The Xterra event is something I have been down to watch others do and support family members on, but I had never done it myself so this race was going to be a new challenge that I was extremely excited about. This event is very big with individual and teams competing, based around the Blue Lake (in behind Rotorua to the east). The MTB race enters the Whakarewarewa trails from a direction I'd never done before so that was going to be a nice change.
Dad and I had been asked to be part of a team as part of a bigger group known as "The Auckland Nude Skydivers" who have been doing the event for years together. I'm not convinced that they actually skydive, but the names catchy. Each team has 3 people - one person doing the swim (1km), one doing the MTB ride (26km) and the last one the run (12km). I was chosen to do the ride with 2 other older guys who had done this event for many years. Awesome!
The increasing accommodation prices in Rotorua and tight family budgets dictated that this was going to be a day-run. After a 5am start the family and I arrived down in Rotorua at about 10am (had to have the power breakfast stop mid-way of course!) which gave us enough time to catch up with the teams and get to know team members. Quite funny really - it was like a blind date but then having to think how you were going to remember each other at the transition.
The swimmers were all asked to go to the start line at 11am for an 11:30am race start.
BOOM, The race gun goes off and a hundred+ swimmers sprinted to the Blue Lake and were off. At that point I was equally eager and nervous. The pace of the front swimmers was awesome and soon the field had stretched over quite a distance. After about 10minutes of them still swimming my nerves had calmed as I thought my partner would be most likely mid-field.
The first swimmer came in for a rapid time of 12min this was Hamish Carter's (ex-Olympian and world-class triathlete) swimmer, followed a few minutes later by increasing number of competitors, except for mine! At this point I was starting to worry, because dad's swimmer had come in the top bunch and he had already left on his ride.
My swimmer finally came in a couple of minutes after dads (about 5minutes behind Hamish Carter) - bout the top third, so not too bad.
I jumped onto the bike as fast as I could and gave it a huge burst up the first climb up the main road before entering single track - I was feeling pretty good and passed a heap of riders who were struggling with a long steep'ish uphill start. Turning left up onto the gravelly forestry road I was able to recover a little and maintain a high pace before hitting the hills I knew were coming up.
I was able to pass heaps of people before finally getting to the biggest climbs in Rotorua - Hill Road + Frontal Labotomy. And trust me - Hill Road lives up to its name! its a beast. It took me about 10 minutes of hard climbing to get to the top of the road and my legs were burning. I had managed to continue passing other riders but only managed to get sight of dad near the top.
Hitting Frontal Labotomy I had closed the gap but now I wondered if I could sustain the pace to overtake him. At the very top of the track as we popped on to the road together I couldn't risk waiting, I had to go for it. As I started to pick the pace up to get in front of dad he saw me and started to try sprint with me. Somehow I managed to maintain my speed and got into Billy T first (brilliant Rotovegas downhill track). I love this trail and just nailed it, getting a good gain. The hurt transferred to my arms but it was worth it - what a rush!
After another more gradual forestry road climb we were into another Rotovegas classic - Split Endz. Just before I could get into the track I got passed by an extremely quick rider. I decided to hook on behind him and battle through my pain barrier - using his speed to help keep me focused. I wasn't going to let this man go.
As we got to our last downhill I realised that I was a little faster and more confident on the downhills meaning I was able to recover while he was still working hard. Popping out down onto the lake side forestry road we had manged to get well clear of everybody. We had good speed working off each other and were able to relax a little and chat.
The final climb was a nasty one - a long moderate climb on good forestry road. Perfect on a social ride, killer at the end of a race. I could feel my legs wanting to give out but the guy told me "treat me like your dad - don't let your old man beat you up". This motivated me to push hard up the hill, I felt very proud that I had done it.
All we had to do now was a short downhill to the main sealed road back to the event base. This was largely flat but at this point my companion had got slightly ahead of me and gaining on a rider in front. I thought we wre the first two and just assumed that he was a straggler from the solo race prior. My goal was to catch them before the finish even though I was absolutely wasted.
I put my head down and used what little energy I had left to drive those 29er wheels hard. As I caught up and went to pass them, both realised my challenge and we started a sprint finish. The guy I was riding with had more power left than me and won the sprint, with me a close second and the mystery "straggler" third.
We all dismounted and sprinted to the transition area for our runners, who went straight off at pace as our overall placings hung in the balance.
My riding partner and new friend then told me I had done a great and told me to look at who we had caught up to. Even though I could barely stand I pulled myself up and saw Hamish Carter - amazing! Our straggler was in fact him trying to hold us off! He was soooo nice, smiling and gave me a hand shake - very cool.
It was only then that I noticed we were the only 3 in the transition area – I had managed to get our team from the middle of the bunch to top 3. Plus I had beaten dad!
Hours later and as the runners were finishing, I found out my runner had come in with the 2nd fastest time getting us into 2nd place overall for the males teams. Fantastic effort. Dad's team had done well coming in 4th overall by less than a minute - dad reckon he should have pushed harder and beaten me - yeah right!
After the race we had to say our goodbye's and hit the road to Auckland, missing out on prize-giving. It would have been nice to celebrate the outcome but even just being there with the group was fantastic - a really nice group. On the way to home there was constant trash talk and laughter about youth and speed verse age and cunning.
I really enjoyed this event and was proud to represent R&R, particularly against riders of top caliber (and an ex Olympian of course). It was also one of the only time I actually got to meet some other R&R sponsored racers which was quite cool.
Its a great event and if you have a chance to do this one, don't pass up the opportunity. Highly recommended.
