It's nice to not have to get up super early for a 6-hour so I slept in until about 7ish. ;) Once Matt was up, I made breakfast and took my time getting things ready for the day and we hit the road a little after 11. Since it's only an hour or so away, we had plenty of time to run into Target to pick up a chair, Cokes & Snickers as well as grab a quick bite at Subway. By the time we got to Blankets, unloaded, set up, registered, etc., we had more than an hour to just wait . . . in the heat. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I hate the heat but as long as there was a breeze it wasn't too bad. I drank my water and had a Larabar and tried to stay cool until the race started.
After the racers meeting we lined up our bikes and joined the group for the oh-so-fun LeMans start. My first lap was going good early on . . . I do much better on descents when I'm following someone and I can usually keep Matt in my sights long enough to follow his lines. At some point, I wasn't behind him anymore and I could already feel myself tip-toeing into falling apart. I had chills early on and I couldn't find a good place to drink from my bottles so I was starting to panic a little. When I was finally able to take a drink, all I had was warm Perpetuem and warm Gatorade ~ YUCK! :( I left my Camelbak at the pit b/c I didn't want to run with it and it hurts my back so I had hoped to just have it there just in case. I felt nauseous then hungry so it was pretty obvious this wasn't going to be a good day for me . . . all I could think is "epic fail" (probably b/c I had that KP song in my head all day).
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| Photo by Colin Smith |
I finished the first lap and really just wanted to call it but since I entered the expert/open class, I felt like I should just tough it out and hoped it would get better. I was hot, hungry and miserable, but I grabbed my Camelbak and headed out for another lap. The 2nd lap was probably the worst . . . I'd just pull off to the side to let people pass so it was stop & go for the first few miles of that lap and I felt like sh*t. Lap 3 was a little better, not great but better, and when I finished, I saw Matt at the pit! I was so happy he was still there b/c I needed someone to ride with . . . there was never really anyone in front of me to chase in the previous laps so I was in survival mode rather than race mode the entire time. I took a little more time in the pit this time trying to catch up on an already failed nutrition plan but we rolled out for lap #4.
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| Photo by Colin Smith |
While the legs we pretty much dead, my spirit was a lot better . . . thanks honey! At some point on this lap, Carey came up around us and was really nice about having to lap me. I watched her ride away, legs just-a-spinning . . . so jealous but she’s worked really hard to get to be such a strong rider! Maybe one day I'll get there! :) We rolled in a little after 8 so there wasn’t enough time for another lap. I checked the results and there were still only 3 in my class so I was on the podium! :) We had already packed up before the awards and we were starving so we hit the road and scarfed down some Wendy’s on the way home. The next day, I was pretty much on and off nauseous all day and it was really bad that night. Thankfully I fell asleep and was back to normal by Monday morning which is when Matt started feeling sick. He talked to a sports nutritionist friend of his and she thinks our glycogen stores were depleted. We have been eating primarily Paleo for close to 2 months and it hasn’t really been an issue probably b/c we haven’t been racing or doing any really long rides. I need to have a better pre-race/post-race plan. I’m not sure if it was the timing of the race or just a general lack of preparedness b/c we didn’t really have anything to eat after the race either and it was probably about 1 ½ hours from the time we were done until the awards . . . bad planning.
Oh well, live and learn! It was a great event ~ well organized, awesome volunteers and bike patrol, and real-time results from the local wi-fi and I won a little money for dinner!
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| Hope I never have to use this! |
Now it's time to get ready for Fool’s Gold this weekend . . . 30 or so ladies in the 50-miler!!! Should be another great weekend!
"Try and fail, but don't fail to try" ~ Stephen Kaggwa
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