Here Goes!

So I've been wanting to create a blog for about as long as I knew what one was. This means, not very long, but I like the idea of being able to let others check out what's going 0n in my life without my (a) making 37 phone calls in a day and completely toasting my eardrum (brain?) with my cell phone, or (b) completely screening all of my calls because I'm burned out from doing (a) the day before. All or nothing. That's me!

Okay, my first one is long because I just got back from Xterra Worlds in Maui and have all of that to talk about. Promise I won't always be long winded--well I think I promise. So, here goes.

Xterra World Championship 2007”Rachel Cieslewicz

Wow! Where do I start? I had such an amazing weekend. First of all, how can you not have a wonderful time in paradise? Second, combine that with the 2007 season finale of the best tri-race series there is. I am so lucky! Even luckier is the fact that I was riding the best mountain bike on the planet, my Cannondale Carbon Rush, which hands down is the most amazing machine Ive ever ridden. Add this together with MonaVie Acai shots, and I felt awesome the entire two days of racing!

Back track to last year, I was taking regular gels, etc. Got sick to my stomach every race, and passed out twice at races half the distance. I now take the MonaVie gel shots in place of nasty sugar gels and have energy to spare--and the last thing on my mind is my stomach.

So along with feeling great, I also had phenomenal races! On Saturday, I raced the 11k trail run which is the same course set for Sundays Xterra championship. This race featured 82 women and 92 men from all over the world. I pulled of an incredible 2nd place womens overall finish to the current world duathlon champion who also holds the womens record for the Maui marathon. The other awesome thing is I was 7th overall which means only 5 men were ahead of me! Now, I dont know where that came from. Most likely MonaVie had something to do with it!

The next day was the off-road triathlon world championship. The race started on a beautiful sunny morning. The waves were a bit choppy (3-5 foot swells), but hey, its Xterra! As per usual, the swim for me was pretty slow compared to many of my competitors (working on that one big time!). When I made it out of the water about mid-pack, I put on my game face and charged into the bike leg. Now, when you have a mass start of almost 600 churning up the water along with the waves, and the bike trail only has so many passable areas, I knew my work was cut out for me. I worked my way through the course at times being frustrated as my legs wanted to go faster than there was room for me to go, but I steadily passed other riders the entire way.

Luckily, it was a good karma day (or maybe it was my rock star bike) but I had zero mechanicals, no flat tires, and stayed upright the entire race. Unfortunately, literally dozens of my competitors did not fair so well”lots of broken bicycles, flat tires, and bloody bodies succumbed to the technical, lava filled course.

Coming off the bike leg and into the run, despite really starting to feel the heat, humidity, wind, and having possibly gone a little (lot?) too hard in my run the day before, I continued to pass people with steady grace. Running this hot, difficult, course for the second time in two days challenged me mentally and maxed me physically in the end, but I held tough.

At the end of the day, I had a smile on my face and a 5th place finish at my very first ever world championship! And whats the most exciting thing of all? Im just getting started! Next up, Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida, November 10¦

Thanks for everything MonaVie and Cannondale!