Beata Wronska -
Mountain Biker and Off-Road Triathlete -
Zerouno Factory Racing.
4x National Champion, Bronze Medalist at the 2018 UCI Masters World Championships.
I love to work with the companies that I grew up with. One of them is Speedo.
All of it just reminds me of my college years in Poland where I had blast tackling all the sports that exist on this planet.
One of them was swimming which I always loved. Of course right there I was using Speedo products.
Now, quite a few years later, living on the different continent, speaking different language, competing in the different sport I still use Speedo. My Speedsockets are the most trusted goggles on my every Xterra race. I am very glad to be supported by the brand I believe in.
I just received the newest FastSkin goggles and cap and love them both and bunch of other great training and racing gear. Thanks Speedo!
It was my third time now riding and racing in Caloosahatchee Regional Park.
First time that finally I had an opportunity to get out and race there was thanks to our great friend Wally who convinced me after some 30 minutes on the phone to take a leap and race once again after a terrible injury. I didn’t feel ready yet and was still recovering from two fractured elbows which finished my 2010 season right on the beginning of it. I was pretty gloomy and actually getting out to the park was a very electrifying experience for me since I had moments when I thought I would not race again. All I remember is the flat twisty terrain, lots of happy faces and the amazing weakness in my arms when I was trying my best to finish this 15 mile course. I was struggling to hold on to my handle bars, my elbows were still wrapped in the support braces and I remember how exhausted I felt after I crossed the finished line. I placed 11th out of 16th if I remember right. This race however jump started my season and got me back to racing.
A year ago in this park I still raced base and remember being in the lead from the start to just crashing on one of the off camber slippery downhill’s and totally going off the concrete and flying into dead palm stump and a big bear hug on it. My ankle got hurt and all the girls zoomed by me. My whole race from there on was a catch up game. I think I made it to 4th. Oh well.
And here we come to this week’s race…
Good part of it is that our friend Wally once again was here with us and this time it is him coming back from a little injury and getting back into the racing environment.
It seems however that I have very little luck on this course and poor results and just came to the conclusion that the park just doesn’t suit me.
I feel there is no flow in those 14 miles of switchbacks of the flat course and few technical parts which go up and down from sudden turns. I can’t get there into my grove and race ends early. To add to it I had bad start and my left food didn’t clip in, I corrected it quickly and sprinted out and managed to get into a decent position just inches from crashing into the tree. I was 5th and after a short while I was able to pass two ladies. I had my eyes on the 2nd rider and still could see the leader far ahead. I was sure I will make some ground and catch up shortly while on the contrary with more passing time I was losing more and more ground and when I got to the tight, root covered, dark, getting hit on the head by the branches and impossible to keep good pace on forest; I had everyone right on my wheel. I didn’t get anywhere. I made some mistakes on the steep climbs and allowed two girls to pass. I did stick with them for a while and was completely certain I will pass them back in no time after we get out of this trail. This however never happened. I lost a big chunk of time.
I crossed the first lap mark in 5th, a good 45 seconds behind. I didn’t take it to seriously knowing I will make my time up shortly and I felt like I was having a pretty decent (not awesome however) pace. But once again I got to those annoying sticks and some boredom got to me on the 5 miles of turning left and right with no purpose that I even got other riders behind me. I guess my mind drifted away too much and when I did get out once again from the technical climbs that I actually cleared just fine this time I was pretty far back from the pack. Thanks to my husband giving me splits and telling me to catch up I picked up my pace. Very quickly I started getting closer and closer but miles disappeared way too quickly. I had only maybe 2 miles to go and was trying to get back into the game having some pretty good speed. When I come out into the open for the final series of switchbacks I could see the 3rd and 4th in front of me just few turns ahead. There was not enough time for me however to make up this gap unfortunately.
I could wish for an extra two miles and girls would be mine; but the race was over and I saw them approaching the finish while they were completely within my reach. Frustrating experience for sure, but also a learning lesson of sort… I can only reflect on what went wrong, hope to learn from it and hopefully come out even stronger for my next battle. If two broken arms didn’t stop me before, I don’t think one weak finish will also. So the game is still on.
And
we are back to racing after an awesome trip to Maui. I missed only two races
but for some reasons when checking in at registration I realized I forgot my
racing number! Really, it was not that long time ago! Either way I am happy to
be back and challenge a crazy trail system of Florida. I never raced in Loyce H
Park before and heard some stories about the Fingers trail. I figured it will
be fun, not really too scary and was looking forward exploring a new place. When
I went on the pre-ride with my husband Pax I quickly realized that there was
definitely lots of truth to what people said and more. Some sections were hair rising
scary especially when you are riding them for the first time! You bike on the
high and supper skinny mound where you have sometimes a whole foot of path to
ride on, roots, drops, tight technical and bumpy descents, almost impossible
climbs, roof top like ramps and all of it with having drop offs to the water on
both sides! I got my adrenaline rush there and it was funny to hear some people
saying that they will never race there again. We all know they will! With more
practice the course becomes more familiar and manageable but there was still no
place for any mistakes. And this is the tough part when you are with a bunch of
fast riders all over the place, your heart is beating like crazy, you are
panting like a mad dog, you are getting more fatigued with each passing minute
and still going full speed. Oh the good times. That’s why I think we love it. I
think all of us bikers have this never ending need for adventure, challenge,
exploration, self-proof and self-punishment and we need this adrenaline rush
that fills our bodies when we race.
We
stood today on the start line 10 ladies strong. When the gun went off I was in
the lead which quickly diminished with Jane passing me before going into single
track. This girl just loves to lead on the first lap. After a while I was in 4th
having in front of me now also Kathy and Melibe.I had to work my way up slowly and keep
making my progress toward the leaders.I
made a great pass on one of the girls on the steep concrete climb where girls
got stuck on the top. This saved me some needed seconds and I was closer now to
the leaders. All the technical sections went almost without any incident during
this race. I went a few times back and forth with Jane and June who managed to
squeeze right before me to very tight and technical single track. There was nowhere
to pass but both of them had actually great speed and it didn’t affect me in
any way.Until I had the “men’s leader
freight train” passing through when the 3 fastest men were trying to get into an
impossibly skinny trail on the uphill at the same time as I was… Two managed to
go by with me slamming on my brakes with third one being too far behind and
just bringing everything to the halt when we both got stuck wheel to wheel on
the canyon like uphill with place only for one bike. I did let him go and had
to run up two sections that I could easily bike.June was right behind me stuck in this mess.
Than I had to bike a roof top ramp with only one foot clipped in and almost no
speed. Shortly I had fourth guy catching up and also wanting to pass. I had to
find space and time it properly to let him go so his race is not being affected
to greatly.
Little Air :)
I
blame it on a very bad timing and I could only hope all those passes took place
on the vast straight ways that we had in between those grainy trails.
Some
time got lost there but this is all part of the game also. I found myself
falling behind leading Kathy for over a minute being in the 2nd
position, when I still had June in 3rd right on my wheel and rest of
the girls right behind her. I felt like I was going fast, but obviously I was
more fatigued than usual. Was it still the past Xterra race that still kept my
body not completely recovered or maybe too much of the riding day prior to the
race when I had trouble backing off my excitement for those crazy trails here?
One
way or the other my lap times went slightly slower and slower with each passing
lap which is very unlike me. Long part of the course toward the end of the lap
where you are all in the open against strong head wind didn’t help the
situation and just added to the misery. On the final lap when coming out of the
forest I knew June was right behind me but I still could not see her in the
windy section which made me believe my position was safe to the finish. The
leader however was so far ahead today that I would have to have a completely
different race to be in contention.
My
final reflection from the race is very positive however even though I didn’t
snag the win.
I
like this park a lot for its challenging terrain and I’m glad I had an
opportunity to race here. I enjoyed a truly great getaway weekend with my
husband Pax and fun time with my Big Wheel Team mates on and off the trail.
I
loved the competition from all the amazing girls racing in my class.What is more incredible that our finishing
times were so unbelievably close that medals were presented for top 5 instead
of top 3 riders which I found being a great call. Everyone deserved a medal
today the race was so close and tough!
And
the icing of the cake was David the race director announcing my 9th
place finish in the Xterra World Championship in Maui while I was taking my
podium stand.It added some happy
coziness to the whole experience…
Total Time 3:46:35
9th out of 32 in my Age Group and 4th in US Age Group.
Not Bad for my first year of doing Xterra :)
Place Name Swim Bike Run Overall
9 Beata Wronska #804 33:42 02:13:00 00:59:53 3:46:35
Xterra 2012 World Championship Highlights
I would like to Thank everyone that followed me and cheered for me on during my amazing adventure. Also huge Thanks to all my sponsors that helped me with making my dreams come true.
I had an incredible race and everything went as planned. I consider 9th place in the world in my group as a great start! I'm sore but already hungry for more.
Weather was awesome, besides the tsunami that was coming our way the night before the race! When we got back to the beautiful Kapalua villa from the nice Night of Champions dinner to our complete surprise we heard the news about an earthquake in Canada.
I was supposed to get to bed early to be rested for the morning race and unfortunately I found myself sitting in front of the TV and not knowing if what I’m seeing is real. The newscaster said we had less than two hours to evacuate and a 6 foot tall tsunami wave was heading directly at us at 600 mph speeds. Everything went through my head that night. It was pitch black outside and I could only see the ocean outline and a siren out of a helicopter. I imagined this huge tidal wave coming straight to us, over the beautiful cliff we were on and just washing the villas away. I could not believe it. They said no one will be allowed to step to the ocean for weeks because of the disturbance and possible strong rip currents. OMG, but we are supposed to have the World Championships race tomorrow that I qualified, trained for, went to and now race might be cancelled? Race without swim? No race? There were a million things and scenarios that I created. I felt like I was in a dream. I did not panic I just could not believe it. We watched people already stuck in traffic evacuating from other parts of the island. My husband walked over and spoke to the neighbors in the villa next door and he was told that wave would have to be some 50 feet tall or more to affect us in any way. Apparently we were on a 80 foot tall cliff and were safe. It didn’t feel safe to me but we decided finally to go to bed still not knowing if we were racing in the morning.
When I woke up I thought to myself how destroyed the DT Fleming beach will be and that debris will be up to the transition area. We will be doing a duathlon and all my swim training will go into nowhere. I was concerned of the swim but at the same time I wanted to test myself. Later this morning Xterra crew announced that the race surprisingly will go on and that all the warnings had been lifted. Apparently nothing happened and we didn’t get a tsunami. Oh yeah. I had my breakfast and headed on my bike to the transition.
I got set up and went to the end (oh where is the end!) of the body marking line of some 200 races at least. I was there so long that when I was done I think 15 minutes was left to the race start. Oh shoot, I still didn’t eat my gel, warm up in the water and put this chafing cream on! I ran as fast as I could to do what I had to do as quickly as possible and jumped to the water. I think they already wanted all of us out but I really needed to get the feel for it.
Ocean was definetly not calm today but also not super angry as in the previous days. There were still some big swells on the water and it got very choppy all the way to the buoys. Even though it was not so bad but still it was the roughest swim I did so far in my life. Right before approaching the first buoy I saw a sea turtle below me and then the camera man! That cheered me up a little. It was a very long swim and I know I could have done better, but at the same time I'm glad I got back to the shore safe. I took my turns wide to avoid water traffic, this did good and bad for me since people close to the buoy instead of turning total 180 they were swimming on some weird diagonal angle and pretty much crossing and swimming over me and my lines. Considering the current in the ocean and bad direction from my co-racers I drifted twice too far to the right making my swim longer than it should be. My choice was to be swum over and suffer or get away and be by myself but swim peacefully. I chose the latter. Thankfully I didn’t get thrown out from the ocean by the shore break as some people did and I headed for a long run to transition. My vision stayed clear Thanks to Speedsocket from Speedo.
My transitions were too long. I really need to work on them! Finally after trying a few times to stand straight on one leg and trying to put my socks and shoes on I was successful and headed up and up to the mounting line.
Bike ride felt not as brutal thanks to the north winds and some cloud cover that we were lucky to have that day. All the climbing was tough however and there were tons of people on the single track leading to the higher mountains. Exactly on the parts of the course that I felt confident I could ride fast.
My bike ride right from the transition started pretty much this way with me announcing: “Passing on your left”, “on your right”, “left”, “right”, “thank you”, “can we go any faster?”, “why nobody is biking!?”, “pedal pedal!”, “please don’t stop now”, “will be passing on your left”, “thx”, “have a great ride!” Yes, all this talk is part of Xterra too. I had to convince a whole row of riders “walkers” walking the pine forest to move to the side and allow people that are still on their bikes to bike up the hill. It worked! I was pretty tired I must say but I managed to handle all the ups, pass tons of people, master the technical parts of the single track and what’s best to Bomb the descends at 30.2 mph that I reached on the “dusty hill” that was leading us toward the ocean below.
I was so proud flying down this red dirt path so fast and just wanted my husband to be there with me so he can witness it himself. I handled great all the technical parts of the course, especially when there was no one there to stop me from doing what I know how to do best, bike.
I was thankful for not getting a mechanical on those long 2 hours of riding. On the hike a bike climb I noticed my Floridian friend Melissa right in front of me walking her bike up. After a while I was able to catch up to her and make a pass on the wide dirt road that was still taking us up and up on mile 15. I was able to finish strong and stay ahead for the remaining miles. Final two technical miles were fun. I found no problems with them even with running quite slick tires for such loose and sandy conditions.
Finally I reached the transition and got ready for my run. Grabbed my belt and took off. Run course took us however straight up and I did find out quickly that it was not going to be as I imagined. Simply in the first quarter of the mile my legs started to give up, they didn't want to cooperate at all. They felt heavy and didn’t like the steep angle. This steep angle and constant up just didn’t feel natural to my body, especially coming from flat Florida. It was tough, very tough. A minute didn’t pass and my Floridian friend just jetted by me and little later some girl from my age group. “Oh my” I wondered if everyone that I just passed on the bike was going to pass me now back. It was not pretty. I had to implement the walk and jog scenario to keep moving forward. However to my surprise on the second mile brought me also a second wind and some relief and I was able to find my pace finally and start running. I felt better now and it was more like what I had in mind. It was painful on the ups, some little fast descents and up again but I did handle it fine. On the 3rd mile half way through the steep hill I was with my friend Melissa once again. This time she was walking up slow and steady. This girl is made of steel, but I kept moving up and was able to make a pass. After that I reached the lake and had one more climb before reaching the top and starting to head straight down. After this point I knew that it was a matter of staying safe and going as fast as you can at the same time. The run down was very challenging but also super fun! I flew once again through the technical parts and was happy to see that actually I was passing people again and making ground. It got tough again and hot on the last two miles however and I was just hoping not to pass out.
On the final climb of the road crossing I noticed a girl from my group right in front of me. I had to have her now. I picked up my speed and parked on her heels for a smooth, fast run on the edge of the red mountain that was leading us to the beach below. On the turn I made my pass and went even faster. This way or another no matter how fast I run I kept hearing super-fast steps right behind me. I figured this girl really wanted this spot so badly, she will fight for it to the end. I wondered how long I will be able to go at this pace! But I didn’t want to give it away. We passed cactus alley and the final road crossing and were about to jump to the gully when I looked back and there was actually some other girl behind me not the one I was worried about.
Now all I had left is to do the final beach stretch.
Reaching the beach finally seemed to be relieving but also it was so hard to get through. People were yelling, “great job”, “you are almost there”, “keep pushing”. My legs stayed strong Thanks to KT Tape.
On the approach to the finish line all the emotions started getting to me and it was a moment I will never forget. All this hard work, all the training, hurting, dreaming and planning came to this one moment. Tears started just pouring from my face. I could not stop, it was so emotional. I waited for this moment for so long…I accomplished something that I wanted so badly with all my heart. I still have tears now writing about it. I don’t even know anymore when the beautiful lei flowers were put over my head and one of the volunteers just rapped me in this nice and cold and wet towel, held me on her shoulder while I was crying away for a long time…
I had my husband, family and amazing team mates waiting for me on the finish line. My friend Jen who finished just before me, just picked me up, and spun me some 100 times in the circle and we both just laughed and cried for a long while…
Me and Jen
Volunteer consoling me
Me, Melissa and Jen (MTB girls from Florida)
Also Xterra Style - Must Watch !!!
After the race in front of our villa.
My husband and I after the race on the day we go back home.
Me at the shores of Napili
Pictures from the bike course and my Garmin of the Bike course.
Wow. I just got back to the condo on the cliff after amazing Night of Champions Dinner for 17th Xterra World Championship and we put TV on and found out there was an earth quake in Canada at 7.7 Richter scale and Tsunami is coming our way!
We are on the North East site of Maui, we have less than two hours to Tsunami to reach us, there are expected 6 feet of few hours long surges.
And I was just worrying about my race and my swim in the morning tomorrow and now we got Tsunami and we are stuck on the eadge of the water on the little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Race is almost here. Maui is beautiful. Mountain biking and run trails however are hot and brutal. 5000 feet of elevation gain on the bike and run combined to just preview the course takes toll on the body. I stayed very calm and very relaxed for most of the week until last night. Now nerves started to kick in and the mind can only wonder if everything was done right. All previous days it was very calm and sunny here, today however we are getting very strong east winds and water become just as angry as it can be. We swam today in monster waves, the force of rip current is just unbelievable but what is worst is the shore break wave that comes in to the beach and crashes with full force. I happened to be caught in one of them; it pulled me in and took me for a "washing machine" ride which I never experienced before in my life. While in the wave my body started turning, water picked me up, turned me up side down and kept spinning, all I could see is sand everywhere and I kept tumbling a few feet above the ground. I did somersaults while inside and a wave crushed me on my back, picked me back up and kept spinning, when it spit me up somehow I happened to stand back on my feet. I did a complete 360 degree turn with a hard fall and thankfully nothing happened. After that we took some breather and took a closer look how the waves behave. We decided to swim some more and experienced just amazing waves charging at us feeling like they were some 10 feet tall. It gave us the perspective how powerful forces of nature are.
