Nissan Xterra USA Championships
The Nissan Xterra USA Championships took place in Incline Village, Nevada at North Lake Tahoe on October 2nd. I decided to head out to Tahoe 8 days early to help acclimate to the altitude. The race course starts at 6200 ft. of elevation and the top of the bike course peaks out at almost 9000 ft. Getting in early was a wise thing to do.
The weather on race morning was a cold 32 degrees, with no promise of warming up. There were wind gust between 20 and 40 mph, and a 4-5 foot swell in the lake. Definately not the pristine coditions we had the previous year.
The swim start was pretty brutal. Getting into the 56 degree warter was not exactely conforting. I made my way thourgh the first lap trying to concentrate on relaxing as much as possible and not tighten up. Between the cold water and the altitude it was not easy to keep control of my breathing. By the time I finished the swim my hands and feet were numb.
T1 went fairly smoothly even though my fingers were useless. I got out on the bike and fellt pretty good, although a little cold. I started up the 3.5 mile climb on Tunnel Creek Road with hope of warming up a bit once my body got started. That never happened. I hit the Flume Trail and headed straight into the wind gusts coming at the side of the mountain. I was shivering and angry. I kept getting stuck behind people finding it very difficult to pass on the 4 foot wide trail with mountain on the left and 1200 foot drop on the right. I started hammering on the pedals and yelling at people to get left so I could pass. I just wanted to get out of the wind. I hit Marlett Lake on the back side and had to go to the bathroom becasue I was so cold. I didn’t want to stop so I just kept going pushing to the next big climb as hard as I could. I hit the peak, took a second to take in the beautiful view of the lake and then started the descent. I managed to get through the downhill switchback section pretty quickly only skidding off the trail once, right in front of a camera crew. I hit Tunnel Creek Road and started bombing the downhill, jumping the water bars and negotioating my way through the sand pretty easily. It took me 7 minutes to go down the same 3.5 mile that took me 35 minutes to climb an hour before.
I made it to T2 a little behind my goal pace set back by the choppy waters and the brutal cold. Another quick transition and out to the run, never my strength.
Turns out the run was my forte this day. I could finally feel my feet and was able to open it up a little on the run. To my surprise I started passing people and was not slowing down. I finished my first 5K loop in 25 minutes, and felt like I could keep going strong. Probably because I didn’t work that hard on the bike being that I had to pee. I pused the pace on my second lap and finished it in just over 22 minutes, posting a 47 minute 10K trail run, pretty respectable for Xterra. I crossed the finish line in 3:31:46, 15 minutes faster the 2004. Under the conditions a succesful race!
