Yellow Creek SP Monthly Mountain Bike Race, March 2013

The first mountain bike race of our season WOOHOO!

(For all the pics GO HERE - sorry, my batteries died so I only managed the flag-off pics!)

The Yellow Creek race series returned this year with some key upgrades:

1. The addition of a sweet 18 mile Expert loop, while retaining the usual 10 mile out-and-back Sport course. 
2. MONEY prizes for the Expert riders in top 6 (starting at $60 for the Champ), while the top Sport rider gets the usual delish Pie.

After flagging off the 30 plus riders - most of whom opted for Expert - I had a chance to run a little of the course and oh my oh wow what a delightful job the YC trail maintenance crew have done with an already awesome route. 

Pulling all stops in pre-race trail prep, generous application of leaf-blowing apparatus-es ensured nary a leaf in sight. One result was a drier, faster ride with only a few slick mud spots. Another result - the cleanest post-race riders and bikes I've seen in a while. 

First Expert was Kevin Campbell while First Sport was Michelle Bietko, who narrowly beat out Brad Transue on a single speed (dude what were you thinking :p) by a mere nine seconds. For the rest of the results GO HERE. 

For next month's (April 21st) race, I think the warmer weather might be conducive to me providing some free sports massages (just in case riders weren't hurting enough after the race). And should I bring along some post-race nutrition (fried rice, watermelon, etc) also? :)

See y'all soon!

StrongLand Off-Road Roaring Run Mountain Bike Race Report 2012

The 24th Annual Tour de Strongland kick-started its two-day festivities with an off-road mountain bike race on the Roaring Run Trail , Kiski Township yesterday.

The Warriors
The forecast of 80% chance of thunderstorms may have kept some people away. However 36 wheeled warriors - including three kids - showed up with undeterred to battle the elements. Experts (15 mile course) were flagged off at 9.15 am, Intermediate racers (11 miles) at 9.30 am and the Novice riders (3 miles, 9 -11 years of age) about 15 minutes later.

The Course
The first one mile was double track next to the Rails Trails, then cut out on to the Rails Trails and banked sharply right before the Bridge, to a tight hill-acious single track Loop. Then back to Rails Trails for a nice downhill finish. The Loop was planned to include an exciting splash across a shallow creek, but due to the rain and burgeoning creek, Novices were diverted around that section.

Crossing the Creek

The forecasted 9 am thunderstorm arrived prematurely and had depleted itself by race time. It was a gentle drizzle for the rest of the race. This made for a refreshing jog to the creek where I lay in wait to shoot passing riders with my waterproof lifeproof cased Iphone.

I also captured a photo of volunteer race marshalls helping make sure riders stay on course.

Helpful volunteer marshalls make sure riders stay on c-

Okay, sorry, wrong pic... Here's a better one.

"I think it's this way". :p

Race Strong
It was a good race. Excellent signage, plenty of race marshalls and volunteers, grill hot dogs (with donation) and a wet but very rideable course at the riders' chosen level. The $35 race reg fees come with a quality cotton t-shirt and a chance at winning a bike from sponsor Pro-Bike. Maybe a bit steep for the novice 3 mile race, which was basically a kids race.

Race PICs!
View the rest of the pics HERE. (Most of the creek stake-out pics turned out blur. Sigh! I couldn't risk getting my Panasonic Lumix wet so had to make do with the iPhone)

Three kids, three proud winners!

xo Gracie 

P.S. It would be AWESOME if you could click on any ad here - my sponsors give me a few cents per click. Thanks for supporting my blog!

Xterra Appalachia 2012 Video and Report Part 2

People! As promised here is the second part of my Xterra Appalachia 2012 race report, with VIDEO! (Part 1 HERE with links to 500 pics)

Thanks to all of you who left comments or messages (I love hearing from you!) and who helped tag some of the pics I posted on Facebook. That was certainly an encouragement for me to hunker down and get the video edited! This will be my first video produced on my brand spanking new Mac, so I am definitely learning as I go. It has been laborious, but I think you'll like the end result. If you don't, you can still appreciate the effort I put into it! :p

Just some thoughts about the Xterra Appalachia. Looking at the results, about 17% of the 65 racers who toed the start line, did not finish the race. This DNF rate is higher than some of the Ironman races I've followed. The Xterra Appalachia covers somewhere between a Sprint (short) and Olympic (long) distance course, with its 800 m swim, 13 mile mountain bike, and 4 mile trail run. The distances are 'sprint', but the exertion level feels 'olympic' - thanks to the mountain bike portion. Adding rain as a factor, ramped up the difficulty level for mountain bike course to 9.5 out of 10 for non-mountainbikers. Fellow-non-mountain-biker, Briana Dawson found the mountain-biking 'super-challenging'. Briana is a runner who regularly runs 5 and 10 K distances and has completed a few half marathons, but she had 'no idea it would be so intense/extreme!' She and her friend Jaci, who signed up for the race as a fun way to celebrate their birthdays, successfully finished the swim and bike course after three gruelling hours, and will be back to tame the run course next time. Hats off to these indomitable girls!

Hats off, and Happy Birthday girls!

And also, a shout out to the Fans and Supporters of the Xterra Appalachia 2012 racers:

The entire family turned out to cheer on #53 Jesse Matheson

This multiple Hawaii Ironman returns after a 4 year hiatus, to attempt this Xterra

Loyal fans give encouragement to racers Briana and Jaci in the swim-bike transition

Lara Cilo (and Rich Riley, not pictured) kept runners
hydrated

And the award for most hardcore fans of the Xterra 2012 goes to: Katie and Julianne!

I really think more people should sign up for this top-notch event. For starters, this is the only off-road triathlon this side of PA. Yellow Creek State Park is only 1.5 hours from Pittsburgh where 1000 triathletes recently competed in the Pittsburgh Triathlon 2012. The organization and execution of the event (by Doug Crytzer and team at American Adventure Sports) is, as always, stellar. The course is gorgeous. The difficulty, although high, is manageable for most anyone with a decent level of fitness. You don't need to be superman to complete the course. You do however, need to be able to maintain a moderate level of physical exertion for up to 4 or 5 hours. If you have completed an olympic distance triathlon before, you are definitely in good shape to finish the Xterra Appalachia.

Check out the Xterra Appalachia 2012 Video HERE!

How did the Xterra go for you? Would love to hear your experience!

xo Gracie 

P.S. It would be AWESOME if you could click on any ad here - my sponsors give me a few cents per click. Thanks for supporting my blog!

Xterra Appalachia Race Report 2012: Part 1

One word describes the Xterra Appalachia - TOUGH. This year it was ToughER.

(You can skip the report and go directly to the 500 race pics on GOOGLE PLUS or on Facebook)

The 2012 edition of Xterra Appalachia was one of the wettest ever for the 65 participants (and hordes of fans ) who came from as far as New York and Georgia to pit themselves against the race course at Yellow Creek State Park. Racers comprised a mix of seasoned off-road triathletes, triathletes new to the terrors of mountain biking, and totally unsuspecting first-timers.

Transition area with racked bikes

The swim started out pleasant enough with warm sunshine, blue skies, and dead calm water. Swimmers assembled on the beach for the running start, different from the water start of previous years.

I'd mooted the run start to Doug Crytzer, Race Director earlier, the conversation going something like this: