For a long time, TriLady, Popeye, and I have tossed around this question. Where could we stake out an Xterra course in our own neck of the woods?
Where were there enough miles of mountain bike trails and a quarter mile swim in the same location? Wickham Park? Nah. The XTerra people would probably laugh if they saw it.
How would you ever get anyone to pay for a race in little ole, sandy, flat, Wickham Park?
By thinking outside the box, that's how.
By swimming contestants across both lakes.
With a run in between.
By staking out an eight mile cyclocross/mountain-bike combo course, without repeating an inch.
And making sure the ride goes over (almost) every available root, log, stump, and lump in the park.
By ending the bike with a Death Spiral.
And the run with a waterslide.
That's how.
The TribeNMotion website has results, videos, and tons of photos of the hundred or so contestants riding the death spiral or sliding to their run finish.
Here's my favorite video - the spiral of death featuring a few riders you may recognize. http://contour.com/stories/spiral-of-death
Ride in and in and in.
Turn. Don't put your foot down!
Ride out and out and out again.
That’s Woody the Race Organizer in the mix, providing commentary and encouragement, from aboard his Pugsley.
Just look at all those photos.
And all those smiling faces.
Smiling, because they just splashed down after navigating 2 swims, 8 miles of biking - Wickham style, and a 3 mile sun-run.
Smiling, because the fun wasn't done. Not yet.
Just a few seconds beyond the official finish line, each of these happy athletes hands over a popsicle-stick place marker and heads to their third transition of the day.
The team portions of the sport are up next.
Eating. And drinking. With a hundred or so new best friends.
Often, by the time I finish a race, the food is all gone. Or if there is food, it's just junk. This time, not only was there food left, but it was really good-for-you-refueling food. What a great surprise to be handed a fresh-made-just-for-me sandwich from Tropical Smoothie. Chicken salad, mmm.
And then it's on to the very last, very important, transition of the day. Over to the Bob's Bike Shop tap for liquid replenishment.
But just in case no one believes this tribe of elated off-road junkies earned such an elaborate party just by riding little ole Wickham Park, I went back later and took a couple shots of the venue.
Poor old trails of Wickham Park. Burned down, and ploughed up. Then ploughed again. There are some pretty rough sections, but plenty of nice ones too.
2 ponds. Swim-run-swim.
Did you practice your dismount?
Oops. Roots.
Off the bike to push, or pedaling past the pushers - neither choice was easy – especially when the pack hit the Root Loops.
No matter what kind of bike you had, stopping to lift it over a downed tree, or slogging through sand and heavy grass as fast as you can slog, is a darn good workout.
But thanks to expert trail volunteers, the last few miles of well marked, tight, twisty, shady singletrack was its own reward.
So here’s the deal. Put Tribal Challenge on the calendar for next year. We have.
Because we would have raced this crazy course without awards or food.
We would have raced without door prizes, tribal drums, or a live band.
Heck, this course was so much fun, we would have done it, even without the beer.
Just don’t tell Woody, OK?
