Thankfully, You Never Forget How to Ride a Bike

Last weekend, Greg, our CT3 teammate Mark, and I participated in the 6 Hours of Cranky Monkey mountain bike race as "Team Islay: Barrel Proof."  After this long, brutal winter, through which most of our riding was done on indoor trainers, there was no better feeling than speeding through the woods on our bicycles. Going into the race, we observed that there wasn't much competition in our category.  Only two teams, including ours, were signed up for 3-person Coed.  Guaranteed a podium spot, our only motivation was pure pride.

Not surprisingly, Greg and I arrived early at the race site: Rosaryville State Park in Upper Marlboro, MD.  Rosaryville is a little oasis in a sketchy suburban area south of DC. 

See kids?!  First ones here!

Despite my protests about getting up so early, we snagged an awesome pit spot on the race course and proceeded to set up CT3 Headquarters.  It was going to be a great day!

If you aren't pro, at least look pro.

It was supposed to be a warm day, but Mamma Nature took her sweet time warming things up for us.  We shivered in all our extra clothes and under towels while Mark, our leading racer, got ready for the first lap.  Greg, Mark's wife, and I all gathered with our iPhones in hand ready to snap shots of Mark as he rode through the pit area.  As the mass of riders cruised pass, we started to get a little nervous.  Then came the stragglers...barely peddling (wow they are in for a long day)...still no Mark.  Did he have a mechanical?  Did he get lost?  Turned out all of us just plain missed him.  Still not sure how that is possible. 

Forty five minutes later, Greg starts warming up and then heads towards the end of the course to await Mark's arrival.  Mark gets in a solid 1:10 lap, which included the race prelude and plenty of traffic hitting the singletrack.  Off goes Greg!

Cone hams it up.

I was next up.  I was starting to get a little excited but more importantly I just wanted to get warm!  I was ready to get my lap going.  The only one of us not cold was Islay, who was loving all her new found friends and attention.  Greg finished his lap right on schedule - just under an hour (plus transition time).  I'm off!

Ah...feeling good.  Legs and lungs are fresh.  Our team goal was 6 laps - two laps each.  The cut off was 5:30, so to get in a 6th lap, we needed to average 1:06/lap for the first five.  Counting on Greg to bring down our average lap time, I still wanted to do my part and had the pedal to the proverbial metal.  After all, I only had to do 2 laps and would get a 2 hour rest in between.  Right?  Um...wrong.

I finish my lap in 1:07.  I'm very pleased and know I still have plenty of gas for my second lap.  I run out of the timing area and who is standing there waiting for me?  Greg.  I'm confused.  Greg grabs the timing chip and head out for a second (team 4th) lap.  Turns out, Mark had a cracked bolt on his brand new bike.  Afraid of the potential damage, and no spare bike to ride, we were down a teammate.  Determined to uphold the promise of a strong showing from Team Islay, Greg and I kept us in motion.

Crushing it and still smiling.

Greg pulled out a solid 1:05.  Super by any measure, but it left me needing a 1:04 lap to get us to 6 laps.  Even if I had that in me (which I'm pretty sure I didn't,) that also meant Greg was going to have to go out a third time, and we already had 1st place in the bag.  That's a tall order when you have a cooler of 90 Minute IPA in your tent and lots of tent guests willing to drink it while you are riding.  So, I took it easy.

1:13 but having a ball.

 I pulled into the final loop of the course to our little cheering section.  Greg had a big hug and a beer for me.  We returned to the tent with pizza to relax and toast our mascot as we awaited our podium moment.  It was finally warm, the sun was shining, and we were basking in the glory of our victory.  While there may not have been much competition in our category, we still would have podiumed versus all of the mens 3-person teams.

Islay: "Is this a dog show?  I think it is and I will pose accordingly."

As the first place team we got pint glasses, first aid supplies, chain cleaning devices, and Wicked Wash.  Not a bad haul of crap that will take up space we don't have in our garage.  We packed up our cars and drove home as the sun set.  A great day with great company and great reminders of how much we love warm weather and mountain bikes.  PS. It is snowing again.

Pooped pups.  Best day ever!

LA Marathon - The Epic Fail

It will come as no surprise that I have procrastinated my LA Marathon race report.  After all, it really isn't a race report when you don't finish.  Yep, a big 'ol DNF.  The first of my life.  I'd like to say it will be my last, but some things you just can't control.  Here are my excuses the two things I couldn't control on Sunday, March 9th.

1.  My health.  OK, well I suppose I have SOME control here, but hey, I work at a school.  You can practically see the viruses in the air.  It was only a matter of time.  I started getting sick in the last two weeks before the race.  I tried everything to keep it at bay, but no luck -- sinus infection.  #*@~^&!!!  To boot, flying never helps congestion.  I felt like crap the day before the race, but there was no way I wasn't going to even try.

2.  The weather.

Here are Greg and I training in DC for the past four months:

And here I am on race day:

You get the idea.  Avg temps at the finish line in LA from 2010-2013 were in the mid 50s.  This year?  Mid 80s. Of course.  Of course, after one of the worst and coldest winters DC has ever had.

Weather aside, I knew my health would make this race a long shot, especially since I had some high expectations about a PR.  I was not going to be satisfied lollygagging my way to the finish line.  I wanted a solid finish, and paced myself accordingly.  After 8 miles, I knew I was in serious trouble.  At the 10 mile mark, feeling like death, I decided to pull the plug.  I could lie and say this was a hard decision but it really wasn't.  I could (a) walk/jog a miserable 16 miles and be depressed the rest of our vacation, feel undeserving of my finishers medal, and need extra recovery for weeks or (b) call it a day, celebrate Greg's race at the finish line, enjoy the rest of my vacation, and recover faster for future races which were/are arguably more important to me.

Some quick notes on the LA Marathon.

1.  The course map makes this route look "easy," relatively speaking.  Think again.  The first 6 miles are among the hilliest I've ever run on road, both up and down.  This makes pacing extremely difficult.  Our marathon last year, Austin, was hilly, but you were not slammed with the steepest climbs in the first 6 miles.  LA's hills may be fewer but they were worse.

2.  The race is extraordinarily well organized.  As a result, you do NOT, despite all of their requests, need to be there first.  We luckily took the 5AM shuttle from Santa Monica (they started at 3AM!)  Take the 5:30, the last one, if you can possibly do so.  Even on the 5AM shuttle we were hanging around at the race start for two long painful hours.  You are waiting in the Dodger Stadium parking lot, so there is no where comfortable to even sit down.

3.  Try to avoid races the day of spring daylight savings.

4.  If you plan on meeting other racers/spectators at the finish, keep in mind there is zero shade in the "family reunion" area.  Family/friends will not want to wait for long on a hot day.

The good news about the heat is that it was fantastic for vacation purposes and made for a nice getaway from the yucky, snowy mess that is the east coast.  After Greg's finish (he made me very proud that day, sticking out what, for us, were brutal conditions) we celebrated with some r&r and pool time.  The day after the race we rented some cruisers and took a 25 mile ride down to Manhattan beach where I got to see the 90210 beach house.  Greg was not impressed but I got a big kick out of it.

I returned to work on Wednesday to all the "so, how'd it go?" questions.  GRRRR.  Saw the Dr. on Thursday who confirmed that my upper respiratory system was a disaster area and put me on antibiotics.  SO, now I'm back, I'm getting healthy, and I have nothing to recover from.  Time to refocus on the road ahead and the things I can control - each workout, one workout at a time.

Next up...6 Hours of Cranky Monkey mountain bike race.  Weather permitting, on March 22nd, Team Islay will try to dominate the 3-person Co-Ed category, relaying laps around Rosaryville State Park.  According to the current signups, we are guaranteed a podium spot.  That's my kind of race!