Laramie Enduro 111 km race report

Did I say these posts were going to be short? Nevermind–I lied. Grab a cold one and come racing with me!

Now finally, the post you’ve all been waiting for – oh wait, it was me that was waiting, no dreading, August 1 ever I signed up for the 70-mile Laramie Enduro Mountain Bike Race in Wyoming since one cold day last February, after all the pain from last year’s endurance races had faded and I couldn’t wait to get back on the bike again. The fact that my husband and a bunch of friends had signed up for it, and the rumors of top notch aid stations and awesome after party entailing free Fat Tire Beer and delicious food made it easy to click the little “ENTER NOW” button.

However, with the daily deluges in Utah this spring, then work, vacations, and something akin to swine flu, my training was essentially packed into the past two weekends and I was seriously worried. Since Drew and I have been on nearly opposite work schedules, we didn’t get to train together like we did last year, which is one of the reasons we do these things. I was fairly confident I could finish this race, but felt pretty sure it was going to hurt, and hurt badly.

THE LEAD UP

The caravan of Revolution/Peak Fasteners race team members Rhandy, Bob, Jim, Steve, Alison, Jen & Shannon, Jenelle & Ryan, Dick, Greg, Jeremy and even our long-lost teammate Brad from Calgary descended on Laramie. Cousin Milissa from Loveland, Colorado was there to support her husband, Christian, who had an even bleaker training schedule than mine and Drew’s. We all went out to carbo load on pasta on Friday night, and the mood became increasingly apprehensive as the rain came down in buckets outside and the forecast was for record low temperatures. Drew seems to thrive on cold, muddy racing conditions, but I am exactly the opposite, as proven by our race results at Five Mile Pass this spring. I went to bed in our deluxe king suite at the new Fairfield Inn feeling scared and wishing I could just stay in bed the next morning watching HGTV on one of the two flat screen TVs in the room.

RACE DAY

Saturday dawned clear and cold (45 degrees) but we each felt excited that the day had finally arrived. After the moderately crazy surge of 400 riders at the gun, I passed teammate Alison on the first fun singletrack. Alison has been riding strong this year and on our last long training ride the weekend before this race, she was stronger than me. Teammate Dick N. was just ahead of me on this second road section so I got on his wheel. He seemed surprised but glad to see another Revo rider so we hung together until after aid station two. On the second road section the wind, she was a blowin’, and we worked together (me = 10% of the work, Dick = 80% of the work and some other rider = 10%. Yeah, that’s a team player there, Jube.) I also passed the girl that beat me in last year’s American Mountain Classic (AMC) stage race. When I stopped at aid station 1 to get food, Alison pedaled through. I passed her again after aid 1, but never did stop worrying that she was right on my wheel. I lost track of the AMC girl, so I had to keep pushing because I didn’t know if she was ahead of me or behind me.

All my boys were ahead of me:

(Drew)


(Steve)

(Andy [That's one half of Rhandy. Sorry, no pics of Rhonda, but she was there with us.])

(Christian)

After aid 2, I knew I was slowing Dick down and told him to ride on ahead, but I was still riding like a mad woman for about the first 40 miles. I felt great – like I could go all day at just below my lactic acid threshold. I was pushing a heart rate of about 10 beats per minute less than I do in the short races, which I was a little concerned was too high, but darn it felt good to pass boys! The course was a good mix of buff singletrack and Forest Service roads which made the miles tick off quickly. The rain had produced lots of puddles and a fair number of black, mucky, cow pie-scented bogs. Two non-ridable stream crossings, one up to mid-thigh, did nothing to help thaw my feet, but the rest of me was not cold, for which I was extremely happy. My new ESI silicone grips kept the numb-hands demons away, and my awesome mechanic (Drew) had my bike tuned so well, even the mud bogs couldn’t stop my shifting.

BUT THEN...
However, at mile 40 and about 4 hours into it, I started to lose focus and became fatigued. The heart rate I could sustain dropped 7 or 8 beats per minute. As evidence to how tired I was, I floundered around for my flask of caffeinated energy goo at mile 44. Confused by my jersey pockets, (Really, jersey pockets? They are not that hard to figure out.) I thought to myself, “You can get it in a couple of miles at the next aid station.” There had just been an aid station at 42 and there wasn’t another until 54. Good thinkin’ there, Jube. You are a total mental machine.

I got some food and caffeine at aid 4, where I saw Dick again. I stretched a little and took off at the same time as Dick.

I was still very tired and struggling to keep focus. Dick seemed a little concerned. It was sweet of him to be looking out for me, but I felt I really needed to do this on my own, in my own space, so I sort of got a little short with him and told him to just ride his own race. Sorry again, Dick – you are a gem.

ARE WE THERE YET?

I struggled up the big climbs (At least they seemed big. At one point I remember looking at the only slightly uphill trail ahead and thinking, “Wow, this would be a fun, fast middle chainring cruise if I wasn’t so tired.” I looked down and I was 2 gears from granny! Man, perspective changes after 6 hours on the bike.) The caffeine started to kick in and I found my rhythm again. I passed two women who I thought may have been in my category, but who I later found out were in the Open (faster) category or the 20-29 (younger) category.
I pulled into aid 5 almost in a fog. I was greeted by Jim. Jim? What was Jim doing here? He normally smokes me.

(Jim)
“Jim, is that you? I can hardly see you,” I said. When I do long endurance rides, my right eye has a tendency to get blurred vision. I think it is because I dehydrate? The doc doesn’t know either. Anyway, both eyes were quite blurry at this point, severely affecting my depth perception. (This is why, I tell myself, I must stop this crazy endurance racing business.) Dick was there at aid 5 too. I didn’t care, I just wanted to push on and was afraid if I stopped too long I would lose momentum. I grabbed some food and headed out for the last 7 miles, feeling, remarkably, stronger but more delirious with each mile. As I began to hear the wonderfully noisy cars on the glorious highway and I could see the forest opening up to the finish line, I wept a little – I had done it!

THE RESULTS

Perhaps it was my low expectations of finishing in the middle of the pack but wanting to prove myself wrong, or maybe it was catching site of the girl that beat me last year at the American Mountain Classic, or the fast new rear tire Drew put on for me the day before the race, or maybe even my new training formula from Wicked Fast Sports Nutrition, but I pushed hard the whole race and felt like I had probably pulled in a respectable time at 7 hours 30 minutes. My goal had been sub-8 hours and I had achieved it. My stats for the race were: average heart rate = 155, max = 173, 69.0 miles, average elevation 7900 feet, calories burned = 4153.
We were all happy to finish!

As Drew and I were feasting on the super yummy post meal buffet and drinking delicious Fat Tire beer...,

(Alison and I like beer. Especially me.)

(Ryan and Jenelle are WAY, WAY, WAY faster than me. Maybe because they don’t drink double fisted.)

Saffell came back from the results board. He informed me I had placed 4th overall in the Sport women group! I went down later and figured out that I was actually 2nd in my 30 to 39 age category - a finish much, much higher than I had expected, and I had beat the AMC girl by 42 minutes.

(I think it is funny that this is the highlight of my summer and that the third place woman, who I only beat by 2 minutes and 22 seconds [in a 7.5 hour race!], is up there with her kid. Maybe I should chill.)

My podium prize was this nifty gear bag with flames on the handles, a limited edition Laramie Enduro pint glass, and a cheesy medal.

We had a good time with Christian and Milissa. We were all so happy to see Milissa at the aid stations cheering us on and giving us updates. She also took most of these great action shots. Thanks, Milissa!

The mud bogs were something else though. After the race I couldn’t get my shoes off for all the mud gooped in the buckles, the Velcro didn’t work anymore, and my poor bike was barely able to hang on and shift for me. It might take a little work to get it ready for the next endurance race.

Meet Bobke

Through friends, we came across an opportunity for adventure that we couldn’t pass up. With an inoperable engine, this beautiful 1980 Volkswagen Westfalia camper van had been sitting in their driveway, weathered, rusted, and yearning for fun. For just a few Benjamins, we are now the proud owners of this Westy we have christened “Bobke”, named after Bob Roll, a favorite cycling commentator. The adventures started minutes after the transaction -while towing Bobke home, ...

(See the grand daughter VW Bug coming up along side to visit?)

two blocks from our destination, the wheel went rolling off across the road. Luckily we were able to find three of the lug nuts and drag him to safety. Sure, he needs a lot of TLC,

but we are already dreaming of evenings spent in some remote outpost kicking back with a cool beverage from the mini-fridge and a fried ham sandwich made on the mini-range.

Three Years

Lucy had another work trip to install spring monitoring gaging stations out in Snake Valley in mid-July. Because Drew is a junior captain, he has been working weekends. This meant Lucy and Drew were not going to able to spend anniversary #3 together or even see each other for 12 days. To make lemonade out of lemons, Drew drove out to meet Lucy and celebrate wilderness style! Drew got to experience the posh comfort of the Utah Geological Survey’s 14-foot travel trailer accommodations at the Border Inn RV Park.

We dined at the 5-star Border Inn Restaurant and had a special surprise giant cookie dessert Drew brought with him from SLC.

The next day, while Lucy and her coworker Aaron finished installing another gage, this time with some serious physical labor of digging a 240-foot trench by hand and sawing concrete


Drew set up our wilderness hut (tent) in one of the best campgrounds either of us had ever stayed – the Baker Creek campground in Great Basin National Park .
We enjoyed a fabulous hike through the bristlecone pine grove up to 10,800 feet on the Glacier Trail


Caught a great view of the dissected alluvial fans along the northern Snake Range,

and later returned to our cool and shady nest for the night. A deer visited our campsite,


and although pit toilets are not the finest choice of facilities, this one has got to be the nicest pit toilet on the planet.


On the drive out we wondered if this funny sign was just a joke

But no, in fact, an actual marmot was on the roadside not 50 feet from the sign.
Another wildlife sighting was this gigantic beetle. This thing was 2.5 inches long.

To commemorate three year of marriage, what does a cycling couple that went mountain biking on their honeymoon do but go biking! The last day of our trip involved a short, hot ride in Nevada’s Snake Range exploring abandoned mine shafts and the most amazing patriotic display of wildflowers ever.

The sego lilies, Utah’s state flower (pic above) , were more abundant than we have ever seen them in Utah, and together with the red Indian paintbrush and pretty blue larkspur(?), we practically had to stop and sing the Star Spangled Banner.

The Biggest Party Powers Lake Has Ever Seen

A week after Lucy’s whirlwind trip Drew and Lucy went for a full week vacation back to Powers Lake. The occasion was the Powers Lake Centennial Celebration. The Class of ‘88 had our 21-year class reunion in conjunction with the big goings-on. There were two parades...

(This is main street Powers Lake.)

(Family watching parade.)

(One odd motor vehicle.)

(The guy in the bucket is my 2nd cousin once removed; his name is Jordan Lucy.)

(This contraption was, I guess, what you would call a motorcycle on steroids. I thought it was picture-worthy because the decal says "Uff-Da.")

...3-on-3 basketball tournament, kids’ games, two street dances, and multiple picnics. Drew was often confused by the interrelationships of most of the townsfolk, where a typical introduction might be, “Drew, meet Bonnie, she is my cousin’s wife and also my brother-in-law’s sister.”

It was fun to catch up with the old classmates* over a beer...

and piece of cake**.

It was great to see all the old gang: Noel, Skig, Snitch, Shanny, Rum, Steph (Fluffy), Oest, Bren, LB, Crow, and Shell-bell. I wish I could have talked with everyone longer.

*Readers unfamiliar with tiny-town USA might be shocked to learn that pictured above with the cakes is the entire graduating class of PLHS 1988 minus four: one who was driving her motorcycle to go camping elsewhere, another who lives only a couple hundred miles away but really didn't want to hang with us, and two foreign exchange students.

**OK, how weird is it that the sequential number in the file name of the picture of the cake above was #88?! Now that is Class of '88 karma! P.S. My neice made the cake.

Back on the farm, Mom put us to work digging rocks out of the ditch,

and tearing out some dead trees in her yard,

which provided fuel for a weenie roast in the backyard.

It is lovely, fresh, and green in ND this time of year. Mom’s house is right in the middle of it all: Mom's backyard fence doubles as the cow pasture fence as seen in the picture above, below are Lucy’s great nieces and nephews posing in the just-flowering canola field 50 feet out the back door of Mom’s house,

here are the cows behind Mom’s driveway flowerbed,

and here is Drew playing in my sister’s kayaks on the lake Mom’s deck overlooks.

Speaking of the deck, how is this for a relaxing morning with some sisters?

Nothing like a week in North Dakota to slow life down and reconnect with family and friends.

The Weekend Wedding Trip

It has been an action-packed month since our last blog, and there has been no time to post. Over the next four days, we’ll post one short update each day to get up to the pinnacle of the summer – the Laramie Enduro Mountain Bike Race. But first:


The Weekend Wedding Trip

I (Lucy) made a whirlwind trip to my hometown, Powers Lake, North Dakota to attend the wedding of niece Susan to her beau Brandon. My last memories of Brandon were this little punk pestering my best friend Cindy and me when we were school girls. (Brandon is Cindy’s nephew.) Now he and Susan are all grown up and starting out on their own. They had a gorgeous night for the rehersal dinner at Brandon's land the night before the big day.

The wedding was beautiful,

the reception was nice, and my entire immediate family was in attendance. I had forgotten how much work is involved for a small-town wedding. Since the closest wedding planners and caterers are 75 miles away, the families usually do all the decorating and organizing and even handle most of the food, like making these fancy dipped strawberries until 1 o’clock in the morning on the night before the wedding.
It was cool to spend the summer solstice at this northern latitude, where sunsets go on forever and nightfall is held away until 11 o’clock.

Birthday #39

Here are a few pictures from my special birthday weekend. Drew worked until Sunday afternoon, so I invited friend Heather to ride a nice long mountain bike ride with me. The forecast did not look good, but the weather has been rainy for SO long here, that we decided to chance it. Our gamble failed and we ended up at 8000 feet huddled under a not-the-tallest-in-the-vicinity tree for 20 minutes while what another friend called “the most violent storm I have seen in Salt Lake” blew through. We bailed off the mountain as fast as we could, but ended up very wet, very cold, and very muddy. We had to call friend John to come rescue us from a sporting goods store and drive us back up the mountain to our cars. I owe him an interior car detailing.

To top off the day, I went home to a flooded basement. The water reached all the way to our newly refinished den. It got the new carpet wet and ruined part of the pad, but hopefully the dehumidifier will dry things out.

So birthday weekend was not starting out so great, but it got a lot better when Drew was able to get home in time on Sunday to join me to wait in line for an outdoor concert at Red Butte Garden (the same garden where we got married). As soon as we got in line, the rain started.

No violent lightning and hail, but a cold steady rain nonetheless. We were prepared with full rain gear, tarps, and a cooler full of beer and picnic supplies.

The rain drove many people away so we ended up in the front row only 30 feet from performers Bela Fleck and Toumani Diabate, who played banjo and the kora, an African harp-like instrument.

Not 5 minutes before the artists began strumming, the sky cleared and allowed us to enjoy a great concert. A few fun gifts from Drew and family capped off #39.

Little Red Riding Hood

This past weekend I did something I have been wanting to do for years, but alway had some other race or event going on, or I couldn't convince any friends to go with me. Finally, I rallied friend Rhonda and a gaggle of Association for Women Geoscientists friends (Allison, April, and Laura) to ride the Little Red Riding Hood all-women's bicycle ride. There were options for 35, 45, 62, 80, and 100 miles, so we split up according to our experience on the bikes. Rhonda and I chose 100, and as it turned out, fellow racer and friend Leslie also was planning on the 100, so the three of us rode together for the first 63 miles.

The luau the night before was OK, but they didn't feed us enough. Rhonda and I were considering a trip to Iggy's afterward to fuel up, but instead scavenged our friend's food and her friend's food. Thanks Laura and Beth for feeding us.

Leslie, ready to go.

Rhonda's big boo boo. Bad bike rack.

The weather looked pretty bad that morning, but by 8:30, we were feeling brave and removed our leg warmers. Bad mistake. Between mile 43 and 55 it dumped cold, hard rain on us. At this point I was bringing up the rear of the group, so I was not putting out much effort. I was getting cold and crampy so I announced that I was going to lift my pace so I could warm up. Leslie came with me and we pedalled hard for about 10 miles until it stopped raining. I was looking for a sheltered place to wait for Rhonda and missed a turn. Back on track, I was convinced she was behind us so I stopped to wait. 10 minutes later I figured out she must be ahead, so I blasted off to the lunch stop. I was so relieved to find Leslie and Rhonda there. Leslie didn't want to pig out on Subway sandwiches and cookies like Rhonda and me, so she continued on by herself. After lunch we slowed down, but ended up finishing at about 4:45 PM. Man, that was a long, long day of pedalling. My legs actually felt pretty good, but other parts of me were not so resilient.

The ride was well run and it was good to see 2600 women all committed to such a great ride.