A Road Trip to Xterra Nationals

Well, my trip to Xterra Nationals did not exactly go as planned, but I come away having learned some valuable lessons and  have gained some "forever" memories.

Until the week of the race, my plan was to road trip alone, leaving the kids with Trevor at home.

Trevor, a self-employed contractor, had a big out of town project that just so happened to land on the week of Xterra Nationals. Let's be honest here and say that our lifestyle is not cheap by any means.  Traveling most weekends to races, keeping up the bikes, race fee's, camping expenses, babysitters  ect. it has all added up to quite a lot.  Now that I am the only one still racing, I feel guilty for the expenses that continue to pile up from these races.  How could I expect that I could leave my family for a week, have my husband take time off work to be home with the kids after school and run them around to all their activities?   All this meant that Trevor would not be working and when he does not work we do not make any money.  Well, that just did not seem like a good situation for anyone.  So, I leaned once again on my amazing friends and organized the after school/ activity care until 5pm every day which ensured that Trevor could get in a full day's work.  All was good again.... or so I thought.

The day before I was scheduled to leave, things turned yet again when I received a call from Alleck's school saying that he was feverish and sick.  Apparently fever and throw-ups were going around the elementary school.  Oh great!  Now I have a sick and needy kid home from school, which means both massage and chiropractor appts get cancelled, I do not get to yoga, and my packing is severely interrupted.  I also am feeling pretty stressed out about what to do now.  What if he starts throwing up?  What if Keller gets sick too?   I cannot leave my sick kids with Trevor to deal with.  If he has to leave work that will be bad.  I cannot leave my potentially contagious kids with friends who also have children.... that just is not an option.

Ok.  So I make the decision to bring my kids with me, against the advice of Trevor and my friends. After all, I am a stay-at-home mother and they are MY responsibility. I won't feel guilty for any loss of work or spreading of illness, and I can make this work. I will take them with me and we will have a great time.  My kids were ecstatic. And I did my best to be super mom.

So, having finally made this decision, I put my head down and hammered out all the laundry, packing, shopping and food prep to be on the road for 6 days.  My small galley kitchen turned commercial, as I pumped out the weeks menu.  Pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, spelt berry salad, chicken noodle soup, teryaki chicken and potato salad, muffins, no-bake chocolate peanut butter cookies, tuna salad, hard boiled eggs,  fresh pesto, and pear sauce. In between mixing, chopping and slicing I would tend to my sick little one on the couch who was pretty miserable, and tried not to worry about who would come down with the it next.

I had hoped to leave by mid-morning on Tuesday......... and we finally pulled out of Corvallis about 5:30pm.  From the moment we left our driveway, the boys were incredible.  Keller sat up front with me, which he just thought was the coolest thing ever!  Alleck, a voracious reader, was all set up in the back seat, books piled high, and read one after another.  They were up for anything.  They absolutely love road-trips, seeing new places and meeting new people.

We drove 6 hours that night, passing through Sisters where visibility was minimal due to the forest fires and on to Burns where we stayed in an RV park.  We arrived so late, that finding a space was difficult.  Not wanting to wake anyone, I pulled into the closest grassy spot I could find and we arranged the van for sleeping.  If there is one thing we could do to make our scene a little more user friendly, it would be to get a little trailer to pull behind.  Having the van full of coolers and bags and bins and clothes, it is quite a process to get it ready for sleep.  We all snuggled into the bed below and slept soundly until morning when we were awoken by people and dogs milling about.  We were parked right in the middle of the pet lawn!  We quickly packed back up, and pulled out of there, leaving the lawn available to those anxious dogs who were ready to get on with their morning business.

Onward we went, stopping in Ontario for some coffee and breakfast at a really cool cafe',  Jolts and Juice.  Although this trip included more stops than if I were alone, I was really impressed with how the boys were able to tolerate long stretches of travel.  Not much sleeping happened on this leg of the trip, as they were so excited to get to Idaho, and then to Utah. They absolutely loved to see those signs welcoming us into the next state.  Lots of discussion about farming practices, alternative energy, differences in ecosystems, and comparisons with what is familiar to us in Oregon.  It was really awesome to hear their thoughts.  My mother in law photocopied some car games for us that the boys had fun with. The most exciting was the license plate game.  A list of all 50 states, and as you see each license plate, you cross it off the list.  We played this game the entire time and as you can imagine, still are on the lookout for a few!

We finally arrived at our destination, Pineview Reservoir at about 7pm on Wednesday night.  Not ideal, as we were at 5,000 ft, and I could have used a little bit more time to acclimate to the altitude.

We were welcomed by our Northwest Crew, Mathieu Signoretti, Lizzy Gruber and Nigel Davis, all who were so excited to be in this beautiful place together.  The fall colors and huge mountains surrounding us were really incredible.  They made up for the fact that the reservoir was at an all time low, and really looked quite sad.

The next couple of days were quite a whirlwind really.   Time seemed to pass at a rapid rate as getting our whole group from one place to another was quite a feat.  We ran late pretty much all weekend.

I found it difficult to keep track of the kids, keep track of myself, my things, their things and where we were supposed to be and when.  We had a 9am swim planned on the other side of the lake, and when we arrived, I realized that I had left my wet-suit behind at camp.  I chose to swim anyways, getting a chill that took hours to get rid of.  Probably not the best decision.....looking back, I made quite a few of those "energy taxing" decisions throughout this weekend.

Mat decided not to race on his broken foot, which meant that he was available to take care of the kids while I raced.  Although, I had coordinated with another family to watch them, having Mat step in took a huge amount of stress, planning and organization out of the equation.  As difficult as it was for him to sit this one out,  the kids kept him plenty occupied.

The Nationals race is a bit unique, in that the start of the race and the end of the race are in two different places.  The swim to bike transition being about 10 miles from the bike to run transition.  Logistically, this added quite a bit of running around and anxiety.  Mat really was amazing. He woke before everyone and made a beautifully warm fire for us to eat our breakfast.  He stayed with the kids while Liz, Nigel and I ran around dropping off our transition stuff, he fed and readied the boys and were waiting for our arrival.  His help was seriously such a gift.  Without which, I honestly am not sure I would have been able to get myself together.

By the time we made it back to the start, we were much later than we had anticipated.  A bit of miscommunication and traffic added to our delays, and by the time we returned back to the start the three of us bolted from the car.  As soon as we got close, I jumped out of the van and ran down to the bathrooms.  That was my warm up.  A 100 yard run, bladder full, to stand in the porta-potty line and stretch a bit.  I stopped by the transition area one more time to make sure I had everything in order for the bike ride, and headed down to the water.  I ate one Hammer gel on the way down.

Lots of excitement in the air as the helicopters were flying overhead and the camera men were everywhere.  It was fun to see familiar faces as I made my way to the water.  I stopped to put on my wetsuit, and took in the excitement of it all.  It was race day!

I entered the water, and swam out to the first buoy.  It was pretty chaotic, as swimmers were everywhere.  Some coming in, some going out.  I ran into at least 4 people just trying to get into some sort of a rhythm. Instead of finding rhythm and warming my body, I found myself cold and shivering. I really tried to remain calm, take some deep breaths and focus on what was ahead. 

I positioned myself in the middle of the outside left group.  Utter chaos was how the start went.  Arms flying, goggles kicked and water gulped. It all happened, and I was flailing.  It took me a while to assemble some sort of rhythm and space, and once I did I felt pretty good.  It was a two lap swim, and I just tried to focus on getting myself from one buoy to the next.  I did not stop, kept a fairly straight line and I don't think I breast stroked at all on this swim.  Victory! 

I came into transition feeling like I must have had a decent swim.  From what I could tell, there were a lot of bikes still on the racks, and I had people all around me.  Usually, I am pretty much alone in an empty transition zone, so this felt different.  Maybe I succeeded in my goal of swimming 5 minutes faster than last year!  I do not race with a watch, which in this case worked in my favor.  Ignorance is bliss!

I get on the bike and right away take a Hammer gel and one sustained energy tablet.  I try to get some fluid in as well and racing with the Veleau system today makes drinking very easy.  I pass several people on the road section heading onto the Wheeler Canyon Climb.  I stayed on the wheel of this guy who was riding pretty well and obviously was trying hard not to let me, a girl, by him.  I did not let this bother my though, as I run into this kind of thing often.  There are just some men that cannot deal with having a woman pass them.  I let him know that I was there, and every time we needed to pass someone, I called out "there are two of us here!".  Eventually, he slowed, and I continued on, alone.  I felt really strong until the end of that climb.  I was catching riders that I usually don't see until later in the race, and so mentally, I thought I was doing pretty well.  I spotted Lizzy up ahead, and as much as I wanted to catch up with her before the first decent, I just could not power up.  Instead, I found myself riding in the back of a group that was kind of fumbling down that first downhill section. 

As we began to climb again, I knew that I had to get in front of those few riders before the next downhill section.  My legs though felt differently.  My quads were burning, and just could not put out any power.  I have no idea if this was the elevation, my lack of rest, the fact that I had not stretched all week, or just an overall fatigue.  All I know, is that it sucked.  That climb did not feel good, at all.  Interesting though, again I did not realize that I was doing so bad.  I really thought I was hanging in there, even though it felt awful.  I passed a few people in my category, and was able to stay with the guy ahead of me.

On the last climb, up to Sardine Peak, Kathy Waite came up behind me  and offered some kind words.  She tells me that I may be in 3rd and that Jennifer Razee is up ahead.  This gave me a bit of hope, as I had no idea who was up there.  The excitement of being in 3rd place took my mind off my legs for a bit and I readied myself for the long and fun descent to Snowbasin. Kathy and I rode the last half of the Sardine Peak climb together and chatted a bit. She insisted that I go ahead of her down the descent, as she did not want to hold me back. This was so kind, as I really felt like I may have been holding her back on the climb.  She insisted though, and I thanked her.   I felt like I rode fairly well down that last 6 mile descent, but definitely faded by the end and bobbled a bit around a few of the corners.  I came out of the forest and down this fun section of whoops to the boys and Mat ringing the cow bells and cheering loudly.  This absolutely made my day.  I looked at Keller's face and he was so happy.  So proud to see his mama riding her bike so fast, and so happy to be there cheering me on.

I caught Jennifer Razee just before the last little climb to the lodge and she tells me that she thinks that there is two women in front of us.  I catch up to Kellie Wirth as I came into the transition, and am excited because I think that now it is possible that I am in third place.  Jen heads out of transition and up the first climb like a deer scampering through a field.  She is so light and nimble in her running, and soon she is out of sight.  My legs are completely shot.  My quads were just not available at all and I ended up power walking up the steep climbs.  I had moments on the run that felt good, like I could open up, but for the most part it was really difficult.

At this point I was just trying not to get caught.  I really could not push myself any harder to try and catch up as my body was wanting to stop.  Finally, the last descent down to Snowbasin and the energy was high.  I felt good, and was following the line of a guy in front of me.  I mustered the energy to chat and holler, as for me, doing so is calming and definitely helps with  the fun factor.  I catch up with Karl Hanould who hoots and hollers with me, offering me such encouragement to leave it all on the course.  Again, I pop out of the forest and onto the last little road climb into the finish to Mat and my boys.  Mat is yelling for me to dig in, to finish strong, to push it, but when I try, my legs just don't have the power.  That last little pitch took so much energy to get up and over, and then I stretched out down into the finish chute.

I was glad to be finished.  I was done, good and tired.  I looked up at the clock to see 3:23:40, and my heart sank into the pit of my stomach.   I felt such a disappointment, like I have never before felt. I don't often keep track of my times, pay much attention to how I finish, but I did pay attention this time. My time last year was 3:17.  I was hoping to improve my time by five minutes and instead I was 6 minutes slower, and actually finished in 5th place.  I was really bummed.

I tried to set my disappointment aside and celebrate with my kids and Xterra friends.  It is always good to see everyone at the end, talk about each others race and relish in the moment of being in such an amazing place.

I was asked by some guy to video a champagne toast to the overall pro woman winner Leslie Patterson.  This, I must say, was pretty darn cool.


We made our way back to camp, prepared dinner and then went into Downtown Ogden for the after party.  Xterra really puts on a great event and the after party was no exception.  They played on a big screen in the middle of downtown Ogden a highlight video and slideshow of the day, and had a great band play music throughout the night.  All of  the National Champions were called on the stage, and it was really a special time.  I felt so happy and proud of Lizzy Gruber, who had the race of her life and finished first in her age group.  Also Hannah Rae Finchamp, who at the age of 16, and with an elbow injury managed to finish 1st overall woman.  It was so exciting.

The next day was the Xterra Trail Run National Championship race, and the kids really wanted to be there for the kids race.  We packed up camp as much as we could and headed back to Snowbasin.  The kids race was seriously one of the funnest parts of the weekend.  The Xterra crew did an amazing job organizing everyone and making the kids feel like they were something special.  Announcements over the loud speakers, running them into the same finish chute that they had seen all their parents come through.  Each child was welcomed onto the podium stand and was draped with a medal by one of the Xterra Pro's.  My kids stood tall and proud, and it was such a sweet moment.

Back to camp, we managed to pack up fairly quickly and were on the road by 2pm, headed for home.

We stopped in Nampa, Idaho to visit my niece Kylee, who is a student and Basketball player at Northwest Nazarene College.  We had a yummy pizza dinner local hot spot, Messenger Pizza.  We then ventured back to Boise where my Aunt Gail and Uncle Don graciously welcomed us into their home.  After an incredible nights sleep, we woke to breakfast and good conversation with Aunt Gail.  The boys just thought she was the coolest ever, as she let them watch T.V. and pretty much eat whatever they wanted.  I love watching others dote on my kids!

We left Boise about 11am, and headed west on Hwy 20.  This stretch of road is so beautiful as the mountains seem to go on forever.  The open range is so peaceful.  We enjoyed stopping at a natural spring water faucet alongside the hwy between Vale and Jentura, Oregon.  The kids thought this was too cool, and I made sure to tell them about my friend Bill Robbins, the historian who suggested we stop.

We did not want to go home.  I mean, we all really missed Trevor, but we were having so much fun.  We decided that since we were going right  through Bend, we just had to stop and play at the Phil's Trailhead mtn bike park.  Again, another highlight of the trip happened here, as I watched both of my boys' confidence shoot through the roof.  They were having the time of their lives, and I was too.  Time flew by, and before we knew it the sun began to set.

We stopped at Long board Louie's for some yummy fish tacos and tortilla soup, and then made our way home to Corvallis, and to daddy who was pretty darn excited to have us all home.

At that moment I crashed, and hard.  My body shut down, and for the next few days I have been pretty much a total wreck.  I have tried to give into it, allow myself to acknowledge my disappointment over not having such a good race, sleep a lot, and regain a rational mind about my week.

This was a big week.  My body, as my friend Meghan said, was an adrenaline drip. From the week before I left, until I got home, I held together through some pretty stressful and taxing situations.  I raced on empty, and then continued on..... on empty.

As I begin to fill back up, I can see my week a bit more clearly.  We had an amazing trip!  I used my energy to play and explore, tend to and love on my kids and when it came to race day, I did not have what it took.

When I made the decision to bring them, I knew very well that my race performance would be compromised.  What was unexpected, was how I would feel about it.

I can't expect to always have a great race.  Maybe I didn't get the finish I was looking for here, but really, I would not want to give it back.  This one was for the kids.  And as Alleck says, the best part of the week for him was watching me race.  How can I take that away?

So now, I focus on resting up, and fill my energy stores for our upcoming trip to Maui.

I will have another chance to have a good race, and this time all I can hope for is that it feels better than the this one did!