XTERRA Onteora - Sept, 2nd

Triathlon Forum
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Onteora Scout Reservation, “The Land in the Sky”, plays host to our inaugural XTERRA Triathlon. The beautiful scout camp located in the Catskill Mountains will provide a very challenging bike and run course after a nice swim in Orchard Lake. Course Details:
The course will start with a 1/2 mile swim in Orchard Lake. Racers will exit the lake and proceed directly into the Transition Area. Bikers will exit onto the camp road, cross a small bridge over the creek and proceed into the 2 loop mountain bike course of 5 miles each loop. Bikers will enter the rear of the transition area after completing two loops and begin the 5k run. The run is on single track and jeep trails and features a waterfall crossing around mile 2.75. One you pass Wildcat Falls it’s on to the finish line for some drinks and good eating.

More info at http://triandduit.com/XTERRAOnteora.asp

2

I wish I could make it but I’m doing IMWIS. Good luck with the race and thanks for putting these events on!!

3

Good luck with your Ironman and keep it on your calendar for next year… :slight_smile:

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Hi. A little late the thread here, but I’m debating travelling upstate for this race (most of it will depend on whether I can convince my bf to attend yet another race weekend with me). The bike profile looks wicked steep. Is it as hard as the profile looks? OK, dumb question. I’m just not sure I could run after such a hard ride. Thoughts?

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The race is going to be a blast and yeah, the bike profile is that tough…I can say though, that being as out of shape as I am, I was able to ride it and make it through. The run profile is up on the site also, and not that I want to scare anyone away, but the course is a true test of phsyical and mental fitness.

Next year we are working on making the weekend a huge XTERRA festival of trail running, a mtb duathlon, a sprint and a full triathlon with cheap camping available. We are even working on chartering buses to bring people to the race site. Look for more info in the early new year.

6

That would be amazing. I’m working on getting more folks in NYC into Xterra and mtbing. Now that we have 2+ mtb trails inside the City, I’m thinking the sport is going to gain in popularity.

7

All that stuff sounds great but I think one thing you should do is leave a week in the schedule between the Shiff Exterra and Onteora. I did Oyster Bay today and I’ll be doing Shiff. I want to do your race but don’t think racing three weeks in a row will work out. I’m waiting to see how I feel after Shiff. A week in between would be great.

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Unfortunately with XTERRA scheduling and not being able to put a race on a competing regional weekend it’s hard to pick a weekend that is open.

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First time post / Race Report

Xterra Onteora rocked this past weekend. Bike and run were easily the most technically challenging courses in the Xterra NE region, and triandduit did and awesome job w/ race organization.

Arrived at Onteora Scout Camp @ 6:00 am to balmy 47 degree air and a nice layer of frost on the grass. Set up bikes in transition working up the nerve to step into the water. Water was supposedly just above 65 degrees, so everyone was assuming it would feel warm given the air temp. Some brave souls planned to brave it w/out a wetsuit.

Swim was rather uneventful, shallow water out to first buoy, single lap 800M course.

Fast transition in T1, my wife was running out as I was pulling off my wetsuit. Exiting transition and building momentum the cold air made me ride faster. Following my usual race plan (keep up with as many as possible on the swim, attack on the bike), I passed as many folks as I could on the opening climb, a grassy jeep trail littered with loose rock, and swung around into the first single-track on the course.

A two lap course, the bike was a solid mix of loamy single-track, very unimproved jeep trails and technical downhills. Trails featured everything from the standard rooty, rock-garden terra that we expect of the northeast to some interesting boulder drop-offs. The jeep trails often featured carefullly orchestrated two-way traffic bringing competitors a few minutes apart right past one another. Talk about motivation! The downhills were no joke with a memorable descent down a heavily water-barred drop. Passed quite a few talented swimmers on my first lap and held even on the second. The knowledge that my wife was now just a couple of minutes behind kept me chugging forward.

Rolled into a mostly empty T2 to begin the run. The only word to truly describe the 5K tromp through the forest was EPIC. The first mile loosely hugged the lake with no truly discernable trail. Frequent course markers were the only way to navigate as I found myself crossing dry stream beds, downed trees and thick flora. As the course veered left toward the main camp road what seemed like a near vertical wall of dirt emerged. A water stop and a quick jaunt down the main road proved to be the last civilized part of the course before it once again climbed skyward along twisting switchback single track. As the course leveled and eventually began to drop, every 10 or fifteen yards I was greeted with a downed tree to leap over. Faster and faster I ran trying to make up time from the bushwhack and hold off anyone approaching from behind. A volunteer on the course warned me of a steep drop ahead, and he really wasn’t kidding. Reaching the side of a dry waterfall I found myself literally skiiing, skipping and hopping down a near vertical 20 foot drop dislodging scree the whole way. More log hopping as the trail opened up into the finish area with a short up-hill sprint to the line.

I finished 17th overall, my wife was just a few minutes behind winning the women’s field.

Special thanks to the triandduit team for putting on an awesome first-year event. With a course like that I would expect a huge turnout next year.

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It was a great race. I complained about all the weeds in the swim but they disappeared for most of the swim. Actually, as a shorter woman I had an advantage on the swim over my tall guy friends - when the lake got shallow and my buddy (who normally smokes me in masters) couldn’t complete a full stroke, he started breast stroking but with my short arms I was able to keep on going. The mtb was super fun. The course profile had me a bit scared of all the climbing, but it was just the right amount of climbing - the grade was never actually steep so it was cool. The run was ridiculous - maybe a little too crazy. My buddy the breast stroker actually got lost and ran around the lake. I got lost for a while also - after that crazy downhill I found myself on an empty riverbead picking my way over boulders. After a few minutes went by and I realized no one was behind me anymore, I figured I was lost. I called out for help and no one answered at first, then a guy who had finished already guided me back to the trail with his voice- I swatted my way through the brush, happy I had a bottle of tecnu in the car. My 5k time was almost 40 minutes! My legs were covered in bruises and scratches - all from the run! Would I suggest any changes? I think that the run by the lake was dangerous (but fun I admit), and please please please next year have a few more volunteers on the run course to help us find out way through it.

Congratulations to the RD - you found a great venue and put together a great race. Did I mention the tasty barbecue? (One more suggestion - next year have them include cornbread!).

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I’ll echo the kudos… this was my first Xterra, my first “real” trail run, and my first time out mountain biking in an awful long time. So my results were predictably terrible, but it was a lot of fun. And I met my goal of not screwing up anyone else’s race with my lack of MTB skills.

Very nice job by JP and his crew- great organization, outstanding course, and excellent post-race spread. My wounds are healing, and I’ll hope to make it out again next year.