BreckEpic Stage 6 -FINISHED!!

Day 6 start. Lyna gave us extra smiles.

Me high 5ing Drew at the start. Photo by Lolly

Me at the start. Photo by Lolly.

Breck Epic is finished.  Stage 6 was hard, not because the stage was particularly hard, but because I was physically, mentally, and emotionally empty at the start line.  The stage itself was the perfect finish stage: 3300 feet of climbing, 30 miles, fun singletrack climbs and descents and gentle gradient fire road climbs and descents.  The volunteers at the aid stations and the other riders were festive. But I was so completely spent that I really struggled.  The one thing that got me through today was Drew.  He sacrificed his day to hang back and ride with me.  Even after he couldn't clip out on a tight switchback and sprained his ankle, he cheerfully pulled me through the entire stage!  He was my rock today and I know I would have been out there much longer if he hadn't been there to get me back on my bike after two emotional breakdowns.  

We finished in 3 hours, 59 minutes and 39 seconds.  

Drew and Lucy finishing together!

 We enjoyed a pickle, mayo and potato chip sandwich at the finish, just as a major hail storm broke out.  If it wasn't for Drew, I would have been out in it.

New favorite sandwich: pickle, mayo, potato chip on fluffy bread.

Andy loved the stage and made his goal of finishing in less than 30 hours for the week.  Brad finished strong in about 3 hours and loved the flume trail!

I need to pay homage to my Trek bike.  It performed exceptionally well this week. She's a good one!

My BonnieBlue Trek 9.8 top fuel

My cockpit I've been starting at all week.  The profile Andy made for all of us on the left. That was a lifesaver to know what was coming up!

         

The right hand side of my handlebars.  The "Blink" sign was a reminder I made to myself because I forget to blink and my eye dries out and my vision goes blurry.  The Eye Heart U is a little sticker Drew sneaked onto my handlebar this morning. I didn't notice it until the start line, but it helped get me through this day.

I'll do another post in a week or so after I've had a chance to digest this accomplishment. Right now, after a chill beer at the condo, we are headed to the brewery!!

First night bruised ankle.

Post stage 6 at the condo. Blogging in action photo by Lolly.

BreckEpic Stage 5 - a ridiculous hike-a-bike excuse for a stage

 

Look at our smiles at the start of stage 5.  I would not have been smiling if I had realized how incredibly ludicrous today would be. Photo by Lolly.

 

Drew (right) at the wave start. Photo by Lolly.

Me at the start. Photo by Lolly.

Stage 5 is promoted as the Queen Stage by the race promoter.  The course goes up and over Wheeler Pass and was to be some of the most difficult trail to ride, with significant hike-a-bike.

The first 4 miles were fine. A climb up a wide rocky singletrack and some gravel road to the aid station.  Another mile in the saddle and we started the ~45 minute hike-a-bike up switchbacks to a pass.  We knew this was coming and the views were incredibly beautiful.  There was a skinny trail descent.  After that, the day got a little bit stupid.  There was more hike-a-bike on a hiking trail to another pass where people were handing out fresh cooked bacon, skittles, and sour patch kids.  I took some skittles.  They were tasty.   

Andy and Drew at the bacon/skittle hand up station on Wheeler Pass

Hard to take selfies while riding at 12,500 feet.

The view from the top (photo by Drew)

Cooking bacon at Wheeler Pass.

Sunny skies before the storm rolled in. (Photo by Drew Jordan).

 Then some intermittently ridable off-camber hiking trail as the dark clouds built.  A right turn back UP to another mountain to take us hiking (on a hiking trail) on a wide open ridge line as thunder boomed around us and it started to hail. 

Last photo before it started thundering, lightning and hailing.

 The next 3 miles of hiking (on a hiking trail) exposed to lightning in a hail storm was so scary I felt sure someone was going to die.  I cried and would have turned around except that I figured the way back was likely longer (it wasn't). I didn't know I had 3 miles of hiking my bike on a hiking trail ahead of me.  Did I mention this was a hiking trail, and not a trail where bike should have been?  With 200+ racers pushing bikes in hard-soled mountain bike shoes and metal cleats, we did some serious damage to the wet trail.  I think Breckenridge Resort is crazy to let the race promoter run this race on their hiking trails.

The trail down off the ridge was gnarly.   I couldn't ride very much of it, and even less because there were hail drifts piled in the trail. I slid out once, tweeking my handlebars so they were sideways.  I straightened them as best I could.  Finally, upon entering the trees, the aid station appeared.  Luckily, my bag was there, but Andy and Drew's bags had not made it because the road into the aid station was too rough. Maybe that's a clue to the promoter to ditch this route!

After the aid station, we traversed through the trees on a trail that would have been pretty fun had it not been raining and making every little rock and root and bridge a slippery death obstacle.  By this time, my spirit was broken.  I was so relived to have not been struck by lightning, not have gotten hypothermia (I had enough extra clothes with me to avoid that), and not wrecked and broken my teeth out (one guy did), that I just rode slowly to the finish, hiking up every little hill that was too sloppy for me to try to ride.  About two miles from the finish, another thunder and lightning storm moved in and I felt sure they would pull us. But no, the promoter would rather just let us slow racers die. 

The end. 

The top pros finished in 2 hours 45 minutes.  The guys were around 5 to 5 and half.  My time was 6:22.  I think the last racer in was around 7 and a half.  That big of a spread is just a ridiculous way to run a race.  Bike races should be run on bike trails, not hiking trails, and no promoter in his right mind should send 200 people hiking on a 12,000 foot elevation ridge for 2 hours on a summer afternoon.  Ridiculous.  I'm still so angry I could cry and I've been off the trail for 6 hours.

I would not advise anyone to race the BreckEpic as long as the route for stage 5 is the same as it was in 2016!

Tomorrow is our last day.  I'll be ecstatic if I finish.

BreckEpic Stage 4 - what a difference a day makes

Stage 4, oh my.

On paper, this day should have been similar to yesterday's fiasco of a ride.  Today was 42 miles and 6300 feet of climbing with a 2000 foot hill climb on the back half of the day.  In reality, today was roses compared to yesterday.  I know a lot of it had to do my better attitude (I kept channeling Drew's positive energy "Just keep pedaling!", and with being better recovered today, but the trails were also a lot more fun and rideable.  Also, we only went to 10,500 feet instead of 12,000+.

Day 4 start. Photo by the lovely and ever-helpful Lolly Sneed

Whatever the case, I finished in a respectable 5 hours and 57 minutes. I think I was 5th in my cat. 

Drew had a rough day today, most likely  because my coughing kept him up last night. We will remedy tonight.  Andy flatted and that cost him some time.  Brad was strong and steady as always.
We've now completed 4 days of this endeavor. The end is in sight!

Blogging for you during recovery time using the poor-man's version of "Elevated Legs"

BreckEpic stage 2: fun trails, but Lordy it hurts

I was hacking all yesterday evening and into the night, despite chain-sucking on cough drops and a gulp of NyQuil before bed.  Poor Drew moved out to the couch around 11 pm.  My chest finally quieted down after a second dose of NyQuil around midnight. 

But by morning, I was feeling better. Jim, on the other hand, was not.  His 5 day old injuries got the better of him yesterday and he decided to pull the plug on BreckEopic 2016.  :-(

I was pleased that I was feeling mostly better, because today would be longer and harder than yesterday.  The route was supposed to be 39 miles and 6000 feet of climbing. 

Day 2 start. We were down 1. Photo by the lovely Lolly Sneed

Today's stage turned out 42.5 miles and 5800 feet of climbing on some fantastic singletrack.  The trails were really superb!  Nothing too technical, tons of flowing swooping trail through high alpine forest.  We were really out there today!  I came upon a guy who had just broken his collar bone 4 miles from help.  I told the ambulance at the next opportunity. I hope he is OK.

The fantastic-ness of the trails did not, however, make up for the fact that I was on my bike for 5 hours and 44 minutes.  Ouch!!  And it only gets harder from here.

In the end, I finished 4th on the stage and now I'm in 4th over all by a measly but huge 2 and a half minutes. That seems like a gap I could close if I keep feeling OK and don't have mechanicals, but at the same time, the ladies ahead of me are all able to beat me by 5 or 6 minutes each day. 


Andy and Brad rode together today and finished ahead of Drew and me. 

BreckEpic Stage 1

Way back sometime near the end of 2015, I decided I should probably race the BreckEpic stage race.  Drew did it in 2014 and said that if I wanted to do a stage race to conquer the lingering fact that I didn't complete that other one we did (BC Bike Race in 2007), this would be the one.  I needed a goal. We signed up.

So did some of our friends.We rented a condo.

Yesterday we took a little spin to test the legs at altitude, and make sure the bikes were working, and, most importantly for me, see if the cold I was coming down with was going to be a factor.

looking down to Breckenridge CO

 Things seemed ok.

the start banner and my Bonnie Blue bike

Until last night.  The cold moved to my chest and I coughed until midnight, when I finally felt so bad that I was keeping Drew up that I moved to the living room recliner so I could prop myself up.  That helped. I got about 6 hours of sleep.

Regardless, we made it to the start line.  

And that's where the smiles stopped. :-)

The stage was hard, but honestly, not as hard as I thought.  I tried to keep my heart rate down, knowing I have 5 more days at least as hard as this.  My throat was really sore and vision in my right eye got fuzzy only an hour into the race, but generally my legs and lungs felt OK, considering the ~10,000 feet average elevation of the stage.

I ended up completing the 35 mile, 5100 feet of climbing stage in 4:40, which is good enough for 4th place in the women's 40+ age category.  I didn't expect to be that high, so I'm worried I went too hard today.  We'll see tomorrow.

As for the rest of the gang, they all survived.  Brad kicked butt. Andy did too.  Drew came in ahead of me a ways, and Jim, with his recent crash, limped in a bit after.

Tour of S Utah Days 9 & 10: Mesa Verde and Bust

It has been a few days since we arrived home from vacation.  A couple of quick posts to finish the saga. 
Off to the Races
Friday morning we broke camp in Comb Wash quickly and rolled into Blanding for breakfast at the Center Street Café.  Tasty, especially after eating our own camp cooking for most of three days. We learned that Blanding is a dry town. Good thing we were there in the morning.
We motored on east, jumping into Colorado to get a campsite and reserve spots for our teammates at the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde Mountain Bike Race.  Drew and I have done this race three times, in 2010-2012. A couple of months ago we decide to cap off our vacation with this race and found spots on three-woman and three-man teams.
12 Hours of Mesa Verde is a super fun event on a giggly fun course.  We were looking forward to racing, however, as we rolled into town, the dude at the liquor store informed us there was a storm on the way.
“We’ve been lucky so far on this trip. I’m sure we’ll be OK,” we said. How wrong we were!
Friday afternoon we headed out for a pre-ride of the race course as clouds were building.  The course was in perfect shape, but the weather was a little chilly.  This lovely gopher snake thought it was cold too and wouldn’t get off the trail.

Gopher snake on the trail

But 30 minutes in the thunder and lighting and hail came down. We huddled under some trees to wait it out.

Waiting out the storm. I look happier than I was.

Post ride, we tried to stay warm and hung out with other hardy teammates in the gravel parking lot.  Not my idea of ideal vacation camp spots, but whataya gonna do.

Dinner in the parking lot.

Race Day

Our teammates Jennie and Devon opted to take the first lap.  Clouds were threatening and it was cold, but not unbearable.

LeMans start.

Little did we know, that would be the best conditions of the race.  As Drew and I were getting ready to go out on the next lap, the snow started coming down in large non-race-friendly flakes.


As we were waiting for our teammates to come in, the race directors called for a two-hour hold on the race to wait out the storm.  Each of our riders came in and marked their time, but the next riders (us) were not allowed to go out.  Since I had been watching bikes of other teams come in in bad shape, I was OK with just fine with that.

  My teammates bike was trashed!

Riders were coming in very cold and VERY muddy.


At 10:30, the directors held another meeting and continued another hold until noon.  We went back to our camps and warmed up in the van.  But the snow and rain continued.  Finally, at noon, the directors, with very heavy hearts, called an end to the shortest 12 hour race in history.
Since all the food and beer was already bought, they served it up and handed out awards and prizes.  It was an OK time, but everyone was really disappointed.

Make Lemonade

Reports were coming in that the weather was better in Moab so we packed up and headed back west.  With unexpected time on our hands, we were able to continue the theme of new experiences on this trip with a side trip to Newspaper Rock…

Newspaper Rock contains petroglyphs from Archaic, Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, Anglo, and Pueblo peoples

and Needles District of Canyonlands National Park

Once again, we found ourselves up against nightfall and out of time to hike in a spectacular setting.  We had to settle for pictures like any regular American.
Apparently lots of Americans like to feed the ravens in the park because this guy was not one bit shy to ask for a treat from his perch on my side view mirror.

Bold raven

We checked every campground inside and outside the park

Dewey, showing off to his Sportsmobile cousins who never get to leave Indiana.

but the inn was full so we ended up driving back most of the way toward Hwy 191 to find a nice spot for the our last night in Dewey during this trip. 

Dewey’s last resort.

So 12 Hours of Mesa Verde was a bust, but we got to hang out with friends and continue to have new adventures.

Race Report: 6 Hours in Frog Hollow

Last weekend Drew and I joined some other teammates and friends to race the 6 Hours in Frog Hollow mountain bike race.

The race is held on the Jem trail near Hurricane Utah. We rolled up Friday afternoon around 4 in time to set up Dewey at the race venue.  Since we were both in the solo category, we could park right along the race venue. 

 Just as we prepared to go spin the legs, Rhandy and Wilsons rolled up. Andy would do solo and the Wilson brothers were doing a duo team. Rhonda was there for the cupcakes.

The pre ride felt good and we were treated to stunning evening light on Zion National Park and surroundings. 

 The only thing missing from our post ride chill session was beer. None for the racers on race eve.

Race day morning we were just rolling off the top bunk when Brad and Lolly, John, and Wilsons rolled up in their cars.  Talk about sleeping in!

Start time was a respectable 9:00 am.  My kind of race.

My goal for this race was to ride hard but have fun.  I didn't care about how many 13.5 mile laps I would do. That all changed after lap 1 when I did the math in my head and realized that if I raced really hard, I could just barely make the cut off time to do a 5th lap.  Lap 1 wasn't so bad, how much more could 4 more laps hurt?  To add difficulty to my marginally-attainable goal, I wore myself out playing cat and mouse with another solo female racer on lap 2. 

A few times throughout the race when the course would double back on itself, I caught glimpses of Drew.  He seemed to be riding well.

My lap times were around 1 hour 12 minutes. By the end of lap 4, I had about 7 minutes to spare to make the cut off.  It would have been so easy to quit at 4, but I had given myself a goal and I had one ounce of energy left, so I did a 5th lap.  In the end, that last lap didn't put me any higher in the standings - I landed in 6th place out of 17 female solo riders - but I had the personal satisfaction of completing 5 laps and trailing my lap 2 rival by only 10 minutes.   I rode 66.6 miles in 6 hours and 22 minutes with an estimated 10 minutes of pit stops. 

Drew had a pretty similar race. He did 5 laps as well in 6 hours 14 minutes while stopping to help a ditzy damsel in distress change a flat. He was also the last rider in his category to complete 5 laps. 

After post race beverages at the camp spot, the group went out to dinner and then we parked Dewey at the Green Valley race course under cover of darkness.  We were out of there by 8 for breakfast and then I dropped Drew at a shuttle to take him to Vegas to work while I drove home.

When I got home after the 4.5 hour drive, I could hardly straighten my legs.  The rest of my Sunday was spent resting, while poor Drew had to fly to Atlanta in the back of a plane.

Hey, it keeps us young.