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Daniel Molnar Racing

XTERRA World Championships Pre-Race Thoughts

10/25/2014

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English

There is nothing I would want more on Sunday than making the podium in my age group and finish strong right in the midst of the top athletes.
I  know can't compare my swimming ability to some of the fastest of the sport (such as Conrad Stoltz, Branden Rakita) and I definitely don't have the leg power to come near the strongest bikers (Josiah Middaugh, Ruben Ruzafa). I do have a chance though to minimize my losses on the run. Don't take me wrong. As an amateur athlete I don't compete with the professionals but since I like to analyze my performance for later improvements they set the standard. Pro athletes tend to bring the best out of themselves and they steadily perform at the level they are capable of. On the other hand there are so many variables in the life's of an amateur athlete that looking at splits and final results may not tell the whole picture.
Like I said, my ultimate goal is to perform at my current best and if that's enough, make the top three in the category.

To list of few of of the 58 age group competitors who will toe the line with me in the 30-34 category: Matthew Balzer (2nd at XTERRA USA 2014 & 3rd last year here), Olivier Pichou (France- 30-34 World Champ in 2013), Anthony Flinois (France, 2nd last year).
Others include JP Donovan who won the overall age group title in Snowbasin at the XTERRA USA's this year, Mitchell Ginsberg (RSA, 2nd in 25-29 last year), Tommy Vonach (Austria, 1st last year in the 40-44 category).
Many of the top amateurs did not return for this year's competition and that adds a question mark of who will show up who is not expected based on last year's results.

In the past few weeks I was able to get in a solid bout of swim workouts with the Bismarck Masters Team and I had a few good run workouts. The black horse will be the bike that took a definite cut in my training. Not that I didn't do tough sessions on my trainer but I certainly didn't sit on my mtb enough.

The trail conditions have been in the middle of the discussions among athletes in the past few days. It has rained nearly every day or night since we've arrived and made the bike course impossible to ride. On Wednesday I was able to ride about 4 miles without issues to my tires but soon after it started raining the clay stuck to my wheels and they eventually locked up. I didn't ride on Thursday but I heard it from some that the trails were in better shape. On Friday, however, we got some more rain so we had to forget about riding on the trails one more time.
Some talks have been going around of a changed course if conditions on the upper/lower sections don't improve by Saturday afternoon.

I know for a fact that my tires act like skis and I'm not a good skier by any means. So if the course is just a little bit muddy my focus will be the safe completion of the bike course and all my energy will go towards posting a fast run split. In 2012 I was able to walk away with the fastest amateur run time- a $100 restaurant gift card was my prize. I plan to win nothing less this year. 

In about 29 hours we will know a lot more.

You can get live results at http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-10893?lc=en

My bib number is 390.


Magyar

Nem sok mindent akarok jobban vasárnap, mint egy dobogós helyezést a kategóriámban és a legjobbakkal való beérkezés.
Tudom, hogy nem tudom összehasonlítani az úszásomat a a leggyorsabbakkal (Conrad Stoltz, Branden Rakita) és biztosan nincsen meg az a fajta erő, hogy a legjobb bringásokkal küzdjek (Josiah Middaugh, Ruben Ruzafa). De megvan a lehetőségem arra, hogy a veszteségeimet minimalizáljam a futás alatt.
Nem akarom magamat amatőrként a profi versenyzőkhöz hasonlítani, de a profik azok, akik stabilan tudják azt az eredményt hozni, amire képesek. Az amatőrök esetében túl sok az a magánéleti tényező, ami miatt sokkal nagyobbak az eredmények ingadozása. Éppen ezért, a fejlődésemet a legjobban akkor lehet észrevenni, ha a részidőket a nagyjából hasonló (évről-évre) eredményt produkaló profihoz mérem.
A nap végén a legfontosabb dolog viszont a jó helyezés és persze, hogy elégedett legyek azzal.

A tavalyi eredmény listán áthaladva a következő versenyzők lesznek majd nagy csatában: 

3O-34 kategória: Matthew Balzer (2. az XTERRA USA 2014 & 3. tavaly), Olivier Pichou (France- 30-34 világbajnok 2013-ban), Anthony Flinois (France, 2. tavaly).
Más kategóriák jobbjai: JP Donovan (Nevada, USA) aki idén megnyerte az amerikai XTERRA USA amatőr címet Snowbasin-ben, Mitchell Ginsberg (Dél-Afrika, 2.  a 25-29 kategóriában tavaly), Tommy Vonach (Ausztria, első tavaly a 40-44-es kategóriában).

Sok top amatőr nem tért vissza, míg mások már profiként versenyeznek. Az pedig egészen biztos, hogy sokan bukkannak majd fel, akivel előzetesen senki (legalábbis én) sem számolt ..

Az elmúlt pár hétben sikerült egy pár jobb úszóedzést beiktatni a Bismarck Masters Team-mel, így bízok abban, hogy nem a "vert mezőnyben" jövök majd ki idén a vízből. Egy pár jobb futóedzésem is volt, ami mutatta, hogy annyira azért nem vagyok lassú. A fekete bárány viszont a bringa lesz. Az elmúlt hetekben az ideálisnál kevesebbet tekertem, bár azért sikerült betenni egy pár erős görgős edzést is. 

A versenyt nagyban fogja majd befolyasolni az elmúlt napok esőzései. Még szerdán, az első és egyetlen pályabejárásom idéjen mégcsak nem is  félúton eleredt az eső és az addig egészen jó minőségű talaj egy járhatatlan mocsárrá változott, nagyon rövid idő alatt. A korábbi ananász ültetvény talaja agyagos, így a víz nem szívódik be, inkább síkossá, csúszóssá teszi azt.
Hallottam "híreket", hogy lehet átvariálják majd a bringa pályát és csak a felső vagy alsó szakaszon fogunk majd tekerni. De ha tegnap este (szombatra virradóra) esett, akkor az én meglátásom szerint nem fog a talaj eléggé megszáradni, hogy járhato legyen. A kerekeim úgy gyűjtik össze az agyagot, hogy amiatt nem tudom tovább tekerni azt. Pénteken egy rövid szakaszon próbáltuk ki milyenek a viszonyok, nem túl jo eredménnyel.
Ha mégis elengednek és a pálya csak egy kicsit is saras lesz a legfontosabb a számomra a balesetmentes befejezés lesz és minden energiát majd a jobb futóeredmény elérésére fogom tartogatni. 2O12-ben sikerült a legjobb amatőr futó címet megszerezni és idén sem akarok kevesebbel eltávozni.
Szombat estére hoznak majd az XTERRA vezetői döntést a pályamódosítás kapcsán.

Úgy 29 órán belül mindannyian okosabbak leszünk majd.

Ezen a linken lehet majd az élő eredményeket kapni:

http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-10893?lc=en

A rajtszámom 39O.    

A twitterem ( @molnardani ) is fogja a részidőket kiírni, ha minden jól megy.
A profi versenyt pedig az @xterraoffroad fogja figyelemmel kísérni.

Szép, Jó Napot Kívánok!

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xterra USA Championship Trail Run- Half Marathon

10/20/2014

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Day 2.

When you signed up for the XTERRA USA Champs there was a question at the bottom of the screen asking if you were doing the double. I quickly checked the box without letting any thoughts of the unavoidable pain in my post-race body take over my decision-making sequence.
It sounded like a fun idea at the time. Clearly, I haven't raced for a while at the time when I signed up and I had forgotten how brutal the Snowbasin course is with the 3k+ feet of climbing on the bike and another 1000ft on the run.

Fast forward to the moments after finishing the race, still dripping the sweat/gatorade combo I was already second guessing my sanity.
I convinced myself to run but do the 10k only. For a little while I even thought about just heading home early Sunday morning but that would have been a coward-ish act to me.
I figured I didn't need to be home for anything in particular as I just quit my job a week before the Nationals so might as well race and deal with the pain later.

I spent Saturday afternoon trying to recover. I stood in the reservoir's water for 15 minutes, iced at the hotel, used my Compex Sport Elite on my quads and calves to help speed the recovery.
In the evening Anna and I attended the post-race gathering in downtown Ogden at the Harvest Moon Festival. It was good to see many of the athletes all cleaned up and already smiling over that morning's tortures- with tasty local brews in the hands. We all re-lived the action when the 2014 XTERRA USA Champs highlights of the action was showed on the main screen.

Race morning.

It was still dark as we drove out to Snowbasin Resort at 7am. It was rather unusual for me but came as a delight that I only had to prepare for this with a pair of shoes, a singlet and my shorts. No swim and bike gear needed to be set-up and counted over many times.
It looked like it would rain so I ditched the sunglasses and used a hat given to me the morning of the race by Bill, the owner of  Optic Nerve sunglasses company.
In the midst of some skinny runners I spotted Roberto Mandje so I knew the pace would be taken out rather fast.
What I didn't expect was that the  "other skinny runners" would be leading the way from the get-go, through the first half mile around the parking lot. I placed myself right behind Roberto as we started to climb but halfway through I noticed he was slowing so made the pass. On the top of the first climb there were still a few of us making up the bunch so the pace didn't let go. The course consisted of two big loops. The first one is mainly the same as Saturday's run leg during the triathlon while the second is the last 10-11k on the mountain bike course.
I found myself in 5th position after a few miles of climbing but I didn't feel secure. At the start of the second climb (mile 5.5) I could hear the footsteps of the 6th place guy. I let him get close and as soon as we started climbing I surged and quickly put some decent distance in him. The climb was long. Miles and miles long. I felt I had the advantage over some runners who have never raced the course before even though I only biked this segment the other way, the easy way. It felt like eternity before we reached the summit of Sardine Peak. There, I spotted my chasers again running about 20-30 seconds behind. Just as we rolled (run) around the point from where you can see Pineview Reservoir I made my second attempt to shake the pursuers off. As the course started to decline I bolted out and pretended I can run downhill for once. I never considered myself like a good downhill runner. Mainly because in Hungary I was surrounded by runners who were actually fast runners who could really fly on the downhills. A few hundred yards of sprint like that and I lost them. I still felt uneasy about the last 2 miles of the race. From the race profile it seemed like a little uphill so I wanted to put in as much time into 6th place as possible.

It all went well until I went down. Hard. Not sure how did that happen. There must have been a root, a rock or something in the way. I rolled my left ankle and lost my balance. For a while I was "running" like a sprinter when they cross the finish line, leaned over trying to stay upright. I knew I would fall. It was inevitable. Just before landing I turned on my right side and I rolled out my momentum. Fun it was not. I was up and limping right away. My left ankle hurt really bad. My right elbow, arm and wrist were bleeding. I looked back, no sign of my chasers. Although I knew that they were there and getting closer. There were only 2 miles to go, based on the mile markers. I fought hard to keep my pace fast but I had to admit it that it was still slower than of those running behind me. Then, after running through a meadow I spotted him. I was still in the money (1-5 receives prize money) but not for long. When he finally caught me he didn't pass. Actually, I slowed the pace down in preparation for the sprint finish. Then, he went past me. I let him go but the gap increased from a step to 3 then 10. I heard the loudspeaker in the not-too-far distance. I thought I had time close that 10 second gap that grew by then. Then, out of nowhere, we came out of the woods and my chances of collecting some beer money diminished.
I wasn't happy. Taking 6th at the end of a 13 mile run when you are in 5th for 12.5 miles is disappointing. But I was disappointed in myself. I let this happen. I lost it. After a brutal Saturday I knew that I wasn't going to win this Half Marathon but I actually lost the race.

I was now not only sore from two days of racing (4+ hours, 40 miles) but I had a twisted and very swollen ankle, bleeding and bruised right arm, dirty clothes. A few days later though most of the pain went away and I feel I have accomplished something great. I didn't do as well I wanted to at this year's nationals but I toughed it out.
Would I do it again?
Yes, I would.
Anytime!


Results- XTERRA Trail Run Nationals- 21k



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