Anthony Fagundes and Erika Aklufi won XTERRA Malibu Creek 22K Trail Run on May 20^th on a very hot day in southern California.

“I started the race out faster than I did last year in the hopes of improving my time, but the sun and heat hit me pretty hard. I’m not acclimated yet, he said.”

Fagundes believes that XTERRA Malibu Creek is the most difficult trail run of the SoCal racing series.

“Bulldog Hill climbs from mile two all the way to mile six, gaining almost 1800 feet in the process,” he said. “Once you get to the top of that climb, there are three more little peaks to summit, a steep downhill, and then another small climb to the finish.”

Still, despite adverse conditions, Fagundes ran the exact time he ran last year down to the second, becoming the XTERRA Malibu Creek Trail Run Champ in 1:32:35.

“I’m pretty happy, considering how hot it was, and the fact that I ran a 25K last weekend and broke my own course record by four minutes.”

Fagundes says his training is going well. As a bike messenger, he is riding about 100 miles a week and is running 60 miles a week, on average.

“I’ve somehow been getting faster since college,” he said. “I always surprise myself now because in college, I never thought I had much speed. Everyone else on the team was faster than me.”

Fagundes is running his sixty miles in a combination of just two trail runs a week and a race. For the summer, he will do the Santa Cruz Wharf to Wharf, the XTERRA Trail Run National Championship, and the XTERRA Trail Run World Championship.

“I’m taking advantage of the heat and humidity to get myself ready for running in warmer climates,” he said, referring to the tropical conditions of the XTERRA Worlds in Oahu in December. “I look forward to racing Joe Gray. He’s an incredible runner. Just looking at the times he is putting up this year on the track and knowing his background as a mountain runner makes him all the more amazing. I hope I can hang with him at Worlds

View complete results for XTERRA Malibu Creek Trail Run at www.gemininext.com. 

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