Yep - about 4:00am woke to some severe thunder and rain with the start of the of the B.O.L.T XTERRA looming 5 hrs later for a 9:00am start. The Nebraska Sports Council brought together Nebraska's first running of a local XTERRA - an off road triathlon. This one being my forth of the year, I was looking forward to racing locally and not at altitude. I knew that the trails at Branched Oak lake could handle a little water and we'd be fine with the exclusion of a couple lowland areas.
The crew did not disappoint and put together a challenging course with winning times comparable to other races I'd done. The mud in some of the tree covered areas made for some challenging slippery riding which was kind of fun, considering we don't race much in those conditions because of potential trail damage. Quite honestly, riding in the mud is tough, and slow, hard on your equipment, and stressful and I'm sure there were some folks that were out of their element. But those conditions are like "money in the bank" as my buddy David C. would say...file it away and next time you'll pull out the experience and remember oh ya, I can do this...I only hope that it doesn't detract too many people from wanting to do it next year.
I heard tell of 150 registered racers...between solo and team entries. We all lined up for the start located at Area 1 on the south side of BO lake to take to the water for the first event - 1000 meter swim done in a two lap format. Hadn't done a mass start like that in a while...usually you'll go in waves based on age groups, or swim time, etc. So 100 + flailing bodies churning up the water can be intimidating....there is inevitably some hand / arm touching and toe tickling going on with bodies next to you in the water. After the first 250 things stretched out and there was some stroke room and calmer water.
Transitioned to the bike in 29th place with a typical swim time for me and onto the bike. The first section of bike, would also serve as the run course, moved to the East side of the lake and followed the dam via the horse/snowmobile trails. Grassy and open. Mud not an issue here at all...but when we hit the single track on the area one MTB course, we got our first taste of some greasiness forcing the rider to use a strategy of hugging the sides of the trails and an outside, inside, outside line for each of the many turns crossing the path trough when going side to side. This worked farily well for most of the course, but it was inevitable that some mud packing on the tires occured, thankfully there were a couple sections of downhill grass that allowed the mud to be shed from the tires before assulting the next section. The bike course was roughly 14 miles and took the winner of the bike section 1:08+ to ride. My bike time was not too far off with a 1:11 slotting me in 4th for bike split and 6th place going into the run.
As I mentioned the run was on the first section of the bike course, grass and farily smooth undulating course roughly 4.6 miles. The hardest part of the run for me was running the off camber section along the top of the dam for 3/4 mile. Ouchy on the knees and ankles - we're all going to need physical therapy after that;).
Maintained place to the finish. The way the run was laid out, you could see everyone on the dam and the time gaps involved. 5th place was 1/2 mile up on me, 7th place was 3/4 mile behind me...would have been pretty tough to change anything up after that, so put on the autopilot and crusied to the finish. 6th overall 1st place age group. Pretty happy with finish.
I had set a goal at the beginning of the year to try and quailify for XTERRA nationals. The rules read top 6 for my age group from each region - (there are 8 regions) - qualify to go...before B.O.L.T I was in 7th, and after BOLT result I moved into 5th. There are a couple races left before nationals so there's a chance I could be bumped. Have to wait and see. Either way I've had a good time doing these races. It's funny how important this race became, after doing some research, the 5th place finisher in the 30-34 age group was in the boat as me regarding points, slotting in 7th before the race and moving to 4th...a quick scan shows that there were quite a few of the fellow competitors chasing points by traveling to Nebraska for the BOLT. Good thing to remember when promoters decide if they want to be part of the series next year.
After the race, they did a number of competition type gift certificate give aways...one included an earth worm eating dare contest. The guy on the right could just drop em down the pipe...no chewing required. He ate 6, the other guy 5. These two would later battle in a peanut butter cracker eating contest. The guy on the right won that one two taking home quite a few bucks in gift certificates.
Me on the left, David Hill on the right who was 2nd age group...I got a Bolt (around my neck)- and a chance at Nationals in Ogden.
Honey, can we afford for me to take a trip to Ogden?
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