Xterra Keystone Mountain Championship

Sunday, while several of you were off to Kansas City kickin’ ass @ Nats, The muddy bunch scooted up to Keystone for the Xterra Mountain Championship. ! saw Dave Farmar setting up his transition. Meghan Barney, and Lisa were rumoured to be there, but ! never saw them. ! did see John just after he finished the Sport race. It’s been about 6 weeks since he had his last baby and he’s racing again and looking just as fast as ever. !’ve been tapering all week hoping to have a snap in my legs. Not the same snap ! had last year. The water was the warmest they’ve ever had it @ 64*. ! wore my GPS just to make sure they had straight lines between the buoys. This year the swim went better than before. ! was to the 2nd buoy before the air wasn’t getting in fast enough and over ½ the 1st lap before the gasping got desperate. ! managed to finish mid-pack. That would be the group that started 2 waves behind me. They have a long, barefoot run to T1 then out onto the dirt road to start the mountain bike ride. Up the 1st climb ! had someone to dice with. He was an obese, long haired Daschund with 4 inch long legs. ! dropped him when he stopped for a Milk Bone and a belly rub. Transition was @ 9,273’. From there we climbed to 11,632’ before the treacherous descent. They turned off the oxygen @ 10-,000’ ! never managed to just let it go. Just to clarify how slow ! was decending, ! was riding with a dude who was doing his 3rd mountain bike ride. ! did manage to make it to T2. Out onto the 10k trail run. ! had hoped to run the whole way and ! did until 4.75 miles at the longest and steepest climb on the course. A couple more short walks then we waded through the Snake River. It was only about a foot deep. From there it was a long sprint to the finish. There was a girl in front of me so ! tried to catch her. She heard my panting and sprinted. ! gained a lot of ground on her, but there just wasn’t enough to get by. If ! hadn’t been breathing she’d have not known ! was there until it was too late. Next race ! think ! will hold my breath the whole time. So there ! was sitting under the finish tent eating a banana when ! saw 2 little girls about 5 years old. One was holding a stick and menacing 2 little boys of the same vintage. She had the most adorable vicious look on her face with no hint of malice. The boys ran. ! told them it was good and proper to be terrified by girls and that they just get scarier as they get older. Next stop was the Compex tent for the electro-stimulator massage. They only hooked up my thighs yet ! was twitching all over. Something wasn’t right. ! feared ! was coming down with the dreaded disco fever. ! went to the med tent to get checked out. !’ve never visited a med tent before. They asked me questions and put me on O2 and a blanket. My buddy Gregg was there. He’s the ski patrol guy who showed up @ my crash site last year and ran the evac. After a while, they suggested ! go to the clinic since, as Mother says a lot, “you don’t seem quite right” Gregg drove me over there and said ! could keep the official ski patrol scratchy wool blanket. Gregg’s a nice guy. That’s why he got the extra “g”. They looked me over and asked about my head injury from 3 weeks ago. The one Yon said ! should have gotten a CT scan for and J.C. said ! should have gotten the CT scan before bashing my head. Finally, the nurses had had enough of me and kicked me out. Upon my return to transition there were 2 bikes left. ! loaded up and headed out @ 4:45p. A long day followed by a rock slide induced traffic jam on I-70. Total race time 3:47:04 about an hour longer than ! had hoped for. 22nd of 34 in my group. Everyone was long gone by the time ! got back. For results click here http://www.xterraplanet.com/race/racing_news.html
Doug!!
http://2001abikeodyssey.blogspot.com/