XTERRA Miami From an XTERRA Newbie

Frank Fernandez-Posse and Jennifer Moos won the men's and women's titles at the XTERRA Miami off-road tri at Oleta River State Park on Sunday, but perhaps nobody had a better time at that race than Andy Steiner. For Steiner, who has been doing road triathlons for four years now, this was his first XTERRA, and this is his story on how the day unfolded (as first reported on the forums atwww.slowtwitch.com)...

This was my first ever XTERRA and first ever mountain bike race of any kind. The race went pretty much as planned, although it was way harder than I thought it would be. I haven’t mountain biked a lot this year, and haven’t rode 16 miles on a mountain bike in years. I was totally gassed when I got off the bike.

One of the first things I noticed was the people were way chiller and more relaxed/laid back than at on-road races. There’s way more camaraderie and “just out to have a good time” attitudes rather than “PR or die.”

The ½ mile swim was two loops and I found some decent legs to pull me. It was a mass start, but only around 80 people or so. I was 7th out of the water, 2nd in 30-34 (13:47).

The 16-mile two loop bike course is mostly flat but technical. A few waves of riders passed me quickly and they were all really cool. Most would tell me they were behind, and then I would slow down and let them pass as soon as possible. About 1.5 miles in at an obstacle, I failed to make it up and came off my bike. Somehow I must have pinched my rear derailleur cable and it was almost severed. When I got back on, I only had two gears in the back. Oh well, they were the good gears and it’s South Florida, not Colorado. The rest of the bike was very exhausting and I was ready to get off the bike. My bike time was 2:09:42 and 53rd overall.

The 6-mile run was mostly singletrack with three deep water crossings. I swam the crossings, but the longest had a rope to pull yourself along and that was faster. Running on the singletrack is awesome! It’s very primal to see people in the woods and chase them down. Again, it’s mostly flat with some very short and very steep ups and downs. My legs felt better after ½ mile or so on the run. It was fun to run with no mile markers and having to look for the signs on where to go. I finished the run in 45:55, 16th overall and 4th in my age.

On the day I finished 7th out of 8 in M30-34 and 37th overall. Not a great performance, but fun as hell. I found it really challenging, and possibly from my lack of time in the MTB saddle, way harder than any Olympic race I’ve done. The post race spread was awesome with tons of stuff including hummus and homemade pasta salad. This was an awesome race, so much fun and a really cool atmosphere. Racers were actually encouraging me on the bike to hold their wheel and were friendly. It was a great break from the ultra competitive on-road races. I think I’m hooked.

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