Yaro Middaugh is right behind me in the standings so I'll be looking out for him this race. I don't know much about him, but I know he is the brother of Xterra pro Josiah, so if speed runs in the family, he must be fast.
How the point series works: you get points at each race based on how well you place. Your 3 best races are counted to determine your ranking.
Currently I'm in first place with 217 points. Yaro is right behind me and if he finishes in first at this race, he will pass me in the final standings. If he finishes second, we will be tied and it will go down to a tiebreaker. If I finish first at this race, then I will clinch the series and successfully defend the title I have held for the past 3 years.
As soon as I left for this trip, nothing was going right for me. During the drive there, the interstate got shut down due to flooding, so I was parked on the 80/94 at the IL/IN border for 3 hours before traffic was rerouted. This made a 3 1/2 hour trip into a 7 hour trip.
The morning of the race I noticed my front wheel was slowly leaking air. I had the same problem at the Torn Shirt race and it essentially ruined my race. I did not want to have that happen again so I went to work trying to fix it. After about an hour, I could not fix it to my satisfaction so I switched to my heavier back up wheel.
After that, I got on my bike to start my pre-race warm up. After less than 10 minutes of riding I get a stick jammed in my derailleur and it bends my hanger. I bend it back in place but the damage is done. The bike ghost shifts any time I apply pressure to the pedals and is unrideable. Luckily I travel to races with 2 bikes so I hurried back to my car to swap bikes.
I make it down to the beach in the middle of the pre-race meeting. Even though nothing went right so far, I still have my focus. At the gun I'm looking for Jim James and I go as hard as I can to stay on his feet. It's nice to be racing at sea level again. An effort like this last week in Utah would have destroyed me. I exit the water in 6th place.
I get on the bike a little worn out from the swim, but I see Bruce Pisarek right in front of me. He's a great mountain biker so I need to stay with him. He might be able to help me bridge the gap to the leaders. About 1 mile in I get another stick jammed in my derailleur on a steep uphill. Luckily no damage was done to my bike, but now Bruce is out of sight. I ride solo for about five miles until I catch Brad Myers, another excellent mountain biker. He says he's gassed, but when I pass him he is able to stay on my wheel. As long as we work together we might be able to reel in some of the leaders. With about 5 miles to go, two guys I never raced against come up behind us. One of the two guys passes us decisively and starts to break away. I can't stay with him, but fortunately Brad catches a second wind and bridges the gap to him and pulls me along. After that I sit in at the back of this group making sure I stay fed and hydrated all the way to T2.
Of the group of 4, I come out of T2 first. I'm currently in 5th place. I saw Bruce and Jim running out of transition as I went in. I don't know if Yaro is in front of me or behind me so I am going as fast as I can. About 1/4 mile into the run I'm passed by one guy like I'm standing still. 1 1/2 miles later I'm passed by another guy. I try to pick it up, but I'm at my limit. As I approach a water crossing I have my first crash of the day. Looking for the best line through the water, I don't notice a root and I go down hard on the shoulder I always seem to fall on (the left one). I get up angry and try to use this anger to help me run a little faster. After 4 miles of running alone I finally catch one of the guys that passed me earlier. He pulled up with a cramp and started stretching by the side of the trail. I put in a finishing kick thinking I could still catch someone. It didn't happen.
I finished 6th overall, and 3rd in my age group. Yaro finished 2nd in the AG and the guy who passed me 1/4 mile into the run (Scott Gall) came in first in the age group and 1st overall.
I had the 6th best swim, the seventh best bike and the fourth best run on the day. However the best bikers really out-rode me and the best runners really out-ran me. There is a lot of room for improvement for next year.
After the last race of the year in our region, the standings are:
Ted 217 pts.
Yaro 217 pts.
The way the tie breaker works, I win in the event of a tie. It looks like I should be the champion again provided Yaro or Scott Gall don't travel to Onteora NY and finish in first at the final Xterra point series race of the year.
So far this has been the hardest fought of all my titles and the level of competition is going way up in Xterra.
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