Unlucky US
The good news is we finished, the bad news is our last stage was a horrible one...
Day 7 was so good - even with the flat tire we had a great result and moved up in the rankings. On paper the last day looked pretty benign - about 46 miles and 4100 ft of climbing - not too bad considering we were getting stronger every day! We were sitting in 110th place in the mens division with a chance to move up a few slots... Really we just had to have a normal safe race. Originally we were hoping for a top 100, but that looked unlikely as we needed to make up almost an hour on teams ahead of us.
So, our bad day started about 3am when I woke up with diarreah. I had a couple more bouts of it in the morning before breakfast, went and ate breakfast feeling a little uneasy, then came back to the room and promptly threw it all up. So, needlesss to say, I left the guest house kinda nervous about starting what should have been a 5hr race on an empty stomach! Before the start I managed to get down a dinner roll, three fig newtons, and some sports drink and wasn't feeling "that" bad.
After the start we rolled out on some paved road for few miles then immediately started a long bumpy climb up a canyoun we had decended the day before. I should mention that we started later as it was a shorter day - 8:30 instead of 7. By the time we got to the steepest hardest most exposed part of the climb it was already super hot and I was feeling like hell. This was a 360 degree switch to how awesome and strong I had felt the entire race! Right at the top I missed on a loose section and came off the bike, thinking I would walk a sec - that's when I lost whatever else I had managed to get into my stomach. Finally cresting the hill, we found a little shade and sat for moment as a steady stream of riders kept going by - for the first time, it didn't bother me - I just hoped we would finish. Luckily, just then, we had a slight downhill then the first water stop. I sat in the shade and Tom filled the camelbacks and waterbottles and got me a couple cups of Coke. He also did something that probably saved our race and the prospect of getting finisher's medal... he told the race medic that he thought I had heat stroke. After a couple questions about my symptoms, she gave me a little pill to stop the nausea... and it worked for the rest of the day.
The rest of the race in a nutshell was just a death march to get to the finish. We knew we were really sucking every time another team with hairy legs would pass us, but what sealed it were the guys in the Bert & Ernie jerseys and the girls with happy birthday hats taped to their helmets going by.
A common comment by many of the racers at the end of the day was what the €%#@! To make everybodys last day of racing just that much harder they had, at the last minute changed the route, adding about 8 miles and almost 1000 ft of climbing. This was in addition to a crazy 1 mile "portage" where you had to push/carry your bike down this historic wagon track then ride about two miles on railroad tracks, before hitting another steep hill before a crazy unnecissarily long zig zaggy stretch arond the vineyard property that really could have been a straight shot to the finish.
Exhausted, we finally rolled across the line in just over 6hrs - easily an hour longer than we should have. At least in doing so ww accomplished our first major goal, to finish the Cape Epic. Having a bad day like that sure reinforces how difficult a race like this is... we only had one flat, no crashes, no mechanical issues, no saddle sores, worked well as teammates supporting each other, and had a great time! We met a lot of people who had many of those issues and sometimes more than once! Many teams didn't finish so, we do feel like we accomplished a pretty big feat. Looking back its a bit of a blur, but 560 miles on mountain bikes and 45,000ft of climbing is pretty incredible.
Our bad day cost us a few places, but not too bad - we ended up 116th in the open mens devision and 185 of all teams (about 600 started). Our total time racing for 8 days was an incredible amount of time at 50hrs 31.49 min - wow - no wonder I don't feel like riding my bike for a few days.
Day 7 was so good - even with the flat tire we had a great result and moved up in the rankings. On paper the last day looked pretty benign - about 46 miles and 4100 ft of climbing - not too bad considering we were getting stronger every day! We were sitting in 110th place in the mens division with a chance to move up a few slots... Really we just had to have a normal safe race. Originally we were hoping for a top 100, but that looked unlikely as we needed to make up almost an hour on teams ahead of us.
So, our bad day started about 3am when I woke up with diarreah. I had a couple more bouts of it in the morning before breakfast, went and ate breakfast feeling a little uneasy, then came back to the room and promptly threw it all up. So, needlesss to say, I left the guest house kinda nervous about starting what should have been a 5hr race on an empty stomach! Before the start I managed to get down a dinner roll, three fig newtons, and some sports drink and wasn't feeling "that" bad.
After the start we rolled out on some paved road for few miles then immediately started a long bumpy climb up a canyoun we had decended the day before. I should mention that we started later as it was a shorter day - 8:30 instead of 7. By the time we got to the steepest hardest most exposed part of the climb it was already super hot and I was feeling like hell. This was a 360 degree switch to how awesome and strong I had felt the entire race! Right at the top I missed on a loose section and came off the bike, thinking I would walk a sec - that's when I lost whatever else I had managed to get into my stomach. Finally cresting the hill, we found a little shade and sat for moment as a steady stream of riders kept going by - for the first time, it didn't bother me - I just hoped we would finish. Luckily, just then, we had a slight downhill then the first water stop. I sat in the shade and Tom filled the camelbacks and waterbottles and got me a couple cups of Coke. He also did something that probably saved our race and the prospect of getting finisher's medal... he told the race medic that he thought I had heat stroke. After a couple questions about my symptoms, she gave me a little pill to stop the nausea... and it worked for the rest of the day.
The rest of the race in a nutshell was just a death march to get to the finish. We knew we were really sucking every time another team with hairy legs would pass us, but what sealed it were the guys in the Bert & Ernie jerseys and the girls with happy birthday hats taped to their helmets going by.
A common comment by many of the racers at the end of the day was what the €%#@! To make everybodys last day of racing just that much harder they had, at the last minute changed the route, adding about 8 miles and almost 1000 ft of climbing. This was in addition to a crazy 1 mile "portage" where you had to push/carry your bike down this historic wagon track then ride about two miles on railroad tracks, before hitting another steep hill before a crazy unnecissarily long zig zaggy stretch arond the vineyard property that really could have been a straight shot to the finish.
Exhausted, we finally rolled across the line in just over 6hrs - easily an hour longer than we should have. At least in doing so ww accomplished our first major goal, to finish the Cape Epic. Having a bad day like that sure reinforces how difficult a race like this is... we only had one flat, no crashes, no mechanical issues, no saddle sores, worked well as teammates supporting each other, and had a great time! We met a lot of people who had many of those issues and sometimes more than once! Many teams didn't finish so, we do feel like we accomplished a pretty big feat. Looking back its a bit of a blur, but 560 miles on mountain bikes and 45,000ft of climbing is pretty incredible.
Our bad day cost us a few places, but not too bad - we ended up 116th in the open mens devision and 185 of all teams (about 600 started). Our total time racing for 8 days was an incredible amount of time at 50hrs 31.49 min - wow - no wonder I don't feel like riding my bike for a few days.
posted by Anonymous at 4:35 AM
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