Race Report: XTERRA Gator Terra

It hurts me to write this. Literally. My hand is still very swollen and painful from my crash on Wednesday afternoon. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off work last week, so I decided to go to Pelham, AL, and do some pre-riding and training on the XTERRA Southeastern Championship course. I wanted to train just as much time as it took me to drive there and back. I didn't quite make it, but 6.5 hours for two days is still not bad. I rode the bike course three times and aced Blood Rock the last. That was pretty exciting. I swam in the lake twice and did more than the course there. The run course I struggled on a bit. I still couldn't find the new course that was supposed to remove some of the terrible hills this course is known for. I also walked most of it. I lost a lot of my steam on the last half mile of the bike course where I came into really sharp corner too hot and the front of my bike flew out from under me. My right hand braced my fall as I watched my fingers bend backwards as I flipped over. My knee got a pretty decent cut too. I can't believe I do all that riding over two days and make it through Blood Rock 3 times and past all the gnarly, rocky downhills and then I crash on the last two minutes of the bike in such an easy section of the trail. Although, I guess that is typical for me. The camping/training trip to Alabama was still a great one. I had a blast and those trails are so much fun to ride. I hope that remains my opinion after I race there next weekend, haha.

So, going into my first race of the season I have a badly damaged hand. I went to the doctor where he thankfully said it was not broken. I knew the only way I was not going to be racing was if he put a cast on it. So, when he said I had sprained my thumb and the rest was a hematoma that made it impossible to clinch my fist and turned my palm blue, I was ready to race as hard as my hand would let me. And I was hoping I could hang onto the handlebars well enough for the 10 mile ride.

I drove down to Ruston, Louisiana on Saturday afternoon with plans of getting there, riding the course, and then camping out. The park looked nothing like I remembered from the race I did there in 2005. Gator Terra 2005 was my first multi sport race I had ever done. It was pretty awesome to go back after 6 years and see how much progress I have made. The trail seemed completely different, but it was an awesome trail. The bike is really fast and fun with tons of different sections including switch backs, 33 mph downhills, fire roads, multiple creek crossing, tight single track, and several water bars to launch over. The pre-ride went well and my hand did as good as I could ask for. So, I packed up my stuff and headed over to the camp sites.

After setting up camp, I headed over to the bathhouse for a shower. The temperature was starting to drop quickly and I could see many people were scouring the forest for fire wood. Instead of trying to find my own wood, build my own fire, be anti-social, and clean it all up, I decided to walk to the neighboring camp site and offer to help break up some wood in exchange for letting me hang out with them by their fire. The guys ended up being some students from LA-Tech and were very nice. They had camped the night before and were getting ready for another long night of roughing it and keeping warm by their huge fire. Most of the guys were aviation students and one was an ME. They even treated me to some homemade, campfire jambalaya. After several hours by the campfire hydrating and fueling up, I headed in for the night. The weather was perfect to snuggle down in my sleeping bag and be perfectly comfortable. I fell asleep pretty quickly watching the moon slowly move over the sky through the trees above my tent. It was a pretty amazing scene.

Right on cue, I started waking up around 6:30, about 25 mins before my alarm was set for. Race prep was going according to plan and I was the first one to set up in transition. Score! Love getting the first spot, but it usually doesn't happen. Sleeping right by the race site and transition helps though. I was set and ready to race my race. I had done everything I could to prepare and all things seemed in order. Then, just like in 2005, the gun went off and we sprinted from the flags on the beach to the lake and began our .5 mile swim. Race morning goes by too quickly to really get nervous. I remember that from 2005. It happens so fast.

I came out of the water shoulder to shoulder with Kyle, he had won the Epic race the day before in a blazing 4:08. I knew he was going to be good. I got out of T1 first though because he had some trouble getting his bike shoes on. I was storming off on my Air 9 Carbon. I quickly passed some people that were on the course for the du and then got stuck behind some slower riders. This gave Kyle the chance to catch up to me. We passed this group and the race was on. I was riding his tail, too close. I didn't see the line as we went over some drops and roots and came unclipped and dropped my chain. He took off. I had to hammer to catch back up, but I was determined. As soon as I made his back wheel again, I made another mistake. I was focused on him instead of the trail and underestimated a descending curve in the trail. I went over the bars as I heard air hiss out of my front tire. I thought I was done. Thankfully, either the stan's sealed the hole or I just burped air out. Either way, after assessing things on the side of the trail, I decided the tire had enough air in it to finish the ride, maybe 15 pounds? I wasn't going to be able to push it any more. Now I was far behind. I figured he was going to be gone by now, but come mile 7 I could start catching glimpses of him through the trees. I was closing in. I finally caught him again at mile 9, at which point I nicked a tree with my bars and off again he went. My opinion of me being a good rider is starting to get questioned at this point. A few downhills and a huge water bar later and we were standing in T2 together. He headed out before I did and was gone! I looked back at transition as I was heading out and realized only our two bikes were in transition. We were leading the race neck and neck. Unfortunately, I just didn't have it on the run. The first mile was hard and it took me a bit to settle in. He established his lead in about that first mile and held it the rest of the race. I knew I was locked into position when I was running on the paved trail around the lake towards the finish line. I could see two guys a good way back that were going to be battling for 3rd, but my 2nd place was secure. All in all, it was a good race and a lot of fun. Props to Kyle Grieser for a great race, two days in a row. My hand is definitely hurting more today, but hopefully it will be better by this Sunday at Southeastern's. That course requires a serious grip on the bars to maintain control of the bike.