Firecracker Fitty

Ho hum, I wish it had gone better. But after hearing the stories of all the mechanical carnage on the course, I know it could have been worse.

The Summary: I flatted while in 5th place, lost about 20 min, dropped back to 13th and fought back up to 8th. I finished in just over 5 hours. I crashed so hard I have a bruise the size and shape of Texas on my thigh and hit my noggin' hard enough to give me a headache and break the visor off of my helmet. I am going to come back in 2009 with 2.3 downhill tires and a jersey full of tubes and CO2 so I can strategically hide them in key locations all over the course a week in advance.

The Details: A great way to spend the 4th! 800 racers lined up for this event and throngs of people lined the course to see us off. The race was the start of Breckenridge's 4th of July parade and it was a very rare treat to have people around that actually care that there was a mountain bike race happening. My parents were also there and even though I know they would cheer for me even if I was dead last in a knitting contest, it was great to have their support.

We started off with a paved climb up to a dirt road climb. I hung for a very short while in a paceline with Pua, Jenny Smith, Gretchen Reeves and the eventual winner, Sari Anderson. I quickly fell off the back, knowing it was a pace I couldn't, and shouldn't, hold. I settled into the 6 mile opening climb and waited for my legs to warm up.....and waited....and waited.

I made it to the 2nd aid station where Nate told me I was just 3 min. off the lead. I soon passed Pua who was standing on the side of the trail with her chain in her hands. She eventually would have to abandon. Bummer. Had everything gone her way, I know she would have won the race.

I started the descent into Aid station #3 riding too fast for my own good, but I was determined to make up lost time. I was descending behind some slower men on some nasty, loose dirt double track and couldn't see the trail very well because it was so dusty. I went for it anyway, caught the 5th place gal, passed her, then gapped her on the descent. I caught and passed a few more men and then caught up to one who wouldn't let me around. I decided to take a rough line to pass him and that's when I slammed a rock with my rear wheel and heard psssssssstttt. What?? I'm running heavy duty tubeless tires with a generous amount of stan's. No WAY!

I am so naive.

Lesson # 1: Flatting without a tube, stan's and all, is slower than carrying the negligible weight of a tube for 5 hours. Duh.

When I finally slowed to a stop, my tire was spraying stan's all over the trail like a sprinkler. I worked on it for a good 5 minutes, trying to get it to seal with my CO2, but no dice - and I didn't have a tube. I thought that UST tires would negate the possibility that I would even need one. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I rode roughly 7 pounds of pressure for the next 10 minutes down some really sketchy loose rock sections of trail, crashed once, and barely made it to the next aid station. Nate tried to get it to seal as well and had no luck. He threw in a tube lightening-fast like a pro, pumped it up to 37psi (rough riding for the rest of the day) and after about a 20 min delay, I was on my way again.

As I watched Nate fix my flat (thanks, honey) I knew I had a decision to make. Feel sorry for myself, say the race is over 1:30 in, and give up or deal with it and move on? Well, I'd always prefer to finish DFL than not at all when given the option. I had a quick pity-party for myself, yammered to Nate that I had just moved up to 5th and this sucked, yadda-yadda-yadda, blah-blah-blah, got back on my bike and started the long fight to catch back on.

Nate is so, so, so wonderful to me all the time, especially in races. But for this race he was an exceptional rockstar. I still don't know how he did it, but he managed to race me to the bottom and meet me on the opening climb with an extra tube for the next lap. We were afraid that I would miss my next feed because he had left the aid station at the top, so I chugged a bottle of recovery drink right then and there and went on my way.

Lesson #2: never chug anything before a climb.

I set out for the 6 mile climb and spent the next 30 min trying not to vomit. Then I gave up trying....I felt so sick I was convinced that I would have to abandon. I was trying for the first time ever to drink recovery drink mid-race to get the protein I needed for the longer effort, thinking it would help me stay more hydrated than eating bars. I won't be doing that again.

I started feeling better on the last part of the climb and managed to finally pass a number of girls who had passed me when I flatted on the way to aid station #2. I rode/walked with a gal on the hike-a-bike section and we went back and forth for a while on the climb. I finally pulled away from her when I was able to ride a section that she walked. I passed another girl on the descent to the last aid station, putting me in 8th place. I kept the battle going on the last section of downhill, convinced that I could catch another woman. Well, I was going waaaaay too fast entering into the last section of single track, aired off the entry from the road to the trail (which I had planned and enjoyed while I was in the air) but then landed immediately into a corner that during the pre-ride was solid, but after 800 racers had hammered on it all day, was looser and deeper than I expected. I washed out onto my left side, hence the Texas sized bruise, hit my head really hard and got a wake up call to slow-the-*#$&-down, increasing my chances of finishing in one piece.

Nate was at the finish shortly thereafter to wipe the dirt off my face and out of my nose and to congratulate me on a good fight. I had to agree with him-even though I made a bunch of mistakes, flatted and crashed twice, I had a blast and I never, ever gave up trying. I learned a boat-load of lessons during my first marathon race, the most important one being that I love this style of racing and can't wait to do more of them! It's like a really, really hard xc race, but longer, and like a 100-miler but your butt/hands/head/toes/back/eyeballs/legs/wrists don't hurt as much. A very happy in-between.

Could I have made the podium had everything gone my way? Waste of thought. I'll never know. It took the eventual 5th place finisher at least 10 min to catch up to me when I flatted. But that's mountain bike racing. It's a great and rare day when everything goes right. My teammate Andy Schultz was leading the men's race when he flatted and had to drop out. My other teammate Heather Holmes who is SO strong and has been riding really, really well lately couldn't even start because she was really sick the morning of the race. Tons of pro men and women pulled out because of mechanicals. My story is typical and most likely boring when compared to the other stories that went on out there all day. That's why this sport is so darn rad.

Endurance mountain bike racing gets people of all ages and abilities amped to get out there and ride, to push their limits and to have an adventure. An epic ride gives us all a good story to tell over a cold beer at the finish line. I think this is the heart-and-soul of our sport and I know that it is what will keep it thriving way into the future. How do I know? Even though all my training this year has concentrated on preparing for short XC races, as soon as I finished I was already starting to contemplate my next 100-miler. If anyone is planning on driving to the Breck 100 in two weeks, give me a ring.