MAUI — Two Kaua‘i athletes and myself competed at the XTERRA World Championship in Kapulua, Maui this past weekend. Although the XTERRA race has been around for 16 years, this was a brand new venue and a brand new race
MAUI — Two Kaua‘i athletes and myself competed at the XTERRA World Championship in Kapulua, Maui this past weekend. Although the XTERRA race has been around for 16 years, this was a brand new venue and a brand new race course. The race consisted of a 1500 meter swim, 18-plus mile mountain bike ride and a 10K trail run.
There was extra buzz this year when rumor became a reality when seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was confirmed to race. This was incredible news to me, being a Lance fan.
My plan was to stalk him. My thinking was, If I’m going to stalk him, I have to keep up with him. If I keep up with him, then I’d be doing really well.
Sadly, I never saw him. He kept away from the spotlight. Our friends and family saw him racing, but those of us competing never got a peek. Even at the start line – you’d think picking Lance Armstrong out of the lineup would be easy, but when everyone is super fit, wearing black speed suits, swim caps and goggles, sadly, everyone looks alike.
The new Kapalua course and the warm Hawai‘i weather challenged even the seasoned professionals. After an outstanding performance in the swim and bike legs, three-time XTERRA World Champion Melanie McQuaid collapsed just 50 meters from the finish line and had to be rushed to the medical tent for treatment, and Lance Armstrong, who eventually finished 23rd said: “Everybody paid the price on the run… It’s just a damn hard course, a death march.”
Not being a pro, my race perspective was slightly different. I thought the swim at DT Fleming beach was beautiful. The mountain bike was hard but fast and flowing. The trail run was definitely fun. I somehow missed the “death march” section Lance was talking about. But perhaps I was enjoying the course too much and not killing myself enough. Don’t get me wrong, I was racing, but when your legs are seizing up with cramps, it’s all you can do to motivate yourself to move forwards. One section of the trail run had me dangling from a tree (you had to pull yourself up an embankment) literally screaming with pain while my entire right calf locked up for a good minute. But oddly, I still enjoyed the race. Glutton for punishment, I guess.
My training buddy, Robert Rekward, had this to say as he reflected on his race day, “When we lined up on the beach with 630 other triathletes I thought this race was ‘us against them’—but 3 hours later it became clear that the real contest was going to be against cramping and fatigue—and just finishing would a big victory.” Amen to that. It was very humbling to race with the best athletes in the world.
Hands down, the Kaua‘i hero of the race was Broc Anakalea, who had excruciating leg cramps half way through the mountain bike section. Every downhill was fine, but climbing anything would leave his legs locked up in cramps. I didn’t think he’d make the run, but we saw him coming up the hill, 200 feet from the finish with his daughter and son, Gabby and Lucas, on each hand. He wobbled. He stopped. He almost threw up, but the will to finish along with the love and support from his family gave him the energy to go those last few feet. With a smile on his face, he crossed the finish line, an XTERRA World Champion athlete.
One final note to add – we couldn’t do this without the love and support of our family, since a lot of training goes into preparing. But the best line of the day was, when we asked our spouses who won, the answer was “we have no idea”. They were focused on us. How awesome is that?
