DINO New Castle XTERRA

I haven't been posting much, for no good reason. Well, other than being lazy I guess.

Ted did a nice job with the write-up for XTERRA ONE. Seems like whenever I make a decent trip with Ted the result is a good thing. Last year we went to Tennessee together and I got my first ever podium finish. Well, we made a trip to Ohio, and I once again came home with a 2nd place finish. I've decided that road trips racing with Ted are a good thing, even though the long drive sucks.

Coming off of my 2nd place in Ohio, Ted talked me into going to New Castle. I wasn't feeling it and was ready for a weekend off. Nisha made a good point though: once winter rolls around and 'cross season is over, I'll be kicking myself for not taking advantage of ever race I could. Sold.

Ted, Ken, and I made the drive down Friday night. We got a late start, we had planned on leaving around 1 pm to get a good pre-ride in. Arriving around 7:30 left us enough time to get in the first 3 miles of the course just in time to turn around and get stranded on the trails in the dark. We made it back safe and got ourselves a hotel.

The morning of the race, Tim showed up for the pre-ride early (he left later and slept in his car) while we set up in transition. With nearly the whole team assembled, we were ready to make an impact in New Castle. Tim, Ted, Ken, Cheryl, Derrick, and myself all showed up ready to race.

The gun went off and into the water we went. I haven't done any swim training this year (save for about 6,000m in 7 months...total), so I haven't seen Ted after the swim start since '07. I'll happily give up that minute or so in the water for my other gains, though.

The swim was uneventful through the swim out. At the first turn I took a foot to the face and incurred a rush of water into my goggles. I stopped for about 5 seconds to get them fixed and was back off. At the second turn I picked out some green sleeves and realized it was Tim. I latched onto his feet and made my way to shore.

Tim and I made our way into T1 right next to each other, and left in quick fashion together as well. That was all I saw of Tim's trail. I calmed my HR and got into a groove for about a mile, when I heard Tim yell to keep pushing. I looked up to see where he was and promptly lost my balance in a tight, uphill switchback. DOH!

Back onto the bike and I was off. About 6 miles in someone comes up behind me and tells me he lives across the street from the park and essentially gives me a guided tour for about 3 miles. The final mile I rode right behind him with Brian Hanson right behind me. I got a chance to meet Brian at Torn Shirt about a month back and knew if I was with him at this point I was happy with my positioning.

The final mile or so was pretty uneventful and I came into T2 easily in the top 20. I leave T2 with with Brian who wastes no time dropping me, but I also left T2 with Cheryl. We run together for about a quarter mile, and I was lucky enough to have the legs to pull ahead of her for the first time!

The remainder of the run went more or less as planned, and was very lonely. In 2007 I got used to being further back in the pack which meant a lot more people were around. I was passed by 2 people, passed 2 others, and finished all alone.

Once all is said and done, Ted won his AG, Tim took 2nd in ours, I took 3rd. Derrick 3rd in his AG, but none of this compares to Cheryl taking yet another overall female win!

Team Get a Grip Offroad left New Castle with 5 people in the top 10 overall, which seems pretty solid for a team if you ask me. Right now we are on pace to finish well in the overall standings in the North Central Region, but I'll bite my tongue until we can finish off with our best.