How is it possible to have your best race and worst race of the season of the same day?
Easy. Take a wrong turn at mile 84 when you are winning the race and feeling like a rock star, go off course by 15 miles and subsequently loose thousands of dollars in prize money.
For the record, I wasn't the only racer who made this mistake. Lots of people got lost, including (at the time they took the wrong turn) the 5th and 6th place men, the 2nd place woman, and countless others.
Here's how it went down. We started off on a 4 mile flat dirt road to a 5 mile climb. I tailed Cheryl Sorenson for a bit on the flats and quickly passed her as soon as the climb started. About a mile later, Louise Kobin caught me and we rode together for the next 15 miles. She was climbing better than I was, putting time into me on every climb, then I would quickly catch her on the flats and descents. I had to let her go at mile 20 when we hit the same 5 mile climb again, knowing that there was no way I could hold the tough pace she was pedaling.
From mile 20-80 I focused on riding as hard, but as steady, as I could. I know that my body behaves the same way every 100-mile race, so I stuck with my strategy by riding really hard for the first 2 hours, backing of from hour 2-6 when I usually feel not so good, and waiting for my predictable 2nd wind. I have no idea why this happens, but I always feel the best in these endurance events from hour 6 and on.
Louise was 10 minutes ahead of me by mile 41, 6 minutes ahead of me by mile 69 and only 1:30 ahead of me at mile 79. I finally caught her at about mile 82. We were on a very steep section of climbing when I caught her which made me hesitant to attack because she had been climbing so much better than me the entire day. But, she looked a little tired, so I went for it. I attacked, passed her, and got a gap. I was feeling super strong, knowing that there was just a little climbing left and then it was all downhill for the last 13 miles.
Then disaster struck.
There was a left hand turn at mile 84 that was marked with white arrows (that we had been following all day). After those arrows was flagging tape. Little did I know, it was actually a turn that was intended to be marked for a right hand turn coming from the opposite direction from earlier in the course. It was highly confusing and there was no one there telling us where to go. The rule of thumb in 100 mile races (in all races, I guess) is don't turn unless it is marked to do so. So I did the logical thing at the junction, followed the arrows in front of me and took a left.
I had just fought SO FLIPPIN' hard to catch Lousie, I continued to hammer as hard as I could to increase my gap. I passed other racers with number plates on the downhill and I also passed 2 search and rescue people who were cheering me on. I had even asked the race director the day before if I needed to know the course, if there were any confusing spots and he said no. I didn't have a clue I was off-course.
I started to get that "oh-no" feeling when my odometer was going near 100. I turned around, started riding back uphill and ran into Louise, who had also taken the wrong turn without following me. She made the turn on her own, as I was out of sight when she turned. She said "oh-no I think we're fine." So I turned around and we kept going until we ran into the same water station we had been at at around mile 53. The poor guy who was in 5th place and took the wrong turn was lying on the ground with another racer who had also taken a wrong turn. We realized how *&@%ed we were and just sat on the ground in disbelief. Louise and I estimated that we would have finished in between 8hrs 20min or 8hrs 30min and that we were about 40+ minutes ahead of the 3rd place woman.
I haven't been racing that long, but this was the 8th 100-miler I have done and I have never gotten lost before. Louise has raced over 20 stage races and has never gotten lost. Yup. We were just as pissed as all the other people who got lost. Why? Well, beyond the obvious reasons, it seems that there were people waiting at that turn at some points during the race (Chris Eatough said there were people there when he and Jeremiah went by) but not when we were there.
The race director came and picked us all up and offered to drive back up to the spot where we went wrong. I think he just wanted to prove that it was our own fault. He was adamant that it was marked correctly and that they hadn't put course martials there for a reason-they weren't needed.
So, we drive all the way back up to the turn and guess what? There was a race official parked there in a jeep. Why? So many people had been taking the wrong turn after we did and were reporting to the aid station that people were getting lost, they sent a car down from the aid station to park at the turn to head people in the right direction. The race director recognized this, bit his tounge, and apologized. I decided then and there to get out of the car and rode the entire way back to the finish, making my official mileage for the day 120 miles. There was no way I was going to allow this to be my first official DNF no matter how cramped my legs were from sitting around for 45 min.
Even after going off course for 15 miles, waiting for a ride, driving around and waiting at the aid station, I still ended up coming in 4th with Louise right behind me in 5th. Louise and I rode the last 15 miles together, took it really easy, chatted it up and laughed a lot. It was a great way end to a really hard day. The silver lining on this dark cloud is that I met and made friends with a very cool, very nice woman! Lousie is an incredibly talented and super fast racer and I have always looked up to her for how well she has done in some of the world's toughest races. It was a very cool experience for me to be able to meet and ride with a role model and ask her all about her career. We are both sponsored by
Kenda Tires and have the same favorite tire: the
Karmas!Other than the experiece of getting lost, the race was well-organized and you could tell that the race director, Jim, his son Casey and countless other volunteers had put there hearts and souls into putting this race together. The aid stations were awesome-volunteers would see you coming and have your drop bag ready for you and it was a very easy race to do without having outside support. The downside was that the course was 100% fire, dirt and gravel road-not an inch of singletrack, so it was a rather boring ride. Plus, California had a very dry year and the moon dust was oppressive. It was very difficult to see the road if you were even remotely close to another racer. They originally had a bunch of single track in the course, but had to take it out because some environmentalists got their panties all bunched up over the race's impact. Hopefully, they'll put some more interesting terrain in next year.
Unfortunately, this was the greatest I had felt on the bike all season long. I felt invincible out there, so this is a tough one to swallow. But hey, it's only bike racing. I've got to keep it all perspective and realize that what's done is done and if this is the worst thing that has ever happend to me in a race, well, life is pretty darn good.
It is certainly not the way I intended on ending my already great season. It seems I may be on the lookout for another season finale. Stay tuned.
Me and Suze - a picture perfect Jackson Hole fall day.
