I decided to take advantage of the generous offer from the promoters of a discount on this years entry after last years insane race. I of course was nervous and apprehensive as I think most were that attended the inaugural race. I thought, no way could that happen 2 years in a row. I signed up and hoped for the best. The few weeks leading up to the race I checked the weather, checked it again, then checked it again. Hoping for the best. It was looking iffy but, we were committed to going down. Hannah was pumped to finally get a vacation. She's 5, life is pretty stressful at 5 so she needed a break.
Friday's weather was great. Sunny, warm and in the 70's. Saturdays forecast looked to be pretty good until about 2 or 3. It looked like I might have a little rain towards the end or hopefully it holds off. Well, it held off. The weather was almost perfect. There was a little bit of a strong breeze on a few spots but for the most part it was great.
I started out pretty mellow. I felt good, never felt like I was going to hard. Finished the first section feeling good and moved on to Zen. Don't let that name fool you. Not much peaceful about this trail. Super technical, no rest on the ups or the downs. It tests you both physically and mentally. Slip up and you will be picking yourself up off the desert floor. Of course, there were a few sections I walked but I felt good about the trail and finished the first few sections faster than we had finished it the year previous by about 15 minutes. I was pretty happy to have Zen behind me. I rolled into the first aid station with Tyler Seamons, he was riding strong all day. He left the aid station a little in front of me and I didn't see him for a few hours. Banks and Tanner were behind but I figured they would catch up before long.
The climb out Stucki was decent. I paced it fairly slow up that climb and had some headwind, crosswind and tailwind. Tailwind was the best. I got to the top, stopped to stretch a bit and Tanner caught up. We started the decent together, I pulled away on the decent, finished the reaper lap, missed a turn and ran into Tyler who also missed the turn. We met up at the last aid station and Tanner caught back up. I scarfed a half a banana down and refilled some water and we headed off to the first of 2 laps on barrel roll. 2 laps was tough mentally. I felt like garbage on the first lap. Tyler dusted us on that first lap so me and Tanner kept each other company. Tanner was having an issue with his fork so, I lost him on the decent. The 2nd lap I felt much, much better. I felt as peppy as I could at that point. I didn't see Tanner again until the finish area. I finished the 2nd lap filled some water up and made my way towards the return wash. It took longer than I expected to get back into Green Valley, there was some headwind making my way back and I was tired and just wanted to finish. I made another wrong turn and had to backtrack just a bit. I felt like they could have used a few more trail markings but all in all it was pretty good.
I rolled into the finish area a little more than 6 1/2 hours. I was pretty happy. I didn't get sick, felt good for about 80% of the race. Rode strong, and finished with a smile. Lindy, Hannah and Lucy were all waiting for me at the finish. Great way to finish a good, long day on the bike. I will be back next year.
Tyler finished just before me, Tanner rolled in just after and Banks pulled the plug after Zen with some serious dizzy spells. Took him a few days to recover from some nasty illness. Don't worry Banks, I'm already in for next year.
Here are some photos I poached from the race.
Good times in the desert. It was good to see a lot of cycling pals that I never see all winter. It was also good to meet a few new ones. Worst part of the race was a little bit of a sore ass (to be expected) and two nasty big toes. I stubbed them while walking a few of the technical sections. The last one almost had me in tears. Going to lose that nail in about 6 months. Other than that, all good.
So, this year I took a different perspective for one of the hardest endurance races in the country. The Park City Point 2 Point. About 80 miles, 14,000 vertical with over 90% singletrack. One amazing day. I was a spectator. I finally decided that I didn't have the miles in my legs nor the mental capacity to suffer like I did last year. I puss'd out. But, I wanted to be a part of this great race. So, I threw an email out to the Draper crew to see how I could best be used. I landed on heading up to the TG water station to hand up some Otter pops, refill water bottles, pump up tires, tighten up pedal cleats etc. Basically whatever was needed with the exception of shammy cream. Thankfully I didn't have any requests for that.
This water station was at mile 37 or about half way into the day. Everyone that came through there had a smile on their face. Why shouldn't they? I mean, the worst part of the day was coming up. But still, all smiles. It was awesome to be there and help.
Otter Pop handups. Frozen sugary goodness.
After this I cruised over to PCMR. I told banks that I would ride the last section from PCMR to The Canyons. Banks and Gordon rolled into the aid station right around 3:30 just in time to make the cut off. Much like I did last year. They rested there for a few minutes then we started up Spiro. It started out with 3 of us. We caught up to J. Thomas about half way up and Lyna caught up behind us just about the turn off to MMT.
Heres J.Thomas and Banks grinding up Spiro
Banks cussing Spiro
Banks focused on the job at hand
Gordon at the Colony stop. He had just about had enough. Dude separated his shoulder months ago and still rides. Crazy mofo.
Ready to rip some downhill
1 more climb after this
Sun setting
The difference of riding this section fresh and riding it after 60 miles is staggering. I remembered crawling up Spiro last year. Walking at times. I remember dreading the MMT Re-route (which has been re-routed again this year, much better. Still rough as hell but much better). Last years re-route just about sent me over the edge. I remembered how emotional I was during this section, crawling, walking, front wheel going all over the place. I watched Brandon, Gordon, Justin and Lyna all suffer. They battled the demons that kept pulling their wheels every which way but straight. The amount of effort that went into each pedal stroke. The devotion, hard work, stubbornness, tenacity etc. It took it all. Just keep pedaling. Don't apologize to me because you have to walk for a minute. I don't care. I am just here to help any way I can. No apologies. I. dont. give. a. shit. We tredged on, they could smell the finish line. Hell, we could hear it. We reached the final climb, that punch in the balls. You can see the finish area, you can hear the music, you can almost smell the food. Then you turn right back up the mountain. Now, while we were on our way here the consensus was that we were going to walk this section. Do you think they walked? No, they didn't. Sure there were a few moments that we walked. I think this was one of the faster sections that we rode. The pedals kept turning. Determination was running at an all time high. Then, we caught Beth. We asked Beth how she was, she was worn down, beaten. No doubt she had spent the majority of the last 4 hours alone. Being alone is a dangerous thing. Your mind messes with you. Doubt creeps in. What am I doing, am I the only one out here? Did I pack my waterproof matches?
We passed Beth, told her she was getting close and that she was almost there. We stopped a few minutes later to re-group. Lyna caught up, not far behind was Beth. We waited. Beth rolled up, she was on the rivet. Then the rivet blew off. She broke down. Pure raw emotion. I have been there. I was there 1 year ago. She had the hardest day ever on a bike. As all of us. (well, not me but im telling the story) The PCPP is one of the hardest races in the entire country. The pure fact that you toe the line to start puts you in a class all its own. To finish? Well, there is not much that can compare to the feeling. We all supported Beth, told her it wasn't much more uphill and then its all downhill to the finish. We kept her close. By this time it was getting dark. We didn't care, we all wanted to roll into the finish area as a group. We took our time coming down the last decent, regrouped a few times along the way. We rolled onto the pavement, regrouped and made our way to the finish area. As we rolled into the finish area the crowd went crazy. Deep anticipation of our arrival had been building for the last hour. Brandon, Gordon, and Justins wife and kids were all waiting for them with bated breath. The crew from Draper, Riessen, Bright, Tyler who all had awesome races and finished stronger than last year were all waiting. Bob, Lyna's husband was waiting, gave her a big hug and a kiss. Camera's were flickering, crowd cheering it was amazing. Beth let it all out there on the trail. She gave us all hugs. I think she will look back and think, damn that was awesome that I finished!
I was pretty pumped just to be a part of this race in any way I could. I was even more pumped that it turned into an Epic day. Not necessarily an Epic day in terms of miles that I had ridden, but Epic in the sense of the experience.
Different perspective, same result. I crossed the finish line with an amazing group of people. I was elated and felt amazing. So, here's a tip, just pick a group, ride the last 22 miles and you will be touched. No need to suffer all day.
Truthfully though, there is a deep sense of satisfaction when you cross something like that off the list. Well done riders, and thank you for the experience.
As Phil Ligget said in a previous stage of this years Tour de France about French rider Thomas Voeckler, "he's digging deep in his suitcase of courage right now". This quote rang home for me. I love how Voeckler races. He puts it all on the line, everyday. He rides hard until he cant anymore. I need to take a page out of Voecklers book.
Anyways, its been over a week since the PC50 race so I figured I better get a little report up. It was a shitty race for me. End of story.
Ok, I started out pretty easy but, on this course easy was not really a walk in the park. The first half of the race held about 6000 vert with another 2000 in the last half. Survive the first half and your golden.
I was in a group with Banks, Bright, JThomas, and others for the first 10 miles or so. I watched Banks and DT ride away from me shortly after the aid station at mile 8. Bright caught me around mile 15 as I was pulled over for a rest. Day was not starting out how I envisioned it. I was in for a long sufferfest. Can't put my finger on it. I had a decent breakfast, had CR half evil at half strength in my camelback and a bottle of water. I had eaten 3 GU's and a honey stinger waffle in the first 3 hours or so and after that, I just couldn't take anything in. Stomach was angry. I crawled my way to the 23 mile aid station, took a rest, drank a coke and some water. Refilled my camelback with regular CR tasted it and whoa, it wasn't going to fly, not today. I dumped it and filled it up with water. I figured I would go as long as I could. I thought it wouldn't be long until I was seein stars since I wasn't able to take in any calories. I was pretty pissed to because I started the race and specifically said I am going to stay on top of calories. I started out pretty good but, somethin just wasn't sitting well.
My stomach quite cramping around mile 30ish. I tried to eat a bar and promptly spit it out. I decided water would be my sole source of fuel for the day. Yay me! MMT re-route is the devil. That trail nearly killed me last fall in P2P and it nearly did it again. If I wasn't able to pedal, I walked. I didn't give a shit. I was like the honey badger but less aggressive. I was too far into the sufferfest to NOT finish that fucker. I thought about it though. I wanted to. But, I didn't let the demons of self doubt overtake me. So, I got that goin for me.
I was finally rewarded with a long 7 mileish downhill all the way to the finish. Man, it was rippin. I wish I had more energy on that section because there was some sweet 1 track there. I think I am narrowing it down to the GU'S. I think I can handle those in moderation throughout the day but need to take in other things as well. I made the mistake of goin straight GU'S for the first half. Idiot. Next race will be done sans GU. If I need to stop to eat a nutroll or somethin, Im going to. Better than blowin up and riding with those stomach issues. Its just not fun. I enjoy the suffer but not like that.
Few observations:
The volunteers rocked! Bent over backwards for people. This has been well documented.
MMT Reroute is the devil.
There was a huge amount of moose shit on MMT Reroute. Like pile after pile. If it was chocolate I would think someone was leaving me a crumb trail.
Riding with no energy is not my idea of a good day
Mentally, I feel like I overcame a lot
No more GU
Having the crew from Suncrest all hanging around for my sorry ass at the finish was pretty damn awesome. Seriously, thanks. It meant alot.
Riding and suffering with strangers is way better than suffering alone.
Suffering alone is a very, very dark place.
600 calories is not enough for a 50 mile race
Dunking your head in ice cold run-off feels amazing. I did this no less than 4 times.
I think I had dug a hole with the training and not sleeping very well prior to the race. With a newborn at home, its tough to do it all. I think I was fatigued before I even lined up. Took me a week and a half to recover. I went out for a ride last week and just felt SLOW. No pop, just really, really tired. I put the bike away and tried to rest. I went out today and I am feeling much better. Sleep is good.
I hope to take alot away from this. Including riding like Thomas Voeckler. Dude just rides his ass off until he can't. Much respect. He's a badass. Hope he holds on for a podium spot this year.
Jdub kicked mean ass in this race. As did his better half Annie. She rocked her first endurance race after suffering a few mechanical mishaps. Banks, finished that mofo and got this monkey off his back. We all knew you could do it. You're riding strong this year. Excited to see you roll across the line at P2P. Bright rolled that mofo after hackin up a lung the week before and boozin it on the cruise the week before that. Bright, if you would stop makin out with strangers on the cruise ship, you wouldn't get sick. DT rocked it as well, even with those sticks he calls legs. Good shit man, you got any meat on you? Seriously, if I am ever stranded somewhere and have to resort to cannabalism, I don't want to be stranded with you. Seamons kicked some mean ass after his training this year has basically been a few rides and some runs on the streets of China. Im guessin here but, he has been in China more than Utah it seems.
If I left someone out, I am sorry. You kicked ass as well. Good job. Thats all for now.
Oh, no pictures, I swear I saw someone taking pictures on the trail. Apparently, I was hallucinating. Sorry, this was a long post.
Instead of the called for intervals today I opted for a TT of Clarks. I hate that climb. I have to say, there is no way I could have gone any faster. By the time I reached the little sign towards the top I thought I was going to kill over. I felt fast, well fast for me. My gps battery was dead so I had to rely on my strava app. I have tested it out and it seems to be pretty accurate. All in all, I was extremely happy with the results. I am also happy to report that I didn't go into Cardiac Arrest. I did however taste blood. I think a TT of Clarks is a good replacement for 5x3 minute intervals. Right? I was pleased with my result. I guess intervals do help.
Once I regained consciousness I rolled down Brocks to Canyon Hollow. Only saw a handful of riders out in the trail. I cruised up Ghost then came back down. On my way back to the EQ Center a squirrel darted out from the bushes and well, didn't quite make it across the trail before I rolled him or her. Heard a Squeek or a grunt. Oops, sorry bout that. Usually its a snake or a lizard that can't escape. First for me.
Im tryin to get a hall pass from Lindy as well as work to do the PC50 on July 9. Not sure if I can work that out or not. Im hopeful.
Our little addition is settling in nicely. She is an eater though! I guess thats good. She has been doing pretty well at night. She sleeps in pretty good chunks, only problem is when those chunks are is still unpredictable. I'll take it though. Hannah was up every few hours like clockwork.
I felt o.k. Im still shakin off this head cold. I am also about 9 lbs heavier too. Nice tail wind for most of it, some crosswinds, and one spot of a headwind. That part sucked.
Time was 22:16. about 30 seconds slower than my fastest time last year. I think that was in late June/ early July. So, I guess I feel ok about it. It hurt though, as it should.
Some days you're the hammer, some days you're the nail. Today was the latter. Not that I am the Hammer very often. Its actually a very, very rare day. But its been awhile since I was hammered like I was today. I knew within the first 5 minutes that todays ride was going to hurt. Then we rolled up on Rick and his superhuman strength and freshly shaved legs. Yep, I said it. Either the pace ticked up or someone let the air out of my tires. I struggled, my heart rate was higher than it should have been and to make matters worse, my garmin died so I had to rely on the blood coming out of my ears and my heart about to beat out of my chest to tell me that I was about to die.
This is what it felt like. Pedaling a fat ass around CC.
I hope its a long time until I feel like that again. I had no pop, felt tired and my HR was hi. Boo! The ride was still fun though even though I suffered.
Thanks guys, I needed a good ass whoopin. Time to get my shit together.
I am sure many of you have read several accounts of pain, suffering, delusions, possibly hallucinations, trimph, bitterness, what ifs, could haves and the overwhelming feeling of a phenominal accomplishment. I felt a little like this video clip. I signed up for this? Wow! You all know how I got into it and from previous posts have read about other failures. Well, I was looking at PCPP for some sort of redemption. Something to say my summer of riding was not a waste. Although, how could a summer of riding a bike be even close to waste? Impossible. Anyways, lets start out at the beginning.
We decided to stay overnight in PC so we wouldn't have to drive up in the morning for a 7 a.m start. This was nice. I got a better nights sleep than I did before Butte so I was already feeling much better. Ate a bagel with some peanut butter and honey and half a bar with some water and coffee. Rolled to the start area around 6:30 a.m and quickly found the rest of the crew. It was a bit chilly but not too cold. I really never felt cold once we got going. I "self sorted" to the 10+ hour finish time, mostly because I had miscounted and missed the 9-10 hour start. I self sorted on accident. Does that still count? Had I known what was to come, I would have self sorted more to the back of that group. The 12+ hour finish time. Oops, just gave it away. Round Valley was good, fast twisty singletrack, cool temps and good vibes. I found it comical watching people bust their ass to pass people only to get stuck behind 200 "other" riders, or better yet crash into a bush. Seriously, its a long day and I didnt feel that the energy required to pass people was worth burning. That said, I did pass people that I found going extremely slow. It had to be done. E.Bright went to pass some dude and the dude turned right into him knocking his bars out of alignment. Bright yelled some choice words as he rode away. I was glad to find out later that it wasnt anything major. Enough to piss you off though. We rolled through the first loop in just under an hour and we started the Skid Row climb. I felt pretty good over climb. There were still lots of riders around and passing was tough so we mostly just settled in. Passed a few people on the short downhill sections only to catch up to another "group" of riders. My stomach started feeling shitty about half way up the Deer Crest climb to Silver Lake. I can't really put my finger on it. I was staying fueled, had 2 gu's and a pack of honey stingers over 2 hours. Stayed hydrated but I just didnt feel good. I had good legs but my stomach was not good. I let some people pass and then got passed up by the rest of the guys in the hood. I rolled into Silver Lake wishing I was done. I painfully knew what was before me and it reminded me of hell. Not that I have been to hell but if you had mtn biking in hell, this trail would be there as well as a few others that we rode.
At the beginning of the race I decided to try out Brads new CR333 stuff in moderation. Meaning, instead of 3 scoops, I would use 2 and only utilize a few bottles throughout the race. Just as a way to get some extra calories in. Mistake. I tasted the stuff the night before. Sweet and tasty. First drink I took from the bottle at Silver Lake I thought it was going to come back up. I was doomed. Half Evil was pure evil on my stomach at the time. I dropped my camelback off so Lindy could refill it while we rode this shorter section and put the camelback back on as we headed out to the mother of all mothers loop. I could barely get 1/2 the bottle down and my stomach was growing angrier and angrier. I got into a good flow on the downhill of flagstaff loop. Thats such a good piece of onetrack.
I took a few minutes to gather myself at the 2nd stop. I had just arrived as the rest of the crew were heading out. I was able to drink some coke and some water and get some food in before heading out. Team Big Bear was good. TG was good. I got into a decent rythm put my head down and just pedaled. (man i missed headphones in this race). For some reason, TG started getting rough. Really rough. I started thinking man did I blow my shock and my fork at the same time? Nope, im just a pussy and the trail was kicking my ass! Then the fun began. Johns Trail. I spent the entire time on Johns Trail (felt like an eternity) thinking to myself who in their right mind would ride THIS trail when there is so much buttery smooth singletrack around. Seriously, who? What a god awful section. nuff said. Like gettin a wax, just rip it off so its done. Not that I have even been waxed, just sayin. I wanted nothing more than this section to be over. Alas, as soon as its over, you get to climb your ass back up to 9300 ft to shadow lake. It was hot, long and I thought I was going to die. That sums it up pretty well. There was walking, crying, contemplating and suffering. The voices in my head said stop. Turn around, you made a valiant effort. Your not going to make the cutoff. I kept going. I felt I could make the cutoff. And at this point, that was my immediate term goal. Get to the #3 aid station before they say, sorry try again next year dumb ass. That descent was ripping! I have no idea how I managed to hold on to my bars. Fastest descent of the day by far. I rolled into the aid station #3 at 3:30 an change. I made it. It was here that I found out the others were not too far ahead and that ERIK had been in the portopotty for the better part of an hour. YIKES! He emerged long enough to congratulate me for making it to the cutoff. I started asking around for Banks. He hadnt been through. I was puzzled. I mean, I know I was deeeeep in the pain cave but I would have noticed my good pal Banks if I had passed him. I had been chasing that group all damn day. Nothing. I asked a few of the other guys I came in with if they saw him, nope. Then he emerged from a different direction. SHIT! He overcooked a turn and got off course. I was bummed. I know this meant as much to him as it did to me. I felt a bit deflated. Don't worry Banks! I am 66.6% IN for next year. (never thought I would say that Saturday afternoon)
I somehow talked Riessen into tredging forward with me to the finish. I am not sure what the conversation was like. Probably like this. Riessen, I need someone to care for me if I dont make it. Your a Dr. and my best shot at survival. He probably said HTFU I'll kick your ass all over this section even if I have been pissing out my ass for the last hour. GREAT! I have company. This was huge because I was cooked from being solo for so long. No ipod meant the voices in my head were much louder than I wanted them to be.
Riessen and I started out that steep fireroad to connect with the Spiro Trail. Spiro was great, until it wasnt. It was nice to get into the shade and we had a good conversation going. Not the most enlightening conversation ever. We pretty much told each other about our dark moments and how shitty we were feeling. WHERES MY IPOD? Sorry Riessen, my inner monologue was already kicking my ass. We eventually just started talking about random stuff. If you have ever ridden with Riessen, you know how he talks and its so scientific and Dr. like. It sounded like this at the time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No offense Riessen. I normally like it when you talk. Because that means Im not talking. Man, Spiro seemed like it took forever. I have no idea how long it took us. 50 minutes maybe? an hour? Then the hell would begin. MMT Reroute. This trail has been well documented. While riding fresh, you can power through this section and its not that bad. While riding tired after 60 miles of technical, twisty, rooty, rocky onetrack this section felt like the devil was grabbing my tires. I walked a good part of this. I was drunk and it felt like I was staring at every rock TRYING to smack it with my tire. I just kept thinking, keep moving forward. If I have to walk, walk. If I cant ride, walk. Move forward. Neither one of us could eat or drink much of anything. We were both battling that feel good one minute, feel terrible the next. This was the enemy. We contemplated bailing at each and every road crossing, or dirt road that looked like it might take us into town. Nope, I am finishing this fucking race. If I have to walk, crawl or sit here in the bushes to take a crap and then keep going, Im going to finish. (I only had one trailside dookie. Sorry bout that) So, really long story here. I will try to sum it up. We endured, we were triumphant, atleast in my mind. Coming over the last hill, you could hear the bass thumping. I thought for sure the party would be over and everyone would be packing up. Site for sore eyes. We saw the forum. I started to cry again. Seriously, the emotions of the day were so messed up. We ripped the downhill the best we could. We were both exhausted mentally and physically. Rolled onto that asphalt and made our way to the finish stretch. I made a wrong turn and went to the left of the tape instead of the right. I didn't care. I heard the cheering, I felt the warmness of the fans bringin us home. It was such a good feeling. I was eladed to be done. I crossed the line with one of my good friends. I wouldn't have made it without his company over the last stretch. The nice lady asked me what size feet I had. At the time, I thought what a bizarre question. Then I remembered. OH! My socks! For some, that craving of food keeps them going to the finish. For me, it was the socks, Lindy and Hannah waiting for me at the finish. Good stuff.
Suffer well? Hmm, I certainly suffered. Not sure if I suffered well. I finished. Thats all there is to it. My time estimation was clearly overestimated. I learned some stuff along the way. Overall, the experience was amazing. The vibe at this race was phenomenal. The trails, (most of them) volunteers, staff, marshals, mechanics, and most of all Lindy and the Draper Crew Girls. PHENOMINAL. We need to get them shirts for next year.
Thanks to all the crew from D-Town. The rides and company were all more than I could have asked for in a summer. Should we do it again next year? Maybe.
The badass award definately goes to BRIGHT. Riding the last 18 miles with a bike with no seat is hands down badass.
6 long months ago on February 14th I signed up for an endurance mtn bike race. Not just any race mind you, Park City Point 2 Point. This race, in its 2nd year sold out in under an hour for the solo category. In under 1 hour 200 other crazy bastards signed up for this race. I am almost positive that many of them have spent the last 6 months training, watching calories, studying maps and profiles, testing out foods and other things all leading up to this. The final countdown. It comes to this. The cold winter days skinning up mtns in the Wasatch Backcountry, trying to stay in shape throughout the long cold winter. The dark mornings of crawling out of bed just to ride your stationary trainer in a cold concrete prison room in the basement. The hours on the bike. The pain and suffering of training rides with people faster than you. The early wakeup calls throughout the summer to get some time on the bike before the rest of the world is awake. The time away from family. The support of Lindy. The cheering of Hannah, "umm, my daddy is beating you". The deep burning desire to NOT be the slowest guy in the group this year. It comes to this.
The Park City Point 2 Point race is by far the largest event I have ever entered into. It is known across the country by professional endurance mtn bike racers. There is envy from those that tried to get in but missed out. There is the shock and awe of those that think I and others are just plain crazy. To those I say, that might be so, but its just one of those things. As Dug said, Once your hooked, your hooked.
I have ridden nearly 1600 miles so far this year. There is still 2 months left of the season atleast. 1600 miles is nearly what my mom drives each quarter. My training has gone nearly to plan. I am looking forward to finishing the PCPP race with a smile on my face come late Saturday afternoon.
So, theres nothing left to do except Pedal Dammit, and Suffer Well. I also like what Dug had to say. Many other posts about PCPP showing up right now. Its all good stuff.
Picking up where we left off. A few weeks back while riding in Park CIty, my bike began making a weird creak noise. It would happen under pressure or riding in certain parts of the trail that a creak wouldn't normally happen. If that makes any sense. Probaby not but it was making noise. I couldn't pin point it to an exact spot except the rear hub area or somewhere in the rear. I got out my headlamp and started to investigate. Didn't really know what I was looking for but, I saw something that I was concerned about so I took it in to Revolution for a professional look. Worry confirmed, it was broke. I didnt know how to react. 2 weeks away from PCPP, what bike would I be riding. Not a good feeling. I tried not to freak out but my stomach was in knots. Matt (the cannondale rep) just happened to be on his way to the shop, so I hung out.
Broke, cant tell from the pic though
Matt came in and checked it out and immediately was on the phone to Cannondale. Awesome! Oh wait! Backordered until October! Shit! He said he would find me a bike to ride and thought maybe he would be able to track down a frame. Told me to call him later that night. He pulled a rabbit out of his hat and got me a new frame. Less than 5 days later, I have a new frame all built up and ready to roll.
Sweet brand new frame!
I took it out this morning on its maiden voyage and broke it in real good. I took a digger coming down Jacobs. Trail is pretty washed out in a few sections and rutted. Got caught with my pants down in a rut and wasn't able to pull it out. (no pun intended) Crashed into a huge sagebrush bush and some small oak trees. Broke my sunglasses and scratched me up pretty good. Pretty lucky actually, I was expecting it to be much worse at the speed I was going. Too bad nobody was with me. I am sure it was a spectacular crash to watch, only Lord of the Blue Dome witnessed.
On to the Queen Stage of the Tour Of Utah. I have been looking forward to this stage for a long time. I wasn't able to watch last year since I was crawling up LCC just before the pros came haulin ass through. I got to watch the finish but I really wanted to be lower in the Canyon where I could get close to the riders. It didn't disappoint! We arrived at Tanners Flat around 1:30 ish. We were able to get a great spot up towards the top before it bends right. We could see the whole straightaway. We got the chairs out and hung out for an hour or so and waited for the support cars to roll up. Once we say them we knew they were getting close. Plus I was following where they were on my phone via Twitter.
We went to the other side of the road since it was less crowded and everyone seemed to follow us. Dammit! We had a great view and we were near this guy.
This dude was pumped to be there!
He also came with a chick dressed like the Wendy's chick. Couldn't get a good pic of her though. Anyway, Tanners Flat came unglued when the riders started rolling through. I jumped right in and ran alongside the riders, screaming and yelling, ringing my bell. It was a blast! We saw Levi roll through and Burke, got some decent pictures. A few of the riders off the back asked for a push, I ran alongside them while pushing. They were all suffering. America's Toughest Stage race had taken its toll on everyone.
GO Levi GO!
Hannah started school back up on Tuesday. She was pretty pumped to go back to school. We will take advantage of that since it won't be too long before we are throwing cold water on her to wake her up!
Woke up this morning pretty sore. I went out for a easy mtn bike ride to see how my body felt. Felt decent on a bike. Rollin up to PC tomorrow to ride the last 2 sections of the PCPP course. Should be a good time.
Where to begin. Have you ever thought about something so much, pondered, planned, anxiously awaited only to have it all blow up in your face? Thats how I felt Saturday late afternoon. Last spring I reluctantly signed up for the Butte 100 endurance mountain bike race. The reluctant part came because there was not much information on the website about it. Brad (aka Carborocket) did this race last year and had nothing but good things to say. Even though it took him just over 12 hours to complete it and he has superhuman powers, I still thought it was something I could do. All the website had was a shitty map, an old profile and a vague description. I thought for sure more details would come and it would help me prepare for my first endurance event. Those things never came.
July 31 came pretty fast. I trained alot this year, stayed in decent shape through the winter and rode a fair amount in the early spring and started the season at a good weight. As July 31 came closer I became more and more nervous about what I was getting myself into. Everyone I talked to said, "didn't Carborocket do it in over 12 hours" "Its going to take you 16 hours!" Great. That was BEFORE we found out that this years race would be harder and longer. It took the winner almost an hour longer than the winner from last year. I'm not going to blame the course or anyone else for my failure. I was simply not prepared well enough either mentally or physically. More on this later. First a few pics of the best looking crew in all of mountain bike racing. They were awesome!
We rolled into Butte on Thursday and stopped at the shop, one of the owners is Levi's brother. You know Levi the pro racer NOT Levi Johnston. Picked up a map and I quickly looked for a total elevation gain. I added it up and it as over 22000! I think I crapped my pants right there. That cant be right. I dismissed it and tredged on. We got a map and headed out to scope out the start. Then we headed out to see the aid station 1. After that we found some food at Mckenzie River Pizza. It looked to be the safest of what was limited options in Butte. Unless you wanted fast food.
Friday we woke up and I went out for an easy spin for 45 minutes to shake out the legs after the drive. I felt good but my rear shock was not feeling right so I took it down to the shop and left it there for the day. They offered to do quick tunes on anyones bike that was doing the race so I took em up on it. Turns out the Utah Cannondale Rep Matt Ohran was up there for Tinker and actually did the race himself. I actually bought my bike from him so he did some work on it replaced some bushings and did some work on the BB. I felt much better after that. Bike was dialed. Everyone else started rolling in Friday afternoon. We gathered together that night for dinner at the above mentioned establishment. That place was packed. After dinner we headed over to the bike shop for the 8:00 pm racer meeting. I wanted to be in bed by then. Great. We listened to the description of the trails, the descriptions were not any better than what we had read previous to getting there and there was still no mileage to aid stations, no profile, nothin. We were going to attempt a dirty hundie with no real knowledge of the course except that the climbs are long and brutal and the descents can get real sketchy. Nice. May god be with us.
We rolled back to the Hotel that was only a few blocks away to find that our floor had been taken over by teenage girls that were in town for a softball tourney. My worst nightmare had come true. Giggling, door knocking, door slamming. You name it, it kept me up. I went to the store at 9:15 looking for ear plugs only to find the waxy kind. I really didn't like them. They muffled the noise a little but could not drown out the doors closing etc. I slept like shit. I think I only slept maybe 3-4 hours. Not a good way to start out with a 4:00 a.m wake-up call.
Alarm went off shortly after the wake-up call. I had to have an insurance plan. I brewed some coffee, gathered my stuff together and ate some cereal. Cereal that I would see later in the day.
Brad J drove us to the start so Lindy and Brads Girlfriend could roll into aid station 1 and not be in such a rush to get out the door. That worked out great because Lindy and Alisha got along great and became friends. All the support crew had a great time throughout the day.
So, off to the race report- Get comfortable.
6 a.m. Sun rising, a little cool. I felt good, felt confident for what was to come. I had trained hard and thought I had prepared mentally and physically for what I was about to do. And we're off! The race started with 1/4 mile of road that filtered into a dirt road and fed us into an ATV trail heading down. 80+ riders all grouped together made this first descent a bit sketchy. I saw multiple people go down in the loose sandy sections. All really good riders going down on a section of trail that would normally not be difficult but because of a large group and people going slower than they normally would go made things a bit interesting. This trail dumped us out onto a residential (montana style) dirt road. I saw 3 horses running in a field towards us, I thought they were going to jump the fence but they stopped abruptly. Then, within 3-4 minutes I heard this "clip clop" behind me and I thought it sounded like a mtn biker running with their biking shoes behind me. I thought damn they are fast. Just then, the 3 horses race by as if they wanted in on the action. It was crazy. I thought I was taking it easy on this flat section but my HR told me otherwise. Probably nerves. My HR always jumps at the beginning of a race. I tried to settle in and ride a good pace to get into a rhythm. To the first aid station was not a difficult part of the race but there were some short steep climbs that got my HR going and some long flat sections. I latched onto a paceline group with Banks and Seamons and this helped go much faster on the road section heading up to the Nez Perce trailhead. Nez Perce was the spot for aid station 1. I was feeling really good here and was excited to start the climb up Nez Perce. This climb is wooded, mystical, semi technical but all rideable singletrack. Nothing steep all middle-ring. This climb did seem to go on a ways. Once it topped out the descent was sweet. Twisty, turny, tight singletrack that was a blast to ride. If I had known more about the aid stations I would have gone past 2 and stopped at 3. Instead I stopped at 2 and skipped 3. Mistake. Between 2 and 3 was mostly downhill. 3-5 was mostly uphill and hot. The descent from 2-3 was sketchy. Steep, loose, rutted etc. I went down shortly after station 2. As did most of our group from Draper. I got a nice raspberry on my right butt cheek. Nothing too painful, I was just glad it didn't rip my new shorts. At station 3 is where the real hell started.
As we entered the station 3 I didn't stop. I should have. Its all uphill to station 4. Or it felt that way to me. And it was hot! This was by far the hottest part of the day. Totally exposed, hot, no wind, this is called Whisky Gulch. I wish I had some Whisky to put me out of my misery. My stomach was already acting up a bit and this made me nervous since we were only 35-40 miles in. I had hoped it would settle and allow me to eat some food. At station 4, I refilled my pack and thought we had about 10-12 miles to go for station 5. This is where our crew would be with a ice cold coke and some pretty smiling faces. This part took what seemed like FOREVER! Climbing, climbing, more climbing, just when you thought you might be close? Nope! More climbing! It kept going and going. Mile 50 ticked on by and the aid station was nowhere to be seen. We just kept climbing. We could hear the highway and even caught a few glimpses of it as if it were teasing us, messing with our heads. At this point, Banks, Seamons, Bright and I were all together for the most part. Mile 50 is where we thought the aid station would be but it turned out to be closer to mile 56 or 57. It was a complete mind f*&^! You could hear the highway, and you could see it at times. We were on this long dirt road that just kept winding up, up, up. Every corner you thought you would come across and the station would be there. I came to really hate those corners. We finally made it and I had the best Coke in my life. We stayed here for awhile, trying to regroup. My stomach was not feeling well. Nothing sounded good to eat at all. I ate a fair amount of watermelon, half a snickers bar and a coke. I felt much better after spending some time there. Alishas ice cold rags were a close 2nd to the Coke and Lindy's smiling and caring face. Not to mention she had her workout clothes on so they were tight and she looked hot.
This is where things got interesting. We just came up from the depths of hell, oh my lord was that hot. The skies were getting dark and looked promising that it was going to rain. The thought of a little rain was great since it would cool things down. Had no idea that rain in Montana meant torrential downpour with hail and hi winds. Just as we started the descent it started to rain. This meant we had to take it a little slower since we couldn't see so good and the hail was pelting us. The descent was shortlived. Quickly we started climbing again. Surprise! This was a really cool section of trail. Deep woods, singletrack and uphill. It kept going and going, uphill, just when you thought you were done, the trail would level out, you would click a few gears up and it would turn uphill again. This is where my stomach started really getting serious. As we climbed and climbed I couldn't take any food in. I would try and chew and chew and chew and as I would try to swallow I just couldnt do it. I ended up losing my breakfast on that long climb with switchback after switchback. Seriously it was a trail connected by switchbacks after switchback up, up, up through the woods. Admittedly this was a great section of singletrack. I only wish I felt better because it was perfect. Temp was great, trail was in great condition, I however was not. I felt great immediately after losin my lunch so I tried eating some food. Within 5 minutes of starting back up again the food made another appearance. I suffered to the top and started the descent, the descent was actually alot of fun. We rolled through the archery practice area and I thought I was hallucinating because I started seeing all these huge stuffed animals in the trees with targets on them. Then I remembered we were in the Archery. DUh! I was really disappointed because my legs felt good. I really couldnt push it and i felt weak but my legs didnt ache at that point like I thought they would. Maybe I had a nice break walking so much because some of the trail was straight up STEEP! Those boys in Montana don't eff around.
Finally reached aid station 6 and I did the math in my head and figured there was no way to make it to the time cut-off. I kept waiting to start feeling better and it just never came. In that condition, going as slow as I was, it would have been 16+hours to finish. I forgot my bearspray so this option was not on the table. I wrestled with the thoughts of continuing on or pulling the chute there. I decided I had suffered enough and pulled the rip cord. 71.62 miles. Mostly uphill (atleast thats what it seemed).
Results were posted and 34 out of 71 finished the 100. Less than half. Somehow it doesn't make me feel much better. Maybe a bit. But not much.
71.62 miles
10,317 elevation gain
Average HR-151
I have to take this as a learning experience. It was my first endurance race. Its really the only way to take it without wanting to sell my bike. Like the race organization, a few tweaks here and there and I will be set. I felt that I had the legs and am in good enough shape to complete an endurance event. I am looking forward to PCPP. I will finish that race even if I have to crawl across the finish line.
Lessons learned-
1-too much time spent at aid stations. This was partially my fault and partially the nature of this race. I had to find my bag, drop some carborocket in my camelback, pour some water in etc. Just took too much time. I may roll with bottles at PCPP.
2-Need to figure out fuel. Maybe eating something more often. I am able to take food in on training rides. Not sure if race pace just puts that much more pressure on my system that it starts to tweak on me. Any advice would be appreciated.
3-a cold wet rag is heaven on earth during a race. Oh my lord!
4-Coke tastes wonderful
5-Montana beat me down, but I am going to leave the door open to return someday.
6-Never underestimate the power of bug spray. Good hell those bugs were as relentless as the climbing.
So, this last Friday a few of us embarked on what people call the Gauntlet Supreme. Well, I am here to say that it is appropriately named. Jdub, Zeph and Evilbanks rolled out of the culdesac at 5:40 a.m. Yep, you read that correctly A.M. Sam and another dude named Karl joined us for to the summit of AF. For those of you not familiar with The Gauntlet Supreme it is basically hell. Although crazy mofos like Rick (not his real name) say "thats my favorite road ride". Crazy bastard. Anyways, here is a link to the Gauntlet Supreme. This link is a little different than what we ended up doing. Ours ended up being 112 miles and over 14,000 ft of vertical. The hardest day on the bike for me. I felt pretty good most of the day. My triple definately came into good use throughout the whole day. My knees would have never made it with a double. Call me what you want, I would rather ride my bike with a triple than not ride at all. Clear choice. We started out with AF to Tibble Res, continued up to the campsite. Cant remember the name. After that we kept going up to the Timpooneke Campground. (the site where the kid got mauled by the bear last year) after that we kept on going until we reached the summit. We hung out at the summit for a few minutes, none of us wanting to decend into hell (Cascade Springs) Zeph calls this climb BCS. Butt cheeks spread. Ya know, its ugly. Good term Zeph. Banks and I have never done the BCS Cascade Springs climb, so we didnt know what we were getting ourselves into. It was a bit windy as we decended down to the potty/water source. Jdub and Zeph flew down the road. I preferred to take it easy since I didn't know the road very well. And to be honest, I was not in a hurry to turn around and climb back up that beast. We all met back up at the bottom, replenished our bottles ate a little food and got going. I don't know if I was expecting worse or what, I felt pretty good coming up Cascade. I got into a good rythm and just pedaled. I kept thinking I was close to the top and it just kept going. There are 2 sections that really mess with you. One, you can see this big stretch of road before you its daunting. The second is just steep and painful. And it just keeps going. I am pretty sure there are some 12-14% sections on that climb. We met back up at the top and continued on down the Sundance side of AF. Thanks to Rick for the advice to ride Cascade early. We would have never ridden that if it was towards the end of the day. We refilled at Vivian Park and continued down the Provo River parkway trail to attack our next climb. Squaw Peak, this climb is not particularly long about 4.5 miles and not super steep but its steep enough that it makes you work. You can't really take this climb easy and recover at all. We could feel it getting hotter and I think I will speak for the whole group that while this climb was short it took its toll on us all. We took our time rolling back down and took it easy riding back up to Vivian Park where we took a break in the shade. Next up was South Fork. This is a short and pretty easy climb. usually. We were all getting fairly tired and we had a nice headwind and that made South Fork seem way harder than it actually is. We made it to the top and turned around back to Vivian Park. This is the time that Jdub noticed a little snack shack. We got some ice, mtn dew, snickers and Zeph and evilbanks each had a hotdog. I didnt dare so I settled for a snickers and some mtn dew. We all wanted to stop at that point and call it good. But, we would regret that decision so w tredged on. The first few miles to Sundance were BRUTAL. It was hot, and it was a slow mover. Jdub dropped me just before Sundance. I was so happy to find out that Sundance was 2 miles up and not 3 miles like we had originally thought. We hung out there and got a cold pepsi and a peanut butter and honey sandwich. We waited for Banks there but he sent me a text saying he was an animal and he was going to just keep going. He had some of Carborockets magic sauce. I need to get me some of that. We were in the homestretch. The 3-4 miles after Sundance I felt good. Then I hit the WALL! I was crawling. I was feeling pretty bad and knew I needed to get some food in me. I pulled over to pee and shoved some food in my mouth, got back on the bike and pedaled ever so slowly. Jdub and Zeph both dropped me long before so I was in for some lonely suffering. I crawled my way back to the Summit where they were waiting for me. I ate what was left of my sandwich and some gelblocks and started the windy decent down AF. The wind was ripping on our decent and that made it interesting. Crosswinds are not a bike riders friend. Things were sketchy. We got out of the canyon without incident and made our way to our last stop, Chevron. We shared a Coke, and got ourselves ready for the homestretch. Luckily the wind was still blowing from the south. This meant we would have the wind at our backs. Phew! Jdub dropped me again, he seemed to just get stronger as the day went on while I got weaker. That was a long ass day.
A few observations from the day.
1-overall I felt pretty good. I need to find some other ways for calories as bars and gels become nearly unbearable after 6 hours or so. Suggestions anyone?
2-riding that long with a few good fellas is waaaaay more fun than doing it solo. Seriously made the day go by alot faster.
3-Carborocket rules. I have mentioned this before but my issues were not from what I was drinking. It was from what I was NOT consuming.
4-Headwinds suck. Tailwinds after 105 miles are gods way of helping you along. I think God rides bikes.
5-I have come a long ways from last year.
6-Sam has ridden his bike 5 times and still can kick all our ass's.
7-riding bikes through swarms of bugs with sunscreen on your face and arms isnt cool. I spent the rest of the day pickin those bastards out of my arm hair.
8-Jdub and Zeph are animals on the downhills. Way beyond my comfort level.
9-Banks kicks mucho ass for just rollin on past Sundance. Im sure he flipped us all the bird as he rolled by. I am pretty sure he also yelled out "see ya at home bitches".
10-a creaky bike gets to be pretty annoying when you are deeeeeeeep in the pain cave.
11-I need to use more chamois cream on my butt. I applied liberally but used more on my junk. I coulda used a bit more on my butt.
12-While it was painful, it was a necessary training ride in preperation for Butte. I am glad we completed the Gauntlet Supreme Du Jour.
Sorry, I didnt have room for my camera. I was too worried I wouldn't have enough food.
