A race when just finishing became an accomplishment regardless of the results.
When the rain came down across the Maui mountains, Xterra World Championships was about to become a mud bath and a Swim, Hike, Run.
The course was set to be fast dry race on the Wednesday before the race, the course was well suited to me and one that I prepared for. With many long sleep climbs, even the slightest down pour was going to make the climbs un rideable.
Maggie and I arrived on the Tuesday before the race on the Sunday, and after a long flight and taxi transfer to the hotel, we settled in for our time in Maui. The event was hosted by the Ritz-Carlton at Maui and it was very nice thanks to the gratitude of my Parents to be able to stay at the Ritz at the door step of the start line. If you ever get the chance to stay in Maui around the Kapalua resort, the restaurants outside of the Ritz, are the places to go to eat, Taverna was our favourite and was really well prices compared to the rest. Also the ABC shop had a good little cafe inside which was about half the price of the Ritz for just coffee alone $4usd instead of $8usd for a small flat white.
The 1500m swim leg was held at the beach of Ritz, and was a two lap 750m swim, which a long run up the hill to transition. The swim leg was hosted some good swell and was one of the choppiest swim's I have done to date. Coming out of the water in 6th I was well positioned into the bike leg.
The Maui mountains was the backdrop to the 35km bike leg, and consisted of 3 major climbs with a number of smaller sharp pinches, the course its self its not over technical and is what many would consider mostly double track instead of single track. Rain covered the course in the 3 days leading up to the race which made the bike leg times appox 30min longer then previous year and my practice lap on Wednesday (dry) was 30min faster then my race day(wet), due to the amount of walking that you needed to do, the descents were extremely slippery and made for a really dangerous bike leg. About 5km into the bike ride I had passed the leader out of the water, but after that countless amounts of stoppages and technical issues with the mud clogging up my bike, I lost a lot of time trying to just made the bike ridable. Wheels wouldn't turn due to the mud clogging up on the frame and fork. Chain wouldn't stay on the front chain ring because of the mud lifting it off, gears wouldn't shift because of the derailleur being covered in mud, just to name a few, excluding the number of falls I took.
After surviving the bike leg, it was onto the run, Transition took a bit longer then normal and I couldn't get my mud clogged shoes off because the mud and set inside the buckle. I thought at one stage I am going to have to run in my cycling shoes for 10km. The run was pretty un eventful I did pass a couple of people but the damage was done after the bike leg, and made the run really hard mentally, I face planted many times of the run, after slipping over countless times. But crossed the line 15th out of 40. Not the number I wanted, but when you can't race the bike leg,it makes for a hard day. I wasn't under prepared, I didn't under estimate the course, I just couldn't compete.
