Racing | Marcus Barton

This Lesson Brought to You by Frank

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Marcus Barton

XTERRA East Championship Race Report

How many of you recall Sesame Street and their cheesy way of “sponsoring” a show? “Today was brought to you by the letter F and the Letter P”. Well, folks, this race report and the lessons learned are brought to you by Frank. It’ll make sense in a minute or two. Bear with me.

I know it’s been over three weeks since the XTERRA East Championship race in Richmond, but I’ve had numerous folks question when the race report would be hitting the blog, especially since I posted that I would explain the demise of my race with a Facebook and Twitter post. Kind of hard to get an idea of what happened in less than 140 characters, so here’s the scoop.

Dan took his whole clan to the race since numerous family members would be participating in the race activities. This meant that our usual commute and sharing of a room didn’t take place. Another good friend, Chris, was also doing the race so we decided to head up together and split a room. We headed up Friday night and planned a pre-ride on Saturday after the trail run races were over.

We had a pretty good pre-ride even though it was 4 billion degrees outside. Things were going pretty good until Chris had a bit of a crash and screwed up his ankle pretty bad. By the time we hit the hay that night, that thing was swollen as big as a house. My good friend, Frank Fernandez Posse, was staying in the same hotel with us and stopped by to give some advice. He’d gone through some ankle issues over the past year and wanted to offer his experience. The three of us hung around in the room just shooting the breeze and talking about racing. One topic, oddly enough, that came up was the use of a bike pump and how he recommended against using someone else’s pump. We all knew the reason why, mainly because the gauges can vastly vary from pump to pump. Having the wrong pressure could be detrimental to your race. Frank wished Chris well, headed out and we began planning dinner.

On race morning, Chris officially threw in the towel and decided not to race. We had originally planned to check out of the hotel, pack up the truck and head to the race. However, since he was hurt, I told him that there was no sense in him hobbling around the race course. I suggested that he just hang out in the hotel until checkout time and then drive my truck down. The race course was close enough that I could just throw my transition bag onto my back and ride the bike there. He agreed and I headed down to the truck to grab my gear. One of the things I couldn’t figure out how to safely carry was my pump. I resigned to just using Dan’s and headed to the race (see where this is going).

All of the pre-race prep went as planned. I got a decent spot in transition and setup everything including tire pressure. With. Dan’s. Pump.

The swim was the usual zig-zag course across the James River. It went something like this: Swim to the first buoy, take a right. Run across the sandbar and back into the water. Take a left at the next buoy. Swim across the river, over boulders and take a right at the next buoy. Run across Belle Isle (upstream) and back into the water. Swim to the next buoy, fighting the current and take a right. At the last buoy, take a left and head for the shore (see pic below). Pretty interesting swim to say the least. I felt pretty good with my swim time and came out of the water looking forward to a good bike.

As soon as I got out on the bike, I knew I was in trouble. Apparently, using Dan’s pump was indeed a bad idea. I inflated to the pressure I wanted, but apparently, the pressure registered on his gauge is way different than mine. As I rounded the turn, up the gravel road to the Highway 1 bridge (see the bridge in the top of the pic above) , I realized that I wouldn’t be able to handle single track trail on the pressure I was running. Any hard landing would have caused my rim to bottom out. With great regret, I pulled over to put in some air. I quickly grabbed my can of air, twisted the valve to puncture the can and put the valve onto the valve stem of the wheel. In order to release the air, I had to again, give the can of air a twist. When I did, I snapped the valve stem right off of the wheel. I stood there in disbelief. “This can NOT be happening” I thought. I tried to take the valve stem and twist it back into the wheel with hopes that there was enough threads to grab hold. No luck. I flipped the bike over and pulled the wheel off and leaned it on the guard rail of the bridge as I broke the bead and put a tube in. To add insult to injury, I couldn’t seem to get the air to come out of the can. I began asking racers as they swooshed by me if any one had air to spare. After about 30 riders past, a young kid on a relay team stopped and offered me a pump. With about 50 pumps from the little hand pump (all while profusely thanking the kid for stopping), I had the tire inflated. I handed him the pump, sent him on his way and threw the wheel back on the bike. I zoomed across the bridge passing the kid and I thanked him again.

As soon as I hit single track, I knew I still didn’t have enough pressure. I came across a guy working on a broken chain, stopped to offer help, but he said he had everything he needed. “Can I bum some air from you?” Hoping that he’d have a can of CO2, he instead pointed me to his pump. Another 50 short pumps later, and I was on my way again. I was concerned that the lower pressure would cause a pinch flat on the tube, but I threw caution to the wind and just hauled ass. I didn’t take it easy on any of the jumps, drops or other rough areas of the course and figured that if I got another flat, I would deal with it rather than worrying about it along the way. When I approached the tunnel section of the course, I actually caught a little air coming off the jump. Check out Cody clearing that section.

The Richmond course is pretty cool. Not only is it in the middle of downtown Richmond, but it has some really interesting obstacles and sections of trail. There’s tunnels, bridges, and all sorts of really cool things to ride.

Adding to the course obstacles, there’s also a crowd of locals that come out to taunt the racers. By 8am, they were already tanked, full of beer and having fun. They hang around two technical sections of the course that are tough to transverse without the distractions, much less with them hanging around in funny costumes, shouting at you. It makes for a great time and even if you don’t have a sense of humor, you can’t help but grin when you come across these clowns. What makes it even better, it’s a two-lap bike course, so you get to deal with them twice. I hope they never stop doing what they do in future years, because they’re a blast to have on the course.

On the first lap of the course, I had to deal with overcoming the second wave of racers that passed me during my tire repairing stops. By the time we hit the second lap, the Sprint racers had hit the course. Dan and I had previously calculated that if we could have a decent first lap, that we should be able to be on our second lap by the time they hit the course. This was accurate, and I would have made it, would I had not stopped for the repairs. As I came up onto the road bridge for my second lap, I noticed a ton of Sprint racers in front of me. I passed as many as I could before hitting single track but when I hit the trailhead, congestion had already started. Since many of them were new to racing (good for them), they were walking their bikes over many of the obstacles (bad for me). Some of the obstacles had bikers stacked up 15 deep. It got to the point where I spent as much time running along the side of the trail with my bike on my shoulder (in order to pass) than I spent riding it. By the time I hit the halfway point of the second lap, it finally started to thin out a bit. Knowing that the competitive side of my race was pretty much over, I decided to just have fun with it and race as fast as I could.

I came into T2 ready to hit the run. The heat was already exceeding 90 degrees, so I knew it was going to be a tough one. The first section of the run, which is predominately sidewalk and packed gravel, was an area where I tried to just get into a good rhythm. I also knew that once I hit the “Ruins” that I would have to deal with cramps, so I staved them off until then.

Sure enough, as soon as I hit the top of the stairs of the Ruins, my left quad was cramping. I joked to the folks standing at the top that I would have to run the rest of the way like a pirate. I managed to shake the cramp by the time I hit the next water stop and got all the way to the dry way with little issues. The dry way is a section of the James River that doesn’t have much water flow unless it rains a ton. It’s basically a boulder hop across the river back to Belle Isle. It’s a fun part of the course if you can manage to keep from cramping. Because of the hopping and lunging forward from rock to rock, it has a tendency to flare up issues with tired muscles. I had a few cramps here and there, but they only lasted seconds at a time.

After a quick jaunt over Belle Isle and some more single track trail, you have one more bridge to cross the James River and head to the finish line.

I finished 10th in my division which I guess isn’t too bad considering the tire issues. I should have listened to Frank. I was really hoping to get some redemption after being sick at ITU Worlds, but I didn’t get it. Still a very, very fun race and was great to see my XTERRA family again. Thanks Pax Tolosi for some of the great photos above, including his better half, Beata Wronska coming up the stairs. Check our her cool blog.

Race: XTERRA East Championship
Location: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Date: June 10, 2012
Distances: 1000m swim / 32k mountain bike / 10k trail run
Result: 10th in Division
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew, Maxxis Ikon Tires, Cobb SCH DRT Saddle, Rudy Project helmet, Scrub Brakes, Crank Brothers Candy Pedals.

Filed under: Racing | Tagged: Championship, Racing, Richmond, XTERRA | Comments Off

A Swanky Race Report

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Marcus Barton

After a fun time at the XTERRA Epic race, it was hard to believe that I would be racing another 4+ hour race a week later. My day-job calendar just wouldn’t allow me to race XTERRA Worlds, no matter how hard I tried, so the Epic was another one of those last-minute substitutions. I was already signed up for the Swank 65 endurance mountain bike race along with Dan. He and I discussed it at length, along with many conversations with Coach and Alba. I decided to keep both, even though they were only one week apart. My goal for the Swank 65 had to change though. There was no way I could race the Epic at 100% and also do well at Swank. Besides, I knew that being a multisport athlete going into a race with a bunch of guys that focus only on cycling would be tough, not to mention coming into it with tired legs.

Race: Swank 65 Endurance Mountain Bike Race
Location: Brevard, NC – Pisgah
Date: November 6, 2011
Distances: 36 mile mountain bike with 9300 feet of climbing
Result: 47 out of 167
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew, Maxxis Monorail & Larsen TT Tires, Cobb Plus DRT Saddle, Rudy Project helmet, Scrub Brakes, Crank Brothers Candy Pedals.

I’ve always been told that a good triathlete is not someone who is an outstanding swimmer or an awesome biker or even a super-fast runner. Instead, a good triathlete is someone that can put all three together. The funny thing is, most triathletes, especially at the amateur level like me, are not great at all three sports. They’re just good. If they can be good, and do so at all three sports, they’ll be a great triathlete. If they are GREAT at all three, they’re probably professional. So why am I talking about what makes a good triathlete when this is a mountain bike race report? Because I’ve been told before that if you want to get good at a specific sport, then train with folks who are faster. This means that racing against folks who focus on just cycling (and thus probably a bit faster) then I could improve my cycling. I know that there were other folks at this race that were also triathletes, but most of them were just cyclists. Most of them much better and faster cyclists than I.

So, with that said, this race had many goals. First, a training race to get in some serious climbing and technical descents. Second, have some fun time riding with Dan on some outstanding trails. Neither of us had any grand plans about being in 100% race mode and honestly didn’t care where we finished. Granted, we were still going to ride hard and fast, it’s just that we didn’t have a finish goal of any sort. Last, I knew that New Belgium was there and I was REALLY looking forward to earning one of my favorite brews: Fat Tire.

Before I jump into the report, let me back up a little in the timeline to tell you about a small incident that would affect this race. Coming back from Arkansas, I arrived in the Charlotte airport and eagerly awaited my bags and bike. When flying, I always, always, always open the case up, right then and there, to check the contents as soon as it comes off the conveyor. I usually get a few stares and a few glares when I break open a big bike case right in the middle of the airport. But, this is one thing that I could really care less what other people think, as I am protecting my investment. It’s usually only a couple of seconds as I glance over the contents of the case. As soon as I opened the case, (more…)

Filed under: Mountain Biking, Racing | Tagged: Blue Ridge, BusyBee, Cobb, Crank Brothers, GU, MAXXIS, Mountain Biking, New Belgium, Pisgah, Racing, Rudy, Scrub, SWANK | 1 Comment »

An Epic Adventure, XTERRA Epic Iron Mountain Race Report

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Marcus Barton

I know that I just did Swank 65 yesterday, but last weekend I raced the XTERRA Epic – Iron Mountain race. So, before I get ahead of myself and write the Swank report, I must first bring you up to speed with last week’s race.

Race: XTERRA Epic – Iron Mountain
Location: Iron Mountain Resort and Marina, Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Date: October 29, 2011
Distances: 1 mile swim, 34 mile mountain bike, 9.6 mile run
Result: 4th Overall, 1st in Division
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew, Synergy Adrenaline Wetsuit, Maxxis Ikon Tires, Cobb Plus DRT Saddle, Jamis Dakota D29 Pro, Rudy Project helmet, Scrub Brakes, Crank Brothers Candy Pedals.

Wednesday.

Alba and I arrived in Little Rock looking forward to some quiet time alone and also a great race. On our way from Little Rock to the venue (and our accommodations), I needed to pick up a couple of CO2 cartridges and other items from a local bike shop (since you can’t fly with them). In the process, we also stuck to tradition and looked for a local coffee shop. We stumbled upon one called Dogtown Coffee and Eatery. WOW, they had some awesome joe.

We arrived at the Iron Mountain Lodge and Marina a little later that afternoon where we were greeted by a very friendly and helpful staff. Let me just say here that if you are in the area of DeGray Lake, you MUST spend a few days at Iron Mountain. You will NOT be disappointed. We had a sweet cottage with 2 bedrooms and 2 complete baths, kitchen and living room complete with fireplace (which we definitely took advantage of). What awesome accommodations. The cottage had everything we needed for a great stay, including the small stuff like a bundle of firewood and starter block. Heck, for 6 bucks, they would even deliver another bundle of wood to your doorstep.

The place even had an awesome deck overlooking the lake. I took advantage of the built-in sitting bench to put my bike together.

As soon as I got the bike together, I headed out for a course preview. The trails were fast and flowy. There were a handful of technical sections, mainly rock gardens, that you had to work your way through. For the most part, the course was just plain fast. If you could get into a rhythm and hold on in the corners, you would haul arse. Here’s a few pictures of the course and one of the rock gardens.

During my preview of the course, my bike started shifting really strange. I couldn’t quite make it out, but it was acting as if I had a bent derailleur hanger. Knowing that I removed it when I packed the bike, I didn’t think it was possible. I quickly dismissed it and tried making a few minor cable tension adjustments to smooth it out. All of my efforts were futile so I pulled over to investigate. Sure enough, it appeared that the hanger was bent. If you don’t know much about derailleur hangers, they’re usually made of really soft aluminum. On purpose. The reason they’re made that way is so that if you crash or bang it, you break the hanger and not your frame (or derailleur). Standing there looking at the hanger, it was only slightly bent. So I reached down to give it a GENTLE tug. When I did, I noticed the

(more…)

Filed under: Racing | Tagged: Arkansas, Cobb, Crank Brothers, Epic, GU, Jamis, MAXXIS, Racing, Rudy, Scrub, Synergy, trail running, Triathalon, XTERRA | 1 Comment »

Shake-n-Bake, Baby–Tree Shaker 6 Hour Mountain Bike Race Report

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Marcus Barton

Race: Tree Shaker
Location: Anne Springs Close Greenway , Fort Mill, South Carolina
Date: October 15, 2011
Distances: 9.1 mile course, 6 Hour Mountain Bike Race
Result: 7th overall, 6th Hour Solo Male
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew, Maxxis Ikon Tires, Cobb Plus DRT Saddle , Jamis Dakota D29 Pro, Rudy Project helmet, Scrub Brakes, Crank Brothers Candy Pedals, Crank Brothers Multi-17.

As a last-minute decision (you know me), I decided to do the Tree Shaker. Well, it wasn’t exactly last minute. Dan and I were out riding the Anne Springs Close Greenway trails the week before the race. He had already planned on doing the race several weeks before as a preparatory race leading up the the Swank 65, which we are both signed up for. The Monday following our ride (5 days before the race), I decided what the heck, I’ll do it too. 6 hours of mountain biking sounded fun, and after all, I would be doing the Swank, so it would be great training.

The morning of the race, I gathered up all my water bottles, nutrition, bike and what-not and headed out to the greenway. I was sure that I had too many bottles for the time being spent, but I figured having too many was better than not enough. Besides, one bottle was for breakfast and one for recovery (before beer).

It was a beautiful and slightly brisk morning as fall seemed to be settling in upon us. Neal Boyd had his usual, awesome setup with finish/lap area and flag tape along the pit area. Folks were already setting up pop-up tents and getting their gear ready as I met up with the other Tailwind folks.

The goal of the race was to do as many laps in the 6 hours as I could and as fast as I could. My goal was 7. As the race got underway with one mass start (6 hour riders, 12 hour riders and teams for both durations), it was a mad dash to the trail head. We had a bit of gravel road at the start to help thin us out before crossing the start line and beginning our first lap. I didn’t want to completely blow up during the sprint start, but on the other hand I didn’t want to get caught in a bottleneck of riders all trying to squeeze onto the single track. I’m not sure what position I was in, but I knew I was in the top 10 starting the first lap.

I was trying out a new saddle from Cobb Cycles, the Cobb Plus DRT but still didn’t have it dialed in. After a couple of rides on the saddle, I THOUGHT I had it perfect. I breezed through the first lap but started to question whether or not I had it right come mid-second lap as I was feeling a little lower back discomfort. My plan was to stop for a fresh bottle after the second lap and decided to take the opportunity to adjust the saddle a little. After swapping out the water bottle with a fresh one from the cooler, I grabbed a hex tool and adjusted the saddle and tore off for my 3rd lap.

Before halfway through the second lap, right in the middle of the Sugar Loop trail, I pulled over. The saddle adjustment hadn’t fixed things but rather had made them worse. So I ripped open my seat bag, pulled out my Crank Brothers Multi-17 and adjusted the saddle back to where I had it before. For whatever reason, it worked like magic. The discomfort went away and I rode the rest of the race without any saddle problems whatsoever. However, I lost 3-5 mins in the process of the two adjustments, which would haunt me later.

The rest of the race was awesome. Obviously you end up fighting some mental demons, but if you can keep them at bay, you can usually do much better. I fought a bit of my own out there, one of which was the lack of a watch. In usual Marcus fashion, I left it at home by mistake and didn’t realize it until I was almost at the race course. I dismissed it and figured we’d have a race clock which would help me with figuring out pacing. I knew I wouldn’t use the watch that much out on the course, but rather just wanted to see my lap times. After the first three laps, due to the saddle adjusting, I completely forgot to even look for a race clock. On my fourth lap, I realized there wasn’t one. On my 6th lap, I noticed that someone had a clock in one of the pop-up tents that had the time-of-day. After glancing at it to see what time it was, I asked Neal the race time as I passed the finish line. This allowed me to do the math to figure out my lap time. I had over an hour to make the last lap cutoff and knew I didn’t have to blow it out to make it. I pulled back on the pace a little to save some energy for the 6th and 7th laps.

I finished up the race in 7th place overall. On a couple of my pit stops, I asked Tiffany (who took most of these awesome pictures by the way) what lap I was on. Best that I can tell, I held 5th place for the first couple of laps, but lost two spots during my saddle adjustments. I held 7th for the rest of the race. Lesson learned: get everything dialed in BEFORE the race.

Dan took 3rd place overall with the fastest bike lap out of the 6 hour single riders.

Much fun was had by the entire Tailwind team and some outstanding racing in the process. Team Tailwind included Dan Kimball, Me, David Booth and John Hopkins racing in the solo men’s category and Scott Bennett/ Dean Hagey racing in the duo category and the first ever race for either of them. You should also read John’s Race Report as well.

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Filed under: Mountain Biking, Racing | Tagged: Cobb, Crank Brothers, Fort Mill, GU, Jamis, MAXXIS, Mountain Biking, Racing, Rudy, Scrub, South Carolina | 1 Comment »

My First Half Ironman. Not too shabby.

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Marcus Barton

Race: Augusta Ironman 70.3
Location: Augusta, Georgia
Date: September 25, 2011
Distances: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run
Result: 12th place in division, 95th Amateur (out of 3100)(Top 3%)
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew, Synergy Adrenaline Wetsuit, Cobb V-Flow Plus Saddle, Jamis Xenith T1 Tri Bike, Rudy Project helmet.

There were a little over 3000 athletes in the race, which was surprising as most of the races I have done are only a couple of hundred.

Since I am a mountain biker and not much of a roadie, I don’t own aero wheels. So, a week out from the race, I took a look at the weather report and it was forecasting 10mph winds with 25 mph gusts. Not wanting to be blown off the road, I decided to forego a disc, 808s or whatever. Instead, I secured a pair of Reynolds Assaults (~45mm) wheels. Of course, to my disappointment, the forecast changed and there was no wind. Arrrgggh. Too late to get anything else.

It being my first Ironman race of any sort, I was very, very surprised at how organized and smooth flowing the check-in process went. Smooth as butta. Despite the number of people there, I was checked-in and had everything ready to go in about 10 minutes. It took me longer to find a parking spot than it did to get through the check-in. The transition area was huge and there was an endless sea of bikes (the port-a-pottys in the pic below should give you some perspective, not to mention the swim and run in arch in the distance). I walked around transition a bit to get acclimated with where everything was and some point of references to where my bike rack was located. I got everything in place, kissed my bike goodnight and headed to the hotel.

Race Day:

One hassle/disappointment was the fact that since it was a point-to-point swim, we had to check our bikes into transition which was 1.2 miles away from the swim start. Made for a bit of a hectic race morning, but it would be the only hassle of the day.

I don’t know how many swim waves in total there were, but I was in number 12. My age group, Men 40-44, had 504 competitors in it alone. So for only our age group, there were three waves of swimmers. It was broken alphabetically and I was in the first wave of our group. People lined the bridge we would swim under in order to watch the swim. Hanging from the bridge was a HUGE American flag which was very cool indeed. We slowly made our way to the river and with the sound of a horn were off. In usual fashion, it was a bit of a washing machine start. Since we were swimming down-river, I decided to swim as close to the buoys (as far from the shore as possible) in an attempt to catch as much of the main channel current as I could. Several times, the current tried to pull me further out into the channel, but with a slight correction, I was back on course. By the time I reached the swim exit, I had caught up with the tail-end of the previous waves. I was one of the first swimmers in my wave to exit. I would later find out that I was ranked 37th in my age group for the swim with 25:05.

Again, the transition area was HUGE and after running what seemed like forever to get all the way around transition and then to my bike rack, I finally realized why there were 5 and 6 minute T1 times. I came in at 3:59 Ugh.

Not having raced a 70.3 before, I wasn’t quite sure what kind of goal to set for the bike. I had done a few calculations to figure out where I would be at in the standings (based on last year’s results) depending on what average speed I maintained. As the bike leg progressed, I just maintained as hard of a pace I could while still maintaining something in the tank (leg-wise) for the run. I spent the entire leg of the race passing folks in previous waves and was passed by a few in my age group. The country-side was absolutely stunning and there were often people sitting in their driveways clapping or cheering you on. One exception was some greasy-looking fella standing in his driveway holding a sign stating, “Go Home. Get off this road.” I guess he didn’t like us bringing all of the economic stimulus to his community.

Every water stop was well-manned and had a ton of opportunities to grab water, other fluids or gels. There were at least 15 or 20 volunteers in a row holding something out. They did an outstanding job yelling out what they had to offer. I took water at two stops and they were passed off perfectly without having to even slow down. I think it helped that I would look right at the volunteer and point to them to signal I would be taking their offer.

I maintained a pretty steady pace without over-doing it. Even with all of the passing going on, I only lost 3 spots on the bike and dropped to 40th in my age group with a time of 2:32:43.

Again, a long run through transition after a speedy change at T2. 1:47

The run is usually my strength and this would hold true for this race. I was off onto the run, again just trying to maintain as fast and consistent pace as I could. I figured consistent was probably just as important as speed. About a quarter-mile into my first of two laps, I was passed by Amanda Lovato on her second lap. Was kinda cool to see one of the pros run by. I didn’t even attempt to keep up with her. I joked however and said to her that if she was going to pass me, she had to at least throw me a tow-rope. She chuckled slightly, but I could tell she was pushing pretty hard. I maintained a 7:20 pace for the first lap and was pleased. My goal was to maintain the same pace for the second lap. As I came into a water stop at mile 8, I grabbed and chugged a cup of water and began to choke a little. I stopped to walk it off which proved to be a bad, bad thing. Before I knew it, I had walked through the entire water stop, wasting valuable time. I told myself to get moving and was doing fine until I got to the stop at mile 10 (or so). I grabbed ice and a sponge and fiddled around with trying to get the ice down the back of my suit, again wasting valuable time walking. I got moving again and quickly returned to my 7:30ish pace. I would finish up the second lap at 8:26 pace bringing my entire run down to 7:53. The good part is, I managed to pass 28 people on the run in my age group bringing me up to 12th place. If I would have maintained my 7:20 pace, I could have gotten 9th.

Primary lesson learned: Keep running. Do not stop at the water stops and get your business done on the run.

Time 4:46:56
Placed 115/2784 Overall, 12/504 Men 40-44
Swim: 25:05, T1: 3:59, Bike: 2:32:43, T2: 1:47, Run: 1:43:22

Full results

My athlete tracker

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Filed under: Racing, Training | Tagged: 70.3, augusta, Cobb, Crank Brothers, Georgia, GU, Ironman, Jamis, MAXXIS, Racing, Rudy, Synergy, Triathalon | 1 Comment »

Adapt, Improvise and Overcome. Multiple Race Report.

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Marcus Barton

OK. So back at the beginning of August, I mentioned that it would be the busiest month of racing for me. There’s been a few changes, but alas, it was still a busy racing month. One thing about the sport of triathlon is that it is comprised mainly of “age groupers”. Yes, there are some really fast pros out there, many of them get the glory and are placed upon a pedestal. Like any monument, it wouldn’t stand very long if it didn’t have a strong foundation. In our sport, that foundation is the “age grouper”. These fearless warriors have day jobs. Permanent, full-time work that requires them to punch the clock at least (and I do say at least) 40 hours a week. A lot of these athletes also have families. Wives and children who love them dearly, kissing them goodbye as they head out the door at 4am to train. If they’re not headed out at 4am, then they are trying to squeeze it in after work, somewhere between soccer practice and dinner. A few of them pull “two-a-days” and head out in the morning AND afternoon. Their weekends are also filled with more training, usually longer, multi-hour rides and runs, juggled between yard-work and house chores.

Rarely will you get a glimpse of these weekend warrior age groupers in the magazines or websites that highlight the fast pros. Rarely will you see the age grouper, which makes up the vast majority of the racing “field” and pour their hard-earned dollars into the sport in the way of race fees, travel costs, equipment purchases and other sport-related money spends. It’s these very age-groupers that buy the sponsors’ stuff. The same sponsors that pour their funds into races and the pros. The same sponsors that, in most cases (along with age grouper race fees) pay the prize purse at races that are fortunate enough to offer them. So as one of those age-groupers, my hat is off to my fellow age grouper athletes that trudge through the training, not making a single dime, but instead spending it, for nothing more than the feeling they get when they’ve completed a race to the best of their ability. Maybe, just maybe, they might get a medal put around their neck. We do it, not for money, but for the right reason: for love of the sport.

With that said, like my fellow age-groupers, sometimes your life, work or other things have to take a priority over your racing or training. In those cases, you usually don’t just give up. Do you? So when other areas of my life threw me a few curve-balls last (and this) month, I adapted, improvised and overcame. Without getting into any boring specifics as to why, let’s just talk about some of the changes.

August 20 – My intent was to hit XTERRA Charlottesville as my last XTERRA points race for the season (outside of the big races). Instead, I made a last-minute decision to fly to Vermont and race in the USAT Age Group National Championships. I qualified at one of my training races and decided to give it a shot. Let’s just recap by saying: those boys handed my arse to me in a nice gift basket. I finished 67th in an age group of almost 150. Yep, my age group was that large. Still a fun race though, especially the opportunity to ride my bike down the interstate that the Vermont Governor shutdown so we could use it during the bike leg of the race. Very cool.

August 24 – Charlotte Mountain Bike Series, Whitewater Center Race – Another goodie. Managed to get third in my age group after starting in the rear of the pack (like Coach instructed). Me and the second place guy were duking it out right at the finish. Again, I was sneaking up on him until one of my buddies yelled, “GO MARCUS!”. If he wouldn’t have been tipped off, I could have taken him. Winking smile

August 27 – Run Wild Cross Country Festival, South Carolina – I intended to get to this race, but decided against it since the only guidance from Coach was hitting a 5k race on this day. Instead of driving 2 hours, one way, to race for ~20 minutes and then drive 2 hours back, I hit a local road 5k, the Yasaou Greekfest 5k. There were some crazy-fast folks out there. I managed to get 3rd in my age group and squeeze out a sweet 18:14.

September 4 – XTERRA Canada National Championships – This is one of those races where other areas of life had to take a priority. It was a mix of work-related things and the logistics that just didn’t pan out. I didn’t get to go to this race and was super-bummed about it because it is one of my all-time favorite races. Also, my training regimen was designed with the idea that I would “peak” for this race. That means for the past several months, my training has been geared specifically for this race. I didn’t get to go. Maybe next year. Crying face

In it’s place, I decided to race XTERRA Big Bear in West Virginia. Here’s the race report:

Race: XTERRA Big Bear
Location: Big Bear Recreation area, Hazelton, West Virginia
Date: September 11, 2011
Distances: .75 mile swim, 14 mile mountain bike, 6.5 mile run
Result: 1st overall, 1st in division
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew, Synergy Adrenaline Wetsuit, Maxxis Ikon Tires, Cobb SHC DRT Saddle, Jamis Dakota D29 Pro, Rudy Project helmet, Scrub Brakes, Crank Brothers Candy Pedals, Inov8 X-Talon 190 Shoes.

The race, which consisted of both a triathlon and a duathlon, was slotted to be held on September 11th. I thought it would be cool to race on such a historical day and to thumb my nose at the terrorists in my own way, all while honoring those who died that day. Going along with the adapt, improvise and overcome mantra, Alba and I decided at noon, on September 10th (the day before the race) that I should do this one. That may not seem like that big of a deal, but the fact that it was a good 6.5 hour drive away, we quickly packed the car and immediately headed that way. Online registration was already closed, there was no race-day registration, and the final registration closed Saturday (the day we left) at 7:30pm. We knew if we only stopped for gas, restroom breaks and food-to-go, we’d make it, especially if we did all three at the same time. We made it to registration with only 10 minutes to spare.

I had a great conversation with Race Director, Nathan Kile, about the course, what to expect, his thoughts on tire choice and more. You could tell he was just excited about the race as I was. I got all my race registration done and we headed to the hotel.

The next morning we showed up just as the sun was coming up.

The water temps were low enough that it was a wetsuit swim. We would swim one large, rectangular lap of a .75 mile swim course. It was basically an out-and-back course with a short leg at the turn back point. I slid on my Synergy Adrenaline wetsuit and went for a warm-up swim where the water was crystal clear and shallow. After a brief silence in honor of those who perished on 9/11, we were off on the swim. After rounding the turn at the farthest point, I noticed that there were a couple of people ahead of me. I didn’t want to waste any time with my head above water to get a firm count, so I just knew there were a handful. I did see that the lead swimmer was WAAAAAY the heck up there (I would later find out he was a relay team member).

I managed to get 4th out of the water, but didn’t know it at the time. I transitioned to the bike as quick as I could with relay team members watching on.

The 14 mile bike course consisted of some sweet, technical single-track trails. I endured my fair share of roots, rocks, boulders, climbs and descents as I made my way through the hills. Did I mention rocks? There were plenty of tough rock gardens to trudge through and even a couple of creek beds to navigate. One minute I would feel the rumble of a technical single-track and next thing you know, I was dumped out onto an old airfield. A short time later I made my way through a pine forest feeling as if I were at the battle of Bastogne. Here’s a good video of this section of the course. Let’s just say there’s plenty of different terrain for anyone. The Maxxis Ikon Tires were hooking up in all of the conditions and were handling all the challenges this course could throw at them.

Earlier that morning, our calves were marked with our age on one calf and a “T” (for triathlon) or “D” (for duathlon) to indicate which of the two races we were in. On the ride, I passed numerous people in both races, but since there was no indicator of relay teams, I had no idea if the “T”s I were passing were individuals or relay members. At one point, I passed a duathlete shortly after the airfield, which was about the half-way point of the bike course. I asked how many were ahead and he stated two that he knew of.

It wasn’t long before I came upon a steep, technical, downhill that consisted of roots, rocks and small head-sized boulders. As I descended (on the edge of out-of-control), I just held onto the bike and let it do its thing. Every split second or so, I would nudge it in the direction I thought might be a good line. In a way, I was suggesting to the bike that the path I wanted. Sometimes it went, and sometimes it didn’t. I just held on and knew that if I crashed, something was going to get broken; me, the bike or both. While descending this Pisgah-ish hill, I had a rider behind me GAINING ground. We hit the bottom of the hill where it took a hard left and dumped into a creek bed. At that point, I came to a screeching halt as I nearly missed the turn in what appeared to be an inevitable crash. Luckily, I stopped just before a big drop-off into the creek bed and as I came to a stop, 3 riders zoomed past me.

I eventually caught back up to the 3 riders, passing two of them and tailing the 3rd, who just happened to be the guy who almost passed me going down the technical hill. I asked him if he rode that much and he replied with “as much as he could”. He also mentioned that it was one of his favorite downhills. He further explained that he was planning to pass me during that descent, but decided not to so that he didn’t cause both of us to crash. I thanked him for making such a good decision and we rode on. He eventually pulled away from me with his home-court advantage of knowing the trails. He wasn’t in my age group, so I didn’t let it bother me. About the time he pulled away, another rider comes smoking past me that WAS in my age group. I would later find out that it was local, Marc Glass, a mountain bike racer. I tried to keep up with him and had no problem on the flats. But when it came to the hills, he would pull away from me. At one point he hammered it up a hill so hard that I made the mental note that it would probably come back to haunt him on the run (if he wasn’t a relay team member). Trying not to blow my legs up on the bike, I let him go and finished up the bike leg about 2:30 minutes back from Marc.

I hit the 33 second mark for T2 and came out of transition with Dominik Van der Veen only 11 seconds back from me. We ran across the Big Bear Lake dam, headed out for our 6.5 mile run, with him hot on my heels. Again, big kudos to Race Director and course designer, Nathan Kile, for designing the run course. I truly feel that it was one of the most interesting and fun trail runs on the circuit. It consisted of trails just as technical (if not more) as the bike course. I encountered even more rocks, car-sized boulders, roots, bridges and streams. At the two-mile point (or so), we came back towards the damn and crossed over the ankle-deep spillway just below the dam. As I exited the trees, I saw Marc crossing the stream headed for the water stop just ahead. He paused at the first water stop to take a drink and I grabbed a cup but kept on trucking. The next goal was for me to put as much distance between him and I as I could. I kept a steady pace and took in as much scenery as I could in the process. I felt like I was on a trail that had the rockiness of Crowders but the green, plushness of Whistler.

In talking with the Race Director the day before, he mentioned the “Crack” trail. I had no idea what he was talking about, but found out soon enough. The famous “Crack” trail is literally a three-foot wide crack in the side of a rock cropping. With walls on both sides from 10 to 15 feet high in spots. I meandered my way through the crack, while having to climb and descend several feet at times. Coming out the other side, I had to continue my trek along side the rock cropping through ferns and fertile soil. The run also had its share of climbs and descents as well. There was no time for mind wandering, as I had to keep my wits about me since the trail stayed technical the entire time. The Inov8 X-Talon shoes worked AWESOME in that terrain. In the loamy, rich soil, the knobs dug deep. Across the boulders, they gripped like claws. In creek crossings, they drained water within a few steps out of the water. Love them.

As I came into the second water stop at mile 4 (or so), I was wondering what place I was in. This water stop was a self-serve stop with a case of Gatorade and a case of water sitting on the ground. I noticed that a little past the water stop there were two used water bottles on the ground. If that was an indicator, I was in third place. About a mile or so later, I saw Dominik in the switchbacks. Since the trail switched back and forth a ton, I had no idea if he was 30 seconds or 3 minutes behind me. I didn’t take any chances and picked up the pace as much as possible. With about a half-mile left, I caught up with a biker since the trail merged with the bike course. He said I could pass him if I wanted. As I took him up on his offer, I told him thanks as I had someone right on my tail. A new goal was established: go fast enough that I didn’t a) throw up and b) hold the rider back at all. I met both goals and came across the finish upon which I immediately laid on the cool ground.

As I looked up, some guy comes over and shakes my hand. “You won it.” he said. I was puzzled on two accounts. Did he mean I won the race or my age group? Also, his voice sounded familiar, very much like the guy who almost passed me on the bike leg during the technical downhill. Sure enough it was him (him being Brian Menzies), but he was dressed already.

“How are you dressed already?” I asked.

“I was on a relay team.” he stated.

Still puzzled, I asked, “I won it?”.

“Yep, you killed the run.”

Sure enough, I won first overall, which I didn’t believe until I viewed the results. Apparently, the two empty bottles at the second run water stop were from relay teams: one triathlon and one duathlon. Not too shabby, huh? The prize was a SWEET clay urn with the placement inscribed along with the XTERRA logo.

Huge thanks to Nathan Kile for putting on a great race and all of the staff at the Big Bear Recreation area for welcoming us. It is truly a beautiful place which you should check out, even if you’re not racing. Gorgeous trails, lake and camp lands.

We headed home immediately after the awards and said goodbye to the West Virginia mountains.

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Filed under: Racing, Training, Travel | Tagged: Cobb, Crank Brothers, GU, Jamis, MAXXIS, Racing, Rudy, Scrub, Synergy, trail running, Triathalon, West Virginia, XTERRA | 2 Comments »

XTERRA First Coast equals valuable lessons

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Marcus Barton

Race: XTERRA First Coast
Location: Jacksonville Beach, Florida
Date: July 24, 2011
Distances: 750m swim, 13mile mountain bike, 5k run
Result: 5th place in division, 11th overall
Products used: GU Roctane and GU Brew, Synergy Syn-Skin, Maxxis Ikon Tires, Cobb SHC DRT Saddle, Jamis Dakota D29 Pro, Rudy Project helmet, Scrub Brakes, Crank Brothers Candy Pedals.

I had originally planned to race at the Offroad Assualt on Mount Mitchell, complete with paying my entry back in March. If you’re not familiar with it, just think of an mountain bike race that includes over 65 miles and 11,000 feet of elevation change. Dan Kimball and I (as usual) both decided to have at it with something a bit different from our usual triathlon season. We had the schedule all laid out, including several pre-rides and training plan. We had it all figured out… except… the fact that I had also scheduled family vacation the same week. Ugh.

Since Alba and the fam put up with my racing, training and other escapades all year long, the LEAST that I could do is not screw up their family vacation. With regret, I decided to forego ORAMM. Long story short, we ended up settling on vacationing at Tybee Island just off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. A couple of days before leaving, I was feeling pretty bummed about missing the race and after some discussion with Alba (with some internal debate of my own), we decided that I could squeeze in racing XTERRA First Coast without much ill-effect to the fam vacay. We arrived in Savannah Saturday evening and after about 3 hours of sleep, the two of us left the kids nestled in their beds and headed out for the 3 hour drive to Jacksonville.

Upon arrival, I setup transition and saw many of my XTERRA family such as Frank Fernandez Posse, Dave Hadden, Justin Stewart, Dan Arnett, Casey Fannin, Charlotte & Kevin Mahan and more. We all greeted each other and set out to get our “chores” done. Before we knew it, we had to head out to the beach to start the race with a 750 meter, point-to-point ocean swim.

The swim started off fairly violent with not only the competitors throwing the usual elbows, kicks and what-not, but when combined with waves, it just exacerbated the violence. Once I reached the 2nd buoy, things had thinned out a bit and I settled into a grove. I came out of the water in 6th place for my wave and headed to transition. I hadn’t even gotten off the beach and already had my Synergy speed suit down to my waist.

After a speedy transition, I dove into the “Tightwad” trail for the first of 3 laps. It wasn’t long into the first lap when Frank Fernandez Posse caught up to me. We chatted a bit and he mentioned us working together to push each other along. I stuck on his wheel for a while but had an issue with an obstacle or two and he pulled out of sight in the switchbacks. I knew he wasn’t far ahead of me as I could continue to hear his rear hub rat-tat-tat as he coasted in spots. I just kept him within an ear shot hoping to catch back up.

After each lap, we had to dismount, run through transition, and remount before re-entering the trail. Coming into transition, I executed a rolling dismount, ran through transition and remounted, almost running over the lady sitting at the trailhead jotting down bib numbers. Early into the second lap, I kept hearing someone’s squeaky brakes every few seconds and couldn’t seem to tell if they were in front of me or behind me. With all of the switchbacks, the noise kept coming from behind me, then in front of me and then back to behind me. I couldn’t tell if I was catching up to someone or if someone was catching up me. Before the end of the first lap, I realized that it was Dan Arnett’s brakes. I had caught up to him.. and Frank.

Dan told me to pass and I took his offer. We shot around the rest of the first lap with me slowly pulling away from him through a couple of technical sections. I’d lost earshot of Frank’s hub and was beginning to get a little frustrated that I wasn’t catching up. What I was catching up to was the tail end of the previous wave. Most of the racers were very nice and pulled off to one side as soon as they heard me coming. I thanked each one as I passed. I came upon one racer and asked for a pass. He pulled over to the right side and I passed him on the left. Just as I passed him, he grabbed a big ole’ handful of front brake and performed a beautiful endo. As he flew over his handlebars, his rear wheel came down and hit my right arm, taking me out in the process. As we lay in the trail trying to untangle each other, Dan Arnett caught back up. As I pounced back to my feet, Dan yells, “Go! Go! Go!” and we took off down the trail chit chatting about the crash. Dan and I rode the rest of the 2nd lap together off and on.

Coming back into transition at the end of the 2nd lap, I made a technical error. I swung my right leg over and poked it through between the bike and my left leg. This is very typical for a rolling dismount, but usually done so with my feet OUT of my shoes ala the pic taken at Pelham below.

Since I wasn’t transitioning to the run just yet, I still had my shoes ON. Even worse, I hadn’t unclipped my left foot. So when I stepped off onto the pavement with my right foot, I quickly realized my dork move and that my left foot was still firmly attached to the bike. As I slid on my backside across the pavement towards the two ladies manning the dismount point, they both screeched and then quickly asked if I was ok. “Yep. Just a stupid mistake.” I exclaimed. I ran through transition and back on the bike for lap 3.

As soon as I got back onto the singletrack, I heard Dan Arnett behind me through the man-high palm bushes (which by the 3rd lap, I was tired of brushing against). “You still with me, Dan!?” “Yep, I’m still back here!” We weaved, zigged and zagged through the tight singletrack as if we were attached by an invisible rope, making comments here and there about the trail. It wasn’t very far into the last lap that my rear end started swaying back and forth. It felt like my rear end was loose and I kept looking at down at it trying to figure out what was going on. Dan saw me looking and asked what was wrong. “I think I’m getting a flat. Can you tell?” “That sucks, Marcus. It does look like it’s going flat.”

I pulled over and tried to quickly find the leak. I couldn’t’ spot any sealant nor a hissing sound. I grabbed my can of Big Air and squeezed it back to life as other racers swooshed past me.

(FLASHBACK)

If your recall my race report from Richmond, you’ll remember that Dan Kimball loaned me a used Maxxis Ikon to run as my rear tire. It served me well during that race. In fact, I rode that tire quite a bit over the next few weeks, including marking the course for XTERRA Whitewater on July 2nd. During that several-hour ride, I cut the sidewall of said tire on a section of the Whitewater trail that I have personally dubbed “The Oyster Garden.” I call it that because it’s filled with jagged quartz rocks sticking out of the ground. Anyone that has ridden that trail more than once knows exactly which section I am talking about. Anyhow, I received a pretty nice sidewall gash on the tire and even though the sealant fixed it, I still had to pump air into it off and on over the duration of the ride. I had to make several trips back to the truck, anyhow, to get more arrows and marking supplies. Each time I did, I took advantage by hitting the pump with each return trip. Funny thing is, after that ride, the tire held air, with no problems, over the next few weeks. This included a trip to the mountains to preride the ORAMM course.

Regardless of it holding air, I knew better than to actually race on it. What a stupid mistake.

(END FLASHBACK)

As I rode for the next mile or so, I remembered why I was having an issue with the tire. I passed many of the riders that had passed me while I was stopped. As I reminisced back to the flat at the Whitewater Center, I felt the same wobbly sway from my rear end. Damn it. I stopped and put another shot of air into the tire and took off riding again. Many of the same racers passed me. Again. A mile or so later, it went wobbly. Again. This time I let the air in the tire equalize with the pressure in the can. The tire was WAY over what I would have normally inflated it, but I figured it would hold air longer preventing me from having to stop. I took off. With about a mile left to go on the last lap, the tire was getting squishy and I would bottom out on my rim when hitting roots. I tried to gingerly hop over them while keeping my butt off of the seat. I felt like a Nascar driver riding on fumes and debating a whether to pit stop or try and finish the race. Should I waste the time to stop yet again to try and fix it or should I just ride it out? I took the gamble and decided just to ride it out. As I exited the trail, I made a left hand turn on the pavement and felt the tire completely fold over. I rode it into transition and switched to my running gear.

With the run being around 3 miles, I knew going into it that my chances of closing the gap with Frank (or many others) were not that great. Three miles just isn’t long enough to make up much time. Do the math. If someone has a 3 minute lead, I’d have to run 5:30 pace vs a 6:30 pace. That’s HUGE. But, instead of crunching numbers in my head to figure it out (ala Dan Kimball), I just decided to run my ass off. I finished with the fastest split of the race, but it wouldn’t prove to be good enough. Frank still finished a good 5 minutes ahead of me, as did 3 other guys in my division. They’re all very fast guys and ran an awesome race.

So the one question a couple of friends asked already is, “Are you not going to use those tires anymore?” My answer is, “I already have two more on order.” You have to realize that the problem wasn’t with the Maxxis Ikon tires, instead, it was my own fault. I was using a tire with a known sidewall cut. Not only that, but the jagged quartz I rode through could have easily cut anyone’s tires. I was running a lightweight tire with a thin sidewall, typically used for racing only conditions. My problem was that I didn’t change the tire when it was initially cut. By the way, the tires I ordered are the same model (Ikon), but with thicker sidewall protection (EXO).

XTERRA First Coast was a blast of race and fun was had by all, including me with the flat.

Check out the results.

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Filed under: Racing | Tagged: Cobb, Crank Brothers, Florida, GU, Jacksonville, Jamis, MAXXIS, Racing, Rudy, Scrub, Synergy, Triathalon, XTERRA | 2 Comments »

XTERRA Panther Creek

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Marcus Barton

I raced the XTERRA Panther Creek Tri back on August 1st. I know, I know. That was 4 weeks ago. After some pestering from a few of my buddies who wanted the low-down, I figured I would post it anyhow. Plus, with going into my next race, I have been thinking a lot about Panther Creek, as any racer should. What went right? What went wrong? What changes should I make to improve? You get the idea. So since it’s been on my mind lately, it does make it easier to throw it on paper. Well, uh, not really paper, but again, you get the idea.

For the second year in a row, it was a wet course. It was on and off raining in the area the 24 hours leading up to the race. I wasn’t overly nervous about it, as I had a pretty good race there last year and it was muddy as all get-out.

Fred and I had chatted a couple of times leading into the race and we hooked up on race morning to talk strategy among miscellaneous small talk. It was still on-and-off misting as you could tell from the foggy camera lens in the picture below.

Like last year, the bike course was modified slightly to prevent the racers from going through a slick boulder and bridge section. It’s a fun, fun section when it’s dry, but could be very, very sketchy when wet. Here’s a dry picture of the section that was cutout.

After getting transition all laid out and things ready for the race, Fred, Dan, and I decided to head out on the course for a little quick pre-race warmup. This also gave us an opportunity to check out the course and to see if my decision to go gloveless would work given the wet conditions. It was slick as expected with every wet root acting like a gremlin to throw your wheels out from under you. The ESI Grips worked well, even wet and even without gloves. I was pleasantly surprised as I knew that going gloveless could save me time in transition, especially if it continued to rain. Have you ever tried putting on wet gloves?

On a second lap of the section we decided to pre-ride, I opted to push things just a little too hard. Inevitably, I crashed. Not only did I crash, but I did so twice. The second time down, my decision to go without gloves bit me. While hitting the dirt, I tried to catch myself and both of my hands scraped across sharp, pea-sized gravel. The result were cuts and scrapes to both of my palms. The pic below was from post-race while cleaning the wounds. Can you imagine what they looked like bloody?

Getting back to transition, I grabbed my Bellwether Scout gloves from my transition bag and placed them in their appropriate spot. There was no way I was going through that twice. I headed down to the water for a warm-up swim. During the swim, as soon as I took off, the first couple of strokes were painful. I expected the cuts to sting, but that wasn’t the problem. The real pain came from the fact that my right palm was not only cut, but bruised quite a bit. Matter of fact, it had already begun to swell and discolor. “This is not going to be fun on the bike,” I thought. After my warmup swim and RIGHT before the race start, I ran back up to transition and swapped my Scout gloves for a pair of the Bellwether Supreme gloves. I normally reserve these for road biking because I favor full-fingered gloves on the mountain bike. My decision to use them was based up the fact that they have a padded palm. They ended up being saviors on the bike course.

The swim consisted of a 400 meter course of which we would have to two laps. On the first lap I attempted to keep a strong, fast pace to stay ahead of the main pack. I knew I couldn’t keep up with Fred’s super-fast pace, so rather than blow up trying, I just kept him in sight and settled into my own pace. I was in 6th place coming out of the water and couple of minutes behind Fred (pretty significant on such a short swim).

My transition went super smooth and I entered the trail in 4th place. I passed another racer very early in the bike which put me into 3rd. I held 3rd place for a good portion of the first (of two) laps. That’s when my friend Dan caught up to me. “Abracadabra,’ he says as he passes me. We stuck together into the second lap. About a third of the way through, I crashed again on slick roots, hitting more sharp gravel, taking a huge chunk out of my tri suit and my arse with it. I shook it off quickly and kept on trucking. About the time I caught back up to Dan, I heard Ryan Oconner behind us and I informed Dan that we had a tail. Ryan kept his pursuit and eventually passes me once the trail widened. Shortly after his pass, I tried to pick up my pace in an effort to keep on his tail. It wasn’t long before the conditions took over and I crashed, AGAIN. Same side, same area, leaving more arse on trail. This allowed both Dan and Ryan to get out of sight. I continued my pursuit to both catch the guys in front and to ward off anyone trying to catch up. As I was about to finish up the bike leg of the race, Bence Roemer catches up and takes a pass.

Sore and beat up, I entered T2 and ditched the bike gear as quickly as possible. It went pretty smooth and I went into the run in 6th place overall.

After about a mile or so of technical single-track, the run course opened up onto a gravel fire-road. I could see Bence in the distance and tried my best to reel him in. Once we entered into a lolly-pop loop section of the course, I wouldn’t see him again. Matter of fact, I didn’t see or hear anyone for the rest of the run. I spent it all alone till the end of the race.

Since the conditions were quite muddy, I was a little concerned that the Avia Avi-Stoltz shoes would get clogged up and lose grip. Only in the most extreme, greasy mud did this happen (which any shoe would have had trouble). The rest of the time, they worked like champs. I held 6th place overall and first in my age group.

Great race and good times!

Congrats to teammate Fred Smith for taking 1st place overall!!

Full results:
http://www.xterraplanet.com/races/view_results.cfm?race_id=1088

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Filed under: Racing | Tagged: GU, Nathan, Racing, Running, trail running, Triathlon, XTERRA | 1 Comment »

Better Late Than Never – XTERRA East Championship Race Report

Posted on July 3, 2010 by Marcus Barton

It’s hard to believe that the XTERRA East Championship race was over A MONTH ago. With everything going on (vacation, getting ready for XTERRA Whitewater, you name it), it’s been difficult to get this race report done. Alas, here it is.

Dan and I headed to Richmond Saturday morning since our day jobs wouldn’t allow us to get out of town sooner. We debated leaving Friday afternoon, but it just didn’t pan out. After arriving, we shot straight for the course to go for a pre-ride. We hit the XTERRA University clinic hosted by Conrad Stoltz and Melanie McQuaid. If you haven’t hit one of these clinics at the Championship races, you’re missing out. No matter what your skill level, you could still learn a thing or two. Even if it’s little tips and tricks about the course, I always pick up a few nuggets.

After XTERRA University, we picked up our packets and headed out onto the course. We rode portions of the course that were reverse from last year just to get a feel for the flow. We bailed out on the rest of the course in order to reserve our legs for the race.

Race morning, we headed down to the transition area and began to setup. I looked up and saw a BEAUTIFUL sunrise.

We took off on the swim in three waves. Pros were first, men up to 39 in the second and everyone else (including me) in the last wave. There wasn’t as much of a current in the James River this year, but that was due to less rainfall than last year. Unfortunately, this meant a heck of a lot more climbing, crawling, and swimming over rocks. I just couldn’t seem to get into a comfortable rhythm. The very second I felt like I had a rhythm going, I’d hit a rock. I’d try my best to shimmy across the rock without wasting too much time. I decided to try and sight a little more to see if I could spot anyone having to crawl over something in front of me. It was a futile attempt as the entire field in front of me looked like a bunch of whack-a-moles popping up and down. We made it to the island, a quick romp across the island and back into the river for the return swim.

Coming out of the water, I felt pretty good, but still a bit frustrated that I couldn’t get a good rhythm going. I headed for T1 as quickly as I could. I was happy that we weren’t forced to run down the pea gravel embedded sidewalk. There were a steady stream of swimmers coming out of the water and into T1. This meant that I had to contend with traffic and passing during the bike leg. My goal was to beat as many of them out of transition as I could.

T1 went fairly smoothly although I did have a bit of trouble with my shoes. Unlike some of my brethren, I choose to put on my shoes in transition for certain races (this being one of them). This time around, I hadn’t pre-positioned my straps properly, so it caused me a bit of time getting them on and strapped. Like going into transition, there was a steady stream of folks coming out. We had a short road ride before we came to the concrete bridge that crosses the river.

mmmmmm Gloves are tasty.

Running up onto the concrete bridge and over the river, fellow 40 year old, friend, and MelRad Alumni, Frank Fernandez-Posse yells out to me from behind. “Go, Marcus!” Frank and I had chatted on the phone a couple of times leading up to the race. We were both excited to be there and to duke it out a bit. We headed over to the island where we engaged in a little fast fire road riding along with some sweet single track. As we departed the island, Frank was still hot on my tail and passed me on the rickety wooden bridge that crosses the dryway. He pats me on the back as he passes and says, “Come on, let’s go.” I tucked in behind another rider he passed and the three of us headed for the stair case.

The staircase is a three-story tall, concrete, spiral staircase that we have to climb in order to cross a set of railroad tracks. Originally designed for pedestrians, it is a bit difficult to climb it with a bike over your shoulder. Luckily, unlike last year, we only had to climb the staircase once and did not have to descend it. After crossing the railroad tracks, we rode some of the sweetest, fun, and technically interesting single track courses on the circuit. With drops, tunnels, weird bridges, and some of the greatest trail maintenance I’ve seen, Richmond is just a bit different than most trail systems out there, especially for one located smack-dab in the middle of the city. The local trail gnomes have done a tremendous job with some of the brick and stone work. Absolutely amazing.

I continued to keep Frank, a great biker, in my sites as we rode the trails. He maintained a good two or three rider spots ahead of me. As we caught up with the tail-end of the first amateur wave of riders, this proved to be a little difficult. With every person that I had to pass, it seemed he’d squeak a little bit further out of sight. At one point, another rider and I became a little tangled up during a poor passing attempt (on my part). I apologized profusely as I continued my Frank pursuit. By the time I got going again, he was completely out of sight. I searched through the switchbacks for him but just couldn’t spot him. I had lost too much time passing and he was riding a good bike leg. Once we arrived back onto the pavement at the end of the bike portion of the race, I had an opportunity to look straight ahead to see if I could spot him. Nothing.

After a horrible T2 (I was flustered and seemed disorganized with my gear), I headed out on the hot run. While fumbling with my hat and bib (see pic below), I looked up to spot a racer off in the distance. I couldn’t recognize the person (he was too far), but it sure looked like Frank. The signature bald head (like mine) and the coloring of the uniform made me think it was him. I set out to try and reel the person in, regardless of who it was.

As I got closer, sure enough, it was Frank. As I passed him, he gave me words of encouragement and I returned the favor. He’d been nursing an ankle injury and it surely showed up on the run (I hope it’s better by now, Frank). I continued on to the flood wall and tried to maintain a good pace. The heat coming off of the rocks, river and the flood wall was overwhelming. I pulled back my pace a bit just so I could handle the heat. After the floodwall I ascended the “Ruins” which is a staircase made of railroad ties. Once on top of the ruins, I was really beginning to feel the affects of the heat. The run quickly turned back to single track where I welcomed the coolness of the shaded trail and rolling terrain.

I passed one more person in my division just before we went onto the dryway, an area of large boulders and rocks. I had asked Kahuna Dave the day before if we’d be climbing the hill on the island just after the dryway and he stated that we wouldn’t. My strategy was to pick up my pace after the dryway and negative split all the way back.

I picked up a rabbit just after the dryway. Looking at his calves, he had a 45 stamped on one (which meant he was in the 45-49 division) and a permanent IronMan tattoo on the other. Running at a pace just a little faster than I could maintain, I tucked in behind him and asked if he’d mind the company. “Nope, let’s do it,” he replied. I stayed right with him until I saw a red arrow pointing us up the hill on the island. DRATS! My whole strategy was ruined. I had paced myself thinking that I had mile or so flat run left. A last minute course change dictated that I’d need to quickly modify that strategy. I didn’t have the juice or the mental capacity to attack the hilly trail on the island. As I started to climb the island hill, both quads started to burn and cramp up. I pushed through it the best that I could but lost my rabbit in the process. I grunted, groaned and generally whined my way through the hilly singletrack and over to the other side of the island. As I came out onto the flat section of the course, I could see the concrete ramp leading to the bridge back across the river. I faintly spotted two runners ascending the ramp. “I can catch them,” I thought. I picked up the pace and attempted to reel them in.

Coming into the finish, I was 29 seconds off from those two guys, WHO JUST HAPPENED TO BOTH BE IN MY DIVISION! Lesson to be learned: Every second counts!

Final results were 7th in my Division (bleh) and 23rd overall amateur out of a field of 197 amateurs. Due to my placement and one of the guys in my division being Canadian, I qualified to race as part of Team USA at the 2011 Cross (offroad) Triathlon World Championships to be held in Extremadura, Spain. (yay!)

Be a Warrior!

Marcus Barton

Filed under: Racing | Tagged: GU, Nathan, Racing, Running, trail running, Triathlon, XTERRA | Comments Off

The Bee’s Knees – XTERRA Southeast Championship – June 13

Posted on June 19, 2010 by Marcus Barton

(last weeknd’s race)

78 degrees. That was the temperature when Dan and I arrived at transition area for our pre-race setup at the XTERRA Southeast Championship race last weekend. That may not sound that bad, but you have to consider that it was 5:45 AM at the time. We knew it would be a hot race in Alabama that day.

Even though I currently reside in Charlotte, North Carolina, I was born and raised in Alabama. My wife, Alba, is from New York city, and has taken many “back home” trips with me to Alabama. She has created a phrase that describes hot days like that as “Alabama-hot”. No matter where we are, if it is really hot outside, she calls it Alabama-hot.

While getting checked in, we saw the regular crew, Janet, Andrew, Jen and the rest of the bunch. It was great seeing them all again. We setup our transition area and set out for a quick warm up ride. We had missed seeing the new section of the bike course during our pre-ride, so we used a portion of it for the warm up.

Heading down to the swim area, I hopped into the water about waist deep. The water was like a hot tub. I didn’t even bother doing a warm up swim in fear of overheating. Instead, I decided to lay down on a cold section of grass in the shade while reviewing my game plan in my noggin. “This is going to be a hot swim,” I thought to my self. I think the advertised water temperature was 83 degrees. Alabama-hot.

Before I knew it, we were on the starting line. The infamous cannon fired and we were off in typical washing machine fashion.

More pics at the XTERRA FaceBook page.

The first lap was a bit odd. There were two distinct groups of swimmers and somehow I ended up right between the two in open water. It must have been where I started off the line. I would breathe to the right and see a group of swimmers thrashing. With a breath to the left, I would see another group. I’d site for the buoy and no one was in front. Very odd. At one point, I caught a glimpse of Dan, but lost sight of him somehow in the shuffle.

Coming out of the water for the short beach run between the two 750 meter laps, I felt pretty good. I even goofed around with someone taking pictures and gave them double hang-ten hand signs along with a big smile. Wish I could get a copy of that photo (hint, hint).

The second lap went smooth as well. I felt like I could have pushed the pace a little faster, but I was really concerned with overheating. The water was just that hot. I decided to stick to the conservative side and save it for the bike and run. Heading into transition, after the swim, I wasn’t sure about my standings, but knew I was looking forward to the bike.

I was surprised to see so many bikes still on the racks when I arrived into T1. With my swim, I felt my conservative pace would have put me further back in the pack, but apparently it wasn’t as slow as I’d thought. I quickly donned my bike gear spying teammie and rackmate Jo Markaham on my way out of transition.

Man, that Lazer helmet ROCKS!

The ride on the road was short before hitting the trailhead but was long enough for me to chew on, I mean put on, my gloves while riding. I was still breathing hard from the swim and transition when I hit the trailhead. Once on the trail, it took a little while for me to settle into a comfortable pace and calm my breathing.

For the first portion of the course, I had someone right behind me, tagging along as I passed numerous riders. I would call out a request to pass and would hear him say “one more,” adding to my request. We picked off quite a few riders together and I asked him twice if he wanted to pass. After the second time I asked, he stated I was picking some really good lines and that he wanted to just hang with me a while. No problem. Riding together with another rider is always more fun that riding alone.

By the time we arrived at the first fire road, we had been tailing another rider for a while. The rider following me took the opportunity to pass the rider in front of us. As he pulled along my side, he said, “Come on, let’s catch the guy in blue!” I glanced down at his calf and saw he was in the 45-49 age division. Good, not one of my competitors.

I jumped in behind him but ended up behind the blue rider. The three of us rode up the gravel road in a mini-peloton, drafting. As we went through the water stop manned by one busy, busy volunteer. He handed off a cup of water to the two in front of me while running along side of us, but had nothing to give me. Darn, if he only had three hands. We stayed in our group until the trail turned to single track where I passed the blue rider on the next climb.

The two of us stayed together until hitting the long fire road climb. I let him pull away from me on the climb as I took the conservative approach. I had completely blown up on the same climb two years ago when the heat conditions were similar. Alabama-hot.

About half-way up the climb, I hear “abracadabra” (an inside joke between Dan and I). “Go get ‘em!" I exclaimed as he slowly passed me. I continued the climb and somehow lost track of where I was. When I reached the top, I was actually a bit surprised that it was over already.

On the first downhill I was bombing pretty good, floating across some really rough, rocky sections, just holding on and letting the bike do it’s thing when I hear what appears to sound like a spoke breaking. You know that “ting” sound that everyone dreads to hear. About the same time, something started going wrong with my chain. I couldn’t quite figure it out on the fly, but it seemed like the derailleur wasn’t picking up the slack. The only problem was, I wasn’t pedaling, so there shouldn’t be any slack to pick up. I pulled over to give it a quick inspection and didn’t see any broken spokes or anything out of place.

For the rest of the rolling sections before Blood Rock, I continued to have the same problem. Through trial and error, I determined that something was preventing my cassette from free-wheeling. This resulted in anytime I attempted to coast, the cassette would continue to try and throw the chain forward. The only way to prevent it was to pedal all the time, even on fast downhills.

Upon diving into the Blood Rock trail, there’s a nice rocky section to jump right at the beginning. I dove off of it flawlessly. However, the flawed part was the speed and angle at which I went into the small turn just after the drop. I overshot the turn and laid the bike down, jumped off and landed squarely on my feet. I only lost a few seconds, but it disheveled me a bit mentally. The rest of Blood Rock went smoothly and I picked good lines going through the really technical section.

Melanie coming down Blood Rock

The SWEET downhill following Blood Rock is my favorite part of the Oak Mountain trail. It’s fast, technical and fun as heck. Towards the bottom, I caught up with Pro, Fabiola Corona, being followed by another guy in my division. At the same time, another 40 year old had caught up with us. The four of us continued on the trail until we made several passes. Next thing I knew, it was just me following one 40 year old.

Me in the back

Once we hit a pine thicket, I felt something stinging/biting me on the back. “Ouch, what the heck is that? Horse fly? Ouch!” I was thinking while trying to reach it with one hand while the other was on the bars. Not sure what it was at the moment, but it sure stung like hell. Could it have been a yellow-jacket? They do nest on the ground in pine straw (usually).

I continued following the 40 year old wondering what my passing strategy would be. A half-mile or so later, I get the same stinging sensation on my left arm. I quickly swatted the critter away and in the process, I felt that, whatever it was, was fairly large. Too big to be a biting fly, it had to have been a horse fly or bee/wasp. As the stinging sensation continued, I ruled out that it definitely wasn’t a horse fly. The sensation lingered way too long.

About the time I made that conclusion, another one flew through one of the vents in my helmet and started stinging me on my forehead. I winced. I squinted my left eye. I shook my head. I tried everything I could without taking my hands off the bars in a very tight, twisty section of the trail. When I finally had an opportunity to take my hands off the bars, I banged my helmet. Nothing. Knowing I couldn’t continue a Popeye ride, I loosened my helmet a bit and slid it back on my head, back and forth, until either it flew out or was squished, all without stopping my pursuit of the fellow 40 year old. I followed him for the rest of the bike leg and passed him entering transition.

Put your right foot in and shake it all about.

I met up with Dan in transition where he quickly exclaimed, “Let’s go so we can run this together.” I quickly transitioned and took off after him. I inspected my noggin the best that I could. It was swelling a little but not as bad as I would have thought for a bee sting. Maybe it wasn’t a yellow-jacket. Not sure, but it still hurt like hell.

We ran the entire run, each taking turns on the lead. We picked off quite a few people early on in the run, but once we hit the hills, we found ourselves alone, for the most part. The hills were just as tough as I remembered and even tougher given that it was hotter than at the start of the race. Alabama-hot.

We finished side-by-side on the run. Dan took 3rd in his division and I took 4th..

Thanks to the BUMP crew for some OUTSTANDING trails. If you find yourself in the Birmingham / Pelham area, you should really hit these trails. When you’re done, hit the bike wash behind the BUMP building. While you’re at it, toss some bucks into their donation box.

Also, my hat’s off to the XTERRA crew and volunteers for putting on another great race!

RACING EAST CHAMPIONSHIP TOMORROW! Race report coming up!

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Filed under: Racing | Tagged: GU, Nathan, Racing, Running, trail running, Triathlon, XTERRA | Comments Off

Marcus Barton

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The Bee’s Knees – XTERRA Southeast Championship – June 13

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