Well it took me more than 2 weeks to find sometime to blog about my last race and here it is.
Just to give a little background. An XTerra Triathlon is an off-road one.
This means swimming in open water is usually not very easy because it might include running on stones, starting where the water is too shallow for swimming or reaching areas where it is faster to walk than swim.
Biking is done on a Mountain Bike over very hilly and technical mountain biking trails.
Running is done on trails.
Before describing the race itself, let me say how beautiful and pleasant was too spend a week end in Tahoe with my brother, Daniele and my Tri-friends Diego and Dario. The scenery was awesome, friends and atmosphere was crazy at the right point, race tension and racing details where left behind considering the off-road TRI as some sort of fun/tough/quite impossible feat to achieve where the results would not really matter.
Race day:
Dario, Diego and myself wake up around 5am, Dario is already super active and goes around the cabin between kitchen bathroom and living room. Dan and Tiz are still sleeping in their super unconfortable couches...
Breakfast with 5 slices of bread and Nutella .... 2 bananas and some spare nuts :-).... 30 minutes later we are off to the transition area to place all our TRI stuff in the right spot.
Our bikes are very close to each other and for once we can all check each other stuff to see we are forgetting something. Transition area organization is yet another skill to master, but after Venezuela I feel prepared.
Time now to go down to the starting line with the wetsuit half in ( only on legs ).
The water is bloody freezing, we are going to start 50 meters off the coast because the water is too shallow. Stones and rough terrain under water makes it hard even to walk on it.
The wetsuit is perfectly ON now, I jump in the water to warm up..... BRRRRR my hearth jumps high but I say to myself ... don't worry V. once you will warm up the sensation will go away and I will breathe normally ( so not true.... I re-acquired my normal "race" breathing only at the end of the race :-) ).
8.00am we are all lined up to start the race. BOOM.... I let Diego and the fast swimmers go first... I dont want to get caught in another swim war like 2 weeks ago. After few seconds I hug Dario and laughing we both say "Buona fortuna ciccio". Gooooo
The water is cold, the wetsuit feels heavy and the stroke is not fluid at all. I am moving slow and my hearth and breathing are going way too fast. Fine.... just concentrate and swim as you normally do... DUDE.
This time there is no much fighting just crystal clear water and 1.5Km of tough swimming in front of me.
First lap is gone... I am going ok... first buoy of the second lap I am getting faster, second buoy ..i am passing people.... third buoy ... not many people in front of me... NICE... time to get out and reach the coast without hurting my feet...
( See
video if you are my FB friend ).
Hearing the voice of Tiz and Dan out of the water is priceless and gives a little boost. The run to the bike is weird as usual, in your mind you are still swimming but phisically you are pushing off the ground with your frozen feet and ugly running style of a wet drunk duck. At the transition area.... BIG surprise, most of the bikes are still there including Diego's one! ( Diego is a great swimmer usually ).
8.30am time to experience the Mountain bike... I am off fast, the road is still paved and the bike seems fast enough, in front of 22 miles of mountain trails. My breathing is still over accelerated ( the 6000ft of height dont help ), the uphills are tougher.. need to keep my butt down or the rear wheel slips on the rocks ... I am pedaling as hard as I can... but people are passing me... WTF.... I keep pedaling uphill .... uphill... uphilll... WTFFFF I want some flat ..uff. People are still passing me... dont understand why... all of a sudden I realize all the people passing me are way taller than I am... something is wrong with the seat post... it went down to the base! Ok I am stopping, the seatpost is back to its normal height in 20-30secs... dont care about losing time but i can waste all my energy. The uphill is huge and I realize this when I see bloody snow around me .... Downhills now... shuttttt ....this is uncontrollable... boom,bam,boom,bam .... i can barely stay on top of the bike... I feel I am about to fall at each single turning point... I am going super fast... but feel so dangerously unstable... crap... people are still passing me and I am breaking all the time ... fear to die!
Second lap of the bike, I meet Diego on a side.. he got a flat and is trying to fix the wheel. Poor Diego! On my side I keep pushing and trying to avoid death on the downhills.
Almost done, I see the paved road in front of me... now is time to pull a decent run to finish this super long XTerra. 1h58 minutes of mountain biking... I am still alive.
Transition bike to run happens smooth as usual, I start running like I am fresh from a warm up, my brother and Dan waiting for me ... screaming... god if I am happy to hear them! Tiziano says something that will stick in my mind "Vai cazzo... devi da impazzireeee"..LOL. They tell me I am 32nd overall. Let's see what I can do to catch up.
Trail running is tough but different. 3 miles uphill and 3 miles downhill.... I am surviving the uphill but my running style is lost in time. Some parts of the trail are tricky, nothing is flat here... even big wood logs in the middle of it need to be jumped... and there is no jumping at this point of the race :-(. I am passing people finally, one after another the uphill is hard for them too! My watch says 3 miles... and the downhill is starting... I love it.... I am powering down like a goat escaping from an imminent attack. The arrival is just few miles away and gravity will do the job. Last mile down, I see Dario just beginning the uphill, he says "QUESTI SONO MATTI"(these guys (the organizers) are crazy), i understand exactly what he says.. this is HARD...........but I am there.... I am arriving, I hear the commentator voice saying my name.. DONE.... 23rd total... caught 9 people on the run... NICE.
49 minutes for a 6 miles run... IS SLOW... but I made it.
Oh gosh... it was fun! Hard, rewarding and incredibly fulfilling!
Big hug to Diego that could not finish with the unlucky bike and great applause to Dario able to finish such feat!
