XTERRA Tahoe City

This race report catches me up on races until this coming weekend when I "race" XTERRA Portland. Work has sucked up a bunch of my training time and nearly all of my motivation, then I got sick yesterday. So if nothing else, I will be very well-rested for Portland.

XTERRA Tahoe City took place in late June in (tah dah) Tahoe City. This year's plentiful late-season rain at home means snow in the mountains, and we got to find plenty of it.

Swim: about 52 degrees, if the announcer was correct. Apparently it had been warmer the weekend before, but windy weather cooled the surface just in time for our race. Water levels were fairly high though, eliminating the hobble-over-mossy-rocks action that I experienced last time I raced here. Swim was two loops with a short beach run. First loop felt strong despite the ice cream headache, second loop felt sloppy, I think because I was losing control of my extremities. I also saw a craw fish and am getting really good use out of my squid lid this year. I think I was the sixth woman out of the water, seventh to transition because I dropped my goggles and swim caps while I was trying to run and escape my wetsuit with my frozen claw-hands.

Bike: I really need to climb more. And spend time at altitude. And climb at altitude. There is probably a quarter mile of flat-ish road out of transition before you hit a road climb and then transition to a dirt climb. Then you continue to climb, descend a little, climb more, flat, rinse repeat. I kind of hate this course. This years highlights included dust, followed by snow piles, followed by running water and muddy fire road, followed by dust. I don't remember crashing, just lots of cursing. So it was fun.

Run: this run course is heinous. Follow the bike course up the hill. Continue up the hill in a slightly different direction. Keep going up the hill until you run out of hill. Run around at the top of the hill. Run down the hill. I got (continued to be) lazy and ran walked a bunch. I would have been excited about the long descent, except there were big snow piles that were slippery and slightly unnerving, so I kept stopping to tip toe across them.

I was pretty much the last person racing, but got a pint glass because there were only three of us in my AG. I also got a raging sunburn. Souvenirs are fun.