Last year’s ERock was the first race of any kind I’d ever won so it was odd for me to be in the position of having other racers wanting to “beat” me. While I do prefer winning to not, I always set my goals for a race independent of other riders. I don’t want to feel like my goal is out-of-reach before the start if say, Kristin Armstrong decides to come out of retirement and try her legs at ultracycling. It’s important for me to have a goal that is both challenging and attainable. I need a target that can motivate me even if I’m out classed by the field or if no other riders show up. I’d finished 25 laps in 2009. My goal for this year was 29 laps…actually it was originally 27, then 28, then a few weeks before the race I thought I had an outside chance at getting 29.

The women’s field was much stronger this year than last. Six solo women started, as opposed to four in 2009. The sixth place woman rode one more lap than the second place woman in 2009. Optic Nerve sponsored XC rider, Kim Godfrey, finished second. Elizabeth Boese who’s started focusing on 12 and 24 hour MTB races and posting some good results, finished third. I was also impressed with the 4th place woman, who rode continuously for 24 hours with only short breaks, and finished her last lap during the last hour. I have great respect for someone with the inner will to get out there for one final lap when it makes no difference in the overall results. I’ve only managed it once in five 24-hour MTB races.

The race begins with a Le Mans start. That means running. If I could still run without hip pain I’d probably not be biking so much, and if I wanted to run with a bike I’d do cyclocross. I tried to line up out-of-the-way, as close to the front as possible, planning to run/walk only fast enough to get me to the bike mounting area not too far behind the next-to-last racer.

The first few laps I was going too hard and was trying to ratchet back my effort on the climb. After a couple laps, Jen told me I was in second by a few minutes, and I said something brilliant like, “I’m not going to catch her by riding faster.” Meaning I didn’t think I had as much speed as some of the other women so I’d need to make up time in other ways. I was pretty surprised when I passed Elizabeth after a few more laps. I think it was all due to Jen, who was crewing me. It was so windy last year that we’d decided not to bother with a tent and crew from her s.u.v. in the parking lot. She set an alarm to meet me beside the trail after each lap with fresh batteries and bottles and we were doing fairly fast pit stops. I have no doubt that Jen’s work during the race was worth at least two laps.

I’ve done most of my training on my road bike this year, which meant I had plenty of pedal revolutions in my legs, but almost no time on my mountain bike. I think my longest mountain bike ride since Targhee, last August, was 1.5 hours. And I’d only ridden that long once. Halfway through the race my butt was uncomfortable, but my hands and arms were hurting so much I did not see how I’d be able to continue for 12 more hours. Near the end of the race, I was reminded of ultrarunner Ann Trason’s quote, “It hurts up to a point and then it doesn’t get any worse.” My hands and arms still hurt, but not any worse. And my neck and shoulders felt a little better.

By the time I’d finished 21 laps, about 16 hours into the race, I’d built up a bit of a lead, and it was a good thing. During the 21st lap I’d started feeling very dizzy and by the end of the lap I felt like I was going to pass out. I signaled Jen to meet me at the car. I laid down and tried to figure out what was wrong. My symptoms were similar to the time I’d gotten hyponatremia at Barr Trail Mountain Race (how I managed that during a 13 mile run is another story) so I thought I might have had too much water. Then Jen said, “I’ve only used one gallon of water and a half bag of ice.” I hadn’t drunk all of that. That meant I’d had less than 10 ounces of fluid per hour. Even for me, mostly riding at night, that was not enough water. I drank some plain water, took a couple more Endurolytes, and felt a little better after a few minutes. After about a 30 minute break, I headed back out, but I was very conscious of keeping my effort relaxed and drinking lots of fluid. I felt better, but I had to stop and pee on every one of my last seven laps.

Jen had more confidence than I. I didn’t know until after the race that after my first lap she’d predicted on her Facebook page that I’d meet my goal of 29 laps. Between laps 16 and 25 I thought there was no way I’d come close. I was just slogging away, one lap at a time.

I’m guessing this really was my last mountain bike race. If for no other reason than I don’t expect my 20 year-old Kona with the patched together Marzocchi Z2 Bomber to survive another 24-hour race. In fact I was pretty surprised to get through this race with no major mechanical failures.

ERock is a fun, smoothly organized event. I was especially happy to see more solo women out there challenging themselves and doing strong rides!

Some good photos of the race by ultrarob. More ERock photos by camrewop.

Prior to this my longest brevet was 300k. I’ve finished longer races; Tejas 500 (miles) and Hill Country 600k. The difference is that an ultracycling race includes race support staff and often each racer has a personal support crew. I had crew for both those events. A brevet, on the other hand, is an unsupported ride. Each rider is responsible for understanding where along the route they can resupply and for carrying what they’ll need. If you have a mechanical or physical problem you figure out how to fix it or hitch a ride back to your car … or phone a friend. But if you think it’s inconvenient to ask someone to drive 10 miles to come pick you up, how about 100 miles!? That would not be unusually far for a rider that has to DNF a brevet.

I haven’t been feeling particularly zippy for the past … oh, month maybe, so my plan was to manage my effort and just get through this last of six brevets in six weeks. I was surprised that the little group of riders started fairly conservatively, but I dropped off the back after 30 min or so, still warming up and not wanting to push it on the rollers. The sun was starting to come up as I left Brighton and the westerly ride was beautiful on the green spring morning. As I rolled into Lyons, the wind was just starting to show signs of the predicted ferocity.

It’s a nice, long, gradual climb to Wind River Pass from Lyons. It’s only 40 miles to Estes Park, and two water bottles will often get me twice that far. I hadn’t planned on the wind increasing my thirst, or calculated the extra time the 4000′ climb would add. All of which meant that 14 miles out of Lyons I was already very low on water. I went off-route at Allenspark hoping for a store, but instead found Crystal Springs! The refreshment was worth the extra half mile. I filled my bottles with ice-cold water and drank another half bottle while I was standing there.

I’d never been to Estes Park before and dropping down into the valley from the south is beautiful! I stopped at the KOA again for more water. Then headed across the valley for the ride down Devil’s Gulch Switchbacks. This entire stretch through Glen Haven, Drake and out Big Thompson Canyon is very scenic. There was A LOT of traffic, but I’m guessing it was a little heavier than usual because another road between Drake and Estes Park was closed.

I was surprised when the route took us by a little reservoir we passed during the Stove Prairie 200k. I had no idea it was nearby. I was starting to feel pretty warm and was looking forward to stopping in Masonville for some nice cold water and ice. Unfortunately all the water in Masonville was warm and there was no ice, but I refilled my bottles and soaked my shirt and headband for some extra cooling and headed on for Horsetooth Dam.

After another stop in Ft. Collins, for yet more water. I have to say the ride got a lot less fun for me after Ft. Collins. I began to question why I was out there and why I’d ever want to do another long ride again! For one thing the wind was stronger out on the plains. And the howling wind, whether from the front, side, or rear, was abrading my nerves. And, while the beauty of the green fields was not lost on me, passing stinky feedlot after stinky feedlot quickly gets tiring (and depressing) to this vegan.

I’d planned to make a quick turnaround after the 400k, but when I got back to my hotel room about 9:30pm, I was too exhausted and sleepy to do anything more than take a shower and go to bed. I thought about DNF’ing, but remembered all the times I’ve wondered why someone would DNF when they still have 10 hours (or, in this case, over 20 hours) to finish, and decided not to make any decision about the last 200k. After I’d been lying in bed (not much sleeping) for about 90 min, I felt refreshed and suddenly motivated to get out there and knock out the rest of the ride.

Back out on the road it was nice. There was little traffic and the wind was calm. I made some routing errors and rode a few extra miles; a combination of not being able to read the tiny print on the cue sheet well and not seeing some road signs in the dark. I’d underdressed and stopped in Miliken to get some coffee and get out of the cold for a few minutes. I put on every stitch of clothing I had with me, unsure if it would be enough; amused at myself because I’m usually so afraid of being cold that I carry enough extra clothing to keep myself and two other people warm. Once I got moving again the light jacket with hood seemed to be just right. By the time I got to Kersey at 4:30am the sky was already starting to lighten. More green fields, more stinky feedlots, a fun descent into Erie, up the rollers to South Boulder Road, across Via Appia and check “done” next to 600k brevet.

While you will certainly never hear me complain about riding solo, riding the Flèche was a blast! You’d think there aren’t that many people who enjoy riding their bikes all day AND night, but right in this photo, are represented 15 such crazy people.

Our team of five started by heading up to Stove Prairie from the south, down Poudre Canyon and out to the plains. We had a nice dinner/sleep break from about midnight to 5AM. And finished, riding into Lyons, with views of Longs Peak, and back through Hygiene to Louisville. We had nice weather. A little overcast much of Saturday, and a sunny, clear morning on Sunday.

Why did I want full fenders? To tell the truth I asked myself that a number of times while trying to get these set up.

The SKS Race Blades I’ve used thus far are pretty good. They take about 15 minutes to install the first time, about 1 minute after that. They pretty much eliminate the stripe down my back. They reduce the amount of water in my shoes and road spray on my water bottles during rain and when riding on wet roads or through puddles. Basically the Race Blades helped enough to make me realize how great real fenders could be. I wanted fenders that would eliminate water from coming off my tire and dumping in my shoes and significantly reduce road spray for people riding behind me. The question is will the improvement in water and mud management outweigh the hassle of installation.

I purchased fenders from Velo Orange. I wanted the longest fenders available in a 35-37mm width, which was the limit of my brake calipers, fork and seat stays. I had the minimum clearance above my tire recommended by Velo Orange; 9-10mm. The problem is that VO’s minimum is an absolute minimum and doesn’t necessarily apply to their standard installation kit.

Let’s start with the front fender. VO ships fenders with a daruma bolt to mount the front. It (theoretically) slides up through the fork crown and over the front brake mounting bolt. After clearing the crud out of the hole in my fork crown the daruma bolt still would not fit. I ended up pulling the stem and dropping the bolt down through the steerer tube.

OK. So when the daruma bolt is properly installed on the brake mounting bolt it hangs about 13mm below the bottom of the fork crown … so much for 10mm clearance.

I cut down the daruma bolt about 5mm. So now I’m back to 8mm intruding into my 10mm clearance. But you’re still supposed to get a metal washer, thick rubber washer, fender, metal/leather washer, and nut onto that bolt. I replaced the thick rubber washer with a thin one, eliminated the other two washers and ground about 4mm off the thickness of the nut. With everything in place the nut sits flush with the end of the bolt. The nut has a greater diameter than the bolt (of course) so it effectively extends farther down. Which leaves about 1mm of clearance between my tire and the daruma bolt/nut.

With a sliding bracket and Sheldon’s fender nuts to mount the rear fender I thought it would be a breeze. The 36mm fenders are supposed to accommodate tires up to 27mm width. My tires are 25mm … should be lots of room. In actuality the sliding bracket significantly reduces the range of vertical adjustment and the available width of the fender. Unless it is perfectly centered my tire rubs on one side or another.

I expected to have a problem because I have no chainstay bridge, but the fender is very solid in that area without any attachment. I just need a piece of thick plastic tape to prevent any problems from occuring where the fender touches the front derailleur mount.

So I finally got these things on with no rubbing. I am not going to spend more time worrying about perfect fender line. I haven’t trimmed the fender stays yet. I’ll wait until I’ve accumulated some miles and am sure the length is ok. And I’m still planning to add a Planet Bike mud flap on the back. I have some worries about the tiny clearances between my tires and the nuts protruding into the under-fender space and what will happen if there if a little sand or mud on my tire. I’ll let you know how it goes.

It was a perfect day in New Mexico; sunny and dry, with few clouds in the sky and a high of 63 degrees. A perfect day that is, if you watched from your window and never stepped outside. The NOAA three day, hourly history for Saturday between 6am-8pm, reports that winds in the area averaged 20-29mph, with gusts from 26-40mph. Mercifully, if anything can be merciful about fighting the wind for 12 hours, it was blowing from one direction. (In fact, I’m starting to wonder if I live in one of the few places in the world where the wind commonly blasts your right side, only to blast your left the next second.)

As usual, with the exception of the uncontrollable weather, it’s difficult to fault an NM Brevet. It is probably getting boring to read how fabulous the ride coordinators and volunteers are, but they are. Exceptional!! As is the Malpais Route! About 193 miles of the 195 miles were on rural roads. There were many stretches where fewer than one vehicle per mile passed. I would rank it among the most beautiful rides I’ve done. If one is fond of the desert southwest it’s worth a trip to do this ride.

Regardless of the wind, I wasn’t having a superb day on the bike, but I managed to make my way to the finish before dark. I was certainly glad for the short ride to my hotel room (there are several hotels within 1/4 mile of the start/finish), a warm shower and bed.

The Manzano 200k is a beautiful route that starts on the Northeast corner of Albuquerque, goes up over the mountains and drops down into Mountainair, NM. It’s mostly out and back, but on the way back, turns east after the highest elevation, and takes the riders through Sedillo, NM, adding about 10 miles to the return from Mountainair.

The weather was OK for Spring in the mountains. Chilly temps; most riders didn’t remove their jackets all day. A fair amount of wind. A few snow flurries during the highest few miles in the afternoon. When I first read the ride description I thought the note of where to buy hand warmers along the route was odd, but after wishing we’d packed a couple for Jen, whose hands were freezing up front, I thought I should pay more attention to such “odd” notes in the future.

As I wrote in my December, Radium Springs report, the NM Brevet ride coordinators and volunteers are awesome. Many thanks to Lizz, John and Fred for another fun ride in New Mexico!

I had an amazing crew; mom, sister and friend Jen. None had experience as a follow crew, though all had crewed me either biking or running in the past. I was frequently impressed by what a fantastic job they did. I didn’t know that they planned each task for every leap frog stop. I just knew everything happened incredibly smoothly. My mother had spent many hours studying the rules and ensured we followed them. She also made Perpetuem and kept my other food ready and my clothing organized and within quick reach. My sister drove from the hotel to the start and back and every mile between. Her athleticism made her particularly well suited for leap frog support. I felt both awed and beaten when she sprinted from about 20 yards behind my bike to hand me a fresh bottle. I also thought we performed the ultimate bottle exchange when she caught my old bottle in one hand while passing off the new one with the other. Jen was in charge of navigation and I was always confident that we were on course and was informed of the approach of every turn. She also has great skill in passing Endurolytes from a moving car to a gloved cyclist’s hand. Somehow we never dropped one.

The route follows mostly lightly traveled roads, taking riders and crew past some beautiful countryside. After a long, easy climb to the first time station in Medina the course ramps up. What looked to me in the route book like four steep, but short climbs, felt like 30 miles of hard climbing. I’d brought my climbing bike just to practice bike exchanges with my crew, and I was elated to be riding it up the first climb which George Thomas, the race director, had described as a “gray wall”. When my crew took me off my climbing bike after passing through TS2 at Leaky I no longer felt elation. I was exhausted and a little dumbstruck at the thought of how much more difficult that section would have been with two fewer gears and the extra weight of aero bars.

I passed the 100 mile mark at Camp Wood a little slower than I’d planned, hoping to pick up some time on the downhill sections of the route that would surely come after all that climbing. As we left Rock Springs TS3, my crew said, “You’ve got fifty miles of descent with a few rollers.” Based on a quick look at the profile that seems accurate; from Point A, TS3 at Rock Springs, to Point B, TS4 at Junction there’s a 500 foot drop in elevation The difficulty lies between Point A and Point B. From the cyclist’s perspective this section seems like endless short, steep climbs interspersed by short, less steep descents.

On the road between Rock Springs & Junction

My crew stopped for gas at Junction TS4. A few miles later we put lights on my bike and I changed into warmer clothes, but not warm enough. I made a misjudgment and rode for a couple hours thankful for every climb that was long enough for me to warm up and stop shivering. This was probably the easiest section of the ride, but between the darkness, which for me seems to have the effect of flattening a course, and focusing on whether I should stop and change clothes again or could tough out the cold a little longer, I didn’t notice or take advantage of the easier terrain. I didn’t make it to TS5 at Llano before I gave up and changed to tights, and added a long undershirt and a fleece sweater.

I was a little confused by the pre-race description of the Llano TS5 to Fredricksburg TS6 section as compared to the profile in the route book. The route book shows it as a 30+ mile climb ending with a 10 mile descent. I think it was the descent George referred to when he said some riders were going 26-27mph on their way to Fredricksburg. I certainly wasn’t approaching that speed on the climb! I was hoping to get through the 2am-3am window without sleeping, but stopped for a 15 min nap around 2am when I felt like I was starting to nod off on the bike. The descent into Fredricksburg was nice! The road pavement was in terrible condition, but the shoulder was wide and smooth. I’d taken a trip with my mother and sister to Fredricksburg a few years ago and it was fun for all of us to recognize many of the places we’d visited that day. The main drag certainly seemed shorter at 4am, free of traffic.

Just after Fredricksburg we turned onto Old San Antonio Road. The first few miles were lots of fun, mostly downhill rollers, then it was back to the slog of steep climbs and short descents. The 4-person relay team from Colorado passed me here and were leap-frogging my crew and I for several miles as they swapped riders almost every climb. It wasn’t much of a problem for me, but my crew got a little frustrated with one of their vehicles passing so many times on the steep, narrow, windy road.

Sunrise outside Sisterdale

Just before Sisterdale the road became a pot-hole filled, gravel strewn, bump fest for two miles. It was the worst section of “pavement” I’ve ever ridden a bike on. Thankfully it was fairly flat, and Texas riders told me it wasn’t too bad for Texas. After the cute little town of Sisterdale we took a left towards Kendalia TS7. To look at the route book, the last 13 miles into Kendalia don’t seem to especially stand out, but for me this was one of the most difficult sections. I was ready to get the ride over with, and thinking 13 miles equals less than an hour, but instead the road turned into another string of tough little climbs.

I hardly remember Kendalia, except that I was confused about the turn and my crew was planning to put a little more gas in the tank and take a short break, but there was no gas station. I changed out of my tights and into shorts and leg warmers and turned on my iPod after Kendalia. The day was warming up fast and I soon stripped off my leg and arm warmers. This was another easier section, but less idyllic riding after we turned onto FM 3351, a busy four-lane road. I especially appreciated having my crew vehicle behind me in the increasingly heavy traffic as we headed to Leon Springs TS8.

Edge Falls Road, past Kendalia

We turned north at the final TS in Leon Springs. My crew pointed out the mixed tandem ahead and wanted me to catch it. I wasn’t sure I could, but they’d asked so I tried. I really can’t imagine riding a tandem on this route with so much climbing and I was very impressed. I passed them as the grade steepened again. I can’t be sure, because honestly it is hard to give an objective comparison of a climb at mile 50 and a climb at mile 365, but it seemed like the steepest grades on the course came within 10 miles of the finish. They were short climbs and soon behind me. I pushed as hard as I could on the last few miles of downhill where I thought the tandem would probably catch me.

I crossed the line at 10:14am. As happy as I was to be the first woman both for myself and my crew, I think I was most happy just to have finished!

George Thomas and Terri Gooch have added a wonderful event to their schedule. Like Ring of Fire Time Trial it has excellent organization, a super friendly atmosphere and great course.

Twitter Photos by George Thomas

Results – http://www.raceacrossoregon.com/hillcountry_results/

Updates and photos – http://www.twitter.com/raogeorge/

I’d been worried by the weather forecast and worked hard to stay with some fast riders early in the day. That’s how found myself just having completed my fastest 100 miles in 20 years, facing 90 more miles and a hopeless looking tire. I figured I’d have to find a way to get back to the start (and my car), and making my bike rideable for at least a short distance seemed the best way to expedite that process. I booted the tire with a Park boot given to me by a passing local cyclist and the cue sheets I no longer needed. I considered adding my brevet card to the patch, but refrained. About the time I was re-installing the wheel, with widening 2mm slit, another brevet rider showed up who’d carried what none of the rest of us had; a tire. I swapped the booted tire out for the loaner. I couldn’t help feeling grateful for the return of tire karma for the old tires I’d given away when I was wrenching at Stonewall Century six months ago.

After a few easy miles to refocus, some motivation from a passing pack, and nice climb up Gates Pass, I was on my way again and was able to ride with another strong group of cyclists to finish before dark in just over 12 hours.

Saguaro National Park, Friday, February 26. Near Saturday’s 300K Route.