Sunday morning I left the KL North training center before dawn to head across New Hampshire on unfamiliar, dark, deserted secondary roads through moose country. Luckily the drive to Newport only took a bit over an hour, and the sun was rising toward the end of the trip, where passing the Lake Sunapee bank the digital thermometer was announcing the temp as a balmy 30 degrees F. The race was at Newport High School. Shortly after registering, I met fellow bike racer and local guy Chris Naimie, who was nice enough to fill me in on some of the course details. He tells me "Make sure you ride out back and check out the ski jump. We have to go up the stairs at the beginning of the MTB and trail run legs." Huh? That's right, in NH, the high schools have ski jumps right alongside the football field.
As you can imagine, this thing was pretty steep. The photo does not do it justice. The stairs, as my teammate Jay described them, "looked like they were built by the freshman shop class twenty years ago." Not so good in MTB shoes. Luckily, Jay was also wise enough to determine skipping the stairs and running up the grass would be better. Nice trick.
With the sun blocked by the surrounding hills, it was still pretty cold as we setup the transition area and attended the rider meeting at around 9 am. The start was at 9:30. It's been a while since I race MTBs, and I didn't realize what an oddity my rigid Yo Eddy was going to be amongst the fleet of tricked out dual-suspension bikes chosen by many. Here is my aging beast alongside Naimie's rig in the transition.
The run start was on some lumpy grass across from the school. They announced the actual distance would be 4.92 miles. I had only had time to inspect a tiny portion of the MTB course, which also served for the trail run, but it was enough to realize this was going to be much tougher than I had expected. The race flyer noted the significant climbing, but it also described a lot of double-track, which generally means passable by a jeep. There was not much double-track... The course was not the tame, geared toward multisporters track that I had planned on, it was typical gnarly north country single track, just like any MTB race up here. Not quite as greasy, but still chock full of off-camber roots, rocks, and reggae, super twisty and turny, and of course steep as a mofo, both up and down. The trail run took a few shortcuts to reduce the distance, but covered the same vertical, so it was even steeper. With the amount of suffering I did on the pancake flat run two at Eliot, conservation and survival were all I could think about as we lined up for the start.
The gun went off and we headed across the field. The grass was pretty deep and turning an ankle was a real possibility. I was at least halfway back as we headed onto a trail and over a wooden bridge. Jay came by me at that point and moved ahead. Not sure how many of those ahead were from teams, I just let them go and ran by heart rate, intent on staying in zone 4, roughly 5-10 bpm below LT. The course turned onto an old RR line converted to a multi-use path. The surface was pretty soft and sandy in some places, and ideally firm in others. There were supposed to be mile markers, but I never saw them, so I had no idea of my pace. After about two miles we came out on the road, where a small climb met us. Eventually we turned back toward the start, and ran over the requisite covered bridge. I was apparently not photogenic enough for the race photogs, but here is Jay displaying the typical Team BOB All Business attitude.
The leaders were way the fuck ahead of me as the transition came into view. Checking my watch and seeing only 34 minutes had passed, I had to wonder about the legitamacy of the distance. Either all these races are short, or I'm running a lot faster than I used to. I made it a point to run very easy into transition, as with the ski jump coming right at the beginning of the MTB leg, I felt the "run" phase wasn't over yet. I wore my gloves on the run to save time in the transition, but I ended up fumbling anyway, trying to get my inflator into the back pockets of my vest. Being mid-pack, there was plenty of company as I rolled out and across the athletic field to the ski jump. Jay's plan worked great, as going up the steep grass I passed at least three competiors who were struggling up the rickety stairs. Remounting at the top, I reeled in a bunch more people on the uphill portion of the single track. The Yo Eddy was last used for commuting to work, so it carries unorthodox 28-38-46 chainrings. Even with a 12-32 on the back, I could not use the "big" middle ring, and rode most of the climb in my 28/28. There were several stone wall jumps and other obstacles, and being unfamiliar with the course, I portaged most of the hard stuff even though it should have been rideable. Reaching the high point, my goal became getting down in one piece. A few fast kids caught me on the way down, and part of the way I was able to follow them, which helped. Still though, I am pretty rusty on the MTB, and did not make up much time on this leg. Jay blitzed the course as one of the fastest, about five minutes quicker than me, on top of the minute or so he pulled out of me on the run. I went into T2 with in about 16th place among the solos.
This guy was loaded for bear. This one's for you Bold. Notice this knucklehead is not wearing gloves either. He must have read that article too. He probably got frostbite on the descent.
It was warmer by then and I gulped some Gatorade and took off on the road bike. The MTB specialists who had passed me were within sight, and I reeled them and two others in before we hit the significant climb on Loverin Hill road. This ascended about 100 meters over the course of 1.5k or so. I hadn't thought about gearing at all, but was glad to have a 36x27 low gear as I spun up the climb, passing a few more. On the descent my Vision Tech mini clipons were not ideal, and the unpadded metal armrests got pretty cold. Keeping up a good pace, I still cooled it a lot during the final portion of the 14 mile road leg. Over the last k, I sat up, stretched my back, and shook out the legs in anticipation of the brutal trail run. Still no sign of Jay, but I was pretty sure I must have taken back some time, even though I again kept my HR about 10 bpm below normal TT pace.
T3 was fast and uneventful, just pulling on my shoes and ditching my vest. Running back out to the ski jump, I felt much better than at Eliot. This time, in running shoes, I took the stairs. The uphill single track was brutal. In a few spots I had to walk, putting my hands on my knees and pushing my way up. There was one "big rock" we had to scramble up on our hands and knees, and here I passed one woman from a team. Nearing the summit, I spied Jay up ahead, alternating between walking and running. I focused and tried to run all the way up the hill, although in some spots my baby steps seemed slower than walking as my lower back and hips screamed in agony.
Once the trail starting going down, I felt better, and I ran as fast as I dared. I'm not exactly quick-footed, but with all the roots and wet rocks, navigating the twists and turns while freefalling out of control down the mountain was rather harrowing. I'd saved a lot though, and I started doing OK, found a rhythm and passed Jay about halfway down. I asked him if anyone were within reach ahead, and he said he didn't know. I really flew on the lower slopes, where the trail opened up a bit. Going by the last marshal, I heard her cheer on a runner behind me, close behind me. It wasn't Jay... Down the last pitch out onto the fields, I started sprinting, as over my shoulder I could see a Hi-Tec runner closing fast. Luckily, I was not dead, and I held him off into the transition, where I finished in 2:36, 8th solo overall, 2nd Master 40. Jay was about a minute back.
The races site has detailed time breakdowns. I discovered that I was 16th in the road run, 15th in the MTB, 3rd in the road TT, and 8th in the trail run. I finished strong, maybe too strong. Nobody passed me on either of the last two legs, and I took eight people for postions in the overall. I don't know, maybe I did it right. I conceded almost 6 minutes to the winner of my age group in the first run. Maybe with more guts I could have held this closer and not paid for it too dearly later. The MTB I can handle because I was so rusty and out of my element, I know I can take off a lot of time next year if I practice.
So that is that. Here is the polar chart, ignore the end as that was my cooldown ride. I didn't get any speed or cadence data. My HR stayed in zone 4 for over 75% of the time. So that is that, time to go to work. Congratulations if you made it this far. Thanks for reading.
those stairs look nuts, I'd probably fall over half way up.
ReplyDeleteSweet write up FnF...
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