Saturday: Race day.
The forecast was for 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms. But I played my ace and it worked, on Friday I put fertilizer on my lawn, that always guarantees two weeks of dry weather, this was no exception.
I got to the race venue at about 7:30AM, ran into the guys I would be sharing space with for the day in the parking lot. Lugged all my gear and supplies to the tent, got registered and stood around chatting for a couple of hours.
We lined up for the mass start, we would do a parade lap, fortunately it didn’t start with a steep uphill.
It was a little dusty.
I started at mid pack and stayed there for the first about 5 miles. It was rather congested and we had to stop a few times while traffic cleared on the trail ahead, finally it broke up and I was able to settle into a comfortable pace. I finished my first lap in 1:19 including parade lap, I had expected 1:40 for the first lap.
The second lap went smoothly and for much of the lap I felt like I was by myself out there. I started to feel some slight cramping near the end of the second lap which I did in 1:34, I loaded up on electrolytes in both pill and liquid form and downed a few GU packets.
The third lap I was still dealing with cramps, not bad though, I continued to down the electrolytes, I had planned on 3 endurolytes per hour and 28ou of ultima, I upped the endurolytes to 9 per hour and by the end of the third lap I was feeling better.
The time had come: the end of the third lap. The question at this point was should I go out for one more lap or just sit back and relax. I of course opted to do one more lap.
I had done the third lap in 1:45 and was expecting it to take about 10 minutes longer for the fourth. I was surprised when I rolled in and found out I had done it in 1:41.
I finished the race in great shape, I had done really well with my hydration also, I only dropped one pound over the course of the race. I finished in 23 for my division and 73 out of 135 teams and solo riders for the six hour event. I know, I only beat 62 other people but since some of those were also teams I think it was a decent showing. 49.5 miles with ~5,400 ft of elevation gain in 6 hours 45 minutes including breaks.
Next race is an adventure race in June.
The forecast was for 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms. But I played my ace and it worked, on Friday I put fertilizer on my lawn, that always guarantees two weeks of dry weather, this was no exception.
I got to the race venue at about 7:30AM, ran into the guys I would be sharing space with for the day in the parking lot. Lugged all my gear and supplies to the tent, got registered and stood around chatting for a couple of hours.
We lined up for the mass start, we would do a parade lap, fortunately it didn’t start with a steep uphill.
It was a little dusty.
I started at mid pack and stayed there for the first about 5 miles. It was rather congested and we had to stop a few times while traffic cleared on the trail ahead, finally it broke up and I was able to settle into a comfortable pace. I finished my first lap in 1:19 including parade lap, I had expected 1:40 for the first lap.
The second lap went smoothly and for much of the lap I felt like I was by myself out there. I started to feel some slight cramping near the end of the second lap which I did in 1:34, I loaded up on electrolytes in both pill and liquid form and downed a few GU packets.
The third lap I was still dealing with cramps, not bad though, I continued to down the electrolytes, I had planned on 3 endurolytes per hour and 28ou of ultima, I upped the endurolytes to 9 per hour and by the end of the third lap I was feeling better.
The time had come: the end of the third lap. The question at this point was should I go out for one more lap or just sit back and relax. I of course opted to do one more lap.
I had done the third lap in 1:45 and was expecting it to take about 10 minutes longer for the fourth. I was surprised when I rolled in and found out I had done it in 1:41.
I finished the race in great shape, I had done really well with my hydration also, I only dropped one pound over the course of the race. I finished in 23 for my division and 73 out of 135 teams and solo riders for the six hour event. I know, I only beat 62 other people but since some of those were also teams I think it was a decent showing. 49.5 miles with ~5,400 ft of elevation gain in 6 hours 45 minutes including breaks.
Next race is an adventure race in June.
