XTERRA Excellence

Usually the morning I drop my sister off at the airport and send her 7,000 miles away would be a really tough morning. Except that this particular morning, there was more than one reason to be up before the sun. Last Saturday Nick competed in Guam's XTERRA Triathalon for the second year in a row. He has been training for this race very intentionally since the beginning of the year, and I was so excited to see how he was going to do. We all woke up early and ate one last protein-filled paleo breakfast together, then we dropped Nick off at the race staging area. Court and I ducked out to head to the airport and I returned to the race just in time to see Nick entering Piti harbor for the water start.

This year's race was even more exciting, as the Guam XTERRA was, for the first time ever, a XTERRA world championship qualifying event. That meant there was a large international field of pros and more amateur competitors here than ever before. Nick's primary goal was to beat his time from last year, 3 hours and 33 minutes, including the fact that the swim was now 500m longer than before.

Going into the race, Nick had pretty good odds that he would beat his goal. Last year he was traveling to and from Sri Lanka for the first three months of the year, which didn't make for a great training schedule. He also showed up at the 2011 race with a sinus infection, just not feeling that great. He powered through the race and, though he still did really well, he was really beat at the end of it. After witnessing his extreme discipline over the last few months training every day for one of the three events in addition to his regular workouts, and even losing 15 pounds in the process (yes - he dropped into the 160's for this race!), I was really excited to see if he would meet his goal. Or, more realistically since we are talking about Nick, I was really excited to see by how much he would exceed his goal.

And they're off! XTERRA Guam 2012 has officially begun!

Nick was the 23rd swimmer out of the water (out of 123), swimming the 1.5k distance in 27:14. If 23rd doesn't sound that impressive, consider that 12 of the people who came in ahead of him were pro triathletes.

Clearly not slowing down for pictures

And he's out! Ahead was a 22-mile bike ride that starts by riding up one of the biggest hills on Guam. The remainder of the ride goes down some crazy rugged trail-like pathways (since Guam doesn't really do trails) all through the jungle. Nick knocked this portion out in two hours flat... a full ten minutes faster than last year for the exact same course. Woohoo!

Awesome photo by XTERRA Guam

Weather wise, these guys really lucked out this year. Conditions were absolutely perfect. It didn't rain much at all the week leading up to the race, so the bike course wasn't nearly as muddy as last year.

One other difference between this year's race and last year's is that this year I had friends who were also there to cheer on husbands and workout buddies. While our men and friends were working hard pedaling across Guam in the hot sun, our little entourage went to Jenny's house and had brunch :)

Right at two and a half hours, Nick was off to start the run through the jungle. Crazily enough, just as I took this picture, the first person crossed the FINISH line. Of the entire race. As he passed me (his XTERRA paparazzi) Nick said, "Really!?!? That guy just finished!" And here Nick was just starting the final phase. Hopefully that spells out a little more how ridiculous the pros are at this race. I guess if all you do is triathlons you get pretty darn good at it.

All throughout the morning it was so fun cheering on friends... Go Chad go!

Go Dave! Dave was the only person we knew who did the entire XTERRA last year (and he happens to be one of my coworkers on staff at the church). He unfortunately landed a running injury recently, so this year pulled his weight as the bike portion on a relay team. Great job Dave!

Our other friend Jaime also did the race. We were all completely amazed at her willingness to even attempt something like this. Complete badassery.

The race finished with a run, or rather a tromp, through the water in the harbor. It was so exciting to spot people coming in the distance... and then not so fun to watch them suffer for the next five minutes trying to wade through a quarter mile of thigh deep water to the finish line. Go Nick!! And now the moment we've all been waiting for:

Nick crossed the finish line at three hours 24 minutes, exceeding his goal by 10 minutes (he shaved about 9 minutes off his run time from last year). Factoring in the extra length of the swim, he finished 18 minutes faster than last year!

So glad I got a picture of this... the moment they handed Nick his race results and he found out not only what his splits were, but also that he placed FIRST in his division! He was the first guy in his age group to finish the race, which means... he qualified for a spot to the XTERRA World Championship race later this year in Maui! We're not going (we will already be on the East Coast by then)... but it sure is awesome that he qualified for it!

And unlike last year, Nick didn't even look that spent. Great job guys!

It was exciting watching everyone cross the finish line, but especially our friend Jaime, one of the few girls to participate in and finish the race. 

These were some pretty proud kids.

And a proud husband too... awesome job Jaime!! She also earned a spot to Maui!!

  Great job, friends! Such a fun race to be a cheerleader for.

Definitely proud of this guy... shattering his goals and coming in first. I know humility is a virtue and all, but times like this, I just gotta brag. Way to go Booser... you rocked it!! Not surprised, but at the same time, completely impressed!!