Six Hours of Cathedral Pines
Decent couple months of riding/hiking/lifting heavy things leading up to the race. Slacked off the last couple of weeks, but not a big deal. I felt well rested, although a bit heavy. I've been so hungry since upping the training volume, that the scale did not respond. Guess I could have cut out the beer.
Drove out to Long Island on Friday afternoon. Cashed in some of those hotel points (thank you Sue!) for a freebie at the Springfield Suite about 5 miles south of Catheral Pines Park. Unloaded the car into the room. Since I was still stressing on the clothes, and the food, the logical decision was to bring it all.
And while at it, may as well stress about the bike choice too.
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It is a 6-7 hour race, but just in case I got lost for a few days....
Night before
Run out to the local brewpub, cause can't do anything new before a race. Shortrib and cheddar panini with an IPA.
It was excellent.
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Came back, seeked some advice from the more experienced, and was sleeping before 10:00
Came up with:
Food/Drink
Packed 3 water bottles with skratch, and had 4 bottles of water. Stuck a gu and a bonk breaker in each side jersey pocket.
in the end, went through the 3 bottles of skratch, a bar, and two gu packs. Plenty. Also took a few endurolyte type pills before,
and a couple during. Cramps were minimal, and was able to spin them out.
Bike
I didn't get a good shakedown ride on the hardtail with the new shifting. Had a some mis-shift problems throughout the race.
Was able to adjust a couple of them out, then I stopped trying and just avoided those cogs. So yeah, I took the 29r, and it was fun
hitting the flowy stuff. I kept thinking about swapping out bikes - and if i made the 7th lap, i'd do it on the fat bike.
Clothes
Arrived at the park around 6:45 at 28F, with temps predicted to go into the 40s. Staging/Start of race was low/mid-30s.
Regular shoes, wool socks, base layer under bib shorts.
Base layer with zipper, under short sleeve jersey, arm warmers, lobster gloves, neck thing, beanie
Stage my regular gloves on the edge of the my truck - end of first lap, lose the neck thing and arm warmers, swap out for lighter gloves.
My knees got a bit cold around lap 3, and i moved my beanie off/on my ears a couple times. worked the zippers.
I'm checking out the other pre-race equipment -
@ChrisG looking matchy as always, and i think Dave wants me to call him later ?
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Race results
Goal was go get 7 laps - at least i'd finish on my group's lead lap, and be somewhat in the running.
Here is where I just didn't pay enough attention - even the announcer said if you want to be "in", ya gotta push the prolog to get into the single track.
I staged in back, and about 200m after the horn, the people are not really "racing" nor do they look like they will be racing. So i start pushing the pace around everyone chatting and riding 5 wide. There is a rather large group waiting to get into the singletrack, and i'm not going to be the ass that cuts everyone off - so i wait.
Then i wait while people dismount, and brake for corners. all good, i'm patient - not going to kill me.
First lap 1:04, and i feel like i used up a ton of energy because there was no consistency. After half a lap, i'm passing people, which takes even more energy, because they don't move over, so i'm passing off-trail!
I make my pit stop during the second lap to shed the arm warmers/gloves. that takes a bit of time. Hit the road loop at good clip, and pass a bunch more riders. Ride this loop 7.5 minutes faster than the first with the stop, and still dealing with traffic!
Come through the pit at the beginning of lap 3, and there is
@Juggernaut sitting in his chair (pro move) - smiling and waving!
Eat my nutrition bar on the road, I'm feeling good, and hook up with a couple people moving at a nice pace. Knock off another minute from the lap time.
I felt a rim strike along the way, so knew i was going to need to pit, and put some air in - which i did. I had 4 laps in, at 3:55.
I wasn't going to stop the next time by the pit, because i knew i'd fade from here on out. at 4.5 hours it started to become a slog, and the front of the race went by me.
Cramps came and went, I tried to keep focus on a couple riders just up ahead. Got sloppy on a few roots, but kept getting nice surges because of the fun factor of the berms.
Lap 5 I come through at 4:57:xx - so I'm right on the edge.
Heading out for 6, I wave to
@jmanic, and whomever else was there already enjoying their beverages. Never even thought about not attempting to make 7.
The uphill sections, although short (think the white trail from the stream at CR) were now painful (at least i could ride them instead of running them like the first 3 laps.)
More racers looking to get to their 8th lap went by. Gave some encouragement to
@Dave Taylor - also gave a whoop-whoop to Mancusco.
at 5:42 my wahoo crashed. I figured the battery died, but no, it actually crashed. This i found at home upon restart. Kinda felt like flying blind.
View attachment 111730 https://www.strava.com/activities/2886609707/overview
Anyway, i pushed through the last section as hard as my legs would let me, but in the end, I missed the cutoff by 1:50 - refer back to first lap mis-step.
Finished 8/20 in Sport 50+ - making the 7th lap would have moved me to 6th, perhaps a miserable extra hour, or perhaps not. I was done, but still disappointed at not making the goal. On the other hand, less than 1 minute later I was enjoying a beer and sharing stories with
@jmanic,
@Mitch,
@pooriggy, and whoever else was standing around there. Got a little bustin' in on
@BrianGT3 (he passed me in a tight spot, and his call-out was "Sorry"
)
Good time - and first 50+ mile mtb ride.
Thanks
@jimvreeland and
@JimN for the food and clothing advice the night before. I'd like to report that i did not pee in the water bottles on the way home. Nor did i stop during the race - which is an achievement in itself for a mid-50s guy! I did down about 1,500 calories of protein and nutrition bars tho.
And after thinking about it a bit - Was that
@1speed that magically pulled a beer from his pocket when I went to get food, and made the rookie mistake of not having one of my own ready to go? #beerAngel
Nice job out there @Cadre/
@downbeat007. While my first one
may have been your last, I'm looking forward to seeing what else you got cooking.