24 Hours in the Old Pueblo Race Report (2/13-2/15)

As I'm so far behind on blogging, I'm going to just hit the highlights of this race. I had spectated/volunteered last year while Erik & his team did this. Last year was cold, snowy and quite muddy. My car looked like a brick.

This year's weather looked to be slightly more promising, only producing cold with no snow or mud. Awesome. So onward:

• Liane asks if I want to be a on a team. I tentatively accept.
• I ride it my first time with Erik in Nov, takes about 2:45 and I fell once. Not terrible - and I didn't do the last His & Her's trail part.
• I ride it with Liane, Heather & Nicole. We get rained on. Takes about 2:40 for that.
• I go with Erik and friends and try to lead the slow group, I fail. I leave the group behind - suckers! I do 1 full loop and a half loop. The full loop I did in 2:20 and I stopped frequently in hopes those behind me would catch up.
• No night riding - I did all that training at FI.

The race:

• Arrive on Friday and set up camp by Elaine and Zac.
• Start to get cold.
• Commiserate with Elaine & Liane over the lateness of Nate and fire
• Eventually Nate shows up, everyone rejoices
• I enjoy a brat from the food vendors with a little too much horseradish mustard. Sinuses = CLEAR!
• Hang out around fire
• To bed early as it'll be the last good sleep I get for a bit
• Slept in
• Made it to the pre-race meeting where Todd reminded us to play nice. Crunchy....
• Watched Heather be our lead rider
• Elke went 2nd
• Liane went 3rd
• I contemplated the amount of daylight I would get
• I head out with about an hour of light. Sweet!
• Made it to the arch before turning on my light
• Some dude mooched off my light on the stupid climb
• Sweet downhill and my first lap was done! (1:58)
  
• Heather goes out, some dumb@ss knocks her over
• Elke goes out, her back tightens up
• Liane goes out and comes back
• I decide to sleep for awhile because it just looks like the 2 of us
• I go out about 7 and take the nice sunrise lap, a bit longer than the first lap (2:10)
• DONE! Celebratory beer
• Wait for Elke and Liane to finish and we all celebrate surviving our first 24 hr race together.
• Perhaps next year???
  

McDowell Meltdown Race Report (2/7)

So Erik and I took off midday Friday to head up to McDowell Park. The race was on the competitive track which has 3 loops: Sport (~3 miles), Tech (~3 miles) and Long (~8 miles). The website claims the long loop is sutiable for everyone. I'm everyone! I had previously tried out the Sport loop while demoing bikes up there so at least I had some idea what to expect.

My race course was Sport-Tech-Long via connectors for a total of 10 miles. Erik's was Sport-Tech-Long-Tech-Long for about 20 miles of fun. When we got there we immediately got our stuff ready to go pre-ride at least the long loop. I figured as I would probably spend about 7 of the 10 miles of my course on this trail, I should probably be semi-familiar with what I was up against. Most of the course wasn't too bad. A few steep descents and some climbing but I survived. My brakes screamed. We finally hit a few spots where I wasn't willing to ride down - somewhere around Red Dot Hill and Thread the Needle. After that started this horrible climb that I gave up on about halfway up and ended up walking the rest. Once I reached the top of the South Ridge I got short break to try to recover my breathing. From this point on I figured it had to trend mostly downhill. A few sketchy locations caught me off guard. I dumped my bike at one point and got my left leg/knee tangled up in the handlebars. Please note I didn't fall as I remained standing....I just let the bike drop. :-) I also had my first run-in with a cactus on Cactus Corner. I still have little bits of needles in my finger. The rest of the trail was fairly uneventful. A couple steep downhill spots that I convinced myself I could handle...and did!

Sat morning we were up early - mostly because I had to use the bathroom and that felt like a 5 minute walk from where we were camping. So I picked up my stuff - schwag beanie this week! As I was heading back I saw Elaine and Zac pull in so I directed them over to where we were camping. The weather finally started to warm up a little bit by time I started at 8:47.

When my group took off there was little excitement. I got stuck behind some junior girls without a fabulous way to pass them for quite some time. I feared there would be a big hold up at the Double Dip, but by time I got there it was pretty clear. The rest of the Sport & Tech loops were uneventful and actually pretty easy. Sadly, I could see the the person in front of me getting further away.

Once I hit some of the climbs on the Long loop, the marathoners started passing me. Fabulous. I hiked up a few spots and walked down a few others. I nearly endo'd twice. I was tired, it was hot, why was the end so far away? I saw the photographer as I'm trying to climb a hill without dying. Seriously, why can't they be in cool places like at a bottom of a hill because I'm more likely to look less like death going down a hill! Finally I saw the parking lot come into view. Unfortunately there was still a ways till you hit the finish line and I just didn't have any more push left. I sort of spun in without trying too hard. I knew I was most likely last unless someone fell off a cliff and I didn't see them.

I grabbed some ice for my knee which when stiff as soon as I finished. Later when results got posted I learned that Zac (Elaine's husband) had managed to beat me - in my AG! The results got screwed up but it was a good laugh. Erik finished 8th and in his goal time of about 2 hours.

2 races down!

Friday

I got nothing. I've been doing nothing all week in hopes that not running or biking will help my knee feel better faster, but it still annoys me. I think it is feeling good then I go and do something like pivot on that foot and I can feel it pull. I swam last Sunday and pushing off the wall didn't feel real awesome, but I lived.

I'm scared to go see if I did anything serious to it because I have 3 weekends of racing coming up (2 MBAA races and 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo and the Desert Classic Du). I don't want to hear that I shouldn't be doing those things. But at the same time, I'm concerned not doing anything isn't helping because I could easily make it worse. Hopefully its just twisted or tweaked and it'll take some time. I can walk without limping on it 99% of the time. It doesn't feel unstable, although my shouldn't didn't feel that unstable till I did something that would impact its stability. Ugh.

That is all I got. We are headed out today to McDowell and I'm going to pre-ride the course, or part of it. Going to San Diego for work next week so at least I won't have a total feeling of guilt seeing my bike and not riding it.

Ski Weekend (Jan 29 - 31)

A group of us decided to head up to Sunrise in Pinetop for a weekend of ski fun. After last years painful experience with snowboarding, I decided to use the skis that have been collecting dust in the garage for 2 years. Plus I could keep up with Erik a little bit more this way!

We headed up on Thursday after work and stayed at the Hon-Dah Casino that has a sweet ski package (2 nights, 2 days of lift tickets, discounted rentals and a shuttle). Met up with the rest of our group and then got some sleep!

Friday is a quiet day at the resort because most people are still in school, and this one was no exception. It took a few runs before I was back to feeling like I sort of remembered how to ski. Erik is getting pretty decent on the snowboard and is actually faster than I am because I'm a scaredy cat about getting hurt. The one sweet thing is that the lounge has PBR on draft so lunch = a pitcher of PBR. :-)

After a full day we headed back to the casino and Erik fell asleep, our 2 roomies hit the hot tub and I decided to lose some money. I ended up winning about $10 on the penny slots, of which I brought $7 home. I never know when to quit! Then we all hit up a Thai place for dinner. Yes, Thai in Show Low-Lakeside-Pinetop. It was pretty good and we all had a good time.

Saturday was a little busier at the resort. It was also the day I remembered how to fall. I usually ski so conservatively that I don't fall. I was trying to turn up the hill to decide to take a different trail when I got stuck in some powder and went down. Struggled to get back up as you always do on skis. About 2 runs later, I'm doing a nice little run, making nice turns back and forth across the hill to keep from going too fast ( I fear speed too) when I turn left just in time to see some woman who must have been cutting across to get to the breakoff run on my right, come flying at me. We hit head-on and I end up in some ackward position with my skis and my sitting between them. All I can feel is that my left knee feels odd and I'm out of breath. I wasn't going that fast, so that probably helped a little.

Her son (who has some freaking sweet skis! They have a hot girl in a bikini on em) helps me get my skis of and both are asking if I'm ok. Finally I catch my breath and get my legs back in front me and I feel ok. I managed to get back on my skis and nothing feels terribly wrong, a little sore, but nothing that seems out of place. Took some easy hills down and met up with Erik who is worried since it took me so long. We head over to the other mountain to ski for the rest of the morning since its much emptier over there. Finished out the rest of the day not feeling too bad, except that now I'm getting tired and I can tell my knee will hurt later.

Got back to the car at the end of the day and got my boot off, threw my sandals on and tried to load the car and realized just how much my knee did hurt! Now it was stiff from being in the same slightly bent position and supported by my boot all day too. I got some ice from Subway and tried to ice it every hour or so on the way home.

P.F. Chang's Rock'N'Roll Half Marathon (Jan 18)

So I tried to go easy on the mtn biking the day prior, but its just so hard to do!

After finishing up at White Tanks we headed back into Phoenix to check into the Buttes. Got that at a smoking price on Priceline. We headed to Monti's for dinner with some other people and then came back where I got everything packed and ready to go for Sunday.

Sunday morning I was up bright (or dark?) and early. I was catching the 6:30 shuttle from the resort to the start line. Got there, walked a bit before finding a port-a-potty without a mile long line. Milled around and figured out which UPS truck I needed to drop my stuff at and then headed over to stretch and watch the full start at 7:30. Hung out on a monument for a good view and tried to take a couple pictures. A little after 8, I stripped off my warm clothes and dropped my bag off and started heading towards the half start line and my corral. I was in corral #17 so I knew I had plenty of time before I could even be close to the start line.

Finally crossed the start sometime after 9am. I tried to keep it slow and discovered quickly I was going to have to readjust the location of my Garmin. Since bringing spare mounting pins for it wasn't on my list, I took 2 safety pins and made a little tether for it which I then pinned to my sports bra and tucked inside it. Well, you couldn't hear the beep when I changed run/walk, vice versa. So finally I had to put it between my top and bra and then just unzip my top if I wanted to look at it. I'm sure spectators loved this.

The first 3 miles were pretty good, nothing exciting, just kind of going with the pace and trying to keep it reasonable. I was on the right side of the road as far as I could be since I was run/walking and didn't want to be in people's way when I hit a walk interval. I think this actually started contributing to some of the ankle pain the cropped up at about 5k. It wasn't terrible, just dull so I kept plodding along. I hit 5k at about 40 mins so I knew I was doing ok. Things started to fall apart after that.

My 10k was 1:18 so I did pick up the pace a little bit. By now it was starting to get hot and I honestly just wanted to be done (at the halfway point!). The ankle pain was starting to migrate to my knee and hip. And still I pushed on.

It took me nearly an hour to do the next 4 miles and I was exhausted. I had only brought some little clif-bar like thing with me so it was all of 110 calories. I took only water at the aid stations so I was dying by this point. I made it through the Tucson half on water and luna moons, but it was also cold and almost all downhill. I think around mile 10 was the small uphill part of the run and it took everything I had to keep my interval in tact. I walked aid stations, but this time my interval had me on a walk about 80% of the aid stations so I got no extra benefit from that.

The last aid station and coming across the Mill Ave bridge was a feeling of FINALLY!! Of course you then turn the corner and realize you still have a ways to go. When I started to turn into the parking lot I tried to pick up the pace a little before realized I hadn't hit the 13 mile sign yet. Bad move. I went back to a walk until I passed that sign and then tried to do something faster than shuffle to the finish. 2:54:45 - not pleasing. But given the conditions, my lack of training (it was even less than Tucson), I'm not terribly upset.

I got my medal, picture and hit the food line only to find out the Popsicles were gone. I had left Erik a note to meet me at the UPS truck but I couldn't find him - and I was past my expected time range. I grabbed my bag and found a curb to change my shoes back to sandals and I realized that my left leg had gone stiff and sitting down was hilarious challenge. Then I started shivering even though it was 80 out. Threw my jacket on and just waited around hoping he'd show up soon. When he finally did, I was salty, tired, very stiff and sore and then I find out he had to park more than a mile away! That was the longest mile of my life because it was mostly a hobble.

Not a fabulous day, but given I'd done about 15 miles of mtn biking the 2 days before, I'm not terribly concerned. Some Honey Bears helped some of the crappy feeling go away!

White Tanks Whirlwind (Jan 17)

So I've managed to fail at my resolution of keeping this updated better...Tough Cookies!

I decided to sign up for this series as a way to get some exposure to different mtn biking courses and to help my skills by forcing me to ride a greater variety of terrain than just FI, Sweetwater & the 24 HOP course. Then I talked Erik into them. He usually only races the Epic Rides events and maybe 1 or 2 others that I send him. One nice thing is that these are shorter so they are more like training rides than epic rides.

I signed up for the Beginner Women’s category. I had an ulterior motive since only 1 person in my AG did this race last year. With my wonderful logic, I’d place no matter what if things went my way! Erik raced Sport Men which he expected to be fairly competitive.

We headed up to White Tanks on Friday making a quick stop by the PF Chang’s Expo to pick up my packet and goodies for the half mary on Sunday. Yes, I was doing a half mary piggy-backed on a mtn bike race. Yes, I have lost it. We got out to the park and found a camping spot and then headed up to the course to pre-ride. My course was 2 ‘internal’ loops for a total of about 10 miles. Erik’s was 3 ‘long’ loops which was about 20 miles total. For our pre-ride we decided one loop of each course was respectable – plus we’d run out of daylight if we weren’t careful.

My race started at 8:49 on Sat (waves went off about 2 mins apart) so I headed over about 7 am to check in and get my shirt and number. Met up with Elaine and Liane and got ready. I barely made it to the start line with my wave because you couldn’t hear anything be announced (thank god it is chip timed). Got there and got some random number marked on my leg; not sure anyone actually figured out what they were for. Headed out and realized that I was surrounded by junior riders. Some of those kids are fast! And some have better bikes than I do. L

The first lap was nerve racking in a few spots because some of the kids could haul ass down a hill but couldn’t make it up so they’d have to walk. MBAA ran the course backward and in some places I think it made it much easier but others it actually got more difficult. There was one spot I nearly wiped out on Friday because the sun was in my eyes and I couldn’t tell that I should have gone right instead of left and into a giant rock (going through a dip no less). Barely kept that one standing. I checked my Garmin at mile 2.4 and saw I was pretty much on track for a 40 min lap (~5 miles per lap) which is where I wanted to be so I had something left for lap 2. There was one spot where you got this sweet downhill into a wash or similar and then it turned left for a bit before heading up a steep hill. That sucked with no momentum. Shortly after making it out of there I knew I was getting close to being back and the rest was fairly flat so I went to check my Garmin to see how I was doing. At this point I realize that my Garmin has managed to dislodge itself from my qr wrist strap and is somewhere on the trail. I throw my bike down and head back to the hill I just climbed hoping I’d lost it there. Didn’t see it so I decided to just slow down where I could on lap 2 and see if I could spot it. At least I know it was after mile 2.4 – wherever that is!

Started my 2^nd lap and things were much better as the faster/better people were already out on lap 2 and the juniors were done (1 lap) so I could keep an eye out for a black/red Garmin that probably looks like a rock when flipped over. I let everyone I passed know that I had lost it. I was furious the whole lap and actually cleared things that I had to walk on the first lap. Most of the places where it was likely I had hit a tree and lost it were places where I couldn’t slow down because of the terrain and such.

I finished in some unknown time, dropped my chip and found Erik to let him know that I was going hike back out to look for it. I dropped off my bike and changed some of the stuff; stopped to talk to Zac and Nate (Elaine & Liane were still out). I had just started to hike out when I heard Erik yelling at me….someone found it! It was seriously my lucky day because there was no way I was going to run the next day without it. Somehow one of the little pins had dislodged and the unit fell off. I don’t even know where it would have happened – and I’m surprised because it takes me some effort to get the unit off the strap.

Sadly, I ended up finishing 8/9 in my AG. Not stopping to walk back and slowing down would have maybe gotten me into 7^th. So my logic failed. Still not a bad race and I finished in 1:06 which is faster than the 1:20 I had as a goal time.

Erik, on the other hand, finished 5^th in his AG. And he didn’t think he’d do very well.

We are off to McDowell Mountain Park for this weeks fun – McDowell Meltdown!