Blog

Xterra World Championships

28th Oct 2014

It would take more than a few saunas to acclimatise for the hottest race against the hottest talent on the Xterra calendar!

Meeting my triathlon idol Barbara Riveros!

Xterra World Championships certainly proved an epic end to an exciting year’s racing! With a finish line “messier than Ironman” and even T1 “full of competitors looking totally shell-shocked by what they’d just experienced in the swim” - Xterra Maui was not just an off-road triathlon, this was a full-on adventure challenge!

I had never even raced an Xterra until this May I found myself on the start line in Malaysia alongside off-road legends, Sam Gardner and Jacqui Slack. Despite walking most of the run due to heat exhaustion, I finished 5th overall and was offered a Pro start for this World Championships in Hawaii! So six European Tour races and one very steep learning curve later: here I am.

Hardly any waves on swim practise day! With Swiss Team Jan & Leandro

I’m up before my 6am alarm on race morning - all us Brits are still on European time - waking crazily early in the morning and wanting to sleep by 4pm! I feel good though, and rack my bike with a frozen water bottle, pretty confident it will defrost before I’m back in T1.

The race starts with over 800 athletes on the beach, a Hawaiian blessing and then a canon. We are off!!

Over 800 athletes at the swim start!

The swim is normally a strong point for me, but Hawaii’s fabled surf waves are like nothing I’ve ever experienced! I attempted learning to body-surf the day before and thought I’d nailed it - but it’s a different kettle of fish in the race situation with dozens of adrenalin pumped athletes to contend with, and we’re all already tired from 800m and then 1500m of swimming! (Yes - they make us get in and out twice!) Not quite managing to surf the massive breaks to shore, many including me are bowled over, dragged under, and all I can do is hold my breath, hope for the best and wait for daylight! So with my goggles ripped off and smashed, my Zone3 swim-skin zip ripped open and my timing chip ripped off - hanging by a safety pin - I am relieved to exit the water with my body intact! A couple of minutes down on my normal placing, but with a good bike and run I hope to pull that back.

A picture tells a thousand words about this epic swim!

The talk of the week amongst the athletes has been the state of the bike course. Heavy rain following Hurricane Ana left large parts of it unrideable - steep climbs and saturated clay make a very slippery combination! So much so that organisers had closed the course and banned pre-riding to try and preserve the trails for race day. The local bike shop made a killing on mud tyres- presumably everyone else watched the same video clips as I had of last year’s race- and prepared for dry and dusty trails!

Now after 2 days of sun, we have no idea what the course will be like as we head out of T1. I manage to overtake a few girls quite quickly in the first 5 miles of climbing, and I’m happy to find the trails have almost dried. It’s all rideable now, but very congested with Age Group men! They may be fit/strong enough to overtake - but not all are good on the slippery technical sections. Once a few have fallen off or decided to walk, I can’t get a line through so have to walk as well. A bit frustrating, but I make the most of the rest. From the top it’s an amazing traverse of “Razor Ridge” with stunning panoramic views - no time to stop and appreciate them today though!

Trying to recce the bike course after heavy rainfall! Luckily most of it had dried by race day.

Next is the only technical descent of the day - a muddy, rooty slalom at the limit of my ability. I want to give it a go, but with men still trying to overtake, undertake, and buzzing my back wheel when they get too close - I decide not to risk it. It’s frustrating though having to keep standing aside for 20 men in a row to go by… along with some of the girls I’d passed on the climb!

My saddle is starting to feel a lot more painful than usual - I must have taken on some sand in my tri-suit! But I’m starting to realise that the toughest challenge today will be the rising 30+ degree heat. I’ve never been a hot weather athlete and am rapidly cooking. Although I’m taking in plenty of my (now warm) drink, I can’t keep my core temperature down. By mile 14 (of 19) I feel cold and shivery and struggle to concentrate on the technical trails. I can hear Jez Cox’s voice in my head telling me to “stay in the moment” and I manage to stay on the bike- but T2 can’t come soon enough!

Hard work reaching the finish...

The run takes us 3 miles uphill through a pineapple plantation, and already I know it’s going to be a repeat of Malaysia’s heat exhaustion! I tip water over my head at each drink station, but my HR is maxed out even walking every steep climb. Thankfully the last 3 miles are mainly downhill so I’m able to run. Eventually - finally - we reach the beach, and I’m so tempted to dive in the sea but spectators are shouting: “Come on! You can smell the finish line from here”. Somehow I stumble across it and collapse in the shade. Now I truly know why they call us Xterra Warriors!

While I’m disappointed with my result - 28th Pro - it’s some consolation to meet one of my tri idols, Barbara Riveros at the finish. A lovely lady - who had an awesome race to finish 2nd!