Mountain Man 2009

On Sunday, I did the Mountain Man Triathlon at Kualoa. My goal was to qualify for the XTerra World Championships. The only reason this is remotely possible is because the race is held here in Hawaii, so this qualifying race gets a lot of slots, but not a lot of competitors sign up. High slot to participant ratio! I get chance!

The last few days leading up to the triathlon were a little nerve-wracking. There was a hurricane coming in our direction, which was scheduled to hit right around that weekend. On Friday, it was downgraded to a tropical storm and projected to hit on Monday. Still, I was concerned that the wind might generate some big waves which could make the swim a little scary. As it was, all my angst was entirely for naught. The storm was downgraded to a tropic depression and had slowed down so it wouldn't hit until Wednesday. When we drove along the coast on race morning, the water was as smooth as it could possibly be. Hooray! One less thing to deal with.

We left the house around 5:40 and got to Kualoa a few minutes after 6. I hit the porta-potties (already icky so early in the morning), and then went to the run transition. This race is a little different in that the bike and run transitions are in different locations. The run transition is right next to the finish line up in the valley, while the swim start and bike transition are down by the water.

Around 7:15, everyone met at the finish line for pre-race instructions, then we all grabbed our bike and swim gear and hopped on our bikes for an easy ride over to the bike transition, about a mile away. The bike transition was definitely different. While they had racks set up, they said you could put your bike anywhere you wanted, lean it up against the rock wall, drop it on the grass, whatever. I think this may have been a concession to the cow patties. You see, the field normally is for cows grazing and there were "remnants" all over the place. I leaned my bike against the flag pole (can't miss that), set up my bike gear, grabbed my goggles and cap, and head into the water across the street.

The water was SHALLOW. We all had to get out to a guy waiting on a surf board who was acting as the starting line. At first everyone was slowly picking their way around the rocks and coral, but it finally sunk in that even though the water was barely over our knees, it was easier to swim. I figured it would be deeper out where the surfer was, but I was mistaken. It turned out the water never got deeper than waist high. Half the time I couldn't take full strokes for fear of hitting coral. One time I actually did, even though I was practically bringing my hands right along my body. Still, at least the race organizers didn't have to worry about anyone drowning.

I stroked all the way in to shore, actually just grabbing rocks and pulling myself along for the last 50 feet or so. I finally got up when I couldn't go any further and trotted across the beach and the road (thanks HPD for stopping traffic), and tried to avoid the cow pies on the way to the flag pole.

My transition took too long. I have no idea how long it actually took, it just felt long. I need to make some changes. Maybe ditch the socks, get some yankx laces, and find a swim top that won't make me feel it's necessary to put on a shirt.

Anyway, I finally got on the bike and headed out. I screwed up here as well in that I didn't take a Gu right away. I don't know what I was thinking. I had figured I would take one about every 30 minutes, and I was only at 20, but I wasn't feeling strong. I should go with feeling rather than numbers. Stupid. The thing was not very far in to the bike I hit a big hill that took all my attention and the next thing I knew I was 10 minutes late for my gel. I ate it and in a few minutes started to feel much stronger. Dumb. I should have taken that thing right out of the swim. I bet I would have done better.

The bike was a little bi-polar. The first half of the course, along the right side of the valley, is all jeep-road with BIG up and down hills. Around the mid-point, you cross the valley and go to the left side where it's pretty much all single-track until the bike finish. I didn't do so hot on the jeep road. I rode everything, even the hills that most people around me were walking, but I just didn't feel strong.

Riding up the last of the big uphills, I saw a guy pulled over. I called out to see if he needed help, all the while thinking "Please say no, please say no." But he asked if I had a spare tube, which I did. I stopped, pulled out a tube and CO2 cartridge, handed them over and headed off. He came up to me after the race to say thank you and that he was able to finish the race. I'm glad I helped him, but for the rest of the race I was wondering if I had just shot myself in the foot in terms of qualifying. Still, I just couldn't leave the guy. Someday that could be me. I figure I built up some Karma points.

Still, I was getting worried so I decided to really push the envelope. After this I came to the first serious downhill. It was a long grassy stretch which looked safe enough (except for the cow patties), so I really let it go. Unfortunately I didn't see the big crater until I was right about in it, so I swung my weight back and when I hit the far lip of the crater my hands popped off the handlebars and I ended up sliding down the hill on my butt. Once I realized I landed with no damage, the sliding was actually kind of fun. I may have actually started laughing. Anyway, at the end of my skid, I popped back up, ran and grabbed my bike (which was further down the hill), and kept going.

I crossed the valley over to the single track area, and things finally picked up for me. I started passing people all over the place. For the most part, people were really nice and would get out of your way once they heard you coming. I did have to stop quite a few times when people in front of me stopped at obstacles. But they would quickly pull their bikes out of the way and let me get started again and ride through. A few people may have passed me on the jeep road, but no-body passed me on the single track. I loved this part of the ride, it totally made my race.








As it turns out, there were 5 girls in my AG and four slots. I came in 3rd in my AG! I can't tell you how happy I am with that. I really only started training 8 weeks ago, and I lost almost 2 weeks to a really nasty cold followed by a Migraine, so to do this on only 6 good weeks of training, I'll take whatever I can get.