BR’s Endurance Experience
I have run a marathon. I have ridden about 10 century rides or so. I have raced for about 3 years. Early in 2011, my friend Dessa, endurance rider extraordinaire, suggested that I try a 100 mile Time Trial. Sure. Why not? Piece of cake!
Dessa and I grab a photo opp before hitting the road.
Calvin’s Challenge in Ohio was the name of the race in which we were going to partake We headed out for Ohio on the morning of April 29th. We missed the turn for highway 70. The missed turn cost us 60 miles..Btw…if you get to Litchfield on highway 55, you have missed the turn onto Highway 70. Both of us were also “pre-hydrating”. The missed turn along with the four or so potty stops that go along with pre-hydrating turned a six and a half hour trip into an eight hour journey. We got to our Ohio destination at about 6:30.
Just enough time to get in a round of openers before sundown. Just enough time to register by the 9 p.m. cut off…Just enough time to realize that I had to buy a FREAKIN MIRROR for my TT helmet…Just enough time to check in and let us get on our way to Kroger. Kroger was evidently the only place in town to buy beer.
Not sure what was scarier..Dess waiting in the car for me to buy beer or my trip into Kroger to buy beer. The checker obviously had a crack habit. Those around me in in line did too. I rounded up a couple of six backs of Amber Bock. Something from New Belgium was out of the question….malt liquor….and 40 oz bottles were the main options. Feeling lucky to score some Amber Bock, I settled up and headed for the car where I hoped that Dessa would still be and that she would still be alive. We high-tailed it out of that spinner-infested lot and headed for the border…Taco Bell…I am not a advocate of Taco Bell…but once you have been on a 7 hour car ride followed by an hour workout …followed by an hour or so of complying to course rules…followed by 20 minutes of searching for decent beer…even Taco Hell’s fresco steak burrito tastes like the best thing that you have eaten in years.
The next morning we woke up at 4:30 a.m. and headed for the course.
Dess had signed up for the 12 hour. This race was judged by how many times that you completed the 51 mile loop and then, after the that, how many miles of a seven mile course you completed.
At 7:30, the 12 hour folks took off. God love em!
The slacker 100 mile folks like myself didn’t take off until 8:45. I had duct taped my backbone to prevent it from becoming chaffed when I stuffed my Camelback under my skinsuit. I had a zippy bike and all of tt set up. I had that freakin mandatory mirror pointed so that I could see the clouds. I was feeling pretty tough.
We lined up and took off. I felt like a million dollars for the first two and a half hours. I was in the big ring. My power was 200 or so. My cadence was 80 or so. Bring it on!!!
Then I hit the second lap….The wind had picked up….I was beginning to cramp. I shifted to the little ring..Don’t tell anyone!.. I sucked in as much fluid as I could. I battled the headwind for about an hour in the shameful little ring..I tried to tuck into my aero bars for the headwind and then sit up and use my quads in the tail and cross winds. My hamstrings howled. I was no longer feeling like a rockstar.
I crossed the finish line at 5 hours and 13 minutes later. I stopped to talk to someone and went into an immediate full body cramp. It was like my whole body had a giant toothache. I laid down in the grass. It was about the only thing that I was capable of doing at that point. It was about 20 minutes or so before I was able to walk.
Dess, unlike my sorry ass self, kept on going and going and going….
12 hours later she had completed 229 miles !
Holy cats!
This was a very humbling experience.
I went into this race feeling pretty cocky because I was a bike racer and had completed a marathon.
What I learned is that I have a lot to learn in the world of endurance cycling.
Hail hail the endurance cyclist. You guys have my respect forever!
BR
Category: Big Ring
