Xterra Aspen Valley Race Report

The Aspen Valley Xterra triathlon is a race which I was looking forward to this year because I felt that I could improve on my times from last year.  I was excited as well because I was able to camp right next to the starting line.  This made the morning of the race very nice as I was able to sleep in and slowly prepare my transition area.  I slept great the night before and had my transition setup with plenty of time to relax and prepare mentally for the race.  With an hour to go I was all set and went for a nice jog to warm up. By 830am I was ready to go.  I put on my wetsuit and went down to the water to start to swim warm up, still feeling great.  The swim is in a lake specifically made for water skiing so that water is pretty shallow and murky, but very warm.  I really felt great on the swim.  It was one loop around the lake and I exited the water in 10th overall, really feeling good about the rest of the race.  The mountain bike course is very unique.  The entire course is on private land and the owner built their own mountain bike course with banked downhill corners and epic single track.  My race was two 6 mile loops.  The first loop I felt a little slow but as I came towards the end of the first quarter I was picking up the pace. At mile 5 or so a racer in front of me was climbing a steep part when their chain snapped and flipped off.  I asked her if she had everything she needed to fix it and she said that she did not and needed help. I figured I could help her out since others have helped me out in the past.  It's part of an unwritten code that racers help out other racers when possible.  I helped her shorten her chain and gave her a quick link (a cool part that allows you to connect a chain without a tool.  I always carry one on me for just this reason.  I helped her out and then we were both on our way With the first lap done I was ready to really crush the second lap.  Then at mile 8 I came around a corner and cut it too short and crashed, slashing my leg up pretty good.  With blood dripping down I continued, still feeling pretty good.  Then at mile 9ish I came around a corner and noticed a large rock in the trail.  My first instinct was to stop and move it out of the way but instead I went around the left of it, too close though because my rear derailleur slammed into the rock, proceeded to get ripped off and thrown into my spoked because of my forward momentum.  Not a good situation.  This had happened once before with my hard tail so I always carry a spare derailleur hangar.  I spent the next 25 minutes replacing the derailleur hangar and trying to get my derailleur to work but realized that it was much too bent up to be useful.  I then decided that since I only had 3 miles left I would just push my bike.  Not a good idea with lots of up and down sections.  So I stopped again, this time deciding to remove the derailleur completely, shorten my chain, and run single speed the rest of the way.  What I didn't have was a quick link since I gave mine to the other racer. Thankfully a different racer stopped and gave me one of her quick links and a better tool to shorten a chain.  Karma.  After another 20 minutes of work I was up and running.  At this point I had already lost 45 minutes which on a 2.5 hour race is pretty significant.     Thankfully the chain worked well, just a lot of work and more planning when you only have one speed to work with.  In the future I think it would be fun to have a single speed bike, just not in this type of situation when it was forced on me. I entered the transition area in pretty much last place.  So going into the run I just wanted to give it my all.  I did beat last years time on both the swim and the run, the bike was obviously much, much longer.  I learned a lot in this race though.  I learned that my will to never give up is stronger than the will to qualify for nationals or place on the podium.  This is the first time that I have ever encountered such major technical issues but I felt good that I was able to work through it and still finish.  Overall a great race experience despite the not so great result.  

Such a beautiful venue at Xterra Aspen Valley

 

 

This is what it looks like to convert a 20 speed mountain bike into a single speed on the fly.  You pick a ring on the front and a ring on the back and that's all you get!