{"id":448,"date":"2008-10-06T22:22:15","date_gmt":"2008-10-06T20:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conradstoltz.com\/xterra-usa-champs-plumbed-the-deapths-of-empty-legs-but-won-6th-xterra-usa-series-title\/"},"modified":"2008-10-06T22:22:15","modified_gmt":"2008-10-06T20:22:15","slug":"xterra-usa-champs-plumbed-the-deapths-of-empty-legs-but-won-6th-xterra-usa-series-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conradstoltz.com\/index.php\/xterra-usa-champs-plumbed-the-deapths-of-empty-legs-but-won-6th-xterra-usa-series-title\/","title":{"rendered":"XTERRA USA Champs. Plumbed the deapths of empty legs, but won 6th XTERRA USA Series title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"conrad
\nphotos by Rich Cruse<\/a> photography<\/p>\n

\"rich-side.jpg\"<\/p>\n

by Rich Cruse<\/p>\n

What a weird, weird day.<\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

I finished 8th. 8 minutes down.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my whole racing career, I have never had legs as amazingly empty in a race, especially after feeling so good in the lead up. I wish I could have posted my Tuesday bike time instead of my race day bike time. Even including the almost BASE jump in the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The swim went relatively well, I was 50″ behind the Seth Wealing and felt pretty good on the flat and the early climb. However, when the pitch got steeper and I started laying the power down, my legs, well, powered down. My lower back usually gets sore, but I can manage it by stretching, standing or backing off for a while, but this time it didnt get better. I wasn’t even breathing hard- which says a lot for this altitude. 6500-8800ft. I got to the flume just behind Josiah Middaugh<\/a> and thought: ok, now thats its flat and supposedly more technical, I’ll catch up, overtake, make time on the downhill and battle on the run, but it wasn’t even close. I tried and tried to find the proverbial “big blade”, but I was spinning in the granny.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The race within the race was the XTERRA USA Series Title. I made the math beforehand. Fellow South African Dan Hugo<\/a> was 2nd in the Series with 3 second place finishes and I was leading with 3 wins. If Dan won, I had to finish no worse than 4th to win the Series and the $14 000 prize. Second is “only” a harsh $7000. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine of dragging ass in 8th, trying to calculate how much Dan had to drag ass for me to still “win” the Series. I got 8th and “won” by 8 points, as Dan finished 4th.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Phew.<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

photos by Rich Cruse photography by Rich Cruse What a weird, weird day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,91,140],"tags":[1754,1758,657,693,769,1801,1316],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n