XTERRA West Cup was a blast! Dom, the race director at Sunset Racing, did a great job of putting together a fun event and a challenging course. The course was a bit more challenging than I anticipated, in fact. The bike had a good number of sharp incline and decline sections – combined with a lot of loose sand and rock.

The swim section started out at the beach and pool area of the Loews hotel (formerly the Hyatt) at Lake Las Vegas. The pros went off first (photo below from Rich Cruse’s site) followed by my group. I’m way in the back, standing in my new Vector Pro X2 and orange cap.

Pro start. I’m in the back of the group at the beach.

My new XTERRA wetsuit was awesome. I had originally ordered the Vortex but upgraded to the Vector Pro X2 because the Vortex suits weren’t quite ready for race day. I’m glad I spent the extra bit of money. Both would have worked, but as it stands, I had my best swim yet - 1,500m in (I’m estimating) 40-45 mins. Not very good by most standards, but a good starting point that I can build from.

The transition section was relatively packed, but there was enough room to move – besides, I came out of the water last or near last, so I had the whole area to myself (photo below taken during transition set up, from Rich Cruse’s twitter page).

I’m in the white in the middle.

The bike was mean, but awesome. A lot of great views and a great section near the water. I had my Forerunner 405 on during the bike and you can see the section nearing transition that took us by the water. There were a few tricky sections in this part – like one blind turn that left about 10 inches of track between a 2 foot ledge and the water. Total elevation gain was just under 2,800′.

The bike course from XTERRA West Cup

My chain broke, my rear brake wasn’t functioning properly, and both of my derailleurs were a bit squishy on the bike course. While some of this slowed me down, it was really my fitness level that caused me to take forever. I finished the bike course about 15 minutes before the course was closing – so I was cut from doing the run. I’ll get it next year.

Prior to the race I weighed in at 268. This is down 47 lbs from my peak of 315. I’m going to lose another 40 lbs by next year, putting me in much better position to finish. Plus, I’ve been reading some of Conrad Stoltz’s posts and he has some interesting tips about endurance and strength training.

After diligently waiting since the announcement of the XTERRA race schedule additions, which is also the announcement of the new American Tour, I noticed registration opened for the 2009 XTERRA West Cup Championships the other day.

I’m in.

See you at Lake Las Vegas.