Little slow on the report... super fun, perfect weather race... The Wheeler Creek Xterra around 21K, starts at Marina at Pineview and climbs up to Snowbasin, with the majority on single track or double wide single track...
I started (for me) pretty fast, 1st- 7:47, 2nd- 7:20... this is the first 2 miles on the road getting to Wheelers, from Wheelers it climbs, 3rd- 9:37(which is good, cause I wasn't feeling great), 4th- 9:50...getting to the top of Wheelers and crossing over to E. Fork, pretty steady steeper climbing here, 5th- 10:01... from here you get some good rollers, where you can carry a good pace, 6th- 8:58, 7th- 10:11... this is the mile that hurts, it is a deceiving uphilll climb to the turnoff to the sweet downhill... I am staying with 2-3 guys during this section and I know I am doing pretty good, based off occasional glances at the Garmin... at the turn I decide to jump in front if the 4-5 guys right in front of me, because I know I can move fast in the downhill section... 8th- 6:27(I was moving good and passed around a dozen people), part of the 9th mile is downhill and then it starts climbing again, 9th- 9:37... 10th- 10:42, this was my slowest mile and I was hurting for a bit, i think after letting it loose on the downhill I paid for it for a bit, I actually walked for a bit and took a GU and an Ecap and then got back into a groove again and started feeling good. passed a couple people who passed me during the walk session... 11th- 9:35 and then finished pretty strong, last .8 ave. did it in 7:49...
Overall loved the race, realized I need to do more of them, I'd like to try and do a race a month or atleast every other month... I love getting out and pushing it hard like that... It is good for the body!
I ended up being 15-20 sec off 3rd and only 1:30 off 1st place in my division... | 