November 15th, 2008
James Kovacs 1st Place Open, 2nd Overall
Chris Boyd 8th Place Open
From the viewpoint of Chris Boyd:
Moab, UT -- a must visit for any adventure-loving individual or really just anyone with an eye for the astonishing imagination found in nature. This year, Moab was the home to the Ultimate XC, a new offroad trail running event catering to the adventure lovers in us all. The race director Dan Desrisuers is a friend of mine from when we met at his notorious Jay Challenge in 2006. How does one describe Dan accurately, giving him credit for his immense passion for creating unique, enormously challenging and rugged course design? I'm not sure I have the words to do him justice other than by saying "This guy takes pleasure in seeing you hurt, in a good way J". Yeah, I suppose we all self-diagnose by showing up at one of these events as being, how do you say, a little 'off', but the challenge we set out to overcome is unique to each individual. For myself, the Ultimate XC 20-Mile trail race was a motivator, a mechanism for keeping my mind hungry and my body ready for a new challenge. Coming toward the end of a racing season, it is all too easy to hunker down and wait out the cold and snow, but for James and I and about 248 others, we looked to the Ultimate XC Moab as a spring board to help us catapult our physical shape through the winter and into an even greater 2009.
As I eluded, Dan is never one to disappoint, and this race certainly lived up to the promise it had advertised. 20 miles through canyons and high points of the slickrock, monolith-covered back trails of Moab, Dan and race director Danielle Ballange set a course that any trail runner should look forward to running. The start was up what I believe was Pritcher Canyon, which was a rocky, loose, rutted and boulder-filled 4x4 trail that snakes its way south and then west, heading away from the Colorado River and the town of Moab. Coming out of the canyon, you steadily gain altitude as you sneak your way to the top roof of the canyon before dropping down into a rutted out hole in teh rocks, finally hitting a service road. A stunning run up a riverbed, through and under arches and large rocks carved out by thousands of years of flowing torrents left the area with many soft edged rocks and evidence that nature's power had been at work in these parts for many years. Coming out of this river bed after grabbing a checkpoint punch, I looked to my GPS which read 3 miles further than the maps said we would have traveled up to this point. Hmmm, might my watch be broken?
Flashback 2 years to the Jay Challenge on day 3 while competing in the 65-mile mountain bike leg of the race (day 1 was a 27-mile flatwater paddle and day 2 was a 36-mile trail run which if I tried to describe now would cause me to lose focus, but let me just say it was HARD) and coming to find that after riding for 71 miles I was still a mile from the finish line. The story behind the over-delivering on mileage is one I recall Dan telling before the run leg of the Jay Challenge that year (which I believe was supposed to be 31 miles). He said something to the effect of, "last year some of youz guyz (use your best French-Canadian accent here) GPS-d my course and complained I was 5 miles short on the run. This year, you won't be disappointed, believe me". That must have scarred Dan because in all teh races I've done of his, he always 'over-delivers' and that came to be true in the 10-miler (actually 12.5), 20-miler (actually 23.5) and the 50k (actually pretty close to right on but probably a mile extra).
The version of the ending of the race I most prefer ends with me telling James (who by the way WON the Men's open category finishing 1hr 15min ahead of me...wow) that I was right on his heals, just around the corner, close enough the entire race where I could see him but he could not see me. Then about a half-mile from the finish I just sat down. Yup, one the dirt, sat there and waited. Here I am waiting...waiting...waiting. 30 minutes, then 45, then 1hr, then 1hr 10min. I decide now I can get up to finish, allowing him a solid cushion to secure his dominance over a field of uber-fast athletes and also me.
Put this race on the calendar for 2009. The race was an amazing experience and one I look forward to repeating. Rumor is there might be a mountain biking race next year on day 2. Think about it.
Boyd
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