Coming Together

It looks like things might be finally coming together for me in the race world.

This weekend was the Widmer Bros. MTB Marathon at the US Whitewater Center in Charlotte NC.

With some major storms rolling through I waited until Friday to register. Races at the Whitewater Center have been canceled in the past due to a little rain and I didn't want to go through that again. Just to be sure I called South Park Cycles, the sponsoring bike shop. They first asked me if I was crazy for even suggesting that the race might be canceled, then went on to tell me that there was no way it would be cancelled.

So, I registered.

Then we headed down to my folks place in Charlotte for the weekend. Friday night at 9pm, I had a nagging feeling that the race still might be canceled. I checked my e-mail and sure enough there was a message from the promoter saying that the trails were currently closed and we should check back in the morning. Let's just say that that did not help my stress level.

I managed to get some sleep and checked again in the morning but there were no updates. After getting up at 6am I headed out the door to the race venue, not sure what to expect.

I got there, hooked up with friends and got set up. Then came the announcement of a 1 hr delay. Not good. The forecast was for 88 degrees and it was already hot and muggy at 8am. This would push the end of the race deeper into the heat of the day. And we all know what heat does to me.

The start finally rolled around and we took off. I was careful to maintain my target pace but still managed to go faster than I wanted to. After 1 mile, I started letting people go past, I had to as I did not want to maintain a high pace so soon in the race. After about 4 miles I settled in to the pace I wanted and ignored the riders going past me. At one point I pulled over to let about 10 guys go by, they said thanks, I said " See you around mile 30", they laughed. It was all good we were racin'!!!

Lap one went by and I was on to lap two. I was feeling good, drinking and eating, and most importantly sweating. The lap 3 rolled around. Halfway through the race, the temps were rising and I was feeling good. So, I went out, excited, but cautious. But in my excitement, despite my caution, I let my pace pick up. Then I started catching people, lots of people. Then I really felt good and failed to keep my pace steady.

I rolled into the pits for my last lap. Jubal had been a little sick so had stayed at my parent's house with Rhonda for the morning. I had to mix my own bottles with the help of OJ and Lindsey. So, I did. But 1/2 mile into the lap I realized that I had not added nuun to my bottles. Bad mistake. The trail looped back around close to the pits, so I grabbed a bottle, laid my bike down and took of running. I must have looked crazy running up, yelling at OJ that I forgot my nuun!!!!

Halfway through the 4th and final lap it was very apparent that I had spent too much on the third lap and probably a little too much on the first lap. One of these days, I am going to invest in a HRM that is PC compatible so I can find out exactly where I am spending my energy.

By this point, it was getting really hot. I found out later that the temps were closer to the mid to upper 90's. I was getting really hot despite keeping my pace really slow. I was experiencing some light nausea but was managing that. Looking back, and comparing to the last race, I'm thinking that I again had too much sodium in my race diet. I had doubled the amount and I suspect that as the cause of my nausea. I decided to play it safe and jump in one of the lakes that we had ridden past 3 times already. The lake was luke warm. Thoroughly soaked, I rode on, spinning the cranks and not getting too excited. The last lap went on forever. At one point I though I was almost done so I picked up the pace and realized that I had a ways to go. I got passed by a couple of people who I had passed the last lap.

When I finally came out into the open at the WW Center, I was pumped, I still had some left so I stood up, shifted and hammered to the finish, hoping no one would step out in front of me, I rode across the finish in 5h43min. I pumped my fist in the air, and punched the ez-up tent that was over the finish line, ouch.

Preliminary results showed that I was 17th in my category. I'm very pleased with a top 20 result.

And to top it off, I was on a sweet bike that I really help smooth out the rootyness.

Have a great day.