Big Sky Du Stormy Weather

Last race day before Roth. 15 days to go so just some intensity without the high volume. At least that was the plan. My clocks seem to move really fast. Before ! knew it it was time to head out. ! was still getting dressed and the car wasn’t loaded yet. On the road late so ! missed the mousetrap exit. All the way up to 58th to turn around and come back to I-70. Bennett or bust. Unloading my bike ! pinched the tires. A little soft. The rear wouldn’t hold air. Each stroke of the pump hissed out the side. With no spares but the one in my saddle bag ! had to patch it. Those tires were looking worn. Good thing this is their last ride. ! set up transition and got my bag of stuff. Just enough time to take a short warm-up run and pee. “GO” ! was off and doing a good pace. 6:42 for the first mile. ! meant good for me. ! kept pushing. 7:13 avg. for the first run of 2.4 miles. Great so far. Onto the bike and ! was moving……for ½ a mile. My quad was cramping. ! slowed the pace and tried to stretch it out while pedaling one-legged. Not much better. By 1.5 miles ! had to stop and stretch. A little better until ! got back on. ! pushed it easy for another mile and pulled over again. !’m supposedly ready for an ironman so ! can’t fall apart in a 20 mile race. Off again. It still hurt. ! was doing 13 mph on the flats. Old people were passing me on hybrids and mountain bikes. The thought of going over an hour on a 40 minute ride was almost as painful as the cramp. ! pushed a little harder. It really hurt. ! backed off and little girls passed me. ! pushed harder. Sunny Gilbert had gone by the other way a long time ago. Tanner was a few minutes behind her. Where was Jocelyn. ! was nearly to the turnaround when ! saw her. She had taken some bad advice and left her saddlebag in transition. It was big and dorky looking. So she flatted. One of the best ways to prevent flats is to have stuff to fix it. In a field as strong as the Elite women on a race that short flatting puts you in last place. She had saved enough time by not carrying all that dead weight to have moved up a spot to next to last. ! was still crawling along. It felt like a head wind on the way out. ! was looking forward to the push on the way back and hoping the leg would have worked itself out by then. ! had slammed all my Gatorade trying to get electrolytes. My glute was starting to cramp a bit too. Darrin is such a bastard. That turnaround is always at the bottom of a hill. ! hit the climb pretty hard. It really hurt. Over the crest and ! found the wind. In my face. There was no more time to wait out the pain. ! had to push through it. If it subsided that would be great. After a bit ! was down in the aero bars doing 25. That’s when it happened. My rim was bouncing on the pavement. Flat. Did ! mention this day was sucking? New tube in. Pumped up. Both calves locked when ! stood up. Off ! went again. ! managed to hit 28mph when a farm truck passed me. He got stuck behind some of the slow pokes going almost 20mph. ! was going to pass, but there was oncoming traffic so ! grabbed the brakes and went slow for a while. Finally back up to speed and not hurting as bad. ! soft pedaled into T2. Almost a full stop to dismount. ! was concerned that my leg would collapse if ! dismounted at speed.

T2 was tough. ! wasn’t sure how the run would go. ! was going to finish for sure, but when. The really fast guys had done the whole race in less time than ! was on the bike. Tanner and Jocelyn were done. Seth and Al were done. Steve Lynn was probably done too. ! pushed it out onto the run course. The first lap wasn’t as painful as ! had feared. ! was hoping to run the whole thing. Then it got worse. ¾ miles to go ! had to stop and stretch. Limping now. ! tried jogging some and walking. Slowly through the aid station. Just around the corner ! decided ! was going to run the rest of the way. It was only about 4 blocks and it hurt. Across the finish line ! started hunting for Steve Lynn, the world’s greatest massage therapist. He’s not as nice as he seems. Every time he’d stretch that spasm !’d howl in agony and he would cackle with glee. He told me to avoid sugar so he ate my 3 cookies. In hindsight ! question that. ! think he just didn’t want to go get his own cookies. Getting into the car hurt even.

Just my bike time would have put me 24th overall. Add 2 slow runs and 2 transitions and ! was 256th of 268.
Kathy Alfino won her age group.
So did big Al Marvin.
Tanner and ! both placed the same in our categories. Last. Tanner was Elite.

RMTC Rocks E-Rock

RMTC Rocks E Rock

6:30 came. The gang assembled. A photographer approached wanting our picture. Mostly she just wanted a picture of Jeff Carroll who was making her tingle even from afar. ! flexed my quads for her. Off we went into the wilds of Castle Rock where none but the 7,000 participants dared to tread. ! had checked the weather the night before. It’s really true. Based on a 6 hour ride the wind was going to shift around to be head on the whole time. It didn’t just feel like it. For a ride that is all downhill there sure was a lot of climbing. 6,857 feet. Three miles in and Jeff Carroll tired of my babbling and rode off. Everyone else was way ahead. Except for Dr. John who had to wait until 7am to avoid finishing before the sun came up.

! had plenty of fluids with me. Four bottles and a full bladder. Every stop was a pee break. At pit stop number two ! found Charley pacing like an expectant father. Hub broken, his ride was over. A wild dust cloud was growing up the road. Just ahead of it police motorcycles redlined. Engines screaming. Sirens wailing. The crowds parted and then it was still again. Dr. John had just passed. The pink bike would come along later.

On the road again ! entered the Black Forest. Rolling hills. The water weight was slowing me down. On the flats and descents ! stayed in the aero bars. Then ! saw them. Three members of the Courtesy Patrol. The small cutey was dragging the two guys along. They passed me and she dropped back beside me. She was nearly as sexy as ! am. Still she couldn’t tell me which fork to use first or answer some of my most basic courtesy questions. Perhaps some day !’ll learn how to get along in polite society. Until then ! shall remain sequestered in my fortress. By now ! was way off the back. ! was blowing by ordinary riders, but our crew was long gone. Did ! mention the Courtesy Patrol tried to beat me up? ! had a full bladder. They had nice shoes. They backed down.

Onward rolled ! toward Roller Coaster Road. You really have to hammer the downhills to get enough momentum to carry you through the loop-de-loops. Did you see the Chik fil-a cows standing up leaning on the fence? Turning onto County Line Road the 50 milers joined us. We headed west. The wind headed east. Of course. The descents that we lost altitude on went by fast. The descents that we gained altitude on went dreadfully slow. At some point (! think it was about ¾ of the way) ! hit 75 miles. That’s when ! realized how fortunate ! was to be doing the whole ride instead of the 50 mile ride. ! had a mere 25% of my ride left and they were only half done. Five miles later they still had 40% to go while ! only had 20% left. Poor kids. ! felt bad for them.

Perry Park road was fast. A tandem could get by me on the steeps. They were dragging along a few solo riders because that’s what tandems do. Then they were nearly out climbing them as ! went away. Frontage road was the final 6 miles or so and once again into the wind. Still it was fast, but it hurt. After 90 miles a long straight flat with no scenery is tough. Into the wind you realize that a century is mostly in your head. Keep turning the pedals. Keep the speed up. Stay focused. Ignore the discomfort.

Dr. John was hanging out with Matt at the Rocky Mountain Sports tent. He prescribed lying on the grass with feet up on a chair. There were probably at least 15 of us out there. Most everyone had gone home by the time ! finished. Though Jeff Carroll longs to be my nemesis, he has much to learn. A true nemesis wouldn’t need to ask how ! got three cookies while everyone else got one. He would have had seven. One day grasshopper. When your cynicism has deepened beyond what you can now imagine ! will introduce you to my arch-nemesis. Only then will be able to understand his teachings and fully devote yourself to treachery. One day.

So ! stayed mostly in the Denny prescribed range of 130-143 beats per minute for 5:44:36. Not really hard, but a good pace for 102.7 miles. Average speed 17.8 and Max speed 42.4mph.