This race plaques me. It plaques me due to this one tiny little section where you have to roll over a couple of, literally, 4" drops, maybe 6". I bailed on the 3 laps I had to do it last year and this year I was determined I would conquer the damn thing this year. If you don't want to read the rest, I didn't conquer the stupid little drops.
Pre-Race
Set up T-area. Make snappy remarks about some of the bikes people had - there was a Hummer Bike (sadly, he beat me)! Nearly died from trying a Gu. I'll never like those things. Complain about not having breakfast and the fact my husband was still sleeping when I left the hotel. He showed up about 20 mins before the start. With no food.
Swim
This is by far my best swim! Everything felt great, I just got in and swam. I caught up to and passed a significant amount of Flag swim caps - those guys started 8 mins before me! My goal was to be within about 2 minutes of Elaine out of the water and I was surprised to see her in transition as I was headed out. The girl who got first in my AG swam 4 minutes faster than I did. Nothing I could do about that!
T1
Could have been a little faster. Transition was on the sand volleyball courts so running was out (I don't do sand). Plus I ended up with tons of sand on my feet and I tried to wipe some off, didn't want blisters after all, but it would have taken too long.
Bike
Erik and I had gone over to the course the night before to scope out this stupid rock "drop" (It is like all of 6", but there are rocks you have to roll over before it and it is mildly steep). Last year I bailed the 3 times we had to do it. This year I bailed the 2 times we had to do it. The first time I was almost there but there was too many people on the course (going too many ways). The second time, I started to get there and just chickened out. The rest of the course was fairly uneventful. There are 2 steep climbs, the first time I had to walk the first from about the halfway (too many people walking and only 1 clean line), rode the 2nd one and then promptly laid my bike down on the next hard left by getting just a smidge out to the right and my bike hit some loose sand and just skidded out. I stayed standing so that is key. The 2nd time up the hills, I made it about 5' from the top when I hit a rock and just got stopped. I made the 2nd hill. They added an out and back along the canal that was fantastic. Easy to cruise at 12-13 mph (we're mountain biking remember) and pass people. On the rolly downhill stuff on the backside, I heard the medic talking about someone going over the handlebars....oops! Easy to see how that could happen in that location. I made it up all the rocky stuff on the 2nd lap. The first lap was fairly congested which made sections difficult. Since this is a good newbie off-road tri you get a lot of people who don't realize they need to get off the rideable section of trail for those us trying to ride.
T2
Again with the sand so I walked through transition. Off-road tri's are easy for me since I ride platforms on my mtn bike - no shoe change required!
Run
Yeah running still blows. I was trying to keep a 1min walk/1:30run going in the beginning to get the legs going. I thought I actually should have been doing better than I was. They changed the course a bit to add another rocky climbing section which is where I got slowed down. Steep uphills = walking. Once I hit pavement I moved to running between light poles 1-3 and walking 3-4. Then once the sidewalk turned downhill I tried to keep a steady (slow) pace to the aid station. Walk the aid station, run to the bridge, walk in the shade, do a little running, a last walk and then take it to the finish. Near the finish this girl passed me going not much fast than I was and I noticed she had 27 on her leg. Rather than pass her so early before the finish, I just sat behind her and went nearly her pace. With about 100 yds to the finish I said screw it and really picked up my pace and crossed about 6 sec in front of her. I'm happy to have passed someone in my AG while running. Small feats.
My goal was to A) not leave T1 w/a flat this year - success; B)Take 30 minutes off last years time - took about 22 mins; C)Have there still be water on the slip'n'slide when I finished - success.
My run was longer than last year which I'll chalk up to their additional rocky section. My bike was slightly shorter even with 1 less lap due to the easy out and back, last years bike was about 10 miles, this was closer to 13. My swim was phenomenal, nothing more I could have hoped for.
Pictures: PBR Urban Dirt Tri
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Tour of the White Mountains 15 Miler (Oct 3); Volunteer/Sweep Report
So last year, in my first year of mountain biking I was talked into being a sweep for the Tour of the White Mountains (the 15 miler mind you, I didn’t plan to die out there). It was a fun experience and allowed me to ride the course, chat with people and most importantly, go at my own pace. We finished last year in about 4.5 hrs so I was targeting that again for this year (we’ll forget about the 6.5 hrs it took to do a similar distance at the Whiskey). For once the weather looked like it would actually be a good day, a little windy, but nothing like last year’s torrential rains, the year before with 50+mph wind gusts or the year before that with the rain & mud. I headed out a little behind the 15 milers, just cruising at my own pace. I didn’t have sweep partner this year so either I would be riding with whomever was in back, or alone. I soon caught up to a girl who would be my back of the pack buddy for nearly the rest of the day. She was entertaining and I found out the friend she was riding with (who was ahead of us) was going to be proposed to when she finished by her future fiancé who was racing the 35 miler (they started an hour before us and he was fast, so the timing would be ok). I thought that was kind of cool although you better be sure she’s going to say yes in that kind of situation!
Todd from Epic had warned us that someone had stolen an SUV and crashed it on the trail a couple weeks ago and they hadn’t gotten it out yet. Sure enough, crashed SUV with a copy of Tucson Lifestyles on the steering wheel was found a couple miles into the course. You can see some cool stuff on the trail. There is one big problem with being a sweep – you are probably a better rider than whoever is riding in the back. You start to notice this when the BOP is walking up or down rocky sections and you really want to ride it. You learn to hold back and slow down so you can get a run at it without passing them. Or you ride it, pass them and then wait.
Lynette (my new BOP friend) turned out to be an REI manager and we chatted about when the Tucson REI was finally going to open (Spring 2010) as well as what to do with my poor Garmin who’s enter button was failing. We actually stopped in the trail and chatted for like 20 mins a couple times. I was enjoying the ride. The medical sweep kept catching up to us, poor guy. Finally he just went ahead. We ran into a couple of kids near the top of the never ending climb who had been up in front of the 15 milers but got a flat on one tire at the bottom of the climb and then flatted the other tire in the middle of it. Now they were just trying to get the tire to hold air. Tubeless people, tubeless. I felt like we were actually making pretty good time when we hit the top of the hill. I had been giving Lynette tips along the way based on my riding of the course from last year and last month’s pre-ride. We hit the downhill and she was gone! I took it easy, stopping to take pictures because I knew the bottom of the downhill was a blast and I wanted to enjoy all of it without having to slow down for anyone. About a ¼ mi from the aid station my phone starts ringing – the aid station hasn’t seen anyone in awhile (odd, those two kids were just in front of us) and wanted to make sure we were still coming. 3 mins later I said hi to the aid station folks in person. I love aid stations that are stocked with candy bars (mmmm….snickers!). I met up with the 10 mile sweep and he had 2 riders that came out on the 10 mile ride, but wanted to take the 15 mile trail back (10 milers took the road up and back from the aid station, 15 milers got singletrack). I agreed and our now group of 4 took off. Pretty uneventful downhill section, I was having a blast and actually riding stuff I didn’t ride last year. I ran into a guy coming towards me with a number so I stopped and asked if he was done already. He was a 65 miler who had managed to miss the turn off. I got him going back the right direction and continued on my way. I finally met up wth the 35 & 65 milers where we all headed back to the finish together. That was fun for my 10 miler-turned-15 miler friends, being passed at fast speeds on ATV roads. My very last 10 miler charge started getting charley horses as we were headed downhill so I was unable to enjoy the exhilaration of bounding over loose, rocky downhill trails. I'm so disappointed. We eventually got back to the out'n'back section of the course where I knew we had about 2 miles till beer. I'm a mountain biker, I'm in it for the beer. So that was what I used to motivate my back of the pack crew. Beer. I was near beer and they were delaying my enjoyment of it. Well I didn't make it sound that bad, but I know nearly all mountain bikers like their beer. I assume that of these guys.
We had to stop frequently for my BOP buddy to massage his thigh. I don't think I've ever experienced a charley horse so I had no suggestions for him aside from massaging it. With a half mile to go, he wanted to stop again and I nearly had a conniption. 1/2 mile to go, and you want to stop???? This is where you suck it up buddy. He stopped, and being a good sweep, I stopped too. Much to my dismay at prolonging my drinking experience for another few minutes. We finally reached the end. I had missed the proposal of the chick's friend I had ridden with in the beginning, but wished her well when I did see her. I got back to the truck to discover that Erik & co had been done and drinking for awhile now. It only took me 4 hours to get everyone across the line this year, and the guys still beat me.
I proceeded to join the beer line, grab my free food and then head back to the comforts and warmth of our rented "cabin". Which I might add, as a far better idea than camping - any year.
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