With this triathlon bug I have come down with I signed up myself and my business partner Dave to do the Xterra Mountain Sport in Ogden. Holy hard is all I can say, what a day! Xterra is the off-rode triathlon. It’s a run, bike and a swim with a twist. Instead of: swim in the lake, bike usually a long flat road and then a run on the same road, the Xterra is a swim in the lake, mountain bike up, up, up a one lane mountain trail over rocks, branches (and other people) and run up yet another mountain. I would have to say this was probably one of the most challenging things physically and mentally I have ever done.

The weekend started out pretty frustrating from the start. I had to rent a mountain bike because mine is horrible. I was never able to find a good rental so I had to settle on a Diamondback full suspension rental that probably had the cheapest component set on the market. The drive up to Ogden/Snowbasin took 2 times as long as it should have because of the traffic and to top it off I forgot my wetsuit and clip in pedals. The pedals are what really got me nervous. The rental pedals were worn down plastic clunkers with no clips or straps. I kept imagining myself slipping off the pedals continuously during the race. The funny this is the exact opposite it what happened.

On Friday night before the race we went to the athlete check-in. The race venue was awesome. Tons of sponsors booths, a live band, fun stuff for the kids, food, the Xterra University tent with the top pros. One of a kind. We also got the cool stamp on numbers you see in the Ironman races instead of the usual Sharpied numbers. We had a fun time, Broc was able to climb the rock wall and rappel down, Bailey played on the playground for a while and me and Dave learned a bunch from the best Xterra athletes in the world at the “University tent”. We then went to a local Italian restaurant on the historic 25th street and had a good meal to prepare for the race ahead of us.

Saturday morning it was 7:00am and I was flustered even before the race had started. I am usually in a calm, focused mood before a triathlon but I couldn’t stop thinking of the plastic pedals I had to race with. We went the night before after dinner to Wal-mart to find some cheap cage pedals but with no luck. Dave sang some songs to me and turned on some upbeat music to get me into a better mood and it helped. I finally decided to ask one of the sponsors, Bikers Edge from Kaysville, and lo and behold they had the clip-ins I needed. What a relief they were, I can’t thank them enough. Go check them out if you need any cycling stuff http://www.bebikes.com/. I was feeling pretty good after finding the pedals, I had brought my clip in shoes so I was now ready for the race. We had to set up our bike and swim gear at the first transition and then drive up the mountain to set up our run gear at transition two. Dave and I got kind of nervous after driving up the mountain and realizing we would have to bike up that same rout with over 3,000 feet of rugged off-rode trails. We took a bus back down to T1 where the full-distance was just about to start. Some people on the bus were doing the full-distance and were stressed because they almost missed the start but congrats to whoever the lady behind me was for actually making it and finishing 2nd overall in her age group. We had about 20 minutes to wait for the sport distance to start and I started getting nervous again. It was getting pretty cold out and I forgot my wetsuit so I wasn’t looking forward to jumping in the water.

After testing the water in Pineview reservoir I was pleasantly surprised that the water felt perfect. The race was seconds from starting and I was ready to go. With the canon sounding I was off and the human blender started. More than any other race, this swim was crazy! I was getting kicked and grabbed and punched and it was nuts. I was still able to pull out a good swim, it wasn’t as fast as I wanted but what could I expect without my wetsuit. I exited the water at around 15 minutes. T1 went good and fast ( The timers didn’t actually get my time so it seems they made one up) and I was off on my bike.