After having a wonderful weekend of racing with the pirate girls in Duisburg I was on my way to rounds 3 and 4 of the XTERRA Europe series in the Czech Republic and Germany.
The first weekend of racing was the XTERRA Czech race. The course was wonderful, but the weather was a bit wet. Plus, the water for the swim was the coldest I had ever swam in! There was a mixture of rain and sunshine on race day and I had a good race and ended up finishing 7th, good enough to move up to 5th in the series. Here I am thankfully saying good-bye to the cold water we had to swim in.
The next race was only an hour or two away in Germany, but I had to travel back to Hamburg to take care of some things at work. I managed to see a lot of Dresden over the course of the two weeks because that was my base for train transportation. I really liked the different architecture in the area and it was wonderful to see another part of Germany.
XTERRA Germany doubled as the European Championship and the German Championship, so there were a lot of good athletes there. I arrived the day before the race, and was greeted with some rain showers that made it difficult to pre-ride the course. Also, this race was unique because the run and bike courses were both one large loop which made it really neat to race on because we covered more distance and I was able to see more of the area.
The weather on race day was wonderful, with warm sunny weather and the water temperature was even warm enough to require a non-wetsuit swim. I finished in 8th place, and I am still holding on to my 5th place ranking in the series, with one more race in September to end the series. Now I am off to the Single Speed World Championships in Ireland this weekend!
Heather Holmes
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Pirate 
