Ring of Fire Time Trial starts today at 6:30am. The race directors will begin posting live results later today at – www.raceacrossoregon.com/roftt_teams/
Tag: ultra
2010 24 Hours of ERock
It’s no secret that I’m not much of a mountain biker. After last year’s 24 Hour of Grand Targhee I said, “No more mountain bike races! … with one exception ERock!” 24 Hours of ERock is only a couple hours from home and I really enjoyed it last year. The event is relatively low key. The other riders are all super-friendly and supportive. The atmosphere reminds me of a road bike ultra, with a lot more dust and loud music.
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.
375 of the toughest miles I’ve ridden
Though I didn’t categorize the Hill Country 600K that way while I was riding, observing how I felt after wards and talking to other riders I began to understand that the two year old HC 600 is not just another long distance bicycle event, but a challenge that seems likely to put it among the most well-known races of the sport. I could barely stand when I first got off my bike and it took a few Aleve and a couple hours of rest before I could function well enough to help re-pack the car. Several other riders I talked to said they felt worse than they normally do after a long race, but maybe the most telling was a rider who was asked during the awards if he thought Hill Country or Race Across Oregon was harder, after a long pause he indicated that his knees felt a little worse after RAO …. but RAO is 120 miles longer!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Radium Springs 200k!
Ok, so it started out a little chilly…24deg F, but by the time we reached Hatch, NM, 24 miles into the Radium Springs 200k, my fingers had thawed. The 136 mile route is beautiful and at least 90 miles of it has very little traffic. It first travels west and north, with a very gradual climb. After an easy warm-up of about 50 miles, we headed into some hills; steep-ish, short-to-medium climbs….nothing too extreme. After Nutt was a fast 20 miles, east, back into Hatch. The last 20 miles, riding south into the wind were a bit of a grind, but more mentally, than physically difficult.
The New Mexico Brevet Series organizers and volunteers are awesome! The level of support was as good or better than any organized century I’ve ridden. At $25 per rider entry fee, I don’t see how they even cover their costs. Not only was there drop bag and sag wagon support, they provided sandwiches, fruit, brownies and soft drinks and home-cooked dinner afterwards.
Even though I’d ridden Tejas 500 eight weeks ago, I felt only minimally prepared for this ride. Seeing Radium Springs on my calendar three weeks out, I’d added a weekly long ride on the rollers of 3, 4 and finally 6 hours to get ready.
If you ride Radium Springs it’s probably a good idea to have a light that’s bright enough to comfortably ride with and a bright taillight, and a good amount of reflective material on your bike and clothing. Daylight is pretty short on December 6th, and the traffic between Hatch and Radium Springs really picked up late afternoon and evening. All the drivers gave me lots of room, but I’m sure they aren’t used to watching for cyclists that time of day/year.
Coming from the north, we stayed at Truth or Consequences, about an hour from the start rather than driving farther south to Las Cruces. That saved a little driving on Friday and Sunday. I hope to do more NM Brevets in the coming year!