The 2011 race season started quite late for me in May but by the end of August it had been a pretty busy summer of racing. Therefore, I wasn’t sure if the body or finances would stretch to racing the Xterra World Champs in October. However, these two things were rectified by starting with a new coach that gave me a renewed focus and also the incredibly generous support of my nutrition sponsors USN who stepped in to help pay for the trip to Hawaii. With the World Champs in mind, things already started to improve in the final two races in September where a 10th place finish at Xterra Switzerland meant I finished 10th overall in the Xterra European Tour series, and the highest placed British male. I followed this up by winning the National 25-29 age category at the British Off-road triathlon championships later in the month. Before I knew it, it was October and I had touched down in Maui, Hawaii for the Xterra World Champs.
Once in Hawaii, all the pre-race talk focused on two things: the completely new course in the north of Maui and the men’s pro start list. The rumours that Lance Armstrong would be lining up were true but the field was also stacked full of stars from ITU (International Triathlon Union) and Ironman Triathlons such as the Beijng Olympic Champion Jan Frodeno, not to mention all of the Xterra regulars who specialise in this off-road version of triathlon like me. During the week preceding the race I had felt good. I believe with the help of my new coach I had got my taper spot on. The day before the race in practice I had felt awesome so I was hopeful the legs would be ready for something special on race day.
At 9am on Sunday 23rd October, the gun went off at one of the most beautiful start lines in sport. In the 1500m, 2 lap ocean swim I felt fairly good. I had a real fight to get round the first buoy but that’s the same for everyone. The major problem for me came in transition when the zip on my speedsuit got caught when I was trying to undo it. I had hoped to make up good time with my quick transitions but I ended up having to literally tear my suit off my back to get out of it before I could grab my bike. I also started to pay the price for my typically slow swim as by the time I got to my bike, mine was possibly the only male pro bike left and in all the chaos that had preceded me, my bike had been knocked off its rack onto the floor, my helmet and glasses had rolled a few yards away and one of my shoes that had been neatly attached to the pedals before the race was left hanging by it’s elastic band off the frame – I was 137th onto the bike – not ideal!
Onto the bike I put all the problems of the swim and transition behind me and gave chase. This is a position I am very accustomed to as the swim has always been my weak point (this winter I am going to focus on turning this around). I started catching places quickly but had to be patient as the first few miles contained a lot of tight single track where passing is near impossible. In fact, technical sections of the course that I would ride easily in practice became very difficult as I was faced by queues of less proficient bikers in front of me on the bottle neck sections. 20mins into the bike and the hills really started and I could begin to get round people. Onto the descent and my Specialized Epic really started to come into it’s own, making light work of the high speed drops and fast sweeping corners. I continued making up places on the bike and in the last few miles I started to catch some guys I had never beaten before. I didn’t feel like I was particularly flying but perhaps just not slowing down as much as those around me as the hot and humid conditions started to take their toll on the field.
Coming off the bike I was in 33rd place so had made up just over 100 places – yes I’ve got to sort that swim out!
The big difference with the new course at Maui was going to be the run. This course was hard – the hilliest, hottest and most technical run course I have ever seen. Just an easy jog round in practice earlier in the week had left my legs sore for a day or two. The run goes straight up from the start and I certainly didn’t begin with the great run legs that had propelled me to some of the fastest run splits at the recent European races but as I was running with some good athletes, I took confidence that I was going ok. As the course went up further, I began to drop those around me and start catching more places. Half way around the course came the ‘killer’ climb. This had been fine to jog up whilst fresh in practice but I was absolutely on the limit just to keep running up this one, telling myself that the race was really over by the time I hit the top as there was so much downhill in the second half of the course. Coming down the other side I started to catch some more familiar names but the legs were jelly and staying upright around the tight corners was a challenge. The last 1km of this run is brutal, 500m of soft sand beach running and then a 500m uphill grass drag to the finish line. Having this hill in the final metres of the race became a real game changer, for example the early women’s leader later went from 3rd place on the beach to a DNF, unable to walk or even crawl to the finish. By this point I too was hanging, digging to that kind of deep you can only do a few times a year, in situations like this when you bribe your body with the knowledge that this is the end of the season and you will not ask it to hurt like this for a long time.
I crossed the line in 21st place, and obviously looked even worse than I felt as I was promptly put in a wheelchair and taken straight to the medical tent for an IV drip. Looking back I knew I was in trouble with about 2miles to go when I started to feel cold on the run – this is not a good sign when it’s 90 degrees! My quick departure to medical meant that I also missed out on the usual post-race congrats with my fellow competitors but I later realised I had crossed the line just one place behind Lance. A few people have since said, “did you see you were catching him coming into the line?” My response has been, “I would’ve done if I hadn’t had my eyes closed for almost the entire last 500m up that hill!”
Following the race I feel my result was a fair reflection of my current form and I believe I performed to the best of my ability on the day. There wasn’t a single athlete in front of me that I had beaten before but I also finished ahead of a number of athletes that I’ve never beaten in previous races. I feel encouraged by the improvements in my performance in just a short time since the end of August so with a good winter’s training I am sure that I can go much better in 2012 and finish on the podium at Xterra World Cup and European Tour events.
Finally, a big thank you for the support I have had this year from my sponsors:
www.usn.co.uk
http://www.specialized.com
http://www.sigvaris.co.uk
http://www.mylifept.com
usnuk 