I have been thinking about trying out an Xterra race for quite some time now, but wanted to have a decent mountain bike to do it on, mine was over 18 years old. I got the new 29er hardtail a few weeks ago and signed up for the Buffalo Creek race. The race would be the 4th time on the bike, either way it was a smaller Xterra race with a small pro fields, I thought I would do great. The venue was near Conifer about 1/2 south west of Denver in the foothills. It was private land connected to some great single track mountain bike trails.
The lake could have used some water in it, apparently the lake is private and they sell the water to farmers. Anyway the swim course was to be two short shallow loops making up the 1 mile swim. Waves were started according to swim times, pros did not have their own wave. So we started in one large wave and I took off in the lead right from the beginning. The 2nd loop was a little congested and I ran into a few other swimmers crossing the out and back in the wrong direction. Either way I exited the water with a 3 minute lead and headed onto the bike. I was not sure when the leaders would catch me, but I knew they would on the bike. The bike started with a fast dirt road 3 mile decent to the single track trails. I think I was at about mile 6 or so when I heard them behind me, since it was single track you have to find an area to let them pass. That was not an issue as they were heading up and down the path faster than I was. It seemed like the fast singletrack they would take much more risk that I was and that is where I was loosing ground fast. I also thought I was lost a few times on the bike course, but was not all that worried since it was so beautiful and fun to ride. The last 3 miles of the 20 mile course were back up that dirt road we had descended. I was in 6th place now. Onto the run was again single track, through great trails, up hill and down, through streams, over bridges, etc. It was a pretty fun trail run, I passed one other guy to move into 6th and held 6 min per mile pace on the 5 mile trail. When I was passing the one guy I thought it would be a good idea to pass quickly and picked up the pace, but right after the pass I turned my left ankle on a root pretty good and had to slow down a little.
Crossing the line in 5th place (the results said 4th at the race, until I checked writing this) I think was pretty good for my first Xterra race, I need to work on my MTB skills, but the new 29er Fuji hardtail was flawless the entire race. I think next season I will throw some of these Xterra races into the mix for fun, as they are always in a great area.
Swim - 21:12
T1 - 1:01
Bike - 1:35:02
T2 - 0:42
Run - 30.00
Total - 2:27:54.9
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