progression....Good.
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| Always fun Oak Mountain trails |
From Alabama it was a group caravan over to Nashville TN for the inaugural Breakthrough Endurance BEast of the Southeast race weekend, and more wet muddy trails, yeah!! (I live in Tucson = no mud, ever) Craig Evans and company put on a stellar, action packed weekend in which I raced the Super-Sprint Off-Road Tri Friday afternoon (3rd), Olympic Distance Off-Road Tri Saturday morning (4th), Short Track MTB Saturday afternoon (3rd) and Sprint Road Tri Sunday morning (1st). I would not recommend this much racing in one weekend, the body definitely took a beating, but it was fun.
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| BigFish super fast neoprene skin ;) |
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| Tennessee - Hot & Humid |
June... Xterra Richmond
Duathlon, need I say anymore. There really wasn't an alternative as the James river was truly un-swimmable but really duathlons and I don't tend to get along. I did make up for it and go for swim with my bike halfway through the second lap of the bike (see bike course photo below) and managed to pull out a 7th. Best result of the Xterra series for me, go figure.
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| Yes, the water is part of the BIKE course!! |
July... Cedar City Fireroad 100
Last year while coming back from shoulder surgery and thus not doing much swimming or triathlons I headed up to Tahoe to race the Trans-Tahoe Swim Relay (ok a little swimming) with my sister and the Tahoe Trail 100 MTB race. In my post-race stupor I reached out and grabbed the Leadville 100 gold coin. No worries, I'll take the spot for 2013, it'll be fun!! So after Xterra Richmond I decided that August 10th was really quickly approaching and just maybe I had better start thinking about the fact that I was going to race 100miles, with 12,600ft of climbing, almost all of which about 10,000ft. It'll be FUN!! To kick start the shift in focus I jumped in the car with the Tucson gang of George Varhola, Kathryn Bertine and Marilyn McDonald, and headed over to Cedar City Utah for the Fireroad 100 (km) race. Only 7,000+ ft of climbing in this little warm-up race!! I truly suffered way more that I expected and along with just about everyone else I spoke with after the race wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into. The race itself was great and lots of fun and even ended up being a pretty good payday!! As yes, a good kick in the butt to get serious about getting in Leadville shape:)
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| Rolling Out |
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| Spectacular Utah Scenery (and suffering) |
Next post... Leadville :))
