2 more PRs fall!
Drove out to the Quad Cities on Friday, settled in at the race motel, grabbed a fantastic dinner at The Faithful Pilot. Due to a closed exit on I80, we ended up having to leave earlier than usual for the race, so my alarm went off at about 10 til 4 on Saturday. Grmph.
Got set up for the race pretty quickly, and had a bit of time to relax and warm up a bit.
Starting temperature at the race was about 55F, with pretty much no wind, and a good bit of fog.
The race consists of a 69 mile loop, a 19 mile loop, and an 8 mile loop. Everyone starts off on the 69 mile loop, and switches to other loops depending on the amount of time left in their event (6, 12, and 24-hour races occur simultaneously). 6 and 12-hour racers can draft, 24-hour racers cannot, and 6 and 12-hour racers can’t draft off 24-hour racers. My plan was to stay fairly low intensity for the big loop, ideally in the main 6/12-hour pack as much as possible, and then hammer the rest of the way. Things went very well for the first 50 or so miles of the race - fairly easy paceline the entire way, averaged a little under 22MPH. At about 50 miles, I dropped to the back of the paceline for package of Vespa and a gel. Unfortunately, I ended up dropping too far off the back, and wasn’t able to rejoin the main pack. What I should’ve done at that point was to simply tuck down on the aero bars, not worry about trying to catch back up with the main pack, and ride my own race at that point. Unfortunately, that’s not what I ended up doing…
About 8-10 miles later, with my heart rate jacked way the hell up and my legs on fire, another rider caught up with me who had also fallen off the back. We were still able to see the main pack ahead of us, although they were starting to recede into the distance. We decided to trade pulls for a while and see if we could bridge the gap to the main pack. A valiant effort, but it was too little, too late at that point. We got back to the start/finish point just a little after the 3 hour mark, and the other rider (one of the 12 hour racers) was sent back out onto the 69 mile loop, while I set off for the 19 mile loop solo. I was feeling more beat up than I’d hoped at that point, but given that this was the race for this season, I set off on the 19 mile loop to hammer solo. I remember very little of the 19 mile loop, except that I saw pretty much no other riders, I pushed as hard as I could, and I hurt. A lot. I got back to the start/finish point feeling very nauseous, with really bad leg cramps. I stopped for a few minutes at the start/finish, had Kathleen try to work some of the cramps out of my legs, and climbed back on the bike.
At that point, I very quickly realized that most of what I’d had to eat was going to leave my body. Suddenly, and explosively. I spent a few minutes hunched over the toilet puking my guts out, then got back on the bike. Luckily, the stomach cramps from vomiting did a good job of covering up the leg cramps.
At that point, 6-hour racers were directed to the 8 mile loop. I got in my first 8 mile loop, got back to the start/finish, and realized that I was on pace for a huge improvement over my 100 mile PR, and set off for another loop as quickly as possible. Roughly half-way through my second 8 mile loop, I hit 100 miles at an elapsed time of 5:17:40. I finished the second loop at 5:37 with nothing left in the tank. At that point, I decided to stop, given that I was completely cooked and I’d broken two PRs:
- New 100 mile PR - 5:17:40 (34:50 faster than my previous 100 mile PR, which I set only about a month and a half previously! Additionally, my previous 100 mile PR was done entirely in a paceline)
- New PR for this race - 105.4 miles
Fourth place finish in my age group, 6th place overall in the race. Average speed during the 5:37 that I was racing, 18.8MPH (did not stop my Garmin during refueling/visiting Pukie The Clown). Average heart rate 147BPM, maximum heart rate 172BPM (77% and 90% of my max heart rate). This is the first year that I’ve done this race and had no questions at the end that I gave it my all - I wish I’d been smarter about pacing in places, but in the end, I’m happy with my performance.
I’d like to thank the following people, without whom this wouldn’t have been possible:
- Kathleen - for putting up with living with a cyclist, for driving with me to the race before 5 in the fricking morning, and for putting me back on the bike.
- Wild Card - riding, racing, and training with y’all has improved my game immeasurably - looking forward to much more!
