Sunday, July 28, 2013

XTERRA Les Bois


My first XTERRA experience is now over and yes all my bones are intact (thankfully)!

Arriving home from Lake Steven's 70.3 on Wednesday night then racing on Saturday morning was going to be a tough ask on the body!!

But I was confident I could go well just as long as I stayed wheels down. (Not so confident about that)

The setting couldn't be better, Lucky Peak Reservoir is a fantastic and stunning place for a race.
With the added bonus of being 15 min from my house. Racing close to home is the best!

Race morning conditions were perfect, the Lake was perfectly calm, the weather was cool and the wind was light.
The swim went off without a hitch and I exited the water 20sec back from super fish Kevin Everett.

We then rode together for the first 5 miles and eventually Kevin came undone on a techincal section and I got away.
My lungs were screaming and legs burning, I thought I'd settle into a rhythm, but that rhythm never came.
The only thing that settled in was a large helping of PAIN!!

Off the bike my lead had been dwindled down to 1 minute on Chris Ganter who had passed Kevin during the ride, I started running hard, but was only able to hold off the hard charging Ganter until half way up the rock grind. (The dam wall)
I ended up finishing in 2nd place and really hurt for it.

1 Chris Ganter 1 35 M 3 25:38.0 3 0:58.0 1 1:16:38.0 1 0:46.8 1 34:07.7 2:18:08.5
2 Guy Crawford 3 34 M 2 21:14.0 1 0:45.0 2 1:20:35.0 2 0:48.0 3 36:43.3 2:20:05.4
3 Kevin Everett 2 38 M 1 20:53.0 2 0:48.0 3 1:30:33.0 3 0:48.4 2 36:23.0 2:29:25.4






In the end I was happy to finsh in 2nd, but a little disapointed the body didn't respond better to doubling up races!!
I will say XTERRA racing is loads of fun and XTERRA Les Bois put on a great event. Special thanks to the race organizer (John Shilt) for putting on such a well run show. This is definitely a race to put on your hit list for 2014.

Next up Ironman Louisville in 4 weeks!!

Thanks
Guy

Friday, July 26, 2013

70.3 Lake Stevens

Well it's been a wild ride!!

So we left Boise on the Friday the 19th before 70.3 Lake Stevens (on the Sunday)
When I say we I mean, Kate myself and our awesome friend super Ruth!
Ruth flew in from Perth Australia a few days before hand and drove from Denver to Boise with Kate after 70.3 Muncie.
Then it was back into the car and off to Lake Stevens.

We arrived late Friday night after battling some heavy Seattle traffic, Then hit the course on Saturday Morning. We did a bit of course recon, Ruth went quiet while we drove the course I think she was having a panic attack because of all he hills. "I wasn't far off"

We then registered and I caught up with The VISION team, thanks for taking care of me Mike and Dan. Fresh from the Tour De France and they still have time for me, that's a cool company!!

We didn't have enough time to stress as before we knew it race morning had dawned and we were surprised by fog and a lot of it.
In the swim warm up I was trying to sight the bouys and failing.


The gun went off and we took off like squirrels after an accorn. I had a medium swim as I lost Luke Bells feet, but I was in a great group with Crowie and Matt Lieto. Still unsure of where my fitness was I was expecting the unexpected. I rode with Crowie and Matt for the first 8 miles and knew I was riding to hard for my current fitness, I dropped off and fell into my own rhythm. Towards the end of the ride and spotted Barny and Matt coming back to me and thought I'd had a good even paced ride.
Onto the run and again I was expecting the unexpected, I started running and I felt good. I held a very even rythum and only had to battle with a late charging Chris Leigh who ended up pipping me to the line by 17sec. Still a 1:19 and change off the bike is a step in the right direction and I'm stoked to be having my best season yet! Good things are on the horizon.

RESULTS
Alexander, Craig AUS 00:24:01 02:16:28 01:12:49 03:55:23 1 1
Bell, Luke USA 00:22:57 02:17:36 01:13:22 03:55:59 2 2
Holtham, Elliot CAN 00:24:02 02:16:28 01:17:09 03:59:40 3 3
Matthews, Paul AUS 00:22:54 02:23:36 01:16:15 04:04:44 4 4
Lieto, Matt USA 00:24:02 02:20:43 01:19:58 04:07:13 5 5
Legh, Chris AUS 00:27:03 02:21:56 01:17:16 04:08:21 6 6
Crawford, Guy USA 00:23:57 02:22:50 01:19:46 04:08:38 7 7
Stein, Daniel AUS 00:23:55 02:23:20 01:21:14 04:10:48 8 8
Bagg, Chris USA 00:25:15 02:23:35 01:21:43 04:12:56 9 10
Bovee, Grant USA 00:28:41 02:24:46 01:17:32 04:13:30 10 11



Since the race we have been in Seattle hanging with the great blueseventy crew, especially Pigeon man A.K.A Mike Orton.
Then it was off to Eugene to hang with the equally as awesome team from Rolf Prima. A bit of site seeing was in order to check out where Steve Prefrontaine trained.(I'm a PRE fan)
Kate and Ruth are still there and will be racing Rolf Prima's own "Tri at the Grove" this weekend.
As for me, well it's back to Boise and time to do my first XTERRA,"XTERRA LES BOIS" I'll be sure to let you all know how it's goes.

Thanks once again for the support.

Untill next week.

Guy