Friday was a chill morning for me. I spent a good amount of time foam rolling and loosening out and Karel went out for a 25 min, 3.2 mile shake out run. Around 12:30pm we loaded our rental car with our bike gear and drove to Elgin Valley Country Club (race venue) for one last recon ride. Karel planned a great route for us so that we could ride on a few key sections of the course, while taking jeep roads in between. I had struggled with my body position and gear selection in a few areas and this ride was the perfect confidence booster for me as I didn't have any stumbles and took some mental notes on which line I wanted to take for each of those sections. The main areas that concerned me where the very tight turns on sand - some where steep uphills and some where steep downhills. I needed to get my body position and momentum just right for going up and then body position and knowing when to brake (and release the front brake at the right time) for the downhills. Conrad Stoltz (Xterra legend) designed the course and did some work in the rock garden to make it a bit more flowy. There were some tough sections between and over rocks and tight turns but I found the rock garden to be a lot of fun. Karel waited for me after each key section so that he could do his own thing and I could focus on myself. I was a little worried that my legs would be tired as I had ~25 running miles (and 12 hours of training) in my legs over the past 5 days but my legs felt surprisingly good. My biggest improvements with mountain biking have come from being able to do things faster - like going over features, going downhills and taking turns. Some of these areas do require a lot of power and strength but the most important skill is body position. Faster turns was an area that I really wanted to work on after Xterra South Africa last January (2023) and although I know I still have a lot more room for improvement, I am really happy with my progress.
Karel gained a lot of confidence and new skills after participating in the 6-stage Breck Epic in August 2023. That course was so technical with big loose rocks. Karel was able to ride much faster in the technical areas. Although on race day he got caught behind some slower athletes at times, which slowed him down - but that is all part of Xterra racing.
Karel gained a lot of confidence and new skills after participating in the 6-stage Breck Epic in August 2023. That course was so technical with big loose rocks. Karel was able to ride much faster in the technical areas. Although on race day he got caught behind some slower athletes at times, which slowed him down - but that is all part of Xterra racing.
After our 10 mile, 70 minute ride, we went down to the water to check it out and then picked up our race packet. In our packet we received a bike plate with our number, a bib number for the run, a chip for our ankle and a shirt. We also got an Xterra South Africa Silicone swim cap from 2XU.
After a stop at the corner market/restaurant, we made another stop at our nearby grocery (WoolWorths) to get some food for the next 24 hours. We made pasta when we returned home around 3:30pm. It was delicious. I got all my gear together for the event and then around 8:30pm we laid down for bed. We didn't bring our wetsuits as last year in January it was non wetsuit legal so we took a chance that it wouldn't be wetsuit legal this year in February. According to Xterra rules (similar to ITU) when it's non wetsuit legal you can not wear anything over your kit. Whatever you wear in the water you have to wear for the entire race. Our tri kits are not designed for this style of racing so they do provide a little drag in the water.
The alarm went off at 5am. I hardly slept at night. I could feel my heart pumping as I was trying to fall asleep the night prior. I was in and out of sleep all night. Thankfully I have been sleeping great since we arrived so after I laid in bed until 5:30am, I felt fine getting up (not sleepy or tired). I was just frustrated that I couldn't sleep. Karel was not nervous at all. I did feel nervous for the unknowns of the event and I still worry about getting in the way of more skillful riders. Thankfully in my 5 previous off road triathlon events, everyone has been really nice and anytime someone is behind me, I always let them go when there is a good place to pass. I was just more worried about making a mistake and causing someone else to not be able to continue riding past me. Thankfully, I had a mistake-free race and conquered everything to the best of my ability on the day.
We arrived to the venue around 7am after leaving our house at 6:30am. The transition area was rather large so we had plenty of room to lay out our bikes and gear. There were around 200-300 athletes in the full distance and the racks were not crowded. As we were laying out our gear we heard the announcement that it was not wetsuit legal. We could hear the moans throughout the transition area but we were happy with this news.
Karel was in the rack in front of me and we both had our bikes facing the direction of the Bike Out sign. I put all my run gear in my hat for a quick transition so that all I needed to do was put on my trail shoes. I kept room on my towel to quickly wipe my feet after running on the sand and grass before putting on my Silca socks. I had my sunglasses on my helmet so that I could put those on as I was riding.
Here are some professional pictures from the race.
Here are some professional pictures from the race.
As for the race, we gave a full recap in a video discussion a few hours after the race when the feelings, emotions and memories were fresh. You can hear more about all the details from the race - and the difficulty of the run course (with 2 deep water crossings!) - in our YouTube Video.
Karel won his age group. He was a little dissapointed in his run as he got passed by a few athletes and couldn't find any spring in his legs (which is hard when you are running on loose rocks and sand, with soaking wet shoes). I was 2nd in my age group but because 1st place is an Elite, I also won my age group. I was 5th overall. The first 3 ladies are Elite/professionals and I'm not sure about #4 so I think I was 2nd female amateur. I was really happy with my race as I was able to ride with some other ladies and keep up with them and I even ran away from the overall 6th place lady (which running away from someone is something that rarely happens for me).
There were several food trucks at the venue so Karel got a burger with a tower of salty potato slices on top. He also got a flat white from the coffee truck. We went back out on our bikes around 1pm for a spin before the awards at 2pm.
Here is our race recap if you'd like to listen.