Looks like we've had this one in the hopper to be published for a couple of weeks. Since this race, on July 31st, Shawn has also competed in the XTERRA Triathlon Race at the Rez, in Colchester, VT where he continued his high placing ways and finished 3rd. Right now he is leading the Northeast Division Amateur rankings in the M 30-34 age group by 178 points, and is already automatically qualified for the XTERRA USA Championship in Utah on September 24th!
So I have been preparing for this time of the season since spring. This race was the start of my second set of XTERRA races. I competed in two early season races in a different region to free up my race schedule a bit during the busy summer. By doing this I showed up to the first two races a bit unprepared.
The race starts with a two loop swim with a beach run to start and in the middle. I started out a bit easy and worked my way into my race pace. When we got out of the water for the beach run I saw I was in the top ten and 20-30 seconds back. Running across the beach in deep sand with a Wetsuit was very taxing. My arms felt so tired. Then back in the water for lap 2 which resulted in about the same time gap.
After a quick transition I was on my new Specialized S-WORKS 29er hard tail that just rips! By the mile one point I was in second place as I picked through the faster swimmers quite quickly. But the leader was no where to be found. Confident with my biking fitness I figured it would just be a matter of time. I continued to take time off the leader but never able to get to first. Towards the end of the bike we had to do a two mile section twice. On my second time around I had to deal with racers on their first loop. Unfortunately I was not being patient enough with some of the slower riders and went for an aggressive inside outside pass and caught a pedal on a hidden tree stump sending me off the trail crashing and throwing my chain. Now frustrated and feeling a sense of urgency to make back that time things just got worse. From what I could tell I was 15 seconds off the leader and fell back to about a minute from how we started the bike.
After another quick transition and it was off to a very cool and unique 3.7 mile run. Basically it was a 2.5 mile flat rock scramble with a major half mile climb in the middle that is an out and back. I was running strong and at the turn around I was able to see I had clawed my way back to 30 seconds to the leader.
At the end I finished 2nd overall and first in my age group a minute back from the win. It was a very close race and loved the cat and mouse game I had all race. Just next time I plan on being the victor. And when I say next time I mean this Sunday at the "Race at the Rez" in VT. I hope he's ready!!
Also a notable mention I have to thank 3 of my good friends/ dirtbike racing buddies for coming with me to the race and all 3 of them competing in their first Triathlon. It was a fun weekend!
~Woodsy
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