Any Pacific NW slowtwitchers heading over to northern Vancouver Island for the Campbell River XTC race this weekend. I’ll be there with my family and my 6 year old will be doing his first off-road and fourth ever triathlon, while for me this will be my first ever offroad and first ever triathlon. Should be a real blast - 2x 500 metre loops for the swim, 24 km of mountain biking and 10 km trail running. No skinny tires, disks, aero, drafting, and lots of mud, roots, logs and rocks. My main sport is adventure racing, where age and treachery regularly beat youth and speed, so I expect that this is as close to “real” triathlon I will ever want to get. Learning to swim as an adult has been lots of ‘fun’ though, and my son is certainly very keen on triathlons of any kind - he has two more planned for this season and wants to start training with a Vancouver-based kid’s triathlon club in the fall - Exceleration Tri Club in Vancouver. I love this sport and community.
I’ll be there! Getting my ass kicked on that damn trail. I reckon I’ll crash…twice. The bike is tricky to say the least…my first xterra as well.
I did that race two years ago and had a blast. Just watch out for the descent down the rock garden just by the side of transition, that eats a lot of riders! Have fun, Terri and her crew put on a great race series.