Hurricane

Event 2 for the Intermountain Cup - The Cholla Challenge near Hurricane, UT (um, that is near St. George).

Kim and the kids went to visit the grandparents in sunny CA this weekend, so I drove alone to the race and camped in a tent. I haven't slept in a tent for a long time, but I used a blow-up air mattress, so it was comfortable and I slept very well after Reed and I did a one hour pre-ride of the course.

The course is pure desert. It starts with a fast bit of road which leads on to a short, technical-ish slick-rock section, and then a few minutes of rocky climbing with a couple sand-pits. This leads to a fast, rocky downhill, and then it is all pedaling for the rest of the course, with lots of sagebrush singletrack and 1,387,452 rollers, each about 1 meter long and half as deep (give or take). With almost no climbing and no fast descending, I wasn't expecting to finish up front, and figured if I made the top 3 I'd be quite satisfied. Thomas Cook showed up, and I expected he'd be fast. I also figured this course would suit Bp, and who else would be there?

In the morning before the race Reed announced he was going to change his tires and dérailleur cables. This seemed like a big repair to make right before the race, but I didn't want to tell him what to do, so I kept quiet.

Standing on the line I figured it would be a long race, estimating over 2.5 hours, so I wasn't overly careful about lining up in the front. As soon as we started I realized this was a mistake because 1) I was eating the front guys' dust (a lot of it) and 2) there was bound to be walking in the sand pit with so many people bunched together. So, I went into the first corner both fast and blind trying to catch up to the front -- amateur night. Down I went. I was up reasonably fast and wasn't in last place, but realized my rear mech wasn't working. I took a few seconds to find the cable housing had been pulled out when the bars spun in the crash. After a few attempts to fix it on the go, I stopped and popped it in. Now I was OTB and pushing to catch up. First I caught Brian Jeppson. "You start late?" I asked. "No, just slow." "Ya, right" I thought. He's never slow. Anyway, people were off their bikes in the first sand pit below the slickrock, and after that I was passing all the way up the slickrock and then up the climb after it. Passed a few more on the rocky descent, and somewhere around there hooked up with Hooptedoodle. The dryness was oppressive. About 75% through the first lap I gave him what little I had left in a bottle (I also had my Camelbak), because one small bottle per lap just wasn't enough.

I think he came off on the climb through the second lap, or maybe the downhill. After that I was alone for a while. I was starting to worry a lot about running out of water, but passing a few 19-29 experts and I think a pro or two kept me moving, and I figured this might be the pattern for the rest of the race. Then I finally spotted what I thought might be Bp and someone else. Maybe Cook? I happened to catch them on a fast, downish (hesistate to call that a downhill) turn, and passed both of them on the outside in the turn. There was a lot going on and I didn't really get a look at either one of them. The guy in the back had looked like Bp from behind, but his arms seemed too tan (I don't know, maybe I was already a little dehydrated or something?) I thought I saw red on the front bike, so I didn't think it was Cook, but wasn't sure if he was in our class or not. After going by I kept driving and was surprised that the front guy seemed to still be there. I kept glancing back enough to see someone was there, but didn't know who it was. After a few minutes I started to think he was just getting a free ride upwind, so I slowed slightly and looked back and then realized it wasn't the other guy, and was in fact Bp. I was glad to see him and figured we'd ride together for a while, but he actually didn't look very good. He told me the other guy was a pro and we were well out in front of our class. Unfortunately, he got some chainsuck or something early in the 3rd lap and slowly slipped back after that.

Meanwhile, I'd been rationing water for too long, and was starting to feel the effects. I was trying to build enough of a lead that if I cramped from dehydration I could still win, yet not push too hard and speed the dehydration. When we had gone through the start of the 3rd lap I asked Shannon B (who was spectating) for a bottle, but his bottle was a big thing that didn't fit in the cage so I dropped it. I then stopped on the rocky downhill and picked up a bottle that had presumably fallen from someone's cage from the jostling. It has a little drink in it and I drank that. I asked a couple riders as I lapped them if they had extra, but they didn't. I asked a lady at the far out aid station, and she had a bottle with about 2 gulps in it. I then picked up another bottle someone had discarded in the back section and got 2 more swallows. By the time I finished, I was excited to win, but I was toast. My HR was really high and I know I wasn't going super fast. My lap time for the 3rd lap was 2 or 3 minutes slower than my first lap. I wanted to wait for Bp to finish, but I was in agony and wanted to get cool and get something to drink. I went back to the car and poured water over my head while I tried to drink some grape juice. That was too thick, so I went to water and then Gatoraide.

After a few minutes I walked to back to the finish line and found Bp laying in the dirt under a bush and evidently feeling every bit as good and I was. We talked for a minute, but I had to sit or lie down, so I borrowed the back of the Pogue's SUV, and then a chair in the Revolution tent.

After recovering sufficiently, I went to look for Reed, but I later learned his pre-race repairs had not worked out well, and his bike was shifting every time he hit a bump, he had tried to fix it, found himself way behind, and abandoned ship after the first lap.

So, Hurricane turned out to be a tough race that left me totally spent. I feel both excited about winning and gratified with the maximum effort.

Today is both Easter and Ian's birthday. Since the family is in CA, I've been sad to miss both events with them. As a kid, Easter was always one of the holidays I most anticipated, and I still have fond memories of waking up Easter morning to find a basket next to the bed and then going out to hunt for eggs. Ian has been really excited about his birthday this year. We had a party for him a couple weeks ago, and he was jumping up and down with every present and spent weeks thinking about what kind of cake he wanted. It is a fun age. I guess if there is any upside to them being gone today, it is that I've had a chance to rest and recover.