Stage 4 - Solo Sucks!

Today was to be the longest and hardest day of all. With my time so off after stage 2 and making no ground on stage 3 with it being neutralised I decided to conserve energy and just enjoy the day's ride. Really enjoyable singletrack put a big smile on my face, and the 7am start time made for a really pleasant riding temperature.

With numbers dwindling due to racers quiting and the length of the stage (88Km) racers got pretty strung out through the day. I back and forthed with a couple of racers, but soon found myself alone and pretty much riding by myself. No big deal, the course seemed pretty well marked and I was paying attention, or so I thought....... After flying down some double track I'm suddenly aware that there are no course flags anymore. Looking at the ground, there are no bike tracks. Argggh, I've gone off course! Damn, I really thought I'd been careful. I climb back up to where I made my error, and I really don't know how I missed the turn, but it happened - duh!

This put me a chunk of time back and I began to realise just how alone I really was out there. I had no idea if I was at the back of the pack, or just in a pocket of emptiness. I was hoping to catch back up to someone or have someone catch me, but it just didn't happen. I eventually passed through a feed zone and was told there were racers still to come through, but still I ended up heading into some technical descending feeling very alone. I now truly understand the reason most of these stage racers require you to have a partner. I was spooked to say the least. I couldn't trust the race organisation to be there if I needed them, so I rode gingerly down stuff that I would usually fly down, fearing that if I had an accident it would be a long time until someone found me. Once you start riding like this it just gets worse and worse and soon you are walking sections that you should be riding. A team mate would have been my safety net and stopped me psyching myself out. I had to talk myself down the trail - not so easy when you are already mentally and physically shattered.

After 8 hours, I did make it back, almost 2 hours back on the lead - yikes - DFL in my category! I'd been lost, been bitten by flies, stung by a bee and almost ran into a cow, but on the whole physically unscathed. I wasn't the last racer home though - it was still a few more hours before all came in, and some didn't make it back under their own steam (more stories about that later.......)

Only one more day and a 30Km TT to go now - can't wait for it all to be over.

Stage 3 - Cluster F#@k to the Finish Line

Today was a good day for me personally. I have no idea how I turned myself around, but I had a great night's sleep, ate a good breakfast and woke up ready to race hard at 8:00AM. The race organisation on the other hand hadn't fared so well. Some local psycho had decided the day before that he didn't want the race to go down *his* trail, so had pulled all the course markers. The organisers decided to re-route the course to avoid the conflict and substantially shorten the course from 85Km to 50Km. I was kind of pleased with this, but just couldn't figure out how they came up with 50Km from what I saw on the map detour.

With the course re-marking came a delay in start time, first to 8:30, then to 8:45, and then to 10:30. We didn't start until 10:40. Once again the start was neutral, as we were escorted through town by the local police. A neutral start means that everyone stays together until the lead moto pulls off. Only trouble was that the pack was going too fast and ended up splitting up. I was fortunate enough to be in the lead pack, but anyone not so lucky ended up fending for themselves through the streets of Kamloops.

This was just a taste of things to come. The course was so badly marked that even the lead moto (the race organiser who knew the route) took a wrong turn. He led the lead guys so far off course that by the time he realised it and turned around they came back on course closer to mid-pack. This error led to the race being neutralised and not count to the overall times. Probably a fair decision to call the race a wash, but the only trouble was that not everyone knew about this decision. Some folks were racing, others were taking it easy, the marshals didn't know what was going on. I could go on about the errors of the day, but I do have to go to bed, so that will have to wait for another time.

Bottom line for me - I felt good, raced hard, took some wrong turns, and eventually found my way back to the finish, but it didn't count for nought! On the bright side of things, the trails were way better today. Still triple digit temperatures, but much more tree cover and hence shade. The trails were rooty and twisty and a lot of fun, so completely different to day 1 and 2. Oh yes, and the overall distance? Closer to 70Km than the 50Km they told us. Some folks got closer to 90Km of riding in......

I'm super psyched about my adventure race tomorrow - a proposed 90Km of fun route finding. My garmin will be charged and I'm packing the cell phone.....

Garmin Stats of the day

Start Line

Happy to Finish

Stage 2 - Stick a Fork in Me, I'm Done Already!

Today I planned to take it a little easier so I wouldn't overheat so much in the blazing sun. Funny thing was that an 'easy' pace would have been fast in comparison to the speed I was able to achieve today. Terry came upon me on one of the endless fireroad climbs and found me swerving around and had to fight off the vultures swarming around me. My brains were boiling and my stomach in knots, but I could at least turn the pedals on the bike. I now realise why these races are usually done as a team. There are times when you need someone else to keep you going. Today I needed Terry - we were team BikeBooBoos once again.

 Finding Shade Before the Start

Made it Through the Day!

Terry

Feeling Better for Some Recovery Chocolate Milk

Garmin Stats of the Stage

Day 1 - The Roasting Begins

It was a taste of things to come when the police escort during the neutral roll-out at the start of the race missed a turn. We did eventually get back on track, but only after some interesting back streets! Route finding during the race was challenging at times too, with assorted colours of flagging tape and marshals not always being where they needed to be. I got lucky and only had to back track a couple of times, others had a half hour 'detour' off course. Maybe the arrows chalked on the ground for the outward route were a little confusing on the return journey as we back tracked down the same road and we were therefore going in the opposite direction of the arrows -duh!


Route finding aside, I've got to say that this was one of the most unpleasant stages of a race I've endured so far. The majority of the day was spent on double track/fire road. Some of the singletrack was pleasant, but the majority was sandy and sketchy. Pretty exposed to the sun all day, it made for brutal conditions in 100F + heat.


I thought I raced pretty well up to about the 75Km mark, where I thought the end should have been. Unfortunately the stage was 5Km longer than it was posted. It took all my physical and mental strength to keep it together until the end. I sucked big time and pretty much collapsed at the end. Anna was there to pick me up though and she got her first taste of real race support - looking after someone who has the the ability to look after themselves. Anna - THANK YOU!
My finish time of 5 hours 36 mins, was a big chunk off the lead gal (Sue Butler) and got me a 9th place out of the solo women, 40th overall. I'm happy just to have finished today.


Over exertion in heat really takes a toll on the body - it took me about an hour and a half to start eating and drinking again after the race. I knew I needed to, Anna was was insistent I did, but my stomach had other plans! I've re-gained control of my stomach now and even managed a bowl of ice cream just now, so things aren't so bad now.


Garmin Stats of the race.


Same again tomorrow?

 Keeping Shaded on the Start Line

Missing Chris.......

More Pics

Almost There!

I feel like I've been preping for this race for weeks now. So much planning and packing to make sure everything goes smoothly during the race. It'll be bliss tomorrow to have nothing but racing my bike to think about! Today was all about paperwork for race registration and checking out some of the local trails. We may or may not have been riding on the race course!

Signing away any and all liability

Checking out the Trails

More Pics

No Need to Pack the Down Jacket......

The temperature in Kamloops look good for the week ahead - around about 70F. Pleasant really, only trouble is that is the OVERNIGHT temperatures! We'll be lucky if we stay out of the triple digits next week. Yikes! As I don't need to pack the down jacket there may well be room for Anna in the car.

Never Say Never.......

So it's been a year since my last post, and it looks like the pain has faded enough for me to do this all over again! This year's week of pain will again take place in beautiful BC, Canada, but this time Kamloops will be the centre of abuse. The Intermontane Challenge is a new 5 day stage race that will cover many hundreds of Kilometers of sweet Kamloops singletrack.

A couple of things drew me to this event. The first was the cloverleaf design - starting and finishing in the same place each day will mean no moving camp each day - bliss! The second, was it's one of the first stage races to offer a solo category. The third was the awesome prize purse being offered equally to the men and women. Judging from the strong competition on the start list, I won't even get close to tasting this, but I do want to support a race that values women racing the same as the men. Kudos to the race organisers for this.

Chris realised the only way to avoid supporting me during this race was to leave the country. He'll be in Australia, so I'll be relying on my good friend Anna to keep me on track during the race. I'm not too sure who is going to suffer more, me, or her! I'm also not sure how I'll pack enough chocolate for the both of us, but I'll try my best.