Weight: 134.5 lbs
Time: 1:21:12.39
Of the four XTERRA courses that I've run, this is probably the easiest. However, that isn't to say there weren't complications...
The course started on a fairly flat section of asphalt, using the entry road for the park's vehicle access. I thought this would mean fighting through the usual newbies and jack rabbits who get in the way just as the course gets steep, but we front runners were all pretty much the same group that finished in the first dozen or so spots. I have to be honest and admit that I was pushing things with a 5:45/mi pace, when my plan was to save that kind of speed for the downhills. This didn't cause me any problems though, since most of us dropped to more reasonable speeds by the first incline.
As I mentioned earlier, this course feels like the easiest of the XTERRA events (so far.) The inclines for this event are mostly at the beginning and the second half is almost entirely downhill. What made things tricky for me on this course were the weather, and my own narrow focus. Shortly after the first climb, the course drops enough to get back down to a 6:00/mi pace or faster, which I and another runner did. Unfortunately, we both got so caught up in the speed that we both missed a left turn. It wasn't too bad since we were called back by some runners who saw us go the wrong way, and we quickly got turned around and caught back up. I might have lost part of a minute overall, but I really can't complain. Once back on course, we hit the next good climb.
The morning had started out great for a trail race, with lots of fog keeping out the unseasonable heat from the past couple of weeks. However, after the first couple of miles had been run, the course climbed completely out of the cloud cover and we got hit by the sunlight. I won't claim that it was in the 80s, but after the previous exertions it was enough to impact my performance. I'm not too proud to say that I had to walk a handful of times on the inclines to get myself cooled down enough to get back to running. Still, I managed to push myself enough that I caught up to and passed at least two of the runners who were ahead of me.
Things got a little confusing once the 18K course joined with the 11K course. I had concerns about the coordination of these two groups merging and tripping each other up, but they seemed slow enough that I was able to get through them while we were still sharing the very wide fire road. Once we got to the second half, I was able to maintain a pace closer to 6:40/mi on the flats, and a good minute faster on the downhills. By the time I reached the downhills, most of the remaining runners were the front runners for the 11K event and were either fast enough to keep up (or pass me, in one case) or experienced enough to allow for smooth passes.
The finish line was one of the more interesting configurations, coming right after a short, quick switchback and a three foot climb. Not exactly great for a sprint finish, but since I felt like I had been going near a 5K pace for the previous two miles, it wasn't a problem.
Overall, I have to say that the event was, once again, very well managed by the XTERRA team. The Subaru folks, while meaning well, were kind of a pain with the cars ferrying people back and forth along the narrow road, but what could you do since there's nothing close to enough parking except along PCH? This really was a great way to get introduced to the XTERRA series, but it'll be all uphill from here.
