The XTERRA USA National Championship took place Saturday in Ogden, Utah. Coincidentally it was also my son Porter's fourth birthday. It was a long drive for some ice cream and cake. The race was the final stop on the XTERRA Cup circuit. For the point series it was a mandatory race and the rankings took the best 5 of 9 races (8 cup races + nationals). Heading into the Saturday I was ranked 3rd behind Conrad Stoltz from South Africa and Nicholas Lebrun of France. Conrad held a pretty secure lead in the series and Nico was just 10 points in front of me, even though I had beat him in 5 out of 6 meetings. The reason for this was the fact that Nico has raced all 8 cup races and I had only raced in 6. Also on the line for me was the US title.When all was said and done, Nico won the race, Conrad second and I was third. Nico had a great race from start to finish especially on the bike and run. He challenged Conrad at the top of the climb after 15 miles of uphill and Conrad responded with a blistering descent and hit the run with a small cushion. Nico ate up Conrad's run and passed him late in the run to take the win. To Conrad's credit, he raced very strong on a course that did not favor his strengths and was build for Nico. From my point of view the race was much less exciting. I exited the water with Nico and about 90 seconds down to the lead. I biked strong for the first quarter of the climb and found myself in second place still in the early stages of the bike. At around mile 4 or 5 Nico came around me to share with the pace setting, but I had trouble sticking to him on the short steeps. From my own doing I found myself alone for most of the rest of the bike. I tried to run hard which was tough to do since I had only ran once in the past 10 weeks. With about 2 miles to go I looked back and saw a hard charging Mike Vine just 10 seconds behind me. Somehow I had a little left in the tank to hold him off, but not enough of a cushion for Porter to cross the finish line with me...maybe next time. He wasn't too disappointed since he got to wear a homemade crown all day (thanks Mom!).

The final final race of the season will be the XTERRA World Championship in Maui on October 25th. Coach Durner at CTS has already cooked up some specific training for next week (I think the term he used was "sufferfest"). We are also looking into some unique acclimating strategies for Maui, just as the weather report is calling for 4 to 6 inches of snow tonight.