Going into a race, there are many feelings that flow through my body. Some races have me nearly wetting my pants I get so excited. New races bring the excitement and anxiousness of unknown possibilities. While others have me dreading the inevitable pain I will put myself through. The XTERRA USA Championship in Ogden, UT is mostly the latter. It can be hard to get motivated when you know the suffering that is to come, but finally by Friday morning before the race, I found it.

Hitting the trails that morning for the final pre ride with Craig, Boobs, Luke, and Branden must have done the trick. The colors were absolutely amazing at that time of year with orange, red, yellow, and a few green leaves creating a colorful kaleidoscope surrounding the smooth single track of Snow Basin. We laughed as much as we pedaled and by the end of it, I found the mental state I needed to be in to have a good race.

On race morning, I was super duper mega excited to finally get to race in my BlueSeventy Helix wetsuit. So many of the races have been non wetsuit swims for the pros this year, that my speed suit saw way more action than my wettie. I figured if this suit was good enough for the Caveman, it’s good enough for me. I’ve never owned a suit quite like this and I was so excited to finally see it in action.

Despite the fact that I got absolutely pounded during the first couple hundred meters (Those Brits are rough), I kept my mind focused and had my best swim to date. How do I know it was my best? I’ll tell you. I base all of my race swims off of the lead swimmers. That way there is no wondering if the course was short or long. I was either slow or not. And that day, I was not.

As I sped through transition and hopped onto my bike, I was a little confused. “What are you doing back here?!?” I thought to myself as I surveyed my competition. Then I realized “Holy crap! They aren’t back here. I’m up there!”

I wish I could say that my bike performance made me just as happy as my swim, but it just wasn’t my day. I wasn’t slow, but I wasn’t stellar either. The legs weren’t feeling it on the bike, so I settled into a comfortable groove on the uphills and tried to absolutely rip the descents. I’m still not sure exactly how they knew, but my legs told me that they could run fast that day. With that in mind, I kept calm and collected as I was caught by a few guys and passed a few on the bike.

Then came my moment to shine. As we hit T2 and blasted through, the field was completely stacked on top of each other. 12th place through 6th exited T2 about 1 minute apart from each other. I felt comfortable and more importantly confident in my abilities as we dashed off into the woods. I started picking them off one by one and with less than 2 miles of straight downhill to go, I caught the last two guys I knew were catchable (Ryan Ignatz and Cody Waite). I surged and the smile on my face grew.

I fought off the cramps in every leg muscle I had (and a few I didn’t know about until later) and was able to keep my lead on those two and crossed the line in 7th place. I was a bit surprised I was able to do that! My coach, my girlfriend, and fellow racers had all said they knew I could do it, but I didn’t quite believe it until I did it. What an amazing feeling! And with that finish I was able to maintain my 6th place ranking in the USA Pro Points Series for 2012. Yippie!

It was time to celebrate! So what did we do? Learn to surf sounds like a fun idea!?! I’d never surfed behind a boat before, so it seemed like time to try it out.

Surfing that afternoon and a giant piece of chocolate cake that night was about the craziest celebration you can expect in Utah, but I certainly wasn’t complaining. All and all, what a great way to end the off-road season.

A huge thanks to Timex, Rudy Project, PowerBar, Holy Crap, and my newest sponsor Peak Performance Acupuncture for all the support that helped to make the culmination of my XTERRA season a huge success!

What better way to spend your birthday than to head to Mexico for a race?! Last year I celebrated my 30th in the small town of Tapalpa and had so much fun, I went back for my 31st.

Not a bad place to spend a week

I could get used to this view

Out pre running on part of the bike course

Another pre run. Checking out the part of the run through town. Cool stuff!

Out pre riding the course with most of the pro field. That’s how we roll.

Hanging out in town square after checking out the run course

The race was a total blast and loaded with excitement! There were some fast swimmers out there and I had the usual “Out of the water 4 minutes down from the leaders” swim. So there was a bit of moving up to do on the bike.

I’ve only had the feeling that I had as I jumped on the bike a few times, but I need to figure out how to have it all the time. LIGHT AS A FEATHER! I couldn’t believe how great my legs felt. I quickly started to move up to the leaders (I was given time splits by spectators).

As usual, I was pushing it all out on the most technical, dangerous, and hence most fun stuff. There were giant mud puddles everywhere from the rain the day before. 19 out of 20 of those I rode through no problem. That 1 that I didn’t was a little rough. I launched over the bars Superman style at full speed, tumbled down a hill, and the rolled around in pain for a minute or two. It hurt pretty bad, but after a few minutes of soft pedaling I was able to get back on it. I think it was the adrenaline.

Not knowing if I would be able to run, I pushed it into T2. I dropped one guy who had caught up to me, but I couldn’t shake the other guy. Turns out he was an Olympic mountain biker. Oh… that’s probably why I couldn’t drop him ;-)

Luckily for me, I was able to run (still thinking the adrenaline had a lot to do with it). I put enough time into my pursuers that when the adrenaline finally wore off on the second lap of the run, I could back it off a little bit and still hold my position.

I came flying down the stairs to the finish line to be treated to one of the most special finishes I’ve ever had. A banner with my name on it! How often does that happen?!?

I was stoked to have held onto 3rd despite one of, if not the, hardest crashes I have ever had in a race. Branden and Paco battled it out from the gun and only during the final lap of the run, was Paco able to edge out Branden. Wish I could have been up there with those guys, but it’ll have to wait til next year!

This was an absolute whirlwind of a trip. I received the call asking if I’d want to go to Brazil to do a couple of races and less than 9 days later, I had my visa and was on a plane to Brazil. Not that it was easy to get all that together (in fact it was quite the opposite).

With over 30 hours of travel time to get there (and back) in only 4 days, my form was not quite up to par. But hey, I was in Brazil! The trip was originally planned to be a day longer, but the visa processing agency screwed things up royally and I didn’t have my visa and passport until 9:30am Thursday morning (an hour and a half after my flight left). I hopped on another flight to Miami just a few hours later. If the visa agency had processed my visa in the same manner that the taxi driver took me from the airport to my hotel in Brazil, I would have had it in the blink of an eye. That guy had all four tires squealing on our SUV and we careened down narrow two lane roads to Santa Barbara.

If you are looking to do a superbly organized race in an exotic location, then I have to recommend XTERRA Brazil. Bernardo, the man with the plan in Brazil, had everything sorted out perfectly. I was incredibly impressed with the whole set up. They had a duathlon Saturday morning, a night run Saturday evening, and a mountain bike race Sunday. It was an entire weekend of off-road fun.

As soon as I arrived, I put the bike together and was off to the pre race meeting/dinner. Along the way, I got a glimpse of why big trucks shouldn’t go down steep roads. There was a pretty big scene surrounding all of it. What a hoot!

The morning of the race I got a real treat as I walked into the breakfast hall. CAKES! SWEETS! YUMMY DESSERTS! If you know me, then you know I have a sweet tooth. The giant buffet of colorful cakes and sugary goodness had me salivating at 7am. But I mustn’t forget, I have a race!

The duathlon was 3k run, 35k mountain bike, 9k run. There were some really interesting parts of the course, but to my disappointment, there was no single track on the bike or run. Some beautiful double track through gorgeous country side, but no single track. I’ve written about my strengths and weaknesses before and I know this is not my ideal type course. That, along with the injury I had developed from sitting in a car for 14 hours on the drive back from North Dakota, did not bode well for me as the gun went off and the racers took off.

I was so concerned with my leg and the injury, I was hardly paying attention to where I was overall in the first run and coming into T1. Had I been paying better attention, I would have seen that I was just off pace from the lead pack of 3. Ideally I would have been with them coming out of T1 and onto the bike, but alas, I was just 10 seconds back. I couldn’t bridge the gap and after passing just one of the guys, I consequently ended up riding the majority of the bike by myself in 3rd. I had lost over 2 minutes to the 2 leaders, and knew that I would have to run like hell to hold off my pursuers.

Hobbling most of the second run, I couldn’t keep from getting caught by one guy. I kept on pushing worried that I was moving slow enough to get caught by more runners, but luckily I was able to keep them away and hold on for 4th.

Suzie Snyder, the other American to travel down for the weekend, had a much better race and took the win. That made 2 for 2 for Team Luna Chix as Suzie’s teammate and former XTERRA World Champion Shonny Vanlandingham took the win at the XTERRA Brazil Championship in Manaus the week before.

Suzie and I were a bit smoked and sore from the race that morning that we didn’t take part in the 6k night run that evening. We instead cheered the athletes on as they navigated a similar run course to what we did that morning, but using headlamps and a more cautious step.

The next morning it was back to the start line for a 65 km mountain bike race. In the rush that I left the house earlier that week, I forgot my heart rate monitor strap. And I don’t have power on my mountain bike either, so it was a bit more of a “play it by feel” type race. Here is the GPS file that I have from my Timex Global Trainer. If I had had power and heart rate, it would be easier for you to see that the race involved a lot of attacks uphill (led by the smaller guys) and attacks downhill (led by yours truly). In the end, there were more uphills than downhills and I crossed the line in 5th for the pros. A bit disappointing, but again, I knew going into it that I wasn’t the best dirt road rider out there.

Sticking with that whirlwind theme, as soon as we finished, Suzie and I had to clean up, eat, pack the bikes, stop by for the awards, and then jet off to the airport to fly home. The trip left me wanting more and I really, really hope I get the invite back again for another one of the amazing Brazilian races. Now it’s time to prep for the XTERRA Mountain Championship in Beaver Creek, CO on the 14th.

In the words of Dave “Kahuna” Nicholas – “It only took you 10 years to become an over night sensation.”

On June 10th, I had my best finish ever at an XTERRA regional race. These are the big races in the states where all the fastest guys come together and I couldn’t have been happier to be in the mix of it and finish on the podium.

One of the most exciting things for me, was showing that what happened at the ITU Cross Triathlon World Champs wasn’t a fluke.  I was able to ride and run my way up to the front of the race again, and if I can ever learn how to swim faster (maybe this could help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS589zKAlnY) I could be in contention for the win.

The race started out with the usual “few minutes back” swim for me. But just like Cross Worlds, I didn’t let that deter me. I grabbed my GPS tracking chip that Luck Stone had set up for all the pros, and took off like a rocket out of T1. These GPS chips allowed anyone with computer access or at the venue to watch the pro race unfold live! Pretty cool stuff and I really see this as a key way to grow the sport.

On the bike, I put my mountain bike skillz (yes skillz with a “z”) to use and worked my way up. At one point, I passed Branden Rakita and moved into 3rd. 3rd place! I’ve never been in 3rd at a big race like this. It wasn’t long lasting though as Josiah Middaugh blasted by us throwing down some insane power. I was able to hold onto him (after he backed off a little) and we cruised into T2 together in 3rd and 4th.

My legs weren’t quite as sharp as the last race, but they still had some get up and go. Josiah took off and eventually ran down Criag Evans for 2nd place. I plugged along for the first half of the run, with Branden gaining on me. Once we hit the wooded singletrack and river crossing though, I got my second wind. I picked up the pace to open up a bit of a gap on Branden and cross the finish line in 4th. That’s right, 4th!

After the race, my face hurt more than my legs. I couldn’t wipe the ear-to-ear grin from my sweaty mug. The IV helped me bounce back so that I could rally and celebrate with a few beers with everyone later that evening.

I was stoked to be able to tell my sponsors - Timex, Rudy Project, PowerBar,Holy Crap, LifeSport Chiro - that I did them proud again and they could expect a lot more of the same.

This now moves me up to 7th in the XTERRA USA Pro Points Series. So come July 14th, I’ll be toeing the line in Beaver Creek, CO for the XTERRA Mountain Championship. I can’t wait!

What exactly was the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship down in Birmingham, AL back in May? It was the 2nd off-road triathlon world championship put on by the ITU.  It’s multi-lap triathlon racing that is, what I believe to be, the future of off-road tri. Spectator friendly, sponsor friendly, TV friendly, excitement filled racing. It is XTERRA and ITU working together to create a true off-road world series, with the potential of being in the Olympics (hopefully).

On May 19th, I got to take part in my first Cross Tri World Champs (I missed qualifying for the 2011 race by 11 seconds). I was really excited, but for the first time in a long time, I was also quite nervous. I have been working with my new coach, Grant Holicky,  for just over a year and a half now and it’s starting to show. I knew what I was now capable of, and to be quite frank, it scared me a little that I was ready to do it. I had nailed down all the details (pre and during race), so the only thing left to do, was get my head in the game. And boy did I!

I took off in the swim, treating it like a time trial (rather than a tri swim were I would normally conserve some). I knew I was towards the back of the field, but didn’t care. I was going as hard as I could as if the race was over when I exited the water. Which, if I had a different attitude, it would have been. I exited the water 23rd out of 24. It was my bike and 1 other in transition.

Right away I told myself  ”Forget about that and just follow the race plan that we (Grant and I) had created.” Good thing I did because it took me from 23rd into T1 to 8th into T2. That’s right, I rode through more than 50% of the field during the 3 lap, 30k  mountain bike.

Coming into and out of T2, I was right behind Josiah Middaugh. Was I excited? Was I scared? HELL YES! Josiah is one of the fastest runners on the XTERRA circuit, but I told myself “I just rode like a beast, time to run like one!” Though I wasn’t able to hang with him, I wasn’t far behind (30 seconds). I moved up 2 more spots to 6th and had to battle Kelly Guest for it on the 2nd 5k lap of the 10k trail run. I eventually gapped him and was approaching Richard Stannard in 5th as I crossed the line. Click here for complete results.

It was one  hell of a fast race and I was stoked to be in the mix of it – 6th overall, 3rd American.  A huge shout out goes to my buddy Craig Evans on an absolutely stellar performance to finish 2nd behind the now 6x world champ Conrad Stoltz. And a big thanks to Timex, my title sponsor, who has helped to make the dream come true. I can’t wait for the next one!!!