XTERRA East Championship

This was one of my "A" races of the year... I'd had my mind on this race for a long time, and was the first race of the year that I really wanted to do well at. Unfortunately the weather was too warm and humid for me to be my most competitive. Heat has never been my freind, and being a bigger guy, my body can't cool itself like the majority of skinny guys I compete against. I've learnt about my body in the heat the hard way, like DNF'ing at last years Florida 70.3, and Darkhorse 40 in 90+ degree temps... Both big learning experiences. So I threw away my original strategy, and just went for one of survival. My goal was just to finish, not have to visit the Medic tent, and be coherent enough to drive the 7 hours back home immediately after the race... solo.

Here is a map of the race course... The transition area is basically in downtown Richmond! This is one town I would not mind living in at all.

Coming out of the water at the end of the 1K swim leg... Was fun swimming in moderate current and dodging river rocks, but not the best swim time for me. I'm still not swimming that well this year. No wetsuits allowed because of the warm water temps, but I did wear booties on my feet to protect from debries on the river bottom, the 100 meter trail run at the halfway point of the swim, and the long run back up to T1. (I did a test in the pool earlier in the week, swimming in booties slow me down by about 20 seconds per 500yds... small price to pay to ensure your feet are still intact at the end of a swim like this!!!)Heading out of T1 and on to the 25K bike course... the trails are awesome, never a dull moment on the bike. I went through my 100oz camelbak, and large frame bottle, and could have still used more water... (was also taking salt/electrolyte blocks, and a gel)

Back from the bike in T2, I swapped hydration packs for the 10K run , this time using my Nathan 2 liter running specific pack, with 10oz of perpetuem, and more salt/electrolite blocks. Finished the contents with about a mile to go in the race... It was getting really hot, and there was no shade for the first half of the course... I've never drank this much in any race before, but it worked for me, and actually could have used more. I was probably abouty 10lbs lighter at the finish than at the start!!!

Mission accomplished. Finshed strong, no medic tent, and ready to tackle the drive up I95.

I ended up 7th in my Age Group with a time of 2:29:15. Earned a bunch of qualifying points towards XTERRA Nationals, and still ranked 2nd in the Northeast, after David who's in 1st, had a great race here, qualified for Worlds in Maui, but most importantly, made is debut in one of my many pointless videos (see below)...

I took this video with this camera standing in the middle of the James river. Awesome.

This race is definately going on the calendar next year. Who's coming with me?!?!

Ironclad Triathlon

K and I saw that this race was close by, and had a pretty nice cash prize for top 5 males and females... So we thought we'd give it a try. We both raced in the Pro/Elite Wave which was nice. It was a wave of 15 people that started a few minutes ahead of the Age Group waves. Which were several waves of 100 plus people in each.

I was expecting to be able to stick with the lead pack on the swim, but I saw pretty quickly that wasn't going to happen... Maybe if I had been in the water more than twice this year I would have had a chance. I lost over 2 mins to the lead pack, which is pretty significant over a 1000yd swim. I was 8th out of the water.

A steep run up to transition, then out onto the bike without any issue. The bike was two loops totaling about 12 miles... I had the 8th fastest bike split of the day, passing 2 people to put me into 5th place, and into the money. (avg. speed 22.7)

Then came the run which was very xterra style, tight twisty single track almost the whole way. I felt better and better every mile, and posted the 13th fastest run split of the race (including relays), and fastest in my age group... Very exciting for me. I got passed 100yds from the finish putting me back into 6th place and out of the money... But was so happy with my running, that I didn't really care.

Kristin suffered the same fate. The prize money brought out all the female sprint specialist, and she finished in 6th place... No doubt she would have chased most of them down in a longer event.

Team PowerShot = 1st overall relay. and first time James Racer X Brittan has had a faster swim split that me. Don't worry James, I've been in the pool twice a week since this race, and that will not happen again.

XTERRA King of the Hill

Kristin came with me to this one... Man, she is a one-person cheering machine, and with crazy whistling powers too! I spotted her all over the course taking pictures and jumping around for me, the long lost Booth relatives, and a bunch of other freinds out racing. So this one is going to be mainly a photo post using her pics...

The start was a 300yd beach run to swim leg...


Heading back into the water for the second swim loop... I ended up third out of the water. Swim was only half a mile, not long enough to give me much of an advantage...


Out of transition and immediately down some stairs en route to a very hilly/rocky 12 miles...


Towards the end of the bike leg, sitting in 10th place here...


Out on the run about to head up Tobogan Hill chasing down the guy ahead of me...


passed him coming back down (that hill was brutal!)...


a long sandy finish... Results haven't been posted yet, but I was 9th across the line (possibly 8th). Will update with offical results when they become available... Either way, still some good XTERRA qualifying points for me in my quest for Nationals
**Update: Official Results HERE**


Overall Winners... D-Booth 2nd overall!!!


R-Booth, first place in AG for the Duathlon Race... Reciever of a pimped out bobble-head trophy.


Fun race in the books. Now contemplating what to do next weekend... instead of racing might opt to get in some long slow paced mileage... we'll see.

Carl Hart Mothers Day Duathlon

It was cold, very windy, and I was getting muscle cramps in the car on the way to this race courtesy of yesterday's run. I don't know what kind of irrational thinking got me to the starting line, but I made it. And once we got started I surprisingly didn't feel too bad. Both runs were pretty standard. The bike was a little tricky, the wind played a significant role with gusts up to 50mph. Rick helped me make the last minute decision to run my standard spoked training wheel on the front versus my 808, and I definitely think that helped keep me straight.

Finished 6th Overall, 2nd in my Age Group.

Rick ended up 1st overall Relay with daughter Amanda doing the running for him.

Official RESULTS

Avg. HR 151, Max HR 163

Now hopefully a more restful week in preparation for XTERRA King of the Hill next weekend. Need to get me some XTERRA ranking points!!!

Greenbelt Trail 25K

Brian and I ran this one together... In short, I was not ready for this. I over estimated my fitness and under estimated the trail. Not a good combo... Went out too fast, made it to the halfway turn around in 1:13, and then hit a wall that I haven't hit in a long time and really struggled on the way back. Brian was very patient with me and my bonk, and helped me keep moving to the end. He kept himself entertained with hill sprints as I took my sweet time. His form is really starting to come together, mine on the other hand, has a long way to go. We crossed the line in 2:49:26 (which included about 10+ minutes of getting lost) Official results HERE. I was seriously exhausted, and he could have done it all over again!!! Crazy. But the positive is that I learned several things, like...

• Force myself to walk up steeper hills to conserve energy, especially early in a race.
• Trail running with compression socks look ridiculous, but is even awesomer than I anticipated.
• Aquaphor between the toes, on the balls your feet and around the heel, work really well to prevent blisters.
• I need to remember to take in more nutrition while on the trail. I was forgetting to eat.
• My Salomon XD PRO 3D ULTRA shoes (pictured below) worked really well for this: comfortable, low profile sole, good rock plate, heavy duty toe guard (saved me a few times!), and nice lace system.

The plan was to capture a lot more of the race on video, but for some reason I couldn't get the camera to the right setting... Brian finally figured out how to do it with about a mile to go, and here is the result. Nothing to exciting, but you get the picture...I was delirious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk5YCV2um8k

This is us at after the race...

These are the shoes that got me through it... love them.

I think we'll be back next year...definitely some unfinished business.

Greenwich Biathlon

Had a harder time than I thought I would recovering from the Du Nationals weekend… The few workouts that I managed last week where all sluggish and painful. On Saturday I went for a 2.5 hours ride with Kristin, and had a hard time getting my HR over 108bpm, I think my average for the ride was 95bpm… I’ve never biked that slow before!!! After the ride I went down to the track for a few laps, my HR then decided to skyrocket. I didn’t last very long, after about 20minutes of regular running, and 10 minutes of barefoot running I called it a day.

My brother got engaged on Saturday afternoon (very exciting!) so we went into the city to meet the families for an eating throw-down at a Churrascaria Plataforma. I came in second only to Kristin who put on a epic demonstration of human stomach capacity…. It was a little disturbing, one of the waiters wanted her autograph.

After a sleepless night of meat-sweats, we weren’t thrilled about racing. We got ourselves down to the race site at 6am, racked our bikes and went off to warm up for the 7am start… after about 30 minutes of slow running and a few bathroom breaks I started to feel more normal… Kristin, not so much.

The race itself was pretty uneventful… had a good run (2.5miles), good bike (10miles), good run (2.5miles). Felt better than I thought I would considering the night before. No splits available, but my overall time was about 2.5 minutes faster than I’ve ever done this race, so I was happy. My new running technique seems to be paying off. I'm feeling much more comfortable at a faster speed, and keeping up with people that would normally run right by me. Kristin ended up having a pretty good race too despite her stomach issues.

I was 9th overall, Kristin was 2nd overall female.
Full results HERE

Next up: Greenbelt Trail 25K and Carl Hart Mother's Day Duathlon

Duathlon Nationals Weekend

This past weekend K and I went down to Richmond for an awesome weekend of racing... Saturday was the Off-Road Duathlon Race a very tough 11K 25K 3.5K. I raced while Kristin watched (she was resting up for the on-road event on Sunday). The trails where impresive for so many reasons, I've never seen such a great singletrack trail network within minutes of a downtown area. Here is a video of the highlights of the mtb course. Its speaks for itself.

The first run, althought fun, kicked my butt. Basically a super hard effort for 55minutes before I even got to the bike. Once on the bike, I thought I was going to have a chance to recover at least for a little bit, but it took me a good 40 minutes before I started to feel strong. Up and down stairs, flying through singletrack and over narrow bridges. I was glad I had a full 100oz of water in my camelback because there was little opportunity to take your hands of the bars to drink. The one mistake I made was forgetting my gloves in transition, and with my sweaty hands my grips where as slick as ice. Probably costs me a minute or two over the course of the ride, because I had to be a little more cautious in tricky sections and the death grip I had to maintain probably caused a little extra fatigue.

By the end of the bike I was pretty cooked. But the last run was only 3.5K and pretty flat and I actually felt pretty good once I got going, even had a little kick left to get across the line. Which I did after a total of 2hrs and 28mins.
I had no idea at the time, but I ended up winning my Age Group! I knew I had a pretty good race, without any mechanicals or flats, but winning was a complete shocker. I learned the news from Kristin who came running over from the results board. I think she was more excited than me!!!! I then learned that there were only 2 finishers in our Age Group, but there were many more that started, so I guess just finishing was an accomplishment.

Sunday came pretty quickly. The On Road Duathlon Nationals, a pretty flat and very fast 5Krun / 40Kbike / 5Krun. I felt surprisingly OK after a long slow warm up. the starting gun sounded and some of the fast runners where out of site within seconds... Unbelievable! I just continued running my race and trying to get to the bike as quickly as possible. My split was 20:05 (6:28 pace). The bike leg was fun. 3 laps of a figure 8 course. Very spectator freindly as it passed transition 6 times. Rarely did I have to get out of my aero position. My split was 1:04:17 (22mph). Only thing I wish I did differently was bring another water bottle. One wasn't enough. Then came the run, I was hurting and Saturday's race started to catch up with me. But I only let one guy pass me, so I guess I wasn't the only one suffering. My split was 21:19 (6:52 pace) so not too bad. Earned myself 14th place in my Age Group, and qualified for to be part of "Team USA" at The Duathlon World Championships in Scotland. Will I go? Probably not, but still cool to say I qualified for "Team USA".

Kristin had a great race. Her goal was to qualify for Team USA, and she definately did, finishing 5th in her age group... in the nation... crazy!!! So proud of her. All of her training is starting to really pay off. She loved the course and was all smiles the whole way through. She's already looking forward to Scotland!

Full race results HERE (the virtual race tracker is pretty cool... we were all racing with GPS chips around our ankles)

Next Race: Greenwich Biathlon

Fat Tire Classic

Fun day at Winding Trails in Farmington, CT. Brian came up and did his first mtb race ever. After his race, we had about 2 hours to kill before mine, so we did a 30 min run previewing some of the terrain...

The Trails were great for racing: fast and flowy and not too hilly, not too wet. I wanted to avoid getting caught up in the start nonsense, so I started slow and at the back. My goal was just to get a sense of where I'm at fitness-wise, and to get my mtb (which has been plagued with mechanical issues all winter/spring) dialed-in for next weekend. The race was 3 loops, 16 miles total. About 5 miles in I felt great, and my bike was working perfectly, so I turned it up and raced the hell out of the next 11 miles... I started steadily picking off riders and moving from about 25th place up to where I ended up finishing in 9th place. Was fun to race like that. I normally go out a little too quick and struggle to hold, but this is way more enjoyable.

This photo is with about 2 miles to go. The beginning of a fun drag race to the finish with the guy in red behind me. He ended up popping on a short muddy climb right before the finish.

Coming across the finish line in 1hr 22mins. Good for 9th Place Cat 2 M 30-39
Yep that hurt... Quads burning!
Results HERE

Glad to have a good race under my belt... Now looking forward to Duathlon Nationals next weekend. Doing both the Off Road event on Saturday, and the On Road event on Sunday... It's gonna be rough!

Racing Season!!!

It's almost time! The Fat Tire classic this coming weekend is the first race in a 6 week stretch that includes 8 races, 5 of which I've never done before. This is my version of spring training I guess. Very exciting, hope my body stays intact. Will be posting photos and recaps here.

Book Review #4

Very enjoyable read, nicely written. I think everyone can relate somehow. I especially like that he shares my enthusiasm for Hawaiian Pizza... and that he gives valuable advise on how to roll it up and eat it on the run. 4 out of 5 for this one...

Here is some quick vid nonsense from todays ride... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkmRLlTcN7o