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Oak Mountain Alabama is a special place as it was the
location of Karel’s first off-road triathlon in 2021. We actually drove to the
race without his mountain bike as he bought a new bike online on race week and
we picked it up in Birmingham, two days before the race. Karel had so much fun
racing a triathlon off road. Karel’s excitement initiated my mountain biking
journey (on Karel’s old mountain bike, until I got my own in 2022), which has
been humbling and fun.
Although we were very excited to participate in Xterra Oak Mountain, we were
sad that we wouldn’t be able to race IM 70.3 Chattanooga. However, since Chatty
was a team race for our athletes, we would still be able to spectate the day
after our event.
The days leading up to our Xterra event were a bit stressful. Campy wasn’t
feeling so great, the night before we were supposed to leave, a tube got disconnected
from our 70-gallon fish tank as Karel was doing a partial water change and it
caused water to leak from upstairs to downstairs (this made for a very late and
stressful evening). We planned to arrive mid day on Thursday to pre-ride the
course but predicted storms changed our plans to arrive in the evening.
Once we finished the 5 hour drive (that took over 6 hours due to rain and
traffic), we were so relieved to finally be at our hotel. I had Chipotle
delivered to our hotel so after we unpacked, we relaxed and yummed. We had a
somewhat restless night of sleep but we were both excited to get on the course
on Friday morning.
We met a local friend Steve at Oak Mountain State Park around 9am and we went
for an open water swim. We swam ~1500 yards (~2 loops of the course) and the
water felt warm with our wetsuits on.
After the swim, we changed and went for a mountain bike ride on the back half
of the course. We did a private skills camp with Lon in Feb 2022 and although I
was somewhat familiar with parts of the Xterra Oak Mountain course, I had never
ridden on Blood Rock (the most technical feature of the course). Karel and I biked
to the Blood Rock section and I worked my way through parts of it but we didn’t
have enough time and didn’t want to take any risks the day before the race, for
me to section each part of this part of the course. Although I was able to make
it 3/4ths down, I decided that I wouldn’t take any chances on race day and
would only ride ~1/2 way and then walk my bike down the rest of the way. It was
good to see the last 10 miles of the course and we were both really excited for
race day. I often find myself making a lot of mistakes over rocks and roots
when I pre-ride a course the day prior as I’m trying to not overexert myself
but every feature requires a bit extra power – it’s a careful balance the day
before an off road event. We rode 12.4 miles in 1:20 and it was a good
confidence booster for the event.
Walking up Blood Rock to descend down.
We went back to the hotel, ate some lunch and a few hours later, we went back to the park to pick up our packet. Karel picked up some food from Publix for dinner and I had Amy’s No Chicken Noodle Soup + cup of 90-sec basmati microwave rice (my go-to pre race meal). We slept somewhat ok but thankfully, we didn’t have to wake up too early for our 9am race start.
I got my period the night before the race, which had me feeling a bit blah in the days leading up to the race. I never know how my body will perform when I have my period on race day so I just put it out of my mind and focused on what I could control for the day.
We woke up around 5:45am and had our pre-race meals shortly after. I made a waffle downstairs in the hotel breakfast room and had a yogurt with it and Karel had oatmeal. We did a bit of mobility/foam rolling in the room before packing up the car, checking out of the hotel room and making our way to the race venue around 7am. We had a short 2 mile drive to the race venue and parked around 7:20am. Originally we were supposed to start our race around 8:35am but they pushed it back to closer to 9am to let the pros finish 1 full loop of the 2 loop swim course.
I used the Epic Weather app to check the weather and it was looking to be a humid day with only a small chance of rain.
The transition is first come first serve so Karel and I set up our bikes on the 2nd row near the finish. After racing 4 off road tris in the past 10 months, I am getting more comfortable and familiar with setting up my gear for mountain biking and trail running. I’ve also really improved my transitions and have made them a lot quicker with practice.
We picked up our swim caps and timing chips and spent some time at the car getting ready. I did a bit more foam rolling by the car, did a short jog (which my legs felt horrible), went to the bathroom and then got my wetsuit on around 8:15am. Karel was feeling pretty good before the race and he was really excited to race. He has a friendly competition with Michael Dorr from CO and he knew he would need to be on the top of his game to beat him (he has never beat him before). I walked down to the swim start to watch the pros start and Karel walked down to the other side of the swim start to warmup in the water.
After the pros started, I warmed up in the water. The water was a bit warm for me in my wetsuit but there was a short sprinkle of rain which helped cool me off. It was really nice to get in a good warmup before the race start – I always swim better when I can swim before the race. Since it was a two loop swim with an Australian exit (get out of the water and run back in) I wanted to see how the pros were getting out and back in the water for any shallow spots. I gave Karel a kiss before he lined up to start 2 min before my wave.
SWIM (1.5K)
Marni – 22:24
Karel – 23:48
Karel started with the 49 yr and under male wave and everyone else (including
me) started 2 minutes later. My goal was to try to catch Karel but that would
be a big ask. Karel had a good swim. He felt strong the entire swim but he wasn’t
able to get up to the front group of swimmers. It was fairly easy to stay on course
with only two turn buoys and a big arch at the exit. I really went hard from the
start and my take-out speed left me really out of breath. I don’t think I’ve have
ever swam that hard before to start a triathlon but Xterra racing is more like
an Olympic distance than a half distance triathlon so it requires a lot of
intensity, which means tolerating a high heart rate throughout the entire race.
After a few minutes of take out speed, I settled into a strong steady effort. I
wasn’t able to catch the front 3 guys who got away from me so I was by myself for
the entire swim, passing a lot of athletes who started in the wave ahead of me.
It was fun to get out of the water and get back in and the swim went by pretty
quick. I was able to see Karel get out of the water as I was nearing the shore.
I exited the water first female and quickly made my way to my bike.
I had a quick transition by putting on my helmet and sunglasses and then my
socks and shoes. I don’t buckle the Boa on my shoes until I am riding to help
save time. I also put on my UWSE hydration pack and didn’t buckle it until I
was riding (which required me to ride with both hands off the handlebars).
BIKE – 22 miles (~2000 feet elevation gain)
Marni – 1:54
Karel – 1:39
After participating in 4 off road triathlons in the past 10 months, I’ve
learned a lot. I was able to apply a lot of lessons learned to this race.
1) Don’t worry about the people behind you. They will let you know when they
want to pass and you just move over when it’s safe/clear to do so. Everyone is
always very nice about it.
2) Ride hard on fire roads and anywhere that is not technical, especially hills.
3) Controlled is fast. Reckless is not.
4) If something scares you or you aren’t able to ride over a certain feature,
don’t.
5) Don’t get frustrated when you make mistakes.
6) It’s you against you. Your skills, your effort, your race.
7) Have fun!
I had so much fun on this course. It had the perfect amount of elevation throughout
the course and included a 3.5 mile fire road climb. The 2nd half of
the course was a bit more technical than the first half but the entire course
flowed well. This course kept me focused and I felt I rode stronger and better
than ever before. I walked my bike down the bottom half of Blood Rock and there
was one rocky step up in the first few miles that I didn’t clear and had to
unclip but other than that, I successfully made it over everything and didn’t
have any falls or issues. I’ve been working on my cornering and I could feel me
improvements throughout this course. Karel had one hard fall where a tree attacked
his handlebar in the first few miles of the ride. He flipped over his bike and
scuffed his hip and upper back. Other than that, he rode really strong and
stayed ahead of Michael Dorr throughout the entire bike. Karel was near the
front of the age group race with only a few guys ahead of him and he was back
and forth with one or two other guys throughout the bike. The course was really
well marked and the volunteers were great.
Throughout the bike, I consumed 1.5 liters of fluid which had ~130g carbs of
Never Second Berry (~520 calories). Karel had 1.5 liters of fluid with 320
Maurten along with 1 Maurten gel (~420 calories).
Although I was focused on myself throughout the ride, I couldn’t help but think
that at any moment I would be caught by other females in the race. My mind was
playing a lot of games with me as I wanted to be competitive but I also needed
to focus on myself to have a safe race. I really love the dynamics of mountain
biking in a triathlon because it’s the perfect combination of fun and
competition. People are so nice, everyone is supportive and you can tell that
athletes are having fun in nature.
Run – 6.2 miles
Marni – 52:23
Karel – 45:21
I dismounted my bike really quickly (I keep my shoes on but did a flying
dismount as mountain bike cleats make it easy to unclip) and ran my bike my
rack. I saw Karel’s bike hanging there and his run stuff removed so that was a
good sign that all went well during his ride (minus his crash with the tree). I
quickly put on my Hoka trail shoes and grabbed my visor, two Nathan 10 ounce
flasks (each filled with ~3/4 scoop Neversecond berry, ~100 calories each) and
my bib belt and put everything on as I was running. I stuck each flask in my back
pocket of my tri suit. Karel opted no trail shoes for this run and wore his
road shoes.
The run had a little less than 400 feet elevation gain for the 6 miles which
gave the course a good amount of undulation. The first ½ mile or so was on the
road and before turning on to the trail I took a look behind and didn’t see anyone.
But as I made my way into the trail, I looked behind at the road in the
distance and could see another female who looked like she was running very fast.
I continued to run as hard as I could, which made for a high heart rate run in
the warm weather and high humidity. I sipped from my flask around every mile
(when I could get my HR to drop on a downhill) and used water from the aid
station (2 of them) for cooling my body. I really liked this run as you could
run it all and it had a few fun sections of going over wooden bridges, jumping
over trees and zig zagging across roots and tight turns. Around mid way, I
could see the other lady getting closer to me. I kinda expected it as I always
get caught on the run but after a mile, I was surprised that she had not caught
me yet. Part of me was thinking “2nd place overall amateur female
isn’t too bad” but then I would immediately think “but who says you will get 2nd!”
I decided to keep running as hard as I could so that no matter what happened,
at least I knew I gave it my absolute best. As I passed mile 5, I didn’t see
her behind me but I didn’t want to give up. The last ½ mile was fun as I ran by
the lake and gave everything I could until I crossed the finish line. Karel was
not expecting me so quick behind him so he was at the finish line when I
finished. Karel had one fall on the run as he tripped when a casual biker was
passing him and he was passed by Michael Dorr with a mile to go and he couldn’t
hang with him. The fight to win his age group is keeping Karel hungry for more.
I immediately told Karel how much fun I had. We both really enjoyed our race
experience as the Xterra Oak Mountain course has exactly what we love in off
road racing – technical and fun.
Although I've improved my skills over the past year, this was one of those days when I just felt strong from start to finish.
When we checked the results, it was official. I was the overall female amateur.
Since I am new to the Xterra race scene, I was told that I beat “the legend”
Deanna Mccurdy. I congratulated Deanna at the finish and we talked a bit more at
the awards and I’m looking forward to meeting up with her in Breckenridge in
August when I go to support Karel at Brek Epic. Karel finished 5th
overall amateur male and 2nd age group (1 min behind Michael).
After we did a quick change and received our awards, we packed up the car and
hit the road to make our 2.5 hour trip to Chattanooga to cheer on our athletes
at IM 70.3 Chattanooga on Sunday.
RESULTS
Marni – 1st overall amateur female, 10th overall female. 3:13.17
Karel – 5th overall amateur male, 22nd overall male.
2:51.15
