Can an Ironman be an Off Road Triathlete?
TriLanai Race Report
My goals this year were to stay healthy, injury free, complete my first off-road triathlon, and try to improve my time at Ironman Cozumel. Although it has been a long season for me, it has been one of my best. I was lucky to PR every race this year and even luckier not to break any bones in my first off road race!
I chose for my first off road race, TriLanai. It seemed perfect. A nice dip in the Pacific followed by some riding on some pineapple roads and a 4 mile run and I could knock this off the bucket list. Hah, I could do that in my sleep! This required of course a mountain bike so my buddies at Old Town Bicycle put together a wicked Specialized 29’er. It actually makes me giggle to ride that animal. I did absolutely no off road riding on that thing and that made me a bit nervous going into the race. Rob and I took the ferry from Lahaina to Lanai a few days before the race and the bike got a lot of looks and bike envy was everywhere. Of course she was clean as a whistle with a white saddle and white cables. The red dirt of Hawaii and all that white were soon set to collide.
We stayed at the resort that hosted the event and that was a nice treat. Cocktails at the ocean side bar to watch the resident Spinner dolphins come into the bay to treat the tourist snorkelers to a free show. It was great watching this pod come in and jump and leap and you could hear the laughter coming from the people in the water. I wondered if this group of amazing animals would show up for our race day swim but knew they probably would not want to hang around to watch a bunch of us thrash through their lovely bay.
Race morning was perfect and we walked the short path to transition. The folks who put on this race are all volunteers and are amazing (they also have some amazing prizes like Maui Jim sunglasses). They purposely have the race the weekend after Xterra Worlds on Maui in hopes of getting some of those athletes over and I think they succeed after taking a quick gander of the competition in transition.
Patty and I volunteered at Xterra Worlds the previous Sunday and we were treated to an amazing event. Of course I got the off road bug immediately watching these athletes. The most amazing swim venue followed by a torturous climb up the side of the volcano then a death defying; hold on for your life, 8 mile downhill through rocks, kiave stickers, dirt, and lava. Once you finish that, dust off your trail shoes for a trail run that on its own will set you back for a few days. Of course Xterra is nothing without a little blood right? Watching one gal come into T2 with her arm bandaged and to find out her brake shifter was now a permanent part of her arm was let’s just say “interesting”.
Either way, it didn’t matter. I got the off road bug and told the CEO Challenge group to sign me up for next year. I have raced with this group a few times and I knew this was the time to make the commitment. Why not right? I was doing my first off road race in a week – I have a year to train J for it!
I really thought TriLanai was going to be a bit like a walk in the park. I was in my peak training for Ironman how could I not do just little sprint on pineapple roads? After getting my gear set up in transition, I took the bike out for a quick spin to make sure all was ok. Of course about 15 seconds into riding on soft red dirt with large boulders made me start to think perhaps this was not going to be as easy as I thought. That and along with some pre-race banter from my fellow competitors indicating the climb was around 5 miles and the pineapple roads had major rocks in them along with red dirt and sand. The descend would include a part where I probably wanted to get off my bike and walk down unless I wanted to get some new teeth. Ok, that was not on the website when I signed up.
So panic sets in and I start to wonder what the hell am I doing here? These people are crazy. Their bikes are full of red dirt (of course the gleam of my white cables is truly amazing to see) and the athletes look like the typical triathletes with zero body fat but they look like they eat road triathletes for breakfast.
After roll call to make sure we are all accounted for at the start of the swim and a Hawaiian prayer for the group the race is off and I am ready to pee my pants cause this seems really dumb now. I have an Ironman in 30 days what am I doing out here? What if I fall, what if I break my leg? What if I can’t finish this dumb race? What if my amazing white saddle and cables get red dirt on them? WHY DID I SIGN UP FOR THIS!!!
It is too late, I am in the water for the first lap. It is a 2 lap course Xterra style race. Finish one lap get out run down the beach do the lap again. The first lap is weird – almost like a cross current and I am struggling to get my breathing stable. Going into the beach is a complete struggle with a good break set about 30 feet of the beach. This means if you don’t time it right you get pounded and your suit comes off in front of everyone while you trying to claw you way onto the beach. I some how made it in and start running up to the soft sand where we have to run back down the beach to enter the water again. Of course if it was easy, they would have let us run on the hard sand but these guys are tough and they want to make us suffer so soft sand it is. Suffer, suffer, suffer, and then back in the water for another lap.
I don’t have a great swim but it is over and I off to find my bitchin’ off road monster. Quick transition and I am feeling better ok, just stay calm and get this over. I hop on the bike find my way to the dirt and 3 minutes later dump it. Some red dirt, sand, and a hill with boulders and I toss the bike to the left and land on it. How embarrassing is that? I wonder if I can’t make in on the trail from transition to the “real” trail how on earth will I finish this race? I dust myself off and look for blood and get back on. I also make sure I don’t have a huge hole in my shorts on my butt from the fall cause I know that’s next. Photos of a wantabe off roader with her ass showing all the way up to the top of Lanai.
Finally up to the road and I find some good hills and able to just spin and start riding. Perhaps I just needed to get crashing over with and I will be good. I feel better until we make the right turn up toward the top of the island. Then I see it. The top of the f****** island. Wow, we really aren’t going up there right? A few questions to my fellow athletes and they laugh and say “Yeah, once we get up there we get on the pineapple road”.
Huh, perhaps the off roadies have some wicked sense of humor. The serpentening begins. Back and forth, back and forth, and back forth until we reach the top of the island. I am thinking that was the tough part but when we transition to the red dirt combined with sand, rocks, boulders, etc. this is where the game begins. Somewhere on this lonely stretch of road I realize I am grinning from ear to ear. I am still scared to death mind you, but grinning. Oh but wait. What was that? What was that blur running across the trail? Wow, there is again. Then I realize the comment before the race “watch out for the deer” was more then just commentary. There are folks flying down this road and in between them deer are leaping across the road. Yikes this is getting dangerous!
At some point we get to the area where they said - “you may want to get off your bike and walk it down”. We come around the corner and I realize I am “there”. The view is stunning I wish I had my camera (or at least my IPhone but that would have been way to Roadie to take with me on the bike) and you can see forever and the most amazing view of Pacific I have ever seen. As I transition to “WOW” to “OH SHIT” cause I realize there is no way in hell I can navigate this stretch with my smoking hot white bike. This is going to take skill and on a mountain bike I have clearly shown I can fake some of it but not this.
I jump off just as some crazy dude goes flying past me on the right and shows me what mountain bike racing is all about. That dude was truly amazing and he never stopped and never left the saddle. It was a thing of beauty. I then realized it just wasn’t going to be a easy walk down this section because those bad asses behind me saw me as lunch meat on a road bike and I needed to be careful or I was going to loose an extremity.
I watch a girl in front of me navigate and follow her lead and even though she finds a section to mount back on, I still walk a few more feet before I attempt to get back on. I finally am back on the bike and clipped in and then I start the process of full brakes and wind my way down the rest of the mountain. At some point I realize I can barely hold the brakes anymore cause I am hanging so tight! I finally reach the bottom none too early for my hands and off to find T2. Rob is volunteering at the corner and I am glad to see him but make a quote like “these people are crazy” and find my way to my run gear.
If the swim was challenging and the bike was beyond challenging I knew that the run was going to kick my ass. Only 4 miles but back up the hill and in the heat. That run might have been the hardest run I have ever done. It just kept climbing and it was about 100 degrees. I at least had some electrolytes to keep the cramping to a minimum and just kept moving until I got back to transition. Coming into the finish covered in red dirt and sweat was not pretty but I was happy. I knew victory when I finished! That was the most fun I have had in a race in a long time. My finish was good enough for 2nd in my age group and that medal ranks pretty high up there with my Ironman medals. One to keep for sure.
I plan to head back to TriLanai after Xterra Maui in October. It for sure has made my list of most favorite races and hopefully I will keep the rubber side down next year!
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