Xterra World Championship Maui, Hawaii

Maui is an incredible place, from the people to the scenery, temperature and food. It was unbelievably hard to not just settle into holiday more and just chill out by the pool or on the beach, but that's not why we were here (well Hannah maybe but I had something to do first). As I sit here writing this on a damp Saturday in England, I could not feel further away from the heat, humidity and sunshine of Hawaii.


Take me back!

On my first recce of the practice bike course the heat and humidity were a bit of a shock to the system, and it was only the first 8 and last 5k. I had a look at the profile and so knew it started with about 5/6k of climbing straight out of transition that was going to be a challenge. But that heat, humidity and probably a bit of jet lag meant I was pushing into the red far earlier than I wanted. I soon learnt to drink more water, keep an eye on my effort levels and try not worry too much about it, it WILL get easier as I get used to the heat. This is the reason why we got there a week beforehand, to settle in and acclimatise. It was great fun and was already looking forward to riding more of it as they opened more later in the week.

1st day bike selfie :)

The next day I went out on the run course which followed the same 5k up the hill as the bike before plummeting back down like a ski run. It was more of a run walk than I wanted but I was keeping up with the some of the guys who were riding so I was fairly happy. There was also a horrible, uphill, switchback tarmac section about 1k from the finish that just looked like a wall from the bottom and then a 250m dash across the soft beach sand at the finish just to sap all the energy from your legs, this was a world champs course after all and it wasn't meant to be easy!! I took a bottle with me on this run and I'm glad I did as I was sweating buckets, the water stations were going to be vital on race day so I planned to stop at each one to make sure I stayed as hydrated and cool as possible.

 

Back out on the bike and into the stickiest and slimiest mud I've ever seen. I managed to get out for a full lap but my bike came back weighing at least double what it went out. There were a couple of really slick descents which were almost unrideable (had a little spill too :-D) but were great fun and really played to my strengths. I consider myself to be a decent bike handler so I knew I'd be able to make up a fair amount of time on some of the stronger swimmers/runners here. The first part of the course was nice tight singletrack before it opened up into wider fire roads, up and through the local farms and into the baking sun, before dropping back down into the singletrack and transition. The hotel had obviously thought about not having muddy bikes traipsed back to their rooms, so had put out a decent bike washing facilities. Also handy as they doubled as a quick shower with the number of riders cleaning bikes in a small space, we probably got just as soaked as the bikes did!

Most days started or finished with a swim in the sea which was so warm it felt wrong to be able to stay in it for so long without turning an odd shade of purple/blue. Whether it was ins and outs practice or longer loops out to the race day turn buoys it was great fun, but not having had much experience at swimming in surf that large it really was quite daunting to start with. Thankfully after a few wise words from the pros it did get easier. One day on the way out to the buoys a group of us were investigated by a pod of about 12 wild dolphins, something that I'm never going to forget and its strange how mesmerised you become by them. They hung around circling for about 5 minutes before they disappeared as quickly as they arrived. Amazing stuff.

The swim course

Race morning dawned and I've never felt so relaxed before a big event. I felt like I'd done all I could to prepare myself and was in a good place. It was also the easiest morning before a race too, stroll down to transition to set up which was in the hotel garden, check everything over and then walk down to the hotels beach for the start of the swim for a final few ins and outs. Of course the nerves were there by now but I could feed off them and just wanted to get going.

After the blessing from the local priest, who's a bit of a legend, the cannon went of for the pro's to go first followed by a huge roar and applause. The cannon fired again to start our wave and off we went into possibly the largest set of waves I'd seen all day! This made it great fun ducking and diving the waves and making the most of the dolphin dives learnt earlier in the week. Once out in open water the swell was still large so sighting was important, had to make sure I waited for the swell to pick me up so that I could see over the waves and heads in front of me. After a few duckings round the turn it was back to the beach for the mid swim run which was an interesting feature. Running on the soft was fairly cruel, but I found I was actually able to recover a little from the effort of fighting the white water. Plus it was amazing to run through the corridor of noise and cheers that was created by all the spectators!

Mid swim jog

Finishing the swim and a quick blast up the hill into T1 and out onto the bike, where I'm at my happiest and tend to make up a few spaces (about 200 on the day!). I quickly settled into a nice rhythm just ticking the legs over up the 1st big hill with a decent bunch. As usual few people were trying to barge their way, and as usual most of the line picked them off as we got closer to the top. 30k is quite a long way off road and especially in the heat so there was plenty of time to pick up the pace later on and now was not the time to start pushing hard. Thankfully the course had dried up a lot and most of the course was rideable, there were a few sections in the trees where it was quicker to push than ride, but it was great fun flying down the descents and then grovelling back up to the top. The final 5k was all about staying concentrated and ensuring there were no mistakes at this point, most of it was downhill with a few punchy climbs thrown in for good measure, perfect for spinning the legs into T2

Heading out on the bike

The run was a battle, it always was going to be! A battle against the course, heat and fatigued legs from the bike. THAT first 5k was a grim mix of feeling ok, feeling a bit off, 'oh god its hot' and I need to walk, all in random sections and not necessarily in that order. I managed to catch and have a chat with an American about half way up and we worked together for a couple of K before he seized up and had to stop, cheers bud. Once at the top it was nice to be able to let the legs run down the hill but as the course was so twisty and technical, it had to be controlled. Which of course then led to a slightly different fatigue in the quads, but at least the pain was shifting around :) Back to the tarmac climb and I managed to 'run' the whole way up, I was ecstatic and carried that momentum on down to the beach, through the sand and onto the finish. A muscle milk and a great selection of fruit later, I was starting to feel normal again. What a great race, can we do it all again next week??

FINISHED!

The race went really well and I'm so proud of getting there let alone the result 405th overall, 286th in the age groupers and 29th in the 20's-24's. I'm currently enjoying a nice, relaxing off season and looking forward to getting back into training for next year soon, with the aim of getting back to the xterra world champs for 2015. 

We finished off a great trip with a few more days on the island to have a bit of an explore, chill out and eat everything in sight. Also one day on a road trip to Hana (thoroughly recommend it) I proposed to Hannah to which she eventually said yes, for some reason she didn't believe me, we've only been together 5 years ;-) So overall we had a great couple of weeks. 

Until next time

Take it easy

Tom