Race report: Chequamegon, slow and steady.

(Photo: Amy)Pre-riding is not always helpful. I met up with Kristina to get a feel for the course. We rode from Mosquito somethingorother back toward the start on the Birkie trail. WOW. It was up and down and up and up and down, grassy, bumpy, in the sun. Not fun. And she told me that's what most of the course was like. I groaned. Could I do this? On the pre-ride alone I did more climbing than I had all year, and I hated the uninteresting trail. We rode back to the car on singletrack instead. I started doubting myself. What the heck had I gotten myself into? And why did I drive to the best trails in the state only to ride the WORST of them?

Pre-race routines are my specialty. After that pre-ride I went looking for our other teammates, to get into the cabin and get some food going. Out of cell phone range, I was lost. I decided that, hey, if anyone was looking for me, wouldn't they look in the bar? I sat in the bar for three hours, meeting first some completely not friendly folks who were cooler than me because they ride singlespeed, and then Kim from Iowa who was injured and thus got to support all weekend. Three beers later, it was 5pm and registration opened. I registered... kept looking... kept looking. Finally got in the car and drove toward the cabin, saw Al driving the other way, honked, turned around, chased them all the way back to Telemark. Ugh. Either way, mission accomplished. Later, dinner, 4 more beers, good times with Team Pizza.

There's always some drama on race day. We were all in a group, about halfway back from the start. It was five minutes to the start, folks had their bikes upright and were clipped in ready to roll. I picked up my front wheel, spun it, and it STOPPED. Tried the rear. Same. I replaced my pads three days prior but was sure they didn't do that earlier. It was too late. Pulled the front out of the fork and put it back. Still stuck. Too late. 40 mi to go.

Don't waste it all on the roll-out, they all said, but folks were really flying. Maybe it was my brake pads sticking that made it hard, but about three miles in I fell off the back of the team train. I didn't want to put an effort in on the pavement. The field sort of rolled by me, then we made the turn off the pavement, and everyone STOPPED. People in front of me were walking up the first hill, so I had no choice. I ran it and did a great cx remount and got some folks behind me and shazam, we were on that crappy hilly birkie trail.

I tend to overthink distances and I had spent some time the night before thinking about how, for a marathon, at this point I'd know my pace, know what I could do in order to slowly deplete what I brought but not burn out before the finish. But here I was with a 3-4 hour effort in front of me on hills I'd never seen and taller than I'd climbed in a while. What to do? Save it. Let everyone ride by. Don't redline on the early hills, just sit and granny gear and get your butt to the finish. Don't even try till halfway there, and don't hammer till 10 to go. It was a strategy that guaranteed a finish- but a slow one. SO for the first half, I rode with the old guy crew. For 10 miles folks passed me. Then I rode in a group. Then toward the end, I flew by everyone.

This wasn't a trail rider's race. I kept just flying by people in sand, on steep hills (they all walked, I granny geared it), and anything else remotely technical. But my brakes squeaked on the climbs, they squeaked as I flew down hills, they just kept reminding me that I was working harder than I should. Yargh. Didn't matter though, it was too late.

The crowd at road crossings was great, and Kim from Iowa from the bar was all over the place, yelling for me! That was awesome. Dan the Specialized man was at OO shouting for us, and folks everywhere were just in a good mood. A few people who passed me said they read this here blog, and this guy, who was super nice and actually told me his blog name like 3 times before he gave up and said "I'm linked to Rusty." Hahaha, interwebs life!

So yeah, no problems, did my thing, rode like I wanted to. I remembered from marathon training that taking the inside of turns can shave a significant distance off the race, so once the thick traffic was gone I hugged every turn and finished with just 39.33 on the gizmo. I also decided that dignity meant finishing under 4 hours. That meant I had to top a 10mph average. No problem. When it got below 10.2 just after the fire tower hill (I rode 2 of the 4 rises there), I hammered. I passed a girl in my age group with 5 to go- what a boon! - and that put me in 23 of 28 in my age group, less than a minute in front of her. At the finish, the whole team was waiting with a beer handup. I shifted to my granny gear to prep for the hillclimb one handed, and took the beer, and finished half of it before I even crossed the line.

Congrats to Regina on winning the women's SS race, and congrats on the Short n' Fat finish and thanks to Amy for awesome photos and hanging out, and congrats to teammates Jeremiah, Al, Paul-Brian, Jason, Chris, Bob, Kristina, Zach, and Bryan who all finished with some great times. Thanks to Natalia and Jen for support, and to the Four Jesuses for inspiration.

GAME OVER.
(Photo: Amy)