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.