Xterra Pacific Championships

Xterra Pacific Championships was held in one of the prettiest race venues I've been to -- the ocean swim is next to the pier and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the bike has frequent views of the ocean and includes sections of singletrack through redwoods. The run offers almost continuous ocean views and a little bit of beach running.

I placed first my in my age group and qualified for Maui, which was my goal. I felt strong during my race, but I also identified some areas I want to improve on. I started training late this year due to other commitments and a snowy Colorado winter, and then promptly injured myself by trying to start training too aggressively, so I hadn’t run much in the past few months. This was also my first race of the season, so being in peak shape wasn’t my goal -- that’s what later is for!

Heading out to the race was a little hectic -- I decided to bring my own bike (instead of borrowing one) about a week before the race, and decided to change my tires the night before flying out. I used a Maxxis Ignitor on my front tire and and a rear Maxxis Crossmark, which worked well for both the sand on the course during the pre-ride and the muddy sections on Sunday. However, this last minute adjustment led to a bit of a Stan's ordeal... and on Saturday afternoon, after 3 attempts and some adjustments to the tape I use for Stan's, I was good to go!

I was slightly concerned with the cold ocean water, so I attempted to acclimate to the cold temperatures just before the swim, but was still a little concerned with how the swim would feel. Luckily, once the horn went off and everyone was into the water, I felt comfortable, and settled into a steady pace. I was honestly enjoying the chill of the water and the calm of the ocean (welllll... relative calm. it was a little choppy). Then, after a quick run up the beach to the transition area, the bike started with several miles of road riding (along the ocean) before reaching the trails of Wilder Ranch. Santa Cruz had a bit of rain Saturday night, so I was a little concerned about the course, but it ended up beng perfect -- there were some muddy sections, but overall the course was in great shape! The run was very flat for an Xterra course, but was right along the ocean -- I settled into a steady (read: not fast) pace for most of the run, but with about 2 miles to go I saw some girls about a half mile behind me so I picked up the pace and really started to test my running legs (and they worked! yay!).

I stuck around for the awards ceremony and got to catch up with Xterra friends, including a group of us who had traveled from Colorado for this race, then ran to catch a flight back to Colorado!

I have lots of people/companies/forcesbeyondmycontrol who helped me out with this race --

Big thanks to Newton Running! I am loving both their trail runners - every time I wear them I get people telling me they like my shoes - and the racers, which are my go-to race shoe. Thanks to Zeal Optics for making some fantastic sunglasses! This would’ve been the perfect course to try out their new photochromatic lenses, with the bright, sunny climbs and dark redwood singletrack... but I brought my Airstreams with dark lenses, and they ended up working out fine. Thanks also to Verge Clothing for our new kits and my awesome arm warmers, which allowed me to both stay warm and rock the race in prom-dress fashion. Thanks to Mark Rise, who worked with me on short notice a week before the race to help me figure out what was going on with some injuries I was having and gave me some exercises to work on to fix muscle imbalances I was having (the good news: I can run again!).

And thanks to a few others who made this weekend possible!
Thanks to L for volunteering S for the Stan’s help :-)
BIG thanks to Lauren & Matt for hosting us and lending us a car!
Thanks to ABS - Another Bike Shop - in Santa Cruz - for being both convenient and helpful in my quest to buy [more] stan’s, and for the free brake inserts for traveling home :)
Thank you to mva for sherpa duties and thanks to cliffy for being my personal gear-lender and letting me borrow a race belt, CO2, and a floor pump :-)

A big thanks to THE WEATHER! It started raining Saturday night but by Sunday morning the clouds lifted and the temperature warmed. The ocean was cold but not frigid and with my sweet new arm warmers, I was the perfect temperature all day.

AND - thanks to Xterra for putting on a great race!