16 years in the making - My first WIN

Did my first race in 1989. Today I got my first win ever.


(There are only 4 names, but you can pretend that there are bunch more)

Pipestem Challenge

Last night was a nightmare (read the previous post for info on part of it). My nose was completely stuffed up and I think I had some sleep apnea because of it. Cause I woke up like 15 times, and each time had vivid recollection of the previous dream. In the morning I was in a baaaad mood. Sulking and stomping around cause of being so wishy washy on the race pretty much having decided in the middle of the night to bag it.

Finally my wife said some magic words.

I think you should go. What's the worst that can happen, you'll have to drop out.

And with that, I was all of a sudden in race mode and 100% focused. Finished packing and was on my way. Have give deep appreciation to my wife for understanding me and knowing that I needed a some encouragement to go and would feel better for going.

With the bike and wheel racked on the roof it is like having a sail. Wind gusts were in the 50+MPH and I was blown around the highway on the trip up. With each gust wondering what have I gotten myself into. There was just a dusting of snow on the ground..UNTIL I got up to Princeton to get onto 77. All of a sudden there is like 4+inches of snow. Wet soggy snow. Made it up to Pipestem and pulled into the lot. walking over to registration, the wind is howling, there is snow all over that is quickly melting. Some guys coming off the course from pre-riding were soaked and muddy.

Paid my fee, and proceeded to get dresed. Not sure what to wear. don't want to freeze out there, but don't want to overheat which is easy to do on the mtn bike with slower speeds and being out of the wind. After warming up some ended up with thick long underwear(similar to under Armour), jersey, and vest. Thick tights and booties. Mistake on the thick tights and booties as we'll soon see.

Waiting for the start is the absolute worst part for me. Hate it. butterflies going round and round. Listening to others chatter. Argh worst part. Once the horn goes, then all is well.

The start was partway down this fire road. A couple of big huge puddles and deep mud, and rivulets of water running down the road. Experts started in one wave, then sport then beginner. No clue how many in Vet sport class. Start was ok, you know that feeling of going harder than you are ready for. Need to get a better warm up routine. Passed a bunch early on then settled in to a rhythm. Top out, cross the main road, then paved road down to the little lake. B4 you get to the lake you head onto some single track. Flat for a short stretch than down to the lake. Muddy, mostly thin watery mud but several thick bogs. Hard to go fast cause of overriding the brakes. Short muddy grass hump to a fire road climb.

Pretty sloppy everywhere. Needed very light touch on the bars, lots of body english to keep going where you wanted too. Really stoked that my skills came back to me as I've been on the mtn bike all of 3 or 4 times in the past several months. I also remembered some tips from riding in the mud from the muddy years at 24 hrs of Canaan. Ride where the water is. Water doesn't find the easiest way for nothing. Under the running water is usually the hardest ground with the best traction. Lot of people were looking for the deep ruts to ride through and ended up boggin down or running their front tire into the rut.

It was sogggy, wet. Soaked on the front pretty quick. Booties were pointless, as the first big puddle my shoes are soaked inside anyway. Just ended up adding big weight. Thick tights also weighed down. And since I was gonna get cold and wet anyway the thick tights were just dead weight like the booties.


We started climbing out from the lake and turned onto this steep really muddy fire road. Granny grinder until you spun out, than hike a bike. My granny started to chain suck here. And I never went back to the granny the rest of the race for fear of total lock up. Actually turned out to be sort of a blessing in disguise. There were pleny of places where I could have used a granny, but opted to grind slow cadence in the middle ring. This actually gave me better traction on some wet rocks, as the granny would have put too much impulse power to the wheels and spun out. So I ended up cleaning several tough sections that others dismounted on.

The climb left the safety of the trees and entered this grassy field. Still climbing with the wet muddy grass sucking every bit of energy. Wind gusts were screaming across this field perpenidcular to the riders. One gust blew me right off the trail forcing me to unclip. We cross over the main road again and to a single track downhill that lead to a fire road downhill. These downhills were really sketchy with the wet rocks. My brake levers were to the bars on these. Which also turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I could only slow down to a speed that was a faster than my normal comfort level, but wasn't so bad that I ever felt in fear for my life. And we all know that speed=stability. So I ended up rolling through stuff where normally I'd be going too slow and endo, or stick the front wheel forcing a dismount.

This downhill turned into the very same fireroad we started and back up we go.

All the way, I tried my hardest to focus on the present. My current song of choice to go over in my head is from the Who Tommy: Christmas. Normally I listen to fast pop punk during intervals but during a real ride, a slower song fits better with the real cadence or riding. Just trying to sing the song in my mind. Parts of the below verses over and over.

Did you ever see the faces of the children,
They get so excited
Waking up on Christmas morning
Hours before the winter sun's ignited.
They believe in dreams and all they mean
Including heaven's generosity.
Peeping round the door
To see what parcels are for free
In curiosity.

And Tommy dosen't know what day it is.
He dosen't know who Jesus was
Or what praying is.
How can he be saved
From the eternal grave?

Surrounded by his friends
He sits so silently
And unaware of everything.
Playing poxy pinball,
Picks his nose and smiles and
Pokes his tongue at everything.
I believe in love
But how can men who've never seen
Light be enlightened.
Only if he's cured
Will his spirits future level ever heighten.

And Tommy dosen't know what day it is.
He dosen't know who Jesus was
Or what praying is.
How can he be saved
From the eternal grave?

It worked pretty well. I'd catch myself thinking of being done or how I'd place many times but tried to get back into the moment. When I knew I was on the final climb, I changed to mantras from Rocky III


I had Carl Weathers yelling at me:

There is no Tomorrow.
There is no Tomorrow.

Over and over with each pedal stroke. Then I wasn't sure if I was Rocky and the course was Clubber Lang or the other way around but said over and over

You ain't so bad.
Is that all you got?
My mother hits harder than that?
Come on chump!

Part way up I started to feel the twinge of a leg cramp. Leg cramps have been the bane of my racing forever. Total lockup of the inner thigh and quads. Forcing granny gear spin or dismount and hobble. I wanted so bad to go up a higher gear, and I think I could have, but a quick strategic meeting in the war room decided to stick with the biggest cog in the middle ring. If I were to push to hard and cramp, then I'd have to drop to the granny to spin out the cramp. But if I did that I'd probably chain suck and lock it up and have to dismount, which would mean stiff legged hobbling up the road.

Topped out on the climb and rode to the finish. As I am stopped for them to remove my tag, my left leg completely locks up in cramps spasms. And I hobble away. No idea how I finished, just so happy to be done. Grabbed my recovery drink and spun around the parking lot till finished with it. The wind was howling, and I realized that I couldn't feel my shins, when I dropped my bike on my feet and the chainrings brushed my shins. I spent like 5 minutes in the cold wind trying to get the zippers undone on my booties. Almost pulled a knife out and cut them off. Quick hot shower and I felt great.

NOW I could start daydreaming of how I finished. Took my RC cola and bag of potato chips to the board and there it was. My tag first in the Vet sport column. First time ever with a win. Yeah boy. 1:51. Experts did 3 laps, first place was 2:09. WOW. Couldn't even imagine going out again. The singlespeeders were considered expert and also did 3 laps, brutal. At the finish line everyone was covered head to toe in mud.

Bike before/after



Lessons Learned:
Nothing ventured nothing gained
Almost didn't go to the race. May never win another race again in my life, but I've got this one to keep

Figure out why I'm doing this
I gotta figure out what is my motivation. Should not have needed someone to tell me to go to the race. It's not for fame/fortune cause who the hell is going to care about the result from a small regional race in Vet sport. It's not for my wife or my family, not for my coach. Gotta be for me.

Clothing
thick tights/booties were a mistake. Goretex socks don't do a whole lot but should have gone with that, and thin tights. Up top was fine with the thick long underwear and jersey/vest

Lemming syndrome
Fell into lemming trap a couple times where you just adjust your speed to the people around you, but a few times was able to break out and gap some riders, and close the gap on others.

Standing up
Gotta figure out this standing up thing. One trait of experts/pros is that they are always out of the saddle powering away. I tried it a couple times, and my legs were just screaming. Tried standing on some long climbs to use some different muscles, and it just seemed to tire me out and take me over redline than doing any good.

Nutrition/hydration
ate and drank pretty well. Had a flask of gel and camelback. Camelbak was still pretty heavy when I finished, so took too much water. Gel flask is hard to get to sometimes, will bring small bottle of energy drink to make it easier to intake quicker.

Whew. Pretty soar all over. No matter how I try, I can never seem to train as hard as I race. This was tough and awesome and will provide much motivation for those basement torture sessions.

I can say for a fact that my training program is working. I've been really worried that I'd be able to do a 2hr race with the really low hours in the saddle. We are talking 4-6hrs/week the last few weeks. Most sport riders do 10+ and experts 12+.

cya.