From XL to XTERRA

After professing our intentions of competing in the 2005 XTERRA Saipan Championship to the world, support for our plight has poured in from all over the globe. The winner of the 2003 Saipan XTERRA Championship, professional triathlete Jason Chalker, offered his assistance via email from Australia, fellow professional Claire Murray has given us a few tips, and the good folks from Team Unlimited have offered us advice from Hawaii, to name a few.

While we are extremely thankful for the kind gestures from all of these individuals, the everyday encouragement from the people of the CNMI has kept us vigilant in our multi-sport journey.

All-around bicycle maven and computer guru Ron Smith provided some much-needed technical advice in the field of two-wheeled transportation, and directed me to Romeo Mendel of Saipan Bike Pro. Ask anyone on Saipan who owns a mountain bike, and they’ll tell you that he is the guy to go to. Romey supplied me with the tools of the trade and a pledge of service in an exchange deal with Saipan Tribune.

John turned to Chris Nelson (yes, that Chris Nelson) of Marianas Trekking for his off-roading needs, where he was outfitted with his wheels of fortune at a likable price as well.

Since hearing about our lack of adequate hydration (due to the loss of our beloved beer), Katherine Berry and the team at Coca-Cola/PowerAde have come to our rescue and have provided us with the necessary tools for high-performance fluids throughout our training.

With bikes and fluids tacked down, it was time to focus on the 500-lb gorilla. The 1.5-kilometer ocean swim of XTERRA tends to turn many people away from competing in the event, but Saipan Swim Club coach Mike Stewart and private swimming instructor Rachel Bandelin have guided us every stroke of the way.

Thanks to the dynamic duo, we now look forward to improving our technique at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool rather than shying away from the aquatic aspect of triathlon.

Though our newfound love of the water has kept us coming back to the Marpi facility, Mamoru Wantanabe and the management team at the Marianas Resort & Spa reduced the usage fee at the 50-meter pool to allow us to wade through the H2O instead of our Do Re Mi.

The everyday pat on the back from the community has been more than what we could have asked for, but some of the training has been a little bit more than we bargained for.

After a few days of waking up before the sunrise (as opposed to making it home at that time), John and I have started getting used to the idea of meeting for bike rides and runs in the morning. It has gotten to the point now that if we skip a day, we feel terrible.

We have gotten into the groove of meeting at 5am on the Beach Road pathway or at the state-of-the art track and field facility in Oleai to work on our running two days a week, making the trek out to the Marpi pool two days a week, getting bike rides in together once a week and on our own on any other day.

We save one day every week for resting, and it didn’t take us long to decide that Thursday would be our Sabbath. If you have any question why we chose the day after hump day, stop down to the loading dock of the Pacific Islands Club at 5:30 am on any given Wednesday and join us for a workout with all-around tennis pro Faheem Ebrahim—or what we call the Faheem Beat Down.

Here’s a little bit from John’s training diary that followed the first day with Faheem:

“OK, so all that sniveling and whining I’ve been doing about tough exercise in the first three days—well, throw it all away. Some people talk about how they change after seeing or doing something traumatic; like almost getting hit by a bus, but me, my trauma came in the form of a workout.

“After about a mile run (a warm up that was more like burnout for me), he decided we should do uphill wind sprints. Brad and I could’ve blown the cloudy low-pressure zone off the coast of Saipan with all the huffing and puffing we did. The three little piglets wouldn’t have stood a chance against us.

“Once the run torture was over, we all jogged back to the PIC tennis courts and topped off our exercise sundae with a generous dapple of deep knee bends, funky push ups (but harder), and a sprinkling of stomach crunches.”

Though John and I do our best to train for next April’s race on the other five days of the week, nothing can quite compare to the physical pummeling that is the Beat Down. All of the complaining aside, Faheem is only doing what we asked him to, and from the looks of it he is accomplishing the task.