Mayday! Mayday! Maui Part II

Relief swept over me like a warm, happy blanket when I realized I was still alive and running up the beach to my bike.

Swim exit

As I mentioned, it is one of the longer Xterra runs to transition 1 and it is uphill. It's not so bad, really, but it isn't like on tv. The first year I expected flat.

Everything for the long bike ride was laid out. It takes me a while to get out of my skin suit, put on my socks, shoes, gloves, sunglasses, water pack, and helmet. (A skin suit is a tight swimming suit you wear over your tri kit. It helps you swim more efficiently when it isn't wet suit legal conditions.) I usually eat one gel in transition so it can begin digesting and working in the next 10 minutes or so. I grab my "bike fuel" to put in my back pocket. I keep an extra water bottle at my spot to drink from before I unrack the bike and begin running up to "bike out".

Pushing the bike uphill to bike out

The first part of the Maui course is on a paved road through the golf course. It's a slight uphill through a tunnel that you will also come back through to finish the bike only to run back up again at the start of the run. My husband stays at this spot to get pictures of pros, friends and finally me starting the bike, finishing the bike and starting the run. Honestly, I think that must be harder sometimes than racing. He stands out for hours in the rain, wind, or sun cheering and taking pictures. No one hands him gels, water, bananas or pretzels! What a trouper!

For the first few miles, I was slogging along with the rest of the crowd. As the miles slowly ticked by it became more and more obvious that the course was crazy bad and difficult. The rain and 900 athletes riding in the mud before me had made it a slippery mud fest. My thoughts went to the pros. If this is possible, they would know how to ride it. What do they know that I don't? How can I get through this? Because of the conditions, the race director had given everyone an extra 30 minutes for the bike cut off. The cut off is a time where you are too slow and they pull you off the course. As the day continued, aid stations workers were informing us that the cut off had been increased to an extra hour. It was sure to be a very long, dirty, tiring day.

I'm not sure how many miles into the bike course it was, but it wasn't many when I noticed people were beginning to stop and take sticks to their chains, derailleurs and any bike parts that were seizing because of the mud clumps. Praying for each pedal stroke, I tried to go as long as I could until my bike was so gummed up it stopped moving, also.

On and on this went. Up climbs, and along flat sections. The best way to describe what was happening: I was making bird's nests in my front fork. Gathering mud, grass, twigs, and leaves and forming a big glop on my front fork every few meters until the nest was so large, the tire couldn't move under the fork. I would have to stop and remove the bird nest to continue. Finally, (much to my kids and husbands dismay) I realized I was going slow enough that I could watch the nests form and pull the gathering mud and twigs out as I rode. This saved time because I didn't have to come to a complete stop to clean the fork quite as often.

Getting to the top of Razor Ridge is a highlight. It is flat at the top. Usually a good, fast, pedaling time. Flat in a rain storm means water and mud are pooling. It was impossible to ride. A long line of us were trying, but it became obvious that I'd have to walk the bike. This was even slower because the mud gathered quicker and made cleaning the bike happen more often because it was impossible to push when the front tire didn't roll. I tried carrying my bike, but it became heavy and awkward. So, between pushing, carrying, cleaning and riding anytime I could, I slowly made my way through the course.

At some point near half-way I met Lori, from TX. We have been at a few races together and she usually finishes 30-60 minutes ahead of me. I was in a great mood. Muddy and wet, I kept thinking, "this is incredible!" I don't mean "incredible" like "awesome", but "incredible" like "NOT CREDIBLE". There was no way to describe the insanity that was Xterra Maui 2016. You really had to be there and I was so happy that I was. Fear of missing out? Not that day!

Lori, however, was frustrated, I think. Expectations can be a bummer with bad race conditions. No expectations make it an adventure! As I passed, I offered some words of encouragement, but I don't think it helped.

The rain stopped but the mud continued. Carrying my bike across the flat sections, riding as much of the hills as possible, and sliding (literally on my butt a few times) on the down hill. One down hill in particular was so smooth and glassy that about 10 of us were trying to walk down the side of the trail grabbing trees to keep from going down like a luge track. Still, a couple of people luge(d) it anyway!

Somewhere the course dried out near the bottom and one thing became clear: DON'T SHIFT! My derailleur and all important bike parts were stuck. Shifting at all would completely disable my bike. Knowing I would be out for an extra hour, I had taken two water bottles in addition to my water pack. I used this extra water to clean off the important mechanical parts as much as possible, and with a twig did a fairly good job. I now had a small range to shift which would be nice since the bottom half of the course is more like rolling hills.

This being my third world championship event, I've learned that it is a world event meaning that people come from all over the world. Not everyone speaks English on the course. And sometimes when people yell "left", the person in front thinks they need to move left, not that you want to pass on the left. As I enjoyed the only pedaling part of the course so far, I passed an athlete from some country I'm not sure. With minimal English and maximum gestures, he asked for water. My extra two bottles on my bike were completely empty, I tried to explain. I tried to reassure him that an aid station was coming up in about 1 kilometer. We parted ways and I hoped he was okay.

Next, I saw another friend on the side of the road. Broken derailleur. Yep. Right through the back wheel, ruining the spokes and everything. Yikes. I had that happen 100m from a finish line. I was able to jump off my bike and run it across the line. Dave had a few miles left to go...

I finished the bike quite exhausted. And muddy.

Out of the tunnel muddy and tired.

 My husband was at the bottom on the tunnel trying to take pictures of people we knew. However, everyone was so muddy it was hard to recognize them! By the way, it took hours for all of us at the bike cleaning stations to get our bikes clean enough to put in the rental car. I still can't get some of the Maui mud out of the kit that I wore that day.

As I popped of the bike, I noticed Lori was right behind me. She must have pushed the bottom part of the ride to catch me. I wondered if it had been too much effort. It's hard to tell because she is a stronger athlete than me, so the run will tell. It always does...