This past week I was honored to be able to support the Xterra North American Championship at Oak Mountain State Park as an incredible beginning for Stellar Events and Timing.
Overall, I got about 100 miles of mountain biking this week, with about sixty percent of that being on e-bikes, while setting up courses. I think the highlight of my riding was setting up the Sprint course with Chase and following him up Slingshot and Room Service with 50lb backpacks. For those that don’t know, that’s the climb everybody complains about.
During the Sprint Race on Saturday, I was posted as course marshal where the sprint course turns off of the long course at about four miles in. The Sprint race started at 8, and the Elite race started at 8:40. They had the swim before transitioning to bike and rode seven miles to get to me. The first racer was Diego Humberto Suarez Arias, a 16-year-old Mexican national, at 8:23. In 23 minutes, he swam .75k (.46mi), got out, got on the bike, and rode 4mi to me. For those that aren’t familiar, that is amazing.
Three minutes later my good friend Steve Hicks came through in second place, I cheered him on and he yelled, how many ahead? I told him one, and he’s three minutes ahead, and he’s a kid. Steve looked pissed. Then I told him this was the start of the worst climb on the course. He took off like a rocket. He did not gain any ground, but he only lost 23 seconds chasing Diego (1:26:06) down over the next five miles (Steve 1:29:29). Diego is 16, Steve is… 3 years older than me.
I thought was going to be tough splitting the Sprint and Elite racers at the junction where the Elites were going straight on Seven Bridges. It would have been worse if it weren’t for a ten-minute delay, but there were only six Elites to come through before the last Sprint rider came by. I had to teach myself to point with my left arm and say right turn to the racers I was facing, and vice versa. I wasn’t as good at it at my second marshaling post which I raced to on my bike after the last Sprint racer came through.
I want Steve Hicks to know about Diego’s Sunday Short Track Race. The folks that raced on Sunday were professional athletes. I was in awe the first time I saw Diego come through, recognizing him from the Sprint race. I was positioned at the top of the nasty hill, marshaling riders at one turn not to go if runners were coming towards the intersection at the top of the hill. The second time he came around, he was the first person to push his bike up the hill. I was yelling him on, but when he got to me he was missing a shoe, I tried to ask him where it was, and in after thought, I should’ve tried donde esta tu zapato?
I radioed to see if he was okay to race, and the decision was to tell him to go. They are not allowed to get assistance during the race, so we weren’t allowed to offer him a shoe. I saw him come through the hill twice with one shoe. He was the first rider to get lapped by a runner, so he was out, but he wanted to finish. He climbed up to me, and I held him at my spot until runners were clear. I patted him on the shoulder and told him to have a good race.
It was a tough seven days of setting up. All week we were on site from 7am until planned things were nailed down. Saturday and Sunday we reported in at 5am to make sure everything was perfect on the courses for race day. I was lucky to get paired with Chase on the bike course marking team. If a gator could get to it, it did, the other 80% of the course got ridden many times until we got it right.
We had a truly stellar crew made up of a Chainbuster and BUMP family that got to know each other a whole lot better over the course of the week. We assisted the Xterra team to set up a city complete with circus style tents, massive inflatables, stages, and satellite trucks for international transmission. It was truly a massive production. Having a couple years of experience from Chainbuster race setup, it was extremely cool getting to work on things we never would have, like the run and swim courses. Be sure to check out this highlight video to see what the final production looked like (https://www.facebook.com/reel/1935064230297938).
Once you see how massive this was consider this, Sunday’s race was over around noon. By 4pm, you could barely tell that anything had happened and only the BUMP shed had a ruckus. It might have taken a couple of days to get our flow down, but once we did, you asked and we said done fast enough to get a lot of fun in along the way.
Mega congratulations to my friends, Steve Hicks 2nd place in Sprint, Tracy Mckay 13th place in Sprint, Amy Dapper for 2nd place in Sprint relay and Casey Fanin for completing the Full! What an amazing weekend of competing with athletes from all over the world in Alabama! That includes the Cheaha Challenge in Anniston. Massive congratulations to Terri Sullivan for the First Place Overall Female in the Ultra (127mi, 12,799’ elevation in 8h11m).