Xterra Beavercreek!

This was one of my biggest races of the year.  Needless to say, I was NERVOUS the week leading up to it.  I took some of the Xterra video crew up in my friend, Drew Rader's  Cessna 210 for a video profile of me the Wednesday before the race.  It was a nice distraction from the race nerves. 

Family Pre-Race!

My #1 goal for this race, since it's my home race, was to be 1st out of the water.  I took off from the start:

Leading the swim

I got a gap on Branden Rakita  (who knew of my goal) and Mauricio Mendez (who didn't) and had to drill it to hold on for the 1st lap.  I'm one who always likes longer swims (I could go on and on about how the bike is too long compared to the swim, but I won't), but today, it was shorter than normally on this course and I was thankful since I didn't want to waste too much energy in the water.  I came out 1st!:

Swim Exit

I had a great climb and MTB  I was in 8th and alone from pretty much the top of the climb until the end of the bike.  This was nice and relaxing, but not as fun as racing head to head on the trail.  I had a great transition into the run and managed 10th in the heavily stacked PRO division.