Sometimes you're the hammer and other times you're the nail...but why the F* did it have to be a sledge hammer?!?
This report pretty much sums what turned out to be the most challenging Xterra World Championships in 21 years!
The days leading up it rained. No, that's putting it mildly. It was torrential downpour after another. The typical dry, clay, double track trails essentially turned into a peanut-butter-like consistency. It was thick and slick. No rhyme or reason as to when you'd go down. The course itself is definitely not technical, especially when you compare it to any BC's mountains and trails. But no one could have prepared me for riding 30km on vaseline!!
Still I remained positive that it would dry up and traction would improve. Wrong...it was worse.
The swim was beyond rough! Waves, swells, currents and breakers are a given in ocean swims. Personally I LOVE a hard, choppy, turbulent swim. Got a good start, past the 6foot breakers and found open water. Going off in the last wave and being a strong swimmer means you're going to catch some of the slower athletes in all the previous waves. The last 100-200m of the swim was personally the scariest moments of my life. I genuinely thought I'd drown. Unbeknownst to me I was 8th woman overall, 2nd in my AG, had caught 15-20 other swimmers and found myself surrounded by them. We became the ocean's bowling pins. I scorpioned on one of the waves coming in so badly my face hit the ocean floor. I made a quick recovery got another breath before getting pushed under again for what it seemed like eternity. Only this time I had other bodies slamming into me. I covered my head, took a knee or elbow to the ribs and a foot to the head but at this point the broken wave turbulently threw a dozen of us on the shoreline. Ok, I was alive. Onward! My swim strength and time gave me confidence and I know what I could ride and felt incredibly fit. This was going to be exciting!
The bike course became what I would describe a battle field. Within 6 km the bike became completely unrideable. Clay, grass, mud filled every opening of the frame, pulleys, derailleur etc. I couldn't shift, and wheels wouldn't turn.
My bike became dead weight...a stubborn, heavy donkey I'd have to plea with for the next 3+hrs. I tried to scrape, remove fistfuls of clogged clay but was a futile attempt. I carried and even dragged my donkey up every climb. Eventually I found someone who lent me a spatula (my spoon had broken early on) and I managed to dislodge easily 10lbs of mud! My donkey was happy. I started to descend a blind corner and as I came around, I saw a 10 person pile up. Unable to control my donkey sliding on Vaseline, I became part of that pileup and soon after had 9 others slam into us. Bodies, bikes were flying everywhere. As I was trying to get up (picture Bambi), my foot being ankle deep in clay, got stuck. I tried to pull my foot out but the clay had created a suction cup and ate my shoe. So know I'm on all fours with another gentleman digging and pleading with Mother Earth to give me back my shoe. We managed to find it and as I sat there extracting mud out, making room for my foot, another guy coming around the corner hot, lost control and crashed right into me. His bike flew over us and his body did a somersault. SNAP!
He had broken his collar bone. This gave my day a completely different perspective. I helped him to get up, got him off the trail and out of the blind corner. He was visibly in shock so I decided to stay with him. After 25min I realized that unless one of the other people got help, no one would know. I left to get to the first aid station to let organizers know. When I got to the medics they said the jeep wouldn't make it up the ridge line and they'd have to go by foot (or helicopter) to extract him. It'd be 90min - 2hrs before they'd get to him....only...3km up. After that ordeal I had lost so much time on the bike I just needed to get off this donkey and salvage whatever was left of this race. Tapped up my blisters in transition and ran as hard as I could. Blisters and all I caught 35 people (yah...I counted) and finally crossed the finish line. Nearly 2.5hrs later than my expectation.
In my 10yrs of endurance racing, 8 Ironmans, Kona including, TransAlps 7 day road and Single Track 6 day mtn bike stage races, 6 & 12 hr Mtn bike Enduro races, epic 1day 200-250km classics (Chino Grinder, BWR..etc), countless half IMs, Olympic distances I can honestly say this was the hardest race I've ever done. I don't ever recall crying for 45minutes after a race. It was carnage. I had to make a quick stop at the med tent to get the good'ol iodine brush scrub for my open blisters and the medics said in 21 years they had never seen so many broken bones: femur, ankles, collar bones, clavicles, etc. It was like a war zone!
All in all...
I am beyond proud to have been out there with some incredible souls that refused to give up! My heart goes out to those that got severely injured. The human spirit is so powerful and I am in awe at the grit I witnessed today from athletes as young as 15 years old to 75...who by the way, was out there for over 8hrs!!!
It's the hardest days and races that you learn the most and get to experience what you're really made of. Thankfully I didn't give up when I had so many legitimate reasons to. And what a way to end my 2016 race season.
For now, Xterra Maui 2016 is a closed chapter. I'm at peace with the day. No regrets! But the book isn't finished yet.
Hard work is done and I can relax, explore and enjoy Maui!!
Never give up!
This report pretty much sums what turned out to be the most challenging Xterra World Championships in 21 years!
The days leading up it rained. No, that's putting it mildly. It was torrential downpour after another. The typical dry, clay, double track trails essentially turned into a peanut-butter-like consistency. It was thick and slick. No rhyme or reason as to when you'd go down. The course itself is definitely not technical, especially when you compare it to any BC's mountains and trails. But no one could have prepared me for riding 30km on vaseline!!
Still I remained positive that it would dry up and traction would improve. Wrong...it was worse.
The swim was beyond rough! Waves, swells, currents and breakers are a given in ocean swims. Personally I LOVE a hard, choppy, turbulent swim. Got a good start, past the 6foot breakers and found open water. Going off in the last wave and being a strong swimmer means you're going to catch some of the slower athletes in all the previous waves. The last 100-200m of the swim was personally the scariest moments of my life. I genuinely thought I'd drown. Unbeknownst to me I was 8th woman overall, 2nd in my AG, had caught 15-20 other swimmers and found myself surrounded by them. We became the ocean's bowling pins. I scorpioned on one of the waves coming in so badly my face hit the ocean floor. I made a quick recovery got another breath before getting pushed under again for what it seemed like eternity. Only this time I had other bodies slamming into me. I covered my head, took a knee or elbow to the ribs and a foot to the head but at this point the broken wave turbulently threw a dozen of us on the shoreline. Ok, I was alive. Onward! My swim strength and time gave me confidence and I know what I could ride and felt incredibly fit. This was going to be exciting!
The bike course became what I would describe a battle field. Within 6 km the bike became completely unrideable. Clay, grass, mud filled every opening of the frame, pulleys, derailleur etc. I couldn't shift, and wheels wouldn't turn.
My bike became dead weight...a stubborn, heavy donkey I'd have to plea with for the next 3+hrs. I tried to scrape, remove fistfuls of clogged clay but was a futile attempt. I carried and even dragged my donkey up every climb. Eventually I found someone who lent me a spatula (my spoon had broken early on) and I managed to dislodge easily 10lbs of mud! My donkey was happy. I started to descend a blind corner and as I came around, I saw a 10 person pile up. Unable to control my donkey sliding on Vaseline, I became part of that pileup and soon after had 9 others slam into us. Bodies, bikes were flying everywhere. As I was trying to get up (picture Bambi), my foot being ankle deep in clay, got stuck. I tried to pull my foot out but the clay had created a suction cup and ate my shoe. So know I'm on all fours with another gentleman digging and pleading with Mother Earth to give me back my shoe. We managed to find it and as I sat there extracting mud out, making room for my foot, another guy coming around the corner hot, lost control and crashed right into me. His bike flew over us and his body did a somersault. SNAP!
He had broken his collar bone. This gave my day a completely different perspective. I helped him to get up, got him off the trail and out of the blind corner. He was visibly in shock so I decided to stay with him. After 25min I realized that unless one of the other people got help, no one would know. I left to get to the first aid station to let organizers know. When I got to the medics they said the jeep wouldn't make it up the ridge line and they'd have to go by foot (or helicopter) to extract him. It'd be 90min - 2hrs before they'd get to him....only...3km up. After that ordeal I had lost so much time on the bike I just needed to get off this donkey and salvage whatever was left of this race. Tapped up my blisters in transition and ran as hard as I could. Blisters and all I caught 35 people (yah...I counted) and finally crossed the finish line. Nearly 2.5hrs later than my expectation.
In my 10yrs of endurance racing, 8 Ironmans, Kona including, TransAlps 7 day road and Single Track 6 day mtn bike stage races, 6 & 12 hr Mtn bike Enduro races, epic 1day 200-250km classics (Chino Grinder, BWR..etc), countless half IMs, Olympic distances I can honestly say this was the hardest race I've ever done. I don't ever recall crying for 45minutes after a race. It was carnage. I had to make a quick stop at the med tent to get the good'ol iodine brush scrub for my open blisters and the medics said in 21 years they had never seen so many broken bones: femur, ankles, collar bones, clavicles, etc. It was like a war zone!
All in all...
I am beyond proud to have been out there with some incredible souls that refused to give up! My heart goes out to those that got severely injured. The human spirit is so powerful and I am in awe at the grit I witnessed today from athletes as young as 15 years old to 75...who by the way, was out there for over 8hrs!!!
It's the hardest days and races that you learn the most and get to experience what you're really made of. Thankfully I didn't give up when I had so many legitimate reasons to. And what a way to end my 2016 race season.
For now, Xterra Maui 2016 is a closed chapter. I'm at peace with the day. No regrets! But the book isn't finished yet.
Hard work is done and I can relax, explore and enjoy Maui!!
Never give up!