Crave To Race: Moab Xterra

This past weekend Abbie and I went down to Moab to compete in the TriUtah Festival with a few friends. We left Thursday night and spent Friday 4X4-ing in Canyonlands which was a blast, minus the new scratch I put on my truck. On Saturday morning we headed to Ken's Lake where both the Tri-Utah and Xterra were holding their events. I warmed up on my trainer and was feeling ready for the race. The first 200m of the swim was hard to get moving due to the cold temperature of the lake, but I got into a rhythm and came out of the water somewhere in the middle.

The bike ride on the famous "Steel Bender Trail" was difficult, but I felt ready for the ride and by the time I hit mile 6.5 the volunteer told me I was in the top 15 overall. As I hit a little over mile 7 I saw a few people in the distance already making there way back and I knew the turn-around was coming up. The spacing between the top 15 people were pretty scarce on the way back and I only passed 3 more people till I got to T2, and thats where my race disaster happened.

I drank an FRS, threw on my running shoes and took off on the run. The first 5K went pretty smooth; my time was around 30 minutes for the first lap and then it felt like someone had punched me in my right side. I literally could not move my side or breathe. I tried every possible way to get rid of my side ache and nothing was working. I slowed way down and had about 35 people pass me which got me down, but I still ended up 2nd overall in my age group.

Abbie (my wife), Wes (brother-in-law), and Lauren (friend) all placed in their age groups. The triathlon festival was a blast!