Just got back from Xterra Portland and am excited to report with good news. First I want to talk about the course. It is located just outside of Forest Grove Oregon and could not be an prettier. The swim was gorgeous the water temp was 77 degrees so wet-suits were permitted. The mountain bike loop was 17ish miles of fun single track with a few technical parts and a couple of hair pin turns to keep you honest. Finally the run was kind of wacky really the only part of the race I wasn't crazy about. It was a little more pavement than I would have liked and they ran us through a just mowed section of field that had small divots all over the place. With that being said there were two pretty fun climbs that got your heart rate up.
Coming into the race I really wasn't expecting much after just breaking both of my arms only two months prior. I was viewing it just as a welcome back race. That all changed when we lined up for the swim. I took off with the front pack but was quickly dropped and struggled to get out of the water. Luckily it was only a 3/4 mile swim so I wasn't in the water too long. Upon exiting I realized that Jake England (Points series leader for the Northwest) was just as bad of a swimmer as I was. I had a pretty slow transition and exited T1 just after Jake.
Time for my favorite part, the bike. I powered up the short little hill which was pavement and was able to pass Jake fairly quick. We had maybe 1.5 miles of pavement before the single track and I was using this time to allow my heart to recover from the swim. As I tucked into the single track everything clicked. Felt like I hadn't missed a day of riding. The Toa was at home on these trails. I was moving along fairly well and knew my swim was sub pair with all the traffic on the trails. I got passed by one guy who was ripping. I decided I could tuck in and let him pull me. It worked well for about 2 miles. We came up on a slower rider and he passed her on a corner and I couldn't so I had to wait. Just after the corner was a climb with a large downed tree that had been cut. I was trying to eye a line to pass here and wasn't paying attention to my line and clipped the tree with me left peddle. This sent me up and over the handle bars and my lead pony was now out of site. Luckily I was alright, slightly agrivated my left wrist that had just healed but not a big deal. I was a little dissapointed and it took me awhile to get back into the flow. From that point on no one else passed me and I had made up some good time. The entire bike I was looking over my shoulder for Jake knowing his strength was running. I was trying to get as much space as I could to hold him off. 2 miles out of transition I began spinning and loosening the legs up. As I rode past a group of spectators they hollered "your 12th". I knew I was going to have to have a good run to hold him off. My goal coming into this race was to break into the top ten, I was almost where I wanted to be.
T2 went a lot better than T1 for me as I was in and out. Still looking over my shoulder no sign of Jake yet. I took off on the run a little conservative knowing that it was two loops, I wanted to finish strong. After 15 minutes into the run I finally caught up with 11th place and saw a few more racers a ways ahead. At the turning point for the second loop it got confusing on who you were passing as many were on their first lap. Not 3 minutes into the second loop I looked over my shoulder and saw Jake mobbing through the field like a deer. I knew I was in trouble. I down shifted and tried to save a little energy before he passed me hoping I could hang on and put a kick on at the finish line. As he passed me I kept on his feet and was only 20 seconds behind as we hit the pavement section. Unfortunately this is where he put some space in between us. I tried to hang on but just couldn't. I crossed the finish line one racer after Jake and felt slightly defeated.
It was a fun race and great to go back in forth with someone. I later found out a little more about Jakes running achievements and didn't feel as bad. I ended up 12th overall on the day and 3rd in my age group. Not to far off of my goals. I had the 6th fastest bike split and the guy who's tail I was riding until I crashed had the second only 6 seconds off the fastest.
Another fun thing about this race was it was Alicia's first triathlon. It was a cool feeling to know that she was out there the same time I was going through everything I was. She had a blast even with her mountain bike crash that took her nearly 15 minutes to recover from. Both her and I entered T1 together and she was shouting at me to get going and catch up with the leaders. It was a awesome experience having her out there.
Back to training, I have a long ways to go in a short period of time. Next race is Whistler B.C., the Canadian Championship on September 4th and one more chance to qualify for Maui.