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NAT FINDS SOME TIRED LEGS: Now why would our endurance superstar feel tired.
I mean he only did Hawaii Ironman 2 weeks ago, then doubled back this
weekend at the XTERRA WORLD CHAMPS.  I haven’t had a chance to talk to Nat,
but his swim coach will be proud of a great swim to start the day.   Nat
finished a bit off the overall pace, but very few of the athletes in the
event were stupid (I mean tough) enough to do an Ironman just 14 days
before.   Nat will be headed back to Ontario in a few days, and is excited
to catch up with his many friends/supporters who have been so gracious over
the past 12 months.
-team C3online.com newsletter.

Now lets rewind a few days to the Xterra race.  My big worries before the race were not having a good swim, flatting, and having problems with my shin splints on the run.  My worries were badly misplaced.

My pre-race rituals were executed to perfection. I swam with my cycling jersey under my velocity speedsuit, so I am easy to spot in the pictures/ video… I’m the only person swimming in a cycling jersey (Craig, is this what you meant by helping triathletes with their fashion sense?).  I felt really relaxed in the swim, and came out of the water in the 2nd pack, ahead of my expectations.  I hopped on my mountain bike expecting to go into dream crusher mode (ha ha, thanks slow twitchers),  Instead I went into oxygen debt, promptly followed by ‘climbing like a bag of hammers’ mode.  Now if this were Cleveland, or Dallas, I would have been bummed, but it’s Maui, and it’s beautiful.  So I checked the views out from Mt Haleakala, On the (truly) treacherous descent I went slow, and didn’t risk life and limb (remember I’m ‘old’ now). Jimmy Riccitello passes me (one of my childhood heros).  I had talked to Jimmy on the beach for a little, and told him how glad I was that he came out of retirement so that I could beat him, think I jinxed myself.

Having lost so much time on the bike I was meaning to pull socks on and then try to crank out a solid run, but I get so fired up in transition that I charge off sockless.  I’m feeling great, and by the 5km mark (of 11) I’ve taken back 2.5 minutes on Riccitello, and them barrel past him running pell-mell down the mountain.  Danelle Kabush, my room mate from a decade ago passes me trying to run into 1st place for the women, go Danelle. But I’m starting to struggle a little, and when we hit the beach section with 1mile to go, I’ve got the chills (not a good think when you’re in the tropics) and have a blister on my feet.  I decide (note to anyone ever thinking of doing an Xterra NEVER DO THIS) that the beach looks refreshing and that I should take my shoes off and run barefoot.  The beach is really hot, and burns my feet, especially the blisters.  I put the shoes on, but myself, and my feet are really hot so I run over and do a few steps in the ocean to cool off.  It doesn’t take a math major to complete this equation:  hard running + bare feet + fast paced downhill’s + lots of sand IN shoes, and all over feet +_ water (not)= comfort  So my special edition K-Swiss’s have some blood on them now. However it didn’t really bother me at the time because this is when the heat stroke really started to kick in, and I was starting to wonder if I should take my shoes off and see if swimming to the finish would be faster.  Luckily there was some function left in the brain, and lights were flashing around <<HIGH DROWNING POSSIBILITY>>.

Three more girls pass me in quick succession.  The final one is Christine Jeffrey, who lived an hour from me all summer, but I’ve only seen her in Maui, and Florida.

1 IV bag later I can talk again.  2 IV bags later I can move and joke.  4 water bottles beyond this I pee.

After the race I called my mother to let her know that I wasn’t slow from crashing, a mechanical, etc, I was simply slow.  She told me that she knew I’d have a bad day because of my race number (49).  My mother is able to calculate the ‘luckiness’ of numbers, through some formula from my grandmother, but adding 4+9 doesn’t take the formula to figure out that it’s bad luck.  So she knew I was doomed when she saw the start list a few days ago.  (And I though that it was because I just finished hyper-depleting myself at IronMan, or that prior to last week I’d ridden a Mtb 2x in the past few years!)

Mom’s other funny comment was: now you know what it’s like to be normal
Gee, thanks I could have done with out that one, or maybe been ‘normal’ at a non world championship event.

Christine points out that of the 6 Canadian Pro’s entered 4 placed in the top 5 ,and that I let the country down.  I reply, yeah, but after the race Bill and I went swimming and I dove under a coral bridge, and it was super cool.

I really did love my time in Maui, and this was really helped by Bill, and Kris.  Bill does very nice home renovations and building, while Kriss is getting ready for the 70.3 World Championships in a short time in Florida.  Good luck there Kriss.

Yeah, so the 2008 racing season is in the books, and to be honest, it’s a dream come true.  I’ve a little respect for the heat, and IM, but also have a better understanding of how to tackle the beast.  I’m really, really excited for the 2009 racing season, and the results possible having twice the swim and run base.