Xterra World Championship 21K Trail Race Recap

Megan Morris
Dec 8, 2019
9 min read

When I stepped outside of the airport in Honolulu, the heat hit me like a wall. I knew it was going to be warm, but even after my heat training, the 84 degrees was still a shock! My mind immediately began to worry, “I can’t race in this heat!” As soon as the thought entered my mind I tried to find a positive spin on it, which is something I've been practicing. “Heat is the reason people come here, it is relaxing. I can work with the heat, heat is good”

I signed up for Xterra trail worlds early in the year with my friend, Hannah, who lives near Colorado Springs.

The race was 6 weeks after the Victoria marathon. After the marathon, Coach Merrifield recommended 14 days of recovery running before starting workouts again. We focused the remaining 4 weeks on shorter faster speed work (several 6x100m repeats, one 6x600m repeats, one 7x 800m repeats, and one 3 mile tempo). My weekly mileage was 42, 55, 45, and 39 for the last 4 weeks leading up to the race. I haven't gone much higher than 50 mile weeks yet so this was pretty solid for me.

I was feeling pretty good, but had no idea how I would stack up against the field that a $10,000 total prize purse would draw. I knew the biggest challenge would be the heat: it would be a high of 84 F and low of 73 race day. Coming from the PNW, my body was used to 30-50 degree weather. In my last post I described the heat training protocol I used to prepare for the race.

Hannah and I went for a shake-out run the evening I arrived.

Within 5 minutes of jogging I felt like I couldn't breath. My body felt as hot as it did after 30 minutes of uphill treadmill intervals with all the extra layers I had been wearing for heat training. I gently nudged my mind to focus on the adaptations that I knew had taken place during the training I had done, rather than how hot I felt.

We focused on staying hydrated over the next two days, as we explored the island, swam in the ocean, and watched the surfers on the North Shore.

Race morning, we woke at 6 am and I ate my typical breakfast of oatmeal and a banana, and then replaced my usual lucky charm cereal with a smoothie made with fresh mango from a tiny fruit stand near Haleiwa.

It was a cloudy and drizzly 30 minute drive to the race start at Kualoa Ranch, which we scouted out the day before.

Parking was a cinch and the start line was already buzzing with activity. It already felt hot in spite of the clouds.

The heat is your friend. Work with it, not against it.

I was super happy to run into my friend Anna before the race started! She currently lives in Honolulu and was racing the 10K. She gave me some final course tips and encouragement.

After a quick warm-up (active ROM, some glut bridges and core exercises, jogged ½ mile and did a couple strides, leg swings, and runner lunges) we meandered to the start line. I spotted elite runner Sage Canaday also doing bridges to warm-up, and that made me feel like I must know what I'm doing.

I started about 4 rows back, tucked in between a bunch of already smelly men. The atmosphere was pretty serious. I felt calm and focused.

The gun went off and we took off, or more like shuffled off as the pack was pretty tight and the gravel road we started on fairly narrow. The race started with a small downhill and then a gradual mile-long climb all on gravel/dirt road, in the full sun.

It took a while to find a rhythm and I passed a lot of people, and got passed, as people tried to find their pace.

My breathing was hard already but I wanted to get in a good spot before hitting the single track so I let myself push a little bit. Plus, I’ve learned in my other races this year that I can sustain a higher level of effort than I previously thought, so I was less afraid of my labored breathing and focused instead on taking care of the variables within my control…water, electrolytes, staying relaxed, staying present, running my own race.

At the top of the climb, we turned around and followed a single track trail that alternated between forest and meadow. The long grass covered up uneven ground and rocks, making foot placement tricky at times.

We would cover this same trail twice so I made a mental notes of the tricky spots and chose to think of them as ‘areas of recovery’ so that I could exert a little extra effort in between them on the way back.

We started climbing again, even the pros looked like they worked hard here.

I passed a guy dry heaving on the side of the trail. Already? The fear of sharing his fate made me slow a little. I checked in on how I was feeling, my breathing was still heavy and my legs could feel the climb. I was already soaked with sweat.

Not knowing how my body would react to the heat if I kept this effort up, I focused on dialing back to ‘a fun pace’ which is a trick I’ll use sometimes when I want the pace to feel easier but not necessarily be much slower. I leap frogged with a few other female runners several times. They were working hard too, and also drenched with sweat.

Leading up to this race, I had been trying to practice my visualization skills. I know that this can be a powerful tool for improving performance, but have never found it easy to reproduce a visual that is convincing enough to produce any physiological response or even feel somewhat meaningful. But I know that can come with practice, so after failing several times to stay focused or feel productive, I decided instead to write out a small 'script' of the race. I used whatever knowledge I had (a course description, and a Youtube video) and then re-wrote it in present tense with me achieving the best possible(realistic) outcome /effort. Here is a little part or it, It sounds pretty silly and I'm kind of embarrassed to post even part of it, but we know that it works.

Each time we got a view of the ocean it blew my mind.

Around mile 5 I was feeling pretty good. I was stuck in a chain of runners but started using whatever opportunity I had to pass people. At one point I glanced at my watch to see my pace at 6:24 on a gradual downhill. I pushed the number out of my mind and focused on the effort rather than letting the speed psyche me out.

I have been reading the book ‘Running Flow’ in which they describe the typical antecedents to experiencing ‘flow’, while running. One is having objective goals and clear, unambiguous feedback. Based on last year’s finishers times and their corresponding marathon times, I was guessing that a realistic but challenging goal would be to finish in under 2 hours. Last year, that would have put me in 7th place with a cash prize. Around mile 7 I glanced at my watch: 59 minutes. I knew I was on track and let that positive affirmation boost my energy and focus.

Miles 7-9 were the toughest for me. There were no major climbs or descents, it was just constant sharp turns, dips and steep climbs on a grassy, rocky dirt trail, making it impossible to get any rhythm. It was getting hotter and I felt like my legs were dragging. I could feel my motivation to push slipping, but I demanded my legs keep going.

A couple females passed me again. My mind kept moving forward fearfully to the miles ahead and it took a lot of energy to divert back to the present. I thought of the text my boyfriend’s family sent me the day before and got a boost of energy from that.

Then I thought about how difficult the heat training had felt on the treadmill, but remembered how I was able to keep going and finish those workouts, and that made the effort again feel less scary.

Around mile 9.5/10 the biggest climb began. The grade was inconsistent but many parts were steep, 15-20%. I welcomed the chance to power-hike and chose to think about using it to replenish energy stores in my flat and downhill muscles. My breathing remained labored and my legs burned but I know the climb wouldn’t last long, and I wouldn’t need the uphill muscles again, so I pushed. Passing a few men gave me a burst of energy and encouraged me to keep pushing.

I stumbled and flailed down the muddy slippery technical downhill that had ropes. I took a few pretty good tumbles but otherwise feel like I held my own.

Just under 3 miles to go. I glanced at my watch. 1hr and 40 minutes. I struggled to calculate what pace I would have to maintain to finish under 2 hours… it seemed like under an 8 min mile. My watch showed I was moving at an 8:30 pace. I felt okay, but not great. I didn’t think I could pick up the pace without burning out, yet. So I focused on maintaining and staying relaxed, telling myself that I’d push when I felt ready to.

Around mile 11.5 I spotted another female runner ahead of me. I locked in. The trail was winding so I couldn’t tell if I was gaining or not, but I told myself I was because that energized me. “You’re getting closer, you feel good, even closer”. I had no idea if this was true but I kept the positive stream of thoughts going and it surprisingly worked. At mile 12.5 I imagined that I was a car and I was starting to push on the gas. I felt a smooth acceleration in my legs and focused on the ease of the effort of this strong engine powering forward.

I honestly hardly remember the last mile but I remember I could hear the cheers from the finish line and got a huge burst of energy from that. I rallied for the last ½ mile. In sight of the finish line, I passed the girl at what felt like a sprint. The home stretch felt like an eternity, I was a little fearful of her catching me again but I put all my energy forwards and didn’t look over my shoulder until I was about 20 yards from the finish. I didn’t see her. I then zoomed in on the clock: 1hr, 59min, 30 seconds. I had done it!

After crossing the finish line I wobbled towards the finishers chute. They put the medal around my neck and handed me a towel for all the mud. I turned around and saw the gal I passed finishing not more than 5 seconds behind me. We congratulated each other and then I forced myself to keep moving until I spotted a shady spot of grass to lay down on. I started at the blue sky and let the feelings sink in a bit. The announcer continued to call out names of every finisher, with a ‘congratulations, you are an Xterra warrior’. The music was loud and the energy was high. The mountains of the valley rose steeply around all sides of us and although you couldn’t hear the ocean waves over the music, you could smell the saltwater sea. I closed my eyes and breathed deep. My place didn’t matter, nothing mattered except for this feeling, this bliss, of setting a goal, working towards it, and then pushing your mind and body hard, together, to accomplish it.

My splits don't say a whole lot, but that HR data does. If it is accurate, which I suspect it is, it is the highest avg. HR I've think I've ever had for that length of time.

I was just wearing my watch, no chest strap, but I believe that max heart rate!

Turns out I missed 7th place and a cash prize by 30 seconds, but my 3rd in age group won me this lei, some fancy shampoo and sunscreen.

The winner, Joe Gray and Kenyan Joel Limo.

Anna dominated her 10k race finishing 3rd woman overall, she is so humble and kind and strong, what an inspiration!

Hannah finished the 21k feeling good in spite of the knee injury she has been battling for a few months. She went into the race with less training than she wanted, and with a body fully adapted to sub-freezing Colorado Springs weather and she rocked it. I was so impressed with her fearless and determined approach to the race.

We definitely enjoyed some beach time post race.