e traveled up to Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland this past weekend where I raced the Xterra EX2 Triathlon. The race was a 1000m swim, 14 mile mountain bike, and 5 mile trail run. This was my second Xterra triathlon race.

I was really nervous, but excited, for the race. One big change this weekend was my bike. I picked up my new Titus Racer-X at Appalachian Mountain Sports in Glen Alpine, NC on the Friday before the race, rode it for 30 minutes on Saturday, and then raced it on Sunday. All I can say is, “I LOVE MY NEW TITUS MOUNTAIN BIKE.” Oh. My. God. What an awesome bike!

So… about the race…

The Swim:
We had a two loop swim with a 200m or so run across the beach between each loop. There were two waves for the race: the men in one wave, and the women and all relays in another. I latched on to a couple of the fast relay swimmers in our wave, and soon we picked through some of the men that started in the wave before us. Entering for the second loop, I decided to take my own line and sight close to the buoys, picking through the men to get a draft. I ended up coming out of the water first and heading out on to the bike in the lead.

The Bike:
Okay, I’ve already said how awesome my mountain bike is… but, I’ll just go ahead and say it again anyways… MY MOUNTAIN BIKE IS AWESOME! Alright, alright… obviously, the bike at this race was a completely different story from Richmond. I was riding through the toughest, technical rocky sections of the course with no problems, even when men were walking them. The course was very rocky… hints the name, “Rocky Gap State Park.” There was a lot of steep climbing with huge, loose rocks, several rock gardens, a section of stairs to run up, some double track, and tight, smooth single track. All-in-all, a really nice mixture of everything was in this bike course. It was an awesome ride! I just had fun out there and kept plugging away every mile.


The Run:
So, I got to the run and I had conserved a little for it because Joe had told me how challenging the run course was from his experience racing last year. I haven’t been running very much to let some of my imbalances heal, so the run definitely felt like a “slog” more than anything else. I just kept one foot in front of the other and kept looking forward. We followed the toughest part of the bike course all the way up the steepest climb (of course), and then hit some single track hiking trails. Oh just when I thought the race couldn’t be any crueler, two miles from the finish I come up to a ROCK WALL. Yes, literally, a rock wall. Like Boulders. So I stare at it, flinch, blink, and only did I realize that, “yes, Alisha, you go UP that,” when I heard someone cheering up at the top of the wall. I could only see the top of their head a little. Hmm… so this was what Joe was talking about. So, I scale up the rock wall using my rusty rock climbing skills from years ago (time to start bouldering with my brother up at Appalachian). After the climb it was pretty much smooth sailing to the finish. I ran with some of the guys and crossed the line just over 2.5 hours to take the overall female win. Yay! Yippee!

The race was especially fun because Joe and I camped with our dogs at the state park, which made for a lot of excitement for all of us. We met a really nice family who watched our dogs while we rode a little of the course on Saturday. And we had s’mores at our campsite after dinner while the dogs laid at our feet.

I met several really nice people at the race, and EX2 Adventures did a fantastic job putting on this event. Everything was clearly marked, it was a beautiful venue, and the volunteers were wonderful.

I’d like to especially thank my coach, Sonni, after this win. I was really surprised by this win. I definitely did not expect it since I am so new to all the off road stuff. But Sonni has stood by me and believed in me every step of the way.

Another thank you to my chiropractor, Dr. Swank of Swank Chiropractic, for keeping me straight… quite literally. I couldn’t keep plugging away at all the training I do without his diligent work to keep me at my best.

Thanks to Splish for providing me with the cutest suits and stylish goggles to wear at the pool for all my swim training. The swim helped set me up for a strong race.

Thanks to Be Present for my comfortable yoga clothing that I wore all weekend camping, pre and post race.

Thanks to Inside Out Sports for providing all my race needs… trail shoes, nutrition products, and training equipment.

Thank you to Darlene of Nutrilite and XS Energy products for providing my daily vitamins and nutrition products that help keep me going strong.

And of course… a big thank you to my biggest fan… my husband, Joe.

To all of my sponsors who have supported me into Xterra racing: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Here’s Photos From the Weekend