Xterra BlackDiamond 2010

this past weekend we raced the xterra black diamond. this was the 3rd time i've done this race. the first was a big fatty DNF and then last year had a much better race.
so this year, i wasn't sure what to expect. the other weekend i went out with a guy i work with and we rode some of the trails. i wanted all the practice i could get. this of course on top of the injuries and illness and then my knee, i wasn't sure. i had a good race at the sprint earlier in the month and then managed like a 10 minutes run an i think a 1/2 hr or something. i was doing better, slow but better and still going to PT each week and getting my knee all taped up.
the day before the race we went out to pre-ride. i did the ride with jason jablonski which was fun and it was even more fun because i got to chat with the girl that beat me in idaho and she is super nice.
that night i was pretty excited and i slept maybe 20 minutes at a time, it was bad but i powered through it. :)
in the morning we snuck out before everyone got u and went to the race site. i saw janet right when we pulled in. i set up my transition and then just hung out, stood in the potty line with the girls and then just waited for the race to start. did get to chat with mat which was good since i hadn't seen him in forever and then jumped in the water for a 2 minute warm up. the water was warm and i was set to go.
the swim:
it was a wave start and the ladies were aggressive! i couldn't hold a straight line to save my life but i was swimming well, even managing ok through the lilly pads. the swim had the best buoy markings ever! onto the island, off of the island and the swim back was super smooth and i felt like i was flying. ok, thats a bit of an exaggeration but i did feel pretty good. my swim was like a minute or so faster than last year.
t1 was awesome. in and out, socks good, gloves and wrist brace were good, the time was so fast that it made me think they made a mistake.
the bike:
i started off on the bike and began passing people right away. i felt really good and was having fun. i was taking risks and pushing hard. i almost went down a few times and once in particular my poor knee saw its entire life flash right infront of its cap when it was headed right for rock. luckily i saved it, because that would have been horrible! another time i clipped my pedal and totally endo-ed but manages to just roll on that front wheel and then rebalance my self and keep on riding. whew! that was a close one! i passed sara a ways in, she was doing awesome! jenny had gotten their team a major boost with her super fast swim and sara was doing a good job holding her own out on that crazy course.
i was riding with another girl for quite a while until she said the magic words of "i'm not in your age group" which was awesome because although i was still working to get away from her, we could work together to get past the larger groups of men that were ahead of us. it was pretty fun and really helped me stay focused. after a while i came up on the girl that beat me in idaho - she is a super fast swimmer! but she was on the side of the trail working on her bike. turns out she had all kinds of mechanical problems with her bike and shoes.
during the pre-ride jason had asked me what i thought of the first part of the 2nd loop since i had done it before and we weren't going to do it on the pre-ride. i said it was no big deal and nothing would be as bad as what we would see on the rest of the course. so yeah, when i got to that first part of the 2nd loop i was like, wow, i apparently do have a terrible memory, because it was really really hard, way more rooty and super technical. after the race i was talking to the girl from the idaho race and she said she started to laugh on that part too since it wasn't anything like i said it would be. oops, sorry! two loops down, 9 minutes faster than last year.
t2 - fast! now sure how i got those to be so fast but i was happy!
the run:
i remember the run really sucking last year. i remember it hurting and being just bad so i wasn't sure what to think this year since my running has been so infrequent and just bad lately. turns out i was like 2 minutes or so faster on that run course. who knew. the girl with the mechanicals, who if you recall flew by me in idaho on the run, flew by me again about 3/4s of the way into the run. she was even so nice as to ask how my knee was doing as she passed me!
the race was good, i was 10th F overall, i made it onto the podium in 3rd since the 1st place girl was the overall winner and got bumped out of age group awards and i was also the winner of the speed trap which was funny and unexpected! eric tied with 2 other dudes for the man speed trap and won his age group.
so we've got 2 new pint glasses to add to our collection!