So since I wore a trifuel jersey for the race, I figured that I would share my race story from Xterra Miami with you all. You might not think that Miami is much of a place for mountain biking but Oleta River State Park actually has some decent and challenging trails.
I have never done an Xterra race before and since I mostly do Ironman distance races, I usually don't get out much on my mountain bike but I figured it would be fun to do something different.
The race started off well. I came out of the swim feeling good and ready to go. Got on the bike started to do my 2 loop mtn bike ride. The first loop went really well since I passed some people. The total bike course was a little over 18 miles so with 9 left, I felt pretty good. Started my second loop and everything started clicking. That was until mile 12 when my chain snapped. Thankfully, I had a spare link so as annoying as the break was, I was going to be able to finish. That is until the next turn when I hit a root and snapped the chain again. Not very lucky!!!
Left with little options, I decided to run the rest of the trails with my bike. As an FYI to everyone out there, running in mtn bike cleats is actually really hard. To make a long story short, I ran the rest of the trails with tons of encouragement from the race volunteers who were absolutely awesome.
The fun wouldn't stop there though because when I finally started running, I missed a crucial sign and totally went in the wrong direction for about a mile turning a 6 mile run into 7 miles. Thanks to Gomez, the race director, I was able to get back on the trail and finished the race, and amazingly did not come in last (I think I finished 4th to last) and did it all with a big smile on my face. And, I will definitely be back at another Xterra event to try the mtn bike again.
Just figured I would share my funny story with you guys. In case you ever have a bad training session or race, you can look at this and imagine how bad my legs feel right now.