12 Hours of Gears

My camera didn't come out until the end of the day....

12 Hour men's solo podium (above) - Congrats to Brad (3rd), Ron (1st), Chris (2nd)! Chris and Ron both did 31 laps!

Team World Bicycle Relief - Chris, Kim (support crew extraordinaire) and Brad, with Chris' brand spankin' new custom Siren! Check out that translucent paint job (beneath the trail dust), the WBR color scheme, the sweet fork, etc etc....

As for my race story - there are many peeps who deserve thanks for making it a great day at 12 Hours of Gears. Brittany, Bill, Jeff and the rest of the Pedal Moraine crew for putting on a such a fun event. Rich Ramsey for starting the event 10 years ago (he was the lean fellow in the Seven jersey on a Seven softail doing the 6 hour). Kim (see above pic) for giving me a handup and for cheering. Julie, Ben and Amanda for their enthusiastic cheering and post-race tent hospitality, Christine for taking great pics of everyone who placed. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone?

Christine the "podium" photographer.

All week I struggled to recover from the effects of Lake Geneva. My back just wasn't bouncing back from the difficult, bumpy course. I had serious doubts about whether I should be doing this race so soon after, but I didn't want to miss one of my very faves....

I had gone to the Phil Liggett event at Turin Friday night. After that I had to get groceries for the race weekend and eat. By the time I started packing my gear and food for the race it was 11 or later. I had hoped for 8 hours of sleep the night before the race but ended up getting like 5 or 6. Traffic was slow at one point but it wasn't as bad as it could have been, considering all the construction. Pulling into the lot was such a familiar feeling, in a good way. Often at WEMS races, especially the far away ones, I have no idea who's going to be there. And I still often don't know until I see them out on the trail because the other events start before mine. For this one I knew ahead of time that lots of people I knew would be there that day doing one of the events. Good people and some of my favorite trails - I was really looking forward to it! And weather-wise, it was a perfect day.

I saw Kim as I pulled into the lot, and she said that Chris was in 2nd place and Ron in first in the 12 hour. Then I saw Jan, who was telling me she met someone on my team at a YMCA women's retreat near Amherst who knows me. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out who she was talking about. I did figure it out, the person isn't on my team but her husband used to be on our old team. At registration I noticed the nice brand new shelter built from funds from previous events. It looked great. All at once I did the series entry, race entry, WORBA membership and got an out of state DNR car sticker, it all sure adds up. They had lots of items out for the raffle. I like the way they have a container for each prize, so you can put all your tickets towards the prize(s) you really want.

I took my little cooler over to the World Bicycle Relief support tent to give to Kim, who had said she would be there the whole time during my race. Julie and Molly (woof!) came over during the rider's meeting. Julie showed me the results of her endo - a very swollen painful-looking finger. Ouch. I could see purple in it's future. She was a trooper and kept riding after she jammed it. Congrats to Julie and Amanda on their second place in the women's 12 hour team category.

Bill gave us a very understated "go", on the opposite end of the scale from Don's big Goooooooo! Thank you, thank you, to Bill for not making us run very far to our bikes - this was one of the most reasonable Le Mans starts I have ever done. Unlike Stump Farm's somewhat sadistic start where it seems like we are running forever, down the hill, around the trees and back uphill again! Looking around at the start, I knew for sure that a couple of the women were faster than I.

And off we went, up the grassy hill and funneling into that rutted chute thing. Into the woods and then we hit that longish uphill.. and that was where I knew it wasn't going to be a good day for me, much as I love the trails. As I got further into the lap, I realized that not only was my back going to rebel against what I was asking it to do, but for some reason it was one of those days where I felt like I had never ridden this bike on a trail before! (this is where some of you might say, isn't that every day?) But this was in sections that I shouldn't have any trouble with, not the new twisty bumpy stuff. My bike at one point on one of the early downhills seemed like it wanted to drift off into the woods. Things did get better in that respect later on, but not as much as I would like. I felt off the whole race. But the part that really scared me was that my back was doing stuff it hasn't done before. I felt really weak, among other things. During the first lap I really considered stopping at the end of the lap. But then I decided that I would keep going as long as I could, but at a slower pace.

I try to never quit a race. Wendy B. and I used to say we'd cross the finish line unless our arms were hanging by a thread... I tried to stand and coast over the bumpiest areas instead of sitting and pedaling, which has been my 2008 "strategy" so far. If I needed to run/walk over a hill so I could give my back some relief, then that was what I would do. That made it possible for me to continue. My lap times were slow, but I kept going. It was disappointing because this is one of the few courses where I can comfortably go fast and push myself without getting in over my head.

In the first lap Ben kept me company for a little bit on that long, deceptively tough, grassy climb. One of those that looks easy but is anything but. Thanks, Ben. The newly cut singletrack sections were really hard for me, which was evident to others. They were super twisty and super bumpy. Russell, more than once, told me I was "riding like a girl". He had a point! I saw lots of familiar faces on the trail who all seemed to be riding really well - Gina, Regina, Chris, Rich, Carlos, Ron, and lots of other people that said hi. Some of whom I know and some of whom I didn't recognize. I think I spotted Anne behind me at one point in the singletrack section - congrats on doing the 6 hour! It was really inspiring to come through the finish/pit area so many times and hear people cheering! Thanks, Julie, Ben, Kim and everyone else! When I wanted to quit, it really helped.

I found myself coughing alot during the race, I'm not sure if it was from the dusty trail conditions or allergies. At dinner people were coughing, and I found out they were during the race, too.

On one of the really fast, FUN long rocky downhills (the big bouncy two track one) I found myself in a testosterone sandwich of sorts. Someone came up superfast behind me and I didn't hear them until just before they started to pass me on the right. He might have said like a word or two once he started to pass, I'm not sure. At the very moment that he was passing me, another guy bombed past me on the left without saying a word. That was bad enough, but he whacked me on the shoulder/arm as he went by. Luckily I was able to hold my line, but it really hurt and could have caused a three-person wipe out in a bad place, with one of us going over the side. If he apologized, I didn't hear it. I realize that I wasn't descending fast enough for the guys, but wouldn't one at a time have been better? Anyone know a lean, possibly tallish guy wearing a white with yellow and black jersey without words on it? I later saw him coming out of a camper in the middle of the field. On Sunday I was telling the girls at Kettle about it and Sonni said that used to happen to her all the time in the six hour right after the three hour would start. The three hour guys would pass her on both sides at once. So I guess it's not that unusual.

So, on my second to last lap I was wondering if it should be my last. My first lap time was faster than all the later ones, and I wasn't sure if I could squeeze in another lap before the cutoff time. I knew I was slowing down and running out of steam. I decided to try and see if I could do it. This was where I wish I had better course memory. Some people always know what's next but I am not one of those people on a course I ride once a year. It was hard during the lap to gauge whether I was going to make it or not. Mike from Skinny's passed me and I told him I wasn't sure exactly how much time I had. I wasn't sure if my watch was the same, ahead, or behind the timing system. It would be a shame if I thought I had more time than I did due to not paying close attention to any difference at the start. First he said I had 10 minutes then he looked at his watch and said 7. 7 was what my watch said. As we turned the corner by the last Trek banner and got into the grassy open field I realized I might not be able to make it in the 4 minutes I had left so I pulled out everything I had. I passed Mike in the field and flew as fast as I could to the finish. I could see on the timing clock that I had less than a minute of wiggle room left when I crossed the line!! Whew! I think official timing had me at less than 30 seconds before the cut off time.

A much happier ending than one year at the Metro race at Crystal Ridge where I was dragging myself up that long ski hill watching the clock hit 8:00, then 8:01 before I crossed the line. That was painful, physically and mentally! (all the races used to end at 8 a few years back) One year at 12 Hours of John Muir, my teammates were doing a 12 hour team and we were all yelling into the woods for singlespeed Bob to hurry up, it was almost 8! We were all screaming for him to go faster, although we had no idea if he was getting close or not. He just missed it.

I got a chance to visit with people after the race - and I rested and chatted for a bit at the Half Acre tent after the race. Then I got a medal at the awards ceremony. I stuck around and saw the 12 hour racers finishing, and saw their ceremony and got the above podium shot. Afterwards I went to dinner at a yummy Mexican place with Chris, Kim, Brad, Ronsta, his friend, and the Peters family and friends, including Nate. I hadn't met the Peters family before. It was a fun meal. After that I debated on whether to drive all the way home, or to stay overnight and stop at Kettle on Sunday on the way home to meet up with the girl's ride. I knew that if I went home I probably wouldn't feel like driving back to Kettle that early.

Congrats to everyone on a great race. I saw a lot of really strong riders out there, very impressive.

I will add the rest of the weekend later. I'm finishing this up really late Monday night and I have run out of steam.

Gooooooo!

MOV03047
Originally uploaded by velocorapture

Until I have a chance to write up a post with Sunday's WORS race, Saturday's Monsters crit spectating, Fridays' get together, and Thursday at the Track , enjoy this video of Sunday's start! Today (still Monday) my free time has been spent dealing with team stuff and trying to download/upload photos. I didn't even make it on a ride or to the gym....

Urban Cycling and Bicycle Man

This urban cycling video is pretty cool. It reminds me a little of the trials events that they used to have at the big NORBA Nationals.

And speaking of videos, I found this video below while blogsurfing. A little rub-a-dub from the Bicycle Man. Gotta check this one out!

Answer Riddim sings: "Bicycle Man is what I am, and proud to be...."

Treadfest volunteers needed!

I am told that Club Tread could use more volunteers for Treadfest at Lake Geneva this weekend!

They would be really happy to have help for the entire day, but even if you only have a couple of hours it would help! Go to the WORS site to find the race director's contact info at the bottom of the page. Or leave a comment and I will forward the info. I think they might need some help on Saturday, too.

Last year I remember helping out with the kids' race - it and was fun. There are all sorts of things people can do.

Collegiate Nationals

Congratulations to Devon Haskell on winning the 2008 Division II National Collegiate road race, riding for University of Chicago. Quite an accomplishment!

Get your Liggettisms...

Chris D. at Turin told me that the price of tickets for the Phil Ligget lecture May 23rd has been reduced from $100 to $25, with proceeds going to the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. That made the decision easy for me, I'm now going. Should be a good time! He asked me to spread the word. He said they have been trying to get Phil there for a few years. He is flying from Europe, taking a nap, doing the lecture, going to Connecticut to tape a Versus broadcast, then heading back to Europe. Sounds like a great opportunity to me! Come on out, Phil fans and hear some Liggetisms. Link to tix here! Oh, and VIP tix are $100 if you want to be part of a small group that gets to hang with him before the lecture.

Congrats to my mtb teammate John S, whose business was listed in an article in Chicago Magazine about the 24 best plumbing companies in the Chicago area. I think everyone should call him and tell him they have a broken pipe! ;-)

I just read about clear/sheer Post-it Notes in the Cool Hunting email. I think I like that idea.

I was considering going to Kettle today and meeting up with the Killjoy folks to ride. I ended up not going, but after seeing pics of the various groups of WORS riders at Kettle today on Jay's blog, I wish I had. I had a good day here, but it still looked really fun.

Crane Attack at Kettle!

I just talked to Holly who was driving up near Kettle with Tom. She rode early in the morning and saw a big egg in the middle of the trail! It wasn't there her first lap, but it was there on the third. At the time she wasn't sure what type of egg it was, but after hearing what happened to Tom, I am guessing it was a crane egg. She said it was big and really solid and heavy, not like a chicken egg.

Tom was there later, in the midday, and was attacked by a six foot crane!! He said it was in the first half mile (I think) of the blue trail. It also attacked another rider, a woman with an expert WORS plate. It sounds like it was a really unpleasant experience for both riders. The cell connection was fuzzy, so I didn't catch all the details.

So Kettle Riders, beware this weekend. After hearing Holly's egg story, my guess is that they are laying their eggs around there and when riders get too near to a nest, they attack. I guess it makes sense since they don't realize the riders are just passing through and are not a threat, provided they don't lay their eggs on the trail. I don't know if a crane has a way to move it's eggs somewhere else away from human traffic, I imagine they can't easily pick them up and move them.... Has anyone else seen cranes at Kettle?

Klunkerz and E-Town

There's a nice article about Evanston night life in today's Tribune. I wish I took more advantage of the things they describe in the article! Can't imagine why they didn't mention the excitement of going to the gym every night in the winter or the thrill of dodging gaping potholes to go north to get to the north suburban riding routes... or driving by all the fun places to get to the expressway to leave town to go race in Wisconsin....seriously though, I feel like I'm gone so much during the season I don't know my own town. That's kind of sad.

I got a little "present" in the mail. Or at least it felt like a present because I forgot I had ordered it!! My Klunkerz DVD came today! I don't really have time to watch it in the next couple of days but I bet I will stay up late one night because I can't resist! Along with it I ordered Fundamentals, the Mountain Bike Technique Video. I hadn't heard of that one before, I hope it's interesting.

This week I have ridden every day but the rides have been strange. The best ride was Wednesday night. I had intended to go to a women's riding event but didn't go because I would have been late. I went for a ride, realizing when I got out there there were menacing looking black clouds to the north. A lean fast looking racer type guy and I were at a stop sign at the same time, waiting for traffic to clear. I looked at him more closely and saw his bike and realized we had talked once before, but he was wearing a different kit. He made some comment about the clouds and to my surprise, instead of him zooming on ahead, we chatted for the next 20 or so minutes, about all sorts of interesting bike-related topics. The Olympics in China, a bike product he is designing, one his dad is designing, was it going to storm or not?, carbon fiber, and so on. It was really fun, I love geeking out on bike stuff. It started to rain and he decided to turn around. I was a little more prepared for rain, so I kept riding. He only told me his first name, but I know it was Greg LeMond's son. I wish it hadn't rained, the conversation was really interesting. I should have turned around too, I eventually got absolutely soaked to the bone and was freezing. The kind of storm where you can feel your shoes sloshing, you can hardly see, and you wish you could peel all your clothes off before you walk in the front door to avoid puddles inside.

At the beginning of the week it was hard to dress right - it was always alot cooler by the lake than what they said on the radio or the net. So I'd dress for what it felt like, but even then one evening the temp dropped what felt like 10 or 15 degrees during the ride. Luckily I always overdress. I was still cold though. And when I'd dress for the lake temp, when I'd do the detour away from the lake to avoid the Sheridan construction, it would feel 5 or 10 degrees warmer during the detour, then the contrast would make it feel really cold when I'd get back to the lake. Yesterday it was downright freezing. I wish I had put on what I wear in 45 degree riding - because I think it was down to 50 or below while I was riding. The wind made it feel so much colder, I never really felt warm, and I would much prefer to be too warm than too cold. I took the L&M headlamp which was good to have. At the beginning of the ride as I rode through the construction on Sherman, in broad daylight there was a raccoon walking around in the street where the front end loader was and the big sewer pipes were waiting to be installed. He looked drunk, he was kind of walking around in circles. Later that night when I was driving a black cat ran in front of my car. Two animals sightings within a couple of hours, weird... anyone know how to interpret that kind of stuff (beyond the "bad luck" thing?) Supposedly it means something when an animal appears or visits you. The meaning varies with the animal.

Iola

First off I have to say race day at Iola was just gorgeous. Sunny day, course in great condition, and the excitement of seeing everyone after a long winter. There is something so exciting about the first race of the WORS season. I could hardly wait for this one, especially since I love the course.

All I could have asked for is maybe four more hours of sleep. I'd like to see how I would do in a race with a full 8 hours of sleep the night before! The drive up was rough due to tiredness and major allergy issues. Lots of sneezing, itchy eyes, scratchy throat, stuffy nose, all that stuff. I also stopped for a little while at a rest area to take a nap, which was a good thing, I felt much more awake after that.

In the morning I saw Dana at breakfast. I haven't talked to her in a while so I didn't realize they were coming to the race. It was nice to see her for the first time since Chequamegon. They must have left the race early, because I didn't see her later in the day.

There was a long line at registration and at the tent they said I couldn't use my race number plate from last year even though it was the same, so I changed to the new plate. I got everything done before my race started but only managed to ride up and down the parking lot rows once or twice for a warm up. I had hoped to get more of a warm up to prepare for the first hill. I had decided to ride the Blur instead of the Tomac. (I realized at Rock Cut that I am liking the Blur much more since I had the bars cut.) The seat was set higher, and I couldn't get back up on the seat once I got to the front row, so my start was a tad wobbly and people passed me. I missed an opportunity there for a great start - I almost never get to start in the first row. More people passed me as I struggled up the hill after the turn. Things got better after that. A girl in front of me took the good line I wanted to take down the sandy hill that goes by the start area. I wanted to ride it faster but I didn't want to leave the line and venture over into the churned up sandier area to pass. That was the beginning of the theme that played for the rest of the race - I often felt stuck because I was not aggressive enough or comfortable enough passing in the singletrack. I don't have the fitness to get the acceleration that I needed. I did have it in some of the open areas when I was able to pass people, but not consistently. I had the same problem again on the screamin' downhill that shoots you up the big hill. The two girls in front of me were taking the downhill really really cautiously. I am a cautious rider too, but I wanted to go much faster on that downhill in hopes of getting partway up the hill. Yet I didn't feel comfortable trying to pass two nervous people on the downhill. So I poked along behind them, having not had the fitness to pass them before. (I realize that many of you in other categories have the constant challenge of passing others and don't see what the big deal is, but I don't have as much experience with being the passer. We seemed to be closer together this time, and there were more guys with us.)

Anyway, many parts of the race were really really fun, and some parts were really painful. I walked some hills, and I had lots of company. When my back/legs started to really hurt vs. just ache I would give it a rest by walking up a hill, which worked really well as pain management. I lost some places, but I was able to finish the race. In the first lap I was just surviving, but in the second I started to warm up and got a little spring in my legs. My back was getting worse but the rest of me was starting to wake up. I was passing back and forth with several people, at least one of whom was in my age group. I didn't know most of the people in my age group in this race, which was weird, so I wasn't really sure who was who. None of the people that I was riding around seemed familiar except for a few of the teenagers. It didn't feel like the races last year, it felt really new and different, with so many familiar faces not there. We passed quite a few guys. It was fun watching people's strengths and weaknesses as we rallied back and forth. One clydesdale guy who struggled mightily on the uphills was super confident and fast on the downhills. Some people would pass me on the hills but I'd catch them on the flats.

It was only my second trail ride of the year, but I didn't feel quite as clumsy as I usually do at this time of year. I think that's because often my first race is one of my first times out on a bike that year, but this year I did more road riding in the winter than I usually do. I think it helped, although I still had my share of bobbles on the turns and roots.

In the fun singletrack on the back part (second part) of the course a big group of us got stuck behind a little boy (I mean really little!). I think we were all hoping to get a chance to pass when things opened up, but he held his own in the open stretches and we'd end up piled up behind him again. It was frustrating, but what can you do? You just have to be patient. That seemed to last forever, though it probably really didn't.

When we got near the end of the race, I was in the final stretches of singletrack behind a teenage girl that I had seen on and off the whole race. She looked familiar from last year. I wasn't that concerned that she wasn't going that hard until I saw that we had caught the person that I thought was first place in my age group. At that point a guy behind me was yelling for this girl in front of me to pick up the pace, since she was just poking along. That was when I really needed to have some nerve to pass in the twisty singletrack but I didn't have it. I made a comment that the person ahead of us was in my age group, but I should have been more direct and asked if she could let me pass. I thought there would be a long enough open spot somewhere but it just didn't work out that way. If the finish had been a little further from the place we popped out of the woods I could have passed the age grouper in a final sprint, but even then the other girl was in the way. So, due to my lameness, I lost first in age group by TWO seconds. I definitely had enough ooomph left to catch and pass first place, but apparently not the guts to ask for what I needed to do. It was still a fun race though, and I still love the course.

We had a good team turnout of ten people, considering the long drive for all of us. Several people moved up to new categories and quite a few people made the podium. It felt like a really good start to the season.

And getting to hang out and catch up with so many people afterwards was, as always, great. There are still alot of people I didn't get to talk to, so I hope I see some of you at Lake Geneva!

Don't try this at home

I made the mistake of trying this game. Someone that commented on a blog I was reading had a link to it. I should know better. I spent too much time on it when I had other things to do. My top score was 1808. I'm sure someone else can top that. I got a lot of 982's in the process, from lining them all up the same way, the domino effect. Think exponential not domino, for a higher score. No more for me!