Race Report: 4 Corners XTERRA
8.06.2011
Half of the EPC Team in 4 Corners (l-r) : Chris A., Ed, Kathy, Chris J., Maija, Nick, Sandi, Rick.
We had 13 EPC’ers representing in Farmington, New Mexico last weekend for the Four Corners XTERRA. Taking first place in the men’s overall, littering the top-20 overall and nearly everyone making a podium appearance in their respected AG’s you could say EPC dominated! Everyone raced their hearts out and one racer (initials MB) even revisited his breakfast on course. Way to put it all out there Marcus! The following is a race report provided by Chris Alcorn…
It was an absolutely perfect day in Farmington, New Mexico for the 4th annual Xterra 4-Corners Triathlon. Temperatures were in the low to mid 70’s under sunny skies with the water temperature in the mid 60’s. Once again EPC had a huge group of team members at the race with Cody Waite, Luke Jay, Kevin Noleen, Jason Hilgers, Rick Zimmerman, Ed Oliver, Chris Alcorn, Nick Swanson, Chris Juels, Mia Zucker, Bruce Wacker, Kathy Tank, Sandi Garcia, and Marcus Brady all making the trip, mostly via 6.5 hour car trip. The swim was a 2-lap mile with a 100 foot dash in the middle. The water was slightly choppy, but sun glare was not an issue like it was last year. The bike was 15.6 fast rolling miles through sage brush desert with some short sandy sections. To give an idea of just how fast, Cody’s winning bike split of 59:36 put him at over 15.5 mph for the bike. The run was 4.85 relatively flat miles, but it included a 1.5 or so mile section of 6” deep sand that was definitely a challenge and 2 or 3 short, but very steep climbs. The course this year was much more enjoyable with the swim on the west side of the lake, no point-to-point run, and a mtb course that was on dirt the entire time. Cody was the overall winner of the day with a time of 2:00:57. The fastest female was Pro Jaime Brede with a time of 2:22:45. Arizonan Nicholas Goodman was the fastest amateur with a time of 2:03:55 and Brianne Marshall was the fastest female amateur at 2:29:09. Once again EPC was all over the AG podium with top 3 finishes by Zucker, Tank, Garcia, Jay, Hilgers, Noleen, Alcorn, Oliver, Zimmerman, Juels, and Wacker. If you like your courses flat and fun then this is a race for you – let’s hope that the desert is as kind to us next year!Here is another report from Maija, from her blog:
The race itself was in NM–I believe this is my first time in NM, one of the few states I had never been too before. Adam and I and the 3 dogs took the long drive down and arrived around 3 pm. I originally wanted to ride the course, but decided I would be better off staying out of the hot sun and resting. I was so tired that I was asleep by 8 pm. The race started at 7 am. Thankfully the weather was not too hot yet as the forecast was for over 90′s and there is not much shade on the course. Obviously after my last race I was most concerned about my bike. I was also a little concerned about my swim since I had only swum once for 1200 meters in the last week. I just start to feel blah swimming if I don’t swim often enough. My goal for the bike was to always make forward progress, even if it is slow. What I mean by this–no falling, no stopping because I am freaked out, no stopping so that people can pass me (yes I did this many times at Santa Cruz). The swim was a 2 lap 1 mile swim with a short beach run. They did a mass start and I got a little pummeled in the beginning and my arms felt sluggish. It opened up a little by the first buoy, but it seemed like there were so many people in front of me. On the drive down we drove through and area where smoke from a large forest fire was blowing through the area--I was coughing and having trouble breathing during that area. I was having some difficulty breathing, and my throat was burning a little, which is not normal for me during the swim, and breathing the smoke yesterday is the only thing I can think that would cause this (or maybe being sick). I chugged along through the swim, trying to get a rhythm and breathe calmly. Read More
Let’s keep the EPC Train rolling!