Cabin
Ridden
Joined: Aug 14, 2003
Posts: 207
Location: Palmerston North, NZ
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 Posted: Mon 23rd Jun 1:12pm Post subject: The '08 Us Road Trip |
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Yip, I am alive. Despite the extended lack of any website postings for some time. oops.With finishing up work at Sport Manawatu, cramming in training (along with some indoor netball and go-karting  ), things got kind of hectic in the last week before flying out for the US of A for the current four week roadtrip we're on. Good 'ole majordebt. What a great "sponsor" for enabling us to do this.Anyway....... currently we're in Alabama. We've been stateside for 10 days and I've satisfied my Krispy Kreme cravings. Two sucessful races in the books already, along with a whole lotta driving. After a mammoth travel effort from Palmie North (including a 300 mile drive straight off of the plane..) we took on a regional XTERRA event at Smith Lake. A military recreation area at Ft Bragg in North Carolina (apparently largest base in the US troop numbers wise). Was a good hitout with a 1k swim, 30km ish flat and fast TB, and 5km run not destroying our jetagged bodies too much. Actually the last 3km ofthe run was pretty much all sand so good thing it wasn't any longer! Long story short we both has reasoaly cofy wins. Me fairly quickly erasing my swim deficiet and establishing a 9min something margin by the end. And Nic destroying the next best women by 10min and grabbing 11th overall. So a nice start. After a bit of a 4`day tiki-tour down the country we made it to Alabama. Not without a bit of training on the old '96 olympic MTB course near Atlanta first. That race would have been brutal.... but a fun and testing course. The deer, tortises, snakes, and squirrals along the way made things interesting too! Finally in alabama we took on the 14th annual "Bump'n'Grind" MTB event that is held on the same MTB course to be used for the upcoming XTERRA (our main reason for being here). Its a big event on the calander for those in the south/southeast of the states. Plenty of $ up for grabs and strong feilds (even cash payouts for Sport 60+ men!). Two laps totalling 36miles of twisting rooty, rocky singletrack, some solid climbs, and fun descents. Made harder by the heat and humidity. Nic raced great in her international pro MTB debut to take third, just 6mins behind the legendary Shonny Vanlandingham in a 2hr30+ race. So not too shabby there at all! (and picking up $500 US. I think shes going shopping this week?!) I had a solid race too. My start was rubish. I simple forgot how to be aggressive off the start and entered the single track 3rd last (of 30 odd pros). No excuses... I was just esra. So I never saw the front, and settled into riding a strong tempo. I picked off riders pretty steadily until eventually settling into a good battle with one guy for the 2nd half of the race. Turns out I had got to 6th at that stage! still managed 7th, 40 sec behind 5th and picked up $100 cash. More importantly both laps were faster than my one lap during the XTERRA last year here on the same course so I guess my form is ok. so for the rest of the week we'll be craming in the last of our hard training. Hiding from the heat. And taking in some tourist sites. And putting our feet up in front of satelite TV. well at least I will.... Nic needs to be a little busier to stay sane. Then after sundays XTERRA (and our pending good results...), I think we'll be off to celebrate by spending a day at Atlanta's Six Flags amusement parks to ride the roller coasters all day long. Sweet! Much better than work at home in the winter. Although the pay clearly isn't quite the same....
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