High Cloud Foundation - Because Dreams Come True

By Mark Zaragoza

Well time has come around again to drive up to New Jersey for my 2nd Xterra of the Season. This trip was fun, because Angie and Kailyn joined me for the road trip. This is what I believe to be the 10th year of this race. So I was really wondering what has kept this race around so long, because from the pictures, it looked pretty flat.  So not only could I wait to see this race, but I also got to rock out my new Vector Pro X2 Wetsuit from our Sponsor Xterra.


Pre Race
Well my bike did have it's normal comfortable transport, as we decided to take Angie's car, just in case I needed help driving home after the race. And since it was round 2, thought I would signify it.
Got there Friday night, and went to the park when it opened, to get in my pre-ride and get a scope of the swim. I rode about 4 miles of what I thought was an out and back course. The course turned out to be really hilly with tons of rock gardens on the descends. At this point I knew I was in for a really tough course. After my ride, I got back to the hotel, showered and went to New York for a wedding.
Race Morning
Well the morning started out wet, with small and light showers, which made me start realizing that the tough course I rode the day before, had just got tougher. After getting to the race site, I went and got my race number..... I drew lucky 13. Not believing in omens, or unlucky numbers, I still had a little tingling in the back of my neck. I brushed it off, and decided to go and get ready. As I was going to get my bike and stuff, I saw the 5th Ambulance pull up, and said to my sefl,"Hmmmm which one is mine?" Ran into several people I met at Jersey Devil, another reason I like Xterra, small community, and we all remember each other. Also ran into Kevin Adams, who I ride with at Wakfield. Kevin is a 55 year old guy, who kicks my butt on the bike, and an all around great guy. We talked about the course, and I told him about what I saw the day before my ride. After chit chatting for about 30 min, I went about setting up my transition. Setting up my transition has become so robotic, I think I can do it in my sleep, so it only took me 10 min to set up. Since it's a first come, first serve in transition, I was joined up with Noel who is a really great racer. At 9:30am our race director called us all together for the pre-race meeting.
Joe Patanella was totally stoked, gave us directions and pointers about this race course he has designed, and then got us all fired up to race, after which he played the National Anthem, and turned us loose to warm-up for the swim.
Race Start
Joe Patanella was meticulous about how he runs his race. He told everyone to get to the starting line, and then he immediately had us all form up into 8-9 lines and had one of his volunteers take a head count for the swim. Then he released us to get on the starting line, which by the way was about just shy of a 1/4 mile from the swim entrance. Yes we had to make a run to start the swim. The gun went off, and all the racers took off running for the swim start.

If you look at the bottom center, there I am running to the water. Mixed in with the Tri Group was the Duathlon. This was fun, as it quickly got you warm in your suit, and it got your heart racing.
Swim
Swim consisted of a mass running start, and 2 laps, each being 400 meter.

You had to knock out the 400 meters, get out of the water, run abound the bouy, and back into the water. This is in true Xterra fashion, which also makes it hard, because you have to pump your legs to get in the water, pump your legs to get out of the water, pump your legs to get back in, and pump your legs to get out to the transition. As you can see from the picture, I was very well in the middle/front of the pack, which meant I was going o get beat up again. Except this time I was ready for it, and took the most outside track. This option left me nobody to draft off of, but it also allowed me to get in a better rhythm. I was amazed how much better I was able to glide with my new wetsuit, it was heaven sent, and this is coming form a guy who doesn't like sleeved wetsuit. After hitting the 200 meter mark, I was forced into the crowd and thus started my battling. Since it's a short swim, a lot of people go out super hard, hoping to gut out the final 400, so you end up getting a lot of people that don't sight and just follow. Unfortunately they seem to group up well also, which I ran into on my second lap. I ran into 4 guys swimming in a cluster, not sure what they were doing, but I needed to get around them. I peered my head up, and I guess 2 of the collided and swan away from each other giving enough room for me to get through. With this opportunity presenting itself, I quickly opted for an interval style burst and punched right through. One guy decided he wanted to latch on, but guess he faded as I held on to my burst for a bit. I got to the end of my swim, and ran in to the transistion.
T1
I quickly got in and the first thing I did was strip my suit. As I was stepping on the legs, to get them lower, I found it opportunistic to put on my camelback that was hanging on my handlebars. After which I popped my wetsuit off my feet, put my new Smith Optic Pivlock V90, helmet, socks and shoes. Normally I leave my shoes on the bike, but the race director had us working immediately upon exiting T1. I grabbed my bike and ran for the bike out.
Bike
Right as we exit T1, we mount our bikes and have a split second to get clipped in, because we had to go down some stairs.
The course was 80% single track, with fireroads, and about 1 mile of pavement. The race director could not have chosen a better course name. The first 6 miles consisted of enough climbing that it would have made Kyle Yost proud, and drops with tons of rock gardens, which made you stay on your game at all times. The first 3 miles, had strong climbs and switchback descents that allowed you to maintain top speed without even pedaling. The second 3 miles were open single track climbs and drops with the rock gardens. Finally a course that required stamina, and mountain biking skills. Got to see some wrecks, due to the rock gardens, but all and all I was up with the guys that knew what they were doing. After the first 6 miles of single track, we hit the fire roads, which gave us all the opportunity to open up and loosen up from the technical course we came off. Although no sooner as we were getting comfortable, we were dumped right back into the single track , which lead us back to the trails in which we came out on. So back to the climbing and rock gardens, until the last 3 miles, which was a grueling switchback climb that we came down in the begining. It took, and whole new meaning technical ascent, as the big tree roots, and rocks had you out of the saddle almost all the time. Unfortunately I didn't have the skills to make the whole climb on some sections of the course, so I had to dismount and walk, including the final switchback climb which I could only make halfway. Good thing s I wasn't alone, and had company in my misery, as we all cursed the day we signed up, and promised to see each other again next year. As we all got out of the switchback section we all mounted our bikes an pushed through, we saw the pearly gates of T2. Once again, in Mark fashion, I got my feet out of my shoes, and rode to the T2 line on 1 pedal(I Really gotta take a picture of it, cause it looks cool)
T2
Upon getting in I thought I had a pretty bad bike time, but when I looked around the T2 as I was heading to rack my bike, I noticed there was not to many bikes in there, so I must have been doing good. I quickly racked my bikes, threw off my gear, slipped my shoes on, and grabbed my hat with me number and gu in it. As I was running out T2, I put my hat, and number on, and hit my gu.
Run
Run broke out on pavement almost immediately, then leading us to the trails. The run felt pretty easy, until you made the morale crushing turn to see the longest hill, that just kept going up. It was time to face Toboggan Hill!!! Thought I would have the wheels to hit this hill, but only made it up 1/3 of the way before I had to join the masses on the slow trudge up the hill. About 1/2 way the hill takes an even greater pitch, making you really push on your slow walk up. After cresting the hill, I instantly got back to running since it was a slow grade down. As I was reaching the bottom, I saw my buddy coming back. Now realizing he had to be less than a minute in front of me, I came to the conclusion that the race director was so nice to let us get to the bottom of the hill, before he turned us around, just to run up the hill again. The good part was that the back side didn't pitch as hard as the front side, so I was able to run the whole thing. As for going down the front, you spent more time trying to control your descent than utilizing the hill for free speed. After getting to the bottom, it was a short trail run to the pavement where we ran for pretty much the rest of the course, until we hit the beach. We spent the last 1/4 mile + running in the sand, so I quickly got myself as close to the water, as the snad was firmer there. The last 100 yeards I had to abandon my plan, as the director had the chute in the center of the beach, so you had to take on some of the soft sand.