This race took place on Saturday, September 25 and I decided to enter it very last minute. I had all but written off nationals this year because of my late start back to swimming due in large part to my difficulties with vaccine side effects. And I'm not speaking out against the vaccine here, if I had it to do again I would. I'm very bored with this discussion (and I'm guessing you are too) and not interested in pursuing it here. Anyway, I had long ago decided not to train for this race but about a week and a half before the race I saw a Facebook post advertising Xterra USA Championship Duathlon races. I thought this was a strange addition but it turned out that Pineview Reservoir was suffering a hazardous algae bloom and was unsafe for swimming so the race had shifted from triathlons to duathlons. I was still in no shape to take on the full course, again I hadn't focused on training for it this summer, but I felt like I was in decent enough shape to complete the sprint distance. Normally the sprint race doesn't interest me because it includes all the worst parts of the full course and misses out the best parts, in particular the climb and descent of Sardine Peak. But this year the races would start and finish at Snowbasin Resort since there was no reason to start at the lower elevation down at Pineview due to no swim. This meant the race would be much simpler with only 1 transition zone and the bike would no longer be point to point with a big elevation gain, thus would be more fun. And most importantly the sprint race would include Sardine Peak! I texted my friend to see if she was going and not only was she going but she had a condo with a spare bedroom and another super nice woman who I'd met a couple times was also going and staying at the condo. Which was in a nice scenic small rural town near Snowbasin as opposed to the 'big' city of Ogden. This sealed the deal and I packed up All The Crap and headed to Utah.
The view from the condo in Eden wasn't too shabby.
The drive to Eden though, wow, I didn't realize what I was signing up for. I was envisioning a quiet, rural 6 1/2 hour drive, much better than the terrible drive on I-80 that I had to take from Boulder in previous years. But this drive was awful from 1/2 hour before I got to Moab all the way to Eden. The worst was a 72 mile stretch of 5 lane interstate that went from south of Provo through Salt Lake City to Ogden. I haven't been in traffic like that for decades and for the past 3 years I've been toodling along on empty country roads and mountain highways with Jonny doing the lion's share of the driving. I had to grit my teeth, channel my inner Chicagoan from many decades and lifetimes ago, and hope for the best. It was terrifying. I had initially planned on starting back home after the race on Saturday afternoon so I could hike with a friend in Moab on Sunday but I scrapped that plan and decided to leave at first light on Sunday morning when the highway would hopefully be somewhat quieter. This was a great choice, the drive back was no problem. If I ever do this again I may go a longer route through Park City and check out the trails there for a day or two on the way in and avoid that corridor entirely. Or something because nothing is worth going through that horror fest again.
The race was on a Saturday and I arrived Wednesday night so pre-riding Thursday was a bit close to race day. I've done the course many times but never in the opposite direction so I definitely wanted to pre-ride. Plus it's such a beautiful trail, one of my all time favorites, I love to pre-ride so I can go at an easy pace and enjoy it. And of course stop for photos and moments of whimsy.
Bonus points if you can spot the praying mantis.
How it started.
Poor Pineview Reservoir. So low. This plus the hot summer is probably the reason for the algal bloom.
I stopped to snap the above photo and was chatting with a hiker who had recently moved from Boston when none other than a woman I know from Durango - the woman who had organized the Lake Nighthorse triathlon, came riding by with a friend. I ended up flying downhill on the their wheels in a riot of autumn color so there are no photos of the descent but wow, so fun.
At the bottom I parted ways since she didn't want to ride too far so close to the race. I continued on to do the whole sprint course because why not. I wasn't shooting for a podium finish, just wanted to have a decent race and I couldn't resist the fall colors, beautiful day and fun trail.
The course continues downhill for a while and the only tricky part is a wooden staircase that normally we have to descend and it's no problem but now we would have to climb it since the course went in reverse. I made it halfway up then decided to walk the rest. It's super short and it was easier to walk.
Eventually the course dumps out onto Old Snowbasin Road which heads back up to the ski resort. It's a long boring exposed climb, I thought it would never end but I think it was only a couple of miles. And just when you think you're back at transition, you're directed onto more singletrack for a little mile loop or so of extra fun in the woods. People were complaining about this last gratuitous section but I actually enjoyed it. More time in the pretty fall colors and it wasn't too terribly steep, just a few punchy climbs that weren't too bad. Of course I was only doing the sprint distance so it's easy for me to say.
Friday was a rest day and normally I go to Antelope Island but because I was staying an hour and a half or so away and I couldn't bear the thought of going back through the city I decided to just pick up my packet at Snowbasin and have a quiet day. It feels like a waste of a day after driving so far and having all the pretty trails around but that's the reality of racing.
Race morning was so much easier than usual. A 23 minute drive up to Snowbasin, set up transition for my bike and that was it.
The sprint started a half hour later than the last wave of the full course so I saw off my friends who were doing the full course then had a lot of waiting around. I chatted with a young-ish guy next to me in transition who was doing the race in honor of his father who had passed away several years ago. Some years ago they had done the race together so now it's an annual tradition for him. He doesn't even have a mountain bike and was racing on a rented bike. Props to him, it's a tough course to do without training specifically for it.
The sprint race was supposed to be a 1.5 mile, 12 mile bike then 3.1 mile run. I was in the very last wave with all the 50+ and relay folks. I knew the first run started on a super steep hill same as the old course so my strategy was to start off power hiking because it'd be really easy to blow up on that first hill. During the regular race I'm pretty spent and coming off the bike so I pretty much have to walk most of it anyway. So when the gun went off I started very conservatively, ie slowly, and watched the race take off ahead of me. I was literally one of the last few people on the course, not a great feeling but I stuck to my plan. I was surprised to find myself able to run up most of the hill and it didn't seem as steep as I remembered it. Because fresh legs. The run turned out to be long at 1.91 miles by my Garmin with an elevation gain of 344 feet. I finished in 27:59 which isn't too bad given the steepness and my intentionally slower pace. Snowbasin is at 6400' elevation and I live at 6300' so that wasn't too much of an issue.
I was hoping for quick transitions and I was mostly pretty good with T1 except for a very stupid mistake of using my regular hydration pack which has a waist and chest strap and is stupid heavy. Plus I found out later I had forgotten to remove my heavy camera. Doh. And I had to take extra time to fasten the waist and chest straps. T1 ended up being 1:31 but didn't include the time for strap fastening since I didn't realize until I'd left transition.
The bike was super fun. SO much more fun than the old course. The opposite direction of Sardine Peak is way more fun and is the preferred direction that the locals ride. The descent after Sardine is also super fun. I passed some people on the climb and also on the descent. Only one guy from my wave passed me because I'd started out so far behind on the run. The climb up Old Snowbasin Road didn't seem as long as it did during the pre-ride and there were more people around me since the full course dumps onto that road as well. So I had some folks I could try to pace off of. The last little bit through the woods was fun as well. I finished the 12.1 miles in 2:04:44.
T2 went mostly o.k. I took some extra time to grab a bag of ice from a small cooler pack to stuff in my shirt. This was a good choice and saved me from overheating on the run. T2 was 1:52.
Run 2 started up the same horrible hill and this time I had to walk most of it. Run 1 doesn't do the whole hill and turned off but Run 2 followed the old course run to the top and it's steep and horrible and stupid. The worst part of the whole race. Except for another stupid steep hill from the full course that goes up an exposed gravel road. I had forgotten about that hill and was dismayed when I saw it. It's all the worst parts of the full course run and one of the reasons I've never done the sprint race. The view is gorgeous though. I filled my head with 'Krank' by KMFDM and grunted up the hill at a walk.
There were 4 people registered in my age group and I hadn't passed any of them. I wasn't focused at all on the other people but near the end of the run I kept changing places with a 20 something year old woman. It was a nuisance passing back and forth on the narrow single track so as soon as I hit the long downhill to the finish line I picked up the pace a bit to get her out of my hair. I was doing fine until about a third of a mile or so from the finish line and then I started getting my dizzy thing. I did my best to not fall which is challenging because the trail is so steep it's more like controlled falling then running. I made it to the finish line and with a second or so to go the woman charged in front of me over the finish line. Which is actually pretty obnoxious. I still finished ahead of her because she'd started several waves and 5 minutes or so ahead of me so it's not like it was a true sprint to the finish. And I had no idea she was behind me. Anyway.
I wandered around the finish area in a dazed state. They weren't posting results anywhere, you had to scan this thingy with your phone.
And my phone was way down in the transition area. So I limped my sore ass down there, got my phone, limped back and still couldn't figure out the stupid results. The announcer said the awards ceremony was happening on the 'back patio'. I finally remembered where that was and by the time I got back there they were just finishing up. I finally found my individual results and saw I had 2nd place. I tried to get my award but they wouldn't give it to me, told me I had to wait around. Which I had to do anyway since I wanted to see my friends who were still out on the full course. I grabbed some food and waited until finally I saw one of the top women who run Xterra. She's super nice and I knew if I asked her she'd happily give me my award, which she did, no problem. I did get an obligatory but rather sad looking podium photo. Because how many times do you end up on the podium at a national event, even if it is only the sprint?
Also this may be the end of my Xterra racing 'career'. More on that later. A little hardware is always fun.
The results here are mostly per my Garmin because the official results never accounted for the wave start. So my Run 1 time and final finish time are incorrect since I started about 5 minutes after the first wave.
Final Stats:
1.91 miles run/12.16 miles bike/3.26 miles run
Run 1: 28:01
T1: 1:31
Bike: 2:04:44
T2: 1:52
Run 2: 56:53
Total: Around 3:31 something
Placements, except for age group, are all screwed up because the timing company never corrected for the wave starts and I don't care about it enough to try to figure it out.
This report is so late in part because I had issues trying to get my photos off of my phone and onto my computer. Also because of my Hillbilly Internet it takes a bit longer to upload photos. I have a lot more to write about and so many fall photos. I'm not sure I have the patience to upload them all here but I'll try to get to some as well as other things I want to write about.
