Last weekend was round four on the US XTERRA Series in Pelham, Alabama. A classic XTERRA course, we had six EPC’ers representing down south: pros Cody and Jason, Cary, Marcus Barton and Dan Kimball from North Carolina and Stephanie Landy from New England. Everyone had solid races and a great time. Here a few reports…

From Cary:

Life would certainly be boring if everything always went to plan!!

I flew back from Santa Cruz to Denver on Monday after my first race of the season (XTERRA in Santa Cruz) and spent Tuesday and Wednesday focused on recovery (which included a lovely anniversary dinner with my husband!). On Thursday it was time to head out again. I’d pretty much left my bags packed, minus a few cold weather items not generally needed in Alabama. And since I’ve decided that paying Fedex to ship my bike is a lot easier than lugging it to the airport and getting upset with the outrageous bike fees United charges me, my bike was already en route to meet me in Pelham, Alabama!

After a slight weather delay – there was snow and rain that morning in Colorado – I was on my way. I arrived in Birmingham, picked up my trusty Ford SUV with a crooked steering wheel (once I noticed this, I decided that if it hadn’t fallen off yet, it was probably ok to drive…the logic of one who does not want to drive back to the rental car agency), and headed to the bike shop in Pelham. Little did I know that I would soon become Cahaba Cycles number one fan!

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From Cody:

Last weekend was the fourth stop on the XTERRA US Championship Tour in Pelham, Alabama. Great course out there in AL. Warm water swim; fun, somewhat technical, somewhat hilly, fast mountain bike; and a challenging run with steep hills, flats and tight singletrack. It’s really a great all-around course to even out the playing field a bit. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new race to try next year.

Having a week to recover after round three the previous week in Santa Cruz, I felt like I was recovering well and looking forward to another race. So far this year, I feel like I’m getting stronger with each race (as planned) as I build towards my first goal of the year, a top-3 in Beaver Creek. The week between the races consisted of recovery workouts with some short hard efforts sprinkled in to keep the legs snappy. I didn’t bother unpacking and riding the MTB between races as I was only home for three days before heading off to AL. Jason M. and I headed to AL on Thursday, got in in the afternoon and headed straight for the run course to checkout the changes from previous years and loosen the legs from a day of traveling. 50 minutes of mostly easy running at dusk with 4×90 second pick-ups in the second half to get the HR up. Friday was bike course ride day. Awesome course, got in about two and a quarter hours with ride commute to and from the park, easy on the uphills, fast in the twisty’s and on the downhills to get a feel for it at speed. Saturday was race-prep day with a short ride on the first part of the course. Normally I would do a short run and swim on this day, but it was hot and humid and I was feeling it, so I opted to skip those. Back to the hotel to put the feet up in air conditioning the rest of the day.

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Here are two great reports from EPC’ers Cary and Maija.

Cary:

I went into this triathlon with more realistic expectations than I probably had 2 months ago, thanks to some early season single sport races. This was a good thing – it softened the blow of realizing how much speed I’ve lost and how not competitive I am at the moment! This was my first triathlon since last June and followed a year struggling to figure out some health issues, get healthy and learn how to stay healthy. I lost a lot of fitness and what feels like all my speed, but I know this is the first step to getting it back!

The good news to all this is that the only thing stressing me out on race morning was just how cold I was going to be on the first few miles of the bike. I was not really nervous, but I was excited just to get the ol’ race legs (and arms!) moving again.

It had rained pretty much all night the night before the race, and we woke up to cloudy skies. The big discussion topic in transition (at least near me) was what clothes, if any, to put on before the bike! The sun started to peak out and things got a lot cheerier. And it wasn’t raining, which was amazing!

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Maija:

Sunday I raced in the Xterra Pacific Championships in Santa Cruz, CA. I wanted to go mostly to get my first race under my belt for the year and another off road racing experience.  Ahead of time I had a prediction of how the race would likely go–I would have one of the top swims, a slow T1 due to freezing hands and feet, get passed some on the bike, and pass some people on the back with a strong run.  I was mostly right.

The water was a chilly 51 degrees Fahrenheit and a bit choppy.  Somewhat similar (but not as choppy) to AG worlds in Vancouver in 2008.  At that race they shortened the swim and I still was very disoriented with the early stages of hypothermia as I exited the water.  I tried to learn from that experience so that I could swim in water that was just as cold, but actually being able to swim an think afterwards.

My strategy for the swim was to wear my normal long sleeve wetsuit, wear 3 swim caps (no neoprene cap, mine seems to choke me a little and make me disoriented), drink tea and warm water to keep my core temperature up prior to the race, stay warm and out of the wind prior to the race, and finally, pour lukewarm water into my wetsuit from a water bottle prior to getting in the water.

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A little over a week ago EPC’er Danielle Kehoe did her first Ironman in St. George, Utah. Any one who knows Danielle, knows she is one heck of an athlete and doesn’t back down to any challenge. Needless to say she had one heck of race! Read on to hear her tell her story…

Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do something due to lack of strength, courage, or knowledge. I truly believe that if you set your mind to achieving a goal anything is possible!!!

Growing up, I would sit and watch the Kona Ironman World Championship on television every year and tell my parents that one day I would do that race!

Once I arrived in St. George I attended the mandatory pre-race meeting. After it concluded, I addressed the race director and informed him that it was my first Ironman ever and that I had a question for him. He was extremely nice and said, “What is your question?”  I asked, “how many spots to Kona do you expect to award in the 24 & under female category” he looked at me like I was crazy. He replied, “That is a very difficult age group to get a spot and since this is your first Ironman you should be happy if you just finish, good luck.” I smiled and said, “Oh by the way it’s my first marathon as well.” He more or less raised his brows and gave a half hearted smile back and said, I’ll see you race morning, and walked away. READ MORE

EPC was well represented in the Mountain Region’s first race of the year in Moab, Utah. Here are some re-caps on the day…

From Julie Bruckman-Pitrone:

Moab XTERRA…. started out with beautiful skies ans ended up with cloud coverage for the run..and even a sprinkle before the awards.  The swim was a cold one and a shallow one in parts.  Off to the 1st buoy and many were walking the swim cause the water was too shallow to swim.  The water was so cold that numbness set in. Personally,  I couldn’t even feel my right hand!  Once out of the water many were walking crookedly up the carpet to transition.  The bike was grueling…non forgiving…never ending…torture.. definitely the hardest XTERRA course I have ever ridden!  Moab rock ledges one after another…. to the turn around…bam.. bam…bam…and then you have to go back… climbing all the rock ledges and fields you just came down.  Relentless!  You kept wondering when it was going to be over…or if there was going to be a stretch where you could just let the bike go without being in a blender…or on your butt.. one guy ended up getting flown out for a head injury.  Hope and prey he is ok.  Just to finish the bike alive was a feat!  For some it wasn’t even a challenge but for others it was very challenging.  The beginning and the end of the bike…ahhh… smooth road… a climb up at the beginning, and a great “let it roll” back to transition.  Hot sun and grueling terrain for most of the bike.  Clouds rolled in at the end of the bike… at least for me… everyone else was probably finished or on the run.  READ MORE