Race Race Race

So it seems that this year instead of training all the time I'm just going to race every weekend. You would be proud Jesse. I'm actually signing up for all these race's in time. Three weeks ago I ran the Great Aloha run with a good finish. Two weeks ago I was 10th in the 1-2-3's at the Kaneohe crit. Last week our HACC co-ed team won the Hawaii state Team TT. Today I placed 5th against an admittedly weak field at the first triathlon of the season. So far so good.... Next weekend is a killer. Ford island bridge 10K on Saturday, Tantalus hill climb Sunday AM, then the 4th and last criterium in the series at Kaneohe in the afternoon. Check out this Andy Warhol version of my Crit race

Xterra Maui

So my big adventure to do "the double" is over. I got it in my head this past year to do Ironman world championships and the Maui Xterra , which is the World Championships for off road triathlon. This year was probably the only chance I would have to do both in my life so I made it a priority. The races are held two weeks apart. One on the Big island and the other on Maui.

With little to no mountain biking under my belt for the last few years I pulled out my old Specialized S Works one more time and took it on a couple rides before Xterra. I was less than impressed with it's performance, the thing is old and I always disliked the Manitou shock since the day I installed it way back in the mists of time. At the last minute, I went on a tour of the island bike shops looking to spend some $$ on a new machine but the selection was poor and I couldn't bring myself to spend 5 grand on something I wasn't thrilled with. So once again I ordered a bunch of new parts including a new suspension fork and gave the old girl a makeover.

Friday afternoon Marianne and I left work early and drove onto the Hawaiian Superferry for the trip to Maui. What a great way to visit the other islands. So nice to avoid the TSA, long lines, rental car hassle , etc of that comes with flying. There was and still is a big controversy over the ferry here in Hawaii. The opponents give all sorts of reasons why they are against it but it's partly the warrior mentality that pervades Hawaii. "If it's something new, we're against it", and "I've got mine, everyone else stay home" Morons.

Anyway the trip went fine and we rolled into Kihei on the South Coast around 8 pm.

Sunday morning the race started at 9am. The swim went well for me and I posted a good time for once. The bike starts at the Maui Prince resort on the coast, all green and beautifully landscaped. But as soon as you begin climbing up the side of Haliakala it becomes desert terrain. Rocks, dust and more rocks. Makes me homesick for Tucson. It's about 1.5 hours of climbing followed by 30 minutes of insane downhill. I flatted once and lost a bunch of time fixing i,t but felt great all morning despite the oppressive heat. Some of my old MTB ski ls from New Mexico and Tucson showed themselves and I was really enjoyed the bike section. The run is about 7 miles through the worst terrain they can come up with including about a mile of beach before the finish which is tough. I didn't place as high as last year with the time I lost on fixing my tire but my age group place was higher (9th) since I'm older, ha!

So now it's time for a break from racing and training. It's been a great year but I feel like a weight is off my shoulders.

The race

Saturday morning started with an 0430 wake up call. I had my standard egg sandwich and coffee at the condo, then off to race central for body marking. The start of the swim is always one of the coolest parts of the race. Your treading water for 15 minutes with 1800 other athletes who have been busting their ass to get ready just like you. The hawaiian drums are beating, lot's of tension in the air, then the cannon fires, and your off. Lots of kicking, bumping, and shoving.
I was hoping for a slightly improved swim time since I wore a speedsuit for the first time but at the 1.2 mile mark I was at 35 minutes so I knew I was on pace for my standard non wetsuit time of an hour and ten minutes. Transition onto the bike went smooth, first 20 miles fairly fast with a slight tailwind, then side gusts and hot, humid headwinds for the next 90 miles. Again I wasn't thrilled with my bike split but once I started running I knew it was going to be a good day. I passed hundreds of people including most that I had seen blow by me on the bike which felt good. I finished in 10:24 with a 3:26 marathon for 496 overall, which is the highest I've ever placed there. It's always nice when a plan comes together. Here are all the split times and details

Ironman WC

Well the big day finally rolled around after 10 weeks of totally unbalancing my life in favor of training. We flew into Kona on Wednesday, registered, shopped at the IM store, then walked around the race village were all the manufactures had their bling bikes on display. Looking at all the high-dollar rigs started to give me some idea's since I vowed that this would be the last IM for my old litespeed.

Xterra off road triathlon

Two weekends ago I broke training for Kona long enough to do the Mountain man Xterra triathlon out at Kualoa ranch. I got it in my head that this might be the only time in my life that it was convienient to do the Ironman and Xterra championships back to back. So I dusted off the old mountain bike and gave it a shot. Qualifying at the race here on Oahu is much easier than on the mainland because of the large number of slots they give away here and the small field size. I attribute the small turnout to 2 reasons. One, triathletes (we have a ton here) don't mountain bike. There's just not many places to ride. Two, the few hard core mountain bikers here don't swim. Whatever the case I placed second in my age group behind my training partner Mark, and 11th overall. All those great New Mexico and Arizona MTB skills came in handy and I got my ticket punched for the Maui Xterra championships which is a few weeks after Kona this year. The valley that we raced in has bus and ATV tours but is normally closed to the general public.It is used to film movies and TV such as Jurrasic park and "Lost" They have signs up in different area's to denote were certain scenes were shot. Hence the "Lost" sign I'm running by in the photo. Sort of struck a chord with me when I ran by it though as I had just been passed by two people.