XTERRA Mountain Champs results, Ogden, Utah

photo by Rich Cruse

Just a quick blog before prize giving.

This “Mountain champs” really lives up to its name. Tons of climbing (ow), high altitude (ow), but fortunately also plenty of single track (yay) and lots of rocks. (yay) Snow basin was the venue for the previous Winter Olympics and appart from the excellent venue, the organization here is top class, and the people are very motivated to showcase Utah as a sports destination.

The pros swam without wetsuits and the amateurs with- resulting in quite a punch up all the way to the 1st bouy. Then most people blow up. (too fast, too much altitude and maybe too much punching and dunking) I lost some time in the swim, I guess about 1 minute to Seth Wealing, Craig Evans, Brandon Rykita, Linda Gallo and Christine Jeffrey. Mike Vine was less than a minute back.

My legs felt a bit rusty to about halfway up the 3000ft climb, but then it started getting better. I took the lead at about 1/3 of the way up and had no idea what was going on behind.

The water point volunteers were admiring the natural beauty when I got to the 2nd water point, so I missed the bottle (by about 10 meters) and it quickly became “situation critical mate” as I only had I sip left in my bottle. Quite worrying as I needed water to take my Clif Shots with.

Right at Snow Basin (T2 and finish) Mike Vine came up from behind. On the loosest, steepest part of the climb I dropped my chain, and lost about 5 seconds putting it back on. Mike passed me there and the TV camera loved it! I had to run up the rest of the hill (it was too steep to get back on) and soon Mike spun out and had to run too. So we ran head to head, eventually remounting and then trading the lead up the really steep climb to 8000ft. The TV crew was on a dirt bike ( yes, I was jealous) and captured the suspense on tape. Or SD or whatever they use in TV cameras nowadays. At the very summit I gathered all my strength and sprinted past Mike to lead into the twisty, rocky single track back down to Snow basin where the run starts. (7000ft)

I rode the single track pretty well, but stayed cautious as I could not risk getting another flat this year. To be in the running for my 6th XTERRA USA Series Champs title I needed a solid result here in Ogden.

I started the hilly run with a minute lead on Vine, and of course the water point people were so surprised to see the 1st runner they forgot to give him water. Even though he yelled “WATER” at the top of his lungs in his best American accent.

So I tackled the ski slope (in the upwards direction) with a dry mouth and only 1/3 of the calories I usually take in a race.

Fortunately I still have some blubber left over from our European trip so my energy levels seemed fine. Parts of the run was extremely rocky and there was no way of picking a line- it was nothing but rocks. I ran in the Avia AVI Lite II which offers a fair amount of cushioning over the rocks and mine shaft like descend for only 10.2oz.

With about 2 miles to go I thought I could ease back a bit. Wheezing for air and stumbling at a snails pace was getting old really quick. I looked back and of course there, about 20 seconds back comes a charging Vine. I tried to pick up the pace and of course right then the blubber on my backside voted me off the island. It said: “No more lifting and putting down of feet until we get some carbs” Carbs were out of the question as the finish was 10 minutes away and of course I had no water. And even if I did have water I would have blown a gasket if I had to hold my breath for the 2 seconds it takes to swallow. So I told myself “you are the World Champion, cowboy up and behave like one”. I summited with maybe a 10 second lead and then plunged down the 1 mile deep mine shaft to the finish. Of course the TV crew was on it but by then I was falling so fast, hurting so much and muscles were cramping so badly (dehydration) that I wasnt not even ogling the pretty dirt bike anymore. (it was a Suzuki DRZ 400)

I held Vine off by 30″ but had no idea Brian Smith was only 15 seconds behind Vine, and Seth Wealing was 10 seconds behind Brian. What a race.

Now I have a perfect score going into USA Champs. (3 wins) I am really relieved to win this race, as this course is the anti Conrad. Tons of climbing, little descending, high altitude and lastly this race is in the middle of my base training- the lead up to USA Champs Oct 5 and ultimately Worlds Oct 28.

Men:

1 Conrad Stoltz

2 Mike Vine

3 Brian Smith

4 Seth Wealing

Women:

1 Melanie McQuaid

2 Shonny Vanlandingham

3 Jenny Smith

4 Danelle Kaboush

Amber had a decent race and finished 9th. She got drowned by the wetsuited age groupers and struggled passing people with her much improved descending skills.

At the evening prize giving I dedicated my win to Jamie Whitmore. An amazing person, an XTERRA World Champion who is fighting cancer at the moment. Follow her courageous battle and amazing story of faith on JamieWhitmore.com