XTERRA's King of the Hill in New Jersey 2007. The start of the race in the transition area was filled with a lot of catching up with some old friends, and introductions to new ones. Giving Howie a hard time about his cameo appearance in Worlds, running barefoot, was great!
This XTERRA race is so much fun. Usually there is a lot of "broken" stories after this race. This year the breaks were kept to a minimum, but there were a lot of scrapes. This race is not for the pretty boy.
The course is brutal, usually the lake is very cold. This year it wasn't as cold but it was murky. The bike is a rock garden with some good steep switchbacks that you have to take down on the way out, and up on the way back...neither way is easy. I definitely had dual suspenvy. The hardtail on the rock gardens was extremely bumpy and hard to control at times. But then again, I get a rush off of losing control and then regaining it. The run consists of one big vertical hill: Toboggan Hill. You get to a point, where you can only hike it....and your heart rate is still at its max. On the way down, you feel like you are going to roll down head first. The rest is somewhat easy, until the last stretch on the plush beach (very XTERRAlike). I came in 5th women overall, and 1st in my age group.....scored my points and had a great time with the post race events!
