Points & Volunteers

First XTERRA of the season is in the bag. Race Revolutions put on a great weekend of events this year. Saturday, April 17 had 2 trail run races (11K & 22K) and an off-road duathlon. Sunday was the Mata La Mula (To Kill a Mule) XTERRA triathlon. The 1st 10 min of the bike sue did make me fell like an ass ;-)

My Mountain Bike skills are improving but I still have a ways to go. That said, I was steady and stayed upright and even had this dude on my wheel for the entire race. My race goal was to maximize points at a local event and see where my race fitness is before the regional championship in Waco May 23. 75 points in the bag and I felt solid. Goals accomplished.

I also had the opportunity to be the volunteer coordinator for this weekend's events. I don't know where my volunteering 'bug' got started but I've never been able to shake it. I love working at races as much as I love participating in them. Here I am doing my best 'Volunteer Coordinator' demonstration of 'the racers will be running up this trail here before they cross the road.'

Volunteers are an essential part of every event. They are responsible for everything from setting up the race start to tearing down transition. There are needs as diverse as cutting up fruit to stripping wetsuits and as traditional as passing out water and directing athletes to the finish.

The sports that we participate in can become so self-centered and, dare I say it, selfish, it is good for the soul to get out there and give back to something we take so much from. My challenge to you my readers, all 3 of you, is to volunteer at 2 events this year. If you need ideas for races, RaceRevolutions has 6 more on their calendar for 2010. Check us out at http://www.racerevolutions.com/.

See you all on the roads and the trails.

Vicki

Oh, and one big shout out to photog extraordinaire Jake North. I don't feel bad about using his photos on my blog since I bought them ;-) His work is outstanding! He also gave me my biggest motivation during the race by telling me I was 'running like a girl' Thanks Jake.

well...maybe I was going 8 miles an hour

This past weekend I competed in the Enchanted Rock Duathlon near Llano, TX, deep in the hill county of Texas, with my Texas Iron teammates and Team Galaxy teammate, Susan. It is a fun race, kind of quirky, and defiantly not your typical swimbikerun that triathletes are use to.

First run is about 5 miles around 'the rock' followed by an 18 or so miles bike ride on the road. The last run is UP the rock.

The 1st run was not flat, go figure, but not technical. Just 3 or 4 water crossings where your feet get wet. The bike was hilly, windy, chip sealed and cattle guarded. Everything I love about hill country riding. I took a slight wrong turn on the wrong trail to start the 2nd run up the rock (that's trail running) and added about 2 min to my time. Did not make a difference in overall placement but I had to push it to keep my age group 2nd.

The best event of the day was when I made Susan laugh out loud when I said I looked down at my cycle computer on some windy, uphill, chip sealed, cattle guarded section of the bike and noticed my speed was in the SINGLE DIGITS. I said, 'how on earth am I going to do RAAM if I'm only going 7 miles an hour!!!'

Susan said, 'but you were making forward progress.'

That's it folks, one pedal stroke at a time.

Vicki