My first time at Oak Mountain for the Xterra race. What an excellent event! While I love the chill nature of the local races, it’s nice to participate in a qualifier for Xterra Worlds and see world champs like Josiah Middaugh gritting it out on the same course. I also talked to folks from California and had a chance to congratulate Mau Mendez for a killer second place finish. This event offered the full qualifier race, a sprint race, and a new Xticer race for folks to try out Xterra.
The weather was not looking good this year with extreme rain expected – so I waited to register until the day before the race… watching the radar every 30 mins… and finally pulling the trigger expecting a mud-fest. But the huge storm system split right around Oak Mountain and the weather was perfect! The trails were superb, perhaps even on the dry side. Amazing. Water temp was checked on race morning and the event was not wetsuit legal.
The sprint racers biked on completely different trails than the full qualifier race, and the sprint run was simply one loop while the full racers ran two. GPS elevation map from the sprint race in the forums here.
Full: 1500m swim, 30k bike, 10k run
Sprint: 750m swim, 15k bike, 5k run
Xticer: 200m swim (out to buoy and back), 10k bike, 2k run
Who’s bringing their kids out for the Xticer next year?!
Check out Josiah departing T2 below on his way to victory – love that determination! I feel like there is a lesson just looking at his face and seeing the inner racer come alive.
2016 Championship Results
2016 Sprint Results
2016 Xticer Results
Josiah Middaugh – bam!
Last buoy looking far..
