XTERRA Pipestem Creek

Let me start acknowledging how Steven Aesoph and his crew put another great event together! Thanks Steve for all the hard work that resulted in a phenomenal race!

Coming into the race I had not been training as much as I had last year this time. After my knee surgery I had taken off a long time off. The only thing I am more confident about this year is my swim that I was able to maintain or perhaps even get better. I had maybe ridden my bike on trails two times before Jamestown. Running? Perhaps two times a week and hardly over 20km in total..
So with these numbers in mind it's not a surprise how a fared against my competitors..

The swim was actually pretty good. I came out of the water just seconds behind later race winner and professional XTERRA races Will Kelsay. On the bike, however, I was falling behind not only to Will but also to other age group athletes, too. It's even more unfortunate that I had no chance riding the course as we arrived the morning of the race. I remembered most of the turns from last year but definitely not all of them. On top of that I had a 4,5 minute stop due to technical issues. Climbing up on a steep slope my chain got stuck in my rear derailleur.. I stopped and looked at it but couldn't figure out what was happening. After that long delay and clicking everything I could I was able to put the chain back on the rings and off I went.. I have to add that something was still wrong as the chain kept skipping no matter what cogs it was running on.. I was sort of unable to maintain a good pace because of this. COming off the bike I felt from 2nd place overall to 7th. It was time to use my running skills  and make up some ground on my fellow competitors. I was able to pass two of them and I saw Max Boeckel in sight but by the then the finish was only half a mile away and I couldn't catch him. I finished in 5th place but still in for the money that at least covered my expenses related to this race. I had the second fastest run to Will who had to run for his money as uber-biker Luke Nelson from Minnesota caught him on the bike.

Now onto some more training and racing as the summer has just started..

Update: After taking in my bike to Epic Sports for a tune up it turned out that the chain was a good 2 links longer AND it was not running where it had to over the rear derailleur's cogs. HA! I better get some bike repair knowledge in before I try to fix my own bike..

Results to the race: XTERRA Pipestem Creek 2012