World Championship, the aftermath

Tsunami, Bike, run?!?!

It all started last night, siren blaring, evacuation order.  Their is a potential Tsunami heading towards Hawaii.  I'm thinking really? Is this Saipan 2011 back all over.  Sirens are blaring and evacuation order given, luckily my good friends the Moore were in high grounds and "rescued" us and my buddy Roy and his family. As I woke up this morning I wondered, are we on?  Is this going to turn into a duathlon?  Email comes through from the race, we are on unless told otherwise y the ocean safety.  I'm thinking, well I already swam in one Tsunami, might a well make it two!  7:30, time to roll down to transition for set up, than body marking, chip pick up and sunscreen application from the good people at Planet Sun, great stuff by the way.  Than it's off to the beach for a warm up.  The waves are there but nothing too crazy, boy was I going to be wrong.  After the Hawaiian blessing it's time to get down to business.  As the Canon goes off for the male wave start, there is some pretty good waves coming onto shore, after diving under and heading towards the first buoy, I'm thinking it's not getting any better. We are getting pounded, can't really sight as the waves never stops. The swim course is a M this year and after a short run on the beach it is back out for the second lap.  I exit he water in a decent time considering the washing machine. Quick transition and it is off to the bike.  The 18.8 miles course this year has a bit more single tracks and as usual lots of climbing, 3000 feet of it.  Problem is when you're an average swimmer is that you have to pass the good swimmer who are not so good rider, add single tracks and you get the picture.  We were lucky, we had some clouds and even a light rain at time which really helps.  I finished the bike section slower than last year but considering, still not too bad.  After the second transition it's off to the run, with another 1200 feet of climbing over  9.5 km or so, after the first 10 min I can feel my hamstrings wanting to cramp, luckily I have some salt tablet, seems to do the trick.  I decide to hike the big hills instead of running them, this tip came from Conrad " the caveman" Stoltz, 4 times world champion, he probably knows what he's talking about!  I would finish the run faster this year by 3 minutes but would be about 6 min slower overall than last year.  I placed middle of the pack in my age group and slightly better overall.  As for Roy, despite some mechanical issue on the bike and the fact that he was racing on a stress fracture and couldn't run I thought he did awesome.  Al, Allison and GL also finished the race.

I surely missed my Girlfriend Stephanie at the finished.  I also wish my sister and brother in law had been able to be there again, they had such a good time last year.  For once, my mom was cheering me on, you see she never had a chance to see me race, living at opposite end of the country, it was too difficult.  Regardless she would always enquire about what she called " my exercises"  knowing that her son was travelling and racing.  I haven't told many people, if any, but I dedicated this racing season to my mother,  I like to keep things private.  Every time I suffered training or racing, I was thinking about the fact that my mom had been doing Chemo therapy every week for 9 months, I figure that she was much more in pain than I was.  My mom lost her battle to Cancer on January 29 of this year, I figure the least I could do was to honor her memory this year each time I race.  I think she had a smile on her face today as she got to see her son crossing the finish line for the first time and finally seeing what kind of "exercise" I was doing.

I wish I could have done better, I think it's human nature to always strive to better performance.  I'm glad the season is over, with 9 Xterra races this year spanning over 4 Continents and one 70.3, lots of travelling and a year that has seen its share of challenges, it is time to relax for a while.  Fear not, a new season will begin soon enough and I will be back at it.  I hope you have enjoyed this journey and who knows where this will lead.  Stay tuned for more off season updates, gear 2.0 and soon enough the race plans for 2013.  Until then, push the limits, try something new and as Xterra motto say it so well " Live More"  Happy trails!

Carpe Diem