|   "Here comes the pain!" - <i>LONG</i> race recap | Kami
Sep 8, 2002 6:20 PM | | Once again, I'm dead tired and not thinking straight, so here is my recap of today's race. Sorry in advance for spelling and gramatical errors.
I all but left the racing scene after the 2000 season. Two years without racing. My fitness has since gone down drastically, and I have gained about 10 pounds. But the competition in my blood, as well as a little peer pressure, forced me to enter the Bow 80 "Here Comes the Pain" race, an 80 km (50 mile) race around Moose Mountain in Kananaskis Country, Alberta. The course includes one of the most difficult trails in Kananaskis, Jumping Pound/Cox Hill. And of course they throw it right in the middle of the course! Today was race day, and it was a killer...
I woke up this morning at 5am, packed up, and headed out the door. Met up with a riding buddy at 5:45, and we carpooled out to the staging area. We got there, looked at the thermometer in his Jeep... -2 degrees celcius. That's what, about 30 ferenheit?
So we went and checked in, got our goodie bags, unloaded the gear, got set, and headed down to the staging area. The marshals read us the typical "don't sue, ride smart" speech, and at 7:30am, we were on our way!
Not knowing exactly what to expect, since I had no idea what the competition was like, I didn't get a very good starting position. I was definately in the back half of the pack of 160 riders, so the first hour or so was pretty slow. Especially since the start line was already in singletrack! We started in the Sulpher Springs trail, crossed over into Elbow Valley, and then to Powderface Creek. Shortly into Powderface, I managed to pass most of the slower riders, and got into a more comfortable pace. I did have one issue going down the decent on Powderface. I was taking the absolute worst possible lines down the rather technical pass! Voices in my head kept saying "god I hope the guy behind me isn't following my line, cause he's gonna die." But I got through that section without any mishaps, and so did the two following me, so I kept going.
We then crossed over to Prairie Creek, which was a fun section, and eventually spat us out onto Powderface Road. We had to ride the gravel road about 4 kms to the first feedzone and cutoff. At this point, we had an 11:00am cutoff time. Anyone who passes through the feedzone after 11:00 would be DNF'd. Looked at my watch: 9:30. Not bad, so I stopped for a banana and some gatorade. Then headed back out for the next trail: Jumpingpound Ridge.
Jumpingpound is hard. Very hard. I didn't time it, but I imagine the climb is about an hour, straight up. This is when you begin to understand where the race title comes from. It hurt. But what was worse, is that about 50 feet from the top of the ridge, my right hamstring cramped up. I felt the pain coming, jumped off the bike, threw it off the trail, and was immediately on the ground stretching out. Not enough sugar, maybe? Or perhaps the cooler temperatures up there? After about a minute siting on the ground as people pass me asking if I'm alright, I get back up, walk it off, and continue on the ride. Next turnoff: Cox Hill.
When I said that Jumpingpound was a hard climb, I meant it. But Cox Hill? Cox would be a holy crap climb. I've never seen anyone clean it the whole way up (although Skogan came damn close a few weeks back!). Just at the bottom of the first really big climb on Cox, the cramps returned. Not just the one leg, but both. And worse. Once again, I had to toss the bike and down on the ground, stretching them out. I then had to walk the majority of the way up Cox Hill until I recovered. Got to the top of Cox, had a Clif Bar, and was on my way back down.
The Cox Hill decent rocks. Probably one of the best decents in Kananaskis. Steep, technical, fast. This is actually the only place that we ran into hikers, and most of them were cheering us on! Only one seemed a little irate with the whole situation, which overall wasn't too bad. Down Cox, and after a a farily easy spin down a relatively unused fireroad, I headed into the second feedzone. Cut off here was at 1:30. I'm not sure when I rolled through there, but I was well ahead of that time as well. Had another banana, gatorade, lubed up the chain, and was on my way along the Tom Snow trail.
Okay, I hate Tom Snow. Bog fest, and boring. And at that point of the race, it feels like it just goes on forever. But I knew I was getting close to the end of the race. I managed to pick off a few more riders along this stretch, but the only thing that kept me going was making sure that no one could catch up and pass me until the finish line. =)
After probably another 1 - 1 1/2 hours of riding, it finally spat us out onto a fire road that I'm all too familiar with. It's the fire road that conects West Bragg Creek to the Moose Packers switchbacks. Once I hit that road, that was it. I knew I was close, so I dropped my head and layed down the hurt. Second last big climb of the race, I passed about five more riders. But at the top, a volunteer with a radio was warning us about two cougars that were spotted on the trail ahead. Cougars? meh... I rode on.
What followed was the bottom half of one of the most popular freeride runs in the area. Fast decent, and into a huge mudfest. Some of the mud puddles were lakes! After some 15-20 minutes, I got down to the bottom, and hit the last big climb of the race. At that point, I was nothing but grins. Once I made it to the top, I was home free. Or so I thought.
I made it to the top, did one more fun decent, where it eventually opens up into a meadow. Surprise, more puddles. Not only that, but I quickly found out that one of those puddles was somewhat deeper than the rest. Lost my front wheel in the muck and pulled a superman off the bike. At this point, the adrenaline was running so fast that I rolled back to my feet, grabbed the bike, did a quick check to make sure no one was behind me, and was on my way again. From there, it was pretty much just a sprint to the finish. I crossed the line at 6 hours 13 minutes. 8th place in the under 25 male category.
I had four goals in today's race:
1. Finish.
2. Beat Skogan. (Probably the strongest climber and endurance rider I've ever met)
3. Beat Bones. (Show me up on Cox Hill a few weeks back, will ya? =)
4. Beat another fellow riding buddy.
I was 4/4. Yeeeha! |
| Shouldn't you be... | skogan
Sep 8, 2002 7:22 PM | | in a pernament slumber right about now?
Nice recap and good going on the strong finish!
Look out though, next year I'll come out swinging ;o) |
| just stay away...... | Gnarly1
Sep 9, 2002 8:05 AM | | ...from the green chile the night before! :-) |
| Congratulations! | Spike
Sep 8, 2002 7:56 PM | | Hey kami, good job! Did bones and skogan each have a bunch of mechanicals? Or did they stop to fight off those cougars bare-handed? Heh, heh, just kidding. It sounds like you rode a great race.
Spike |
| You're a machine! | celly
Sep 9, 2002 5:11 AM | | We'll need to take bets on the rematch next year. Skog isn't going to take this lightly. You almost didn't get to take him on anyhow. The fool thought the race was on Saturday and when we awoke to crappy weather early Saturday AM, he just went back to bed. Glad it worked out for ya. ;-)
Congrats on the strong finish.
bc |
| Well done kami | Brodiegrrl
Sep 9, 2002 7:51 AM | | way to manage your effort. Posted by LeeL not my so |
| Damn. | Zonic Man
Sep 9, 2002 7:57 AM | | That's some serious racin'!
Good job on the result...I woulda just liked to have finished! |
| Excellent time Kami. | Kenny©
Sep 9, 2002 8:21 AM | | It was great to see you and Skogan out there this year. I only wish I could have ridden with you guys a bit more than 20 seconds after we crossed the start line! Unfortunately I blew myself up climbing much of Sulphur in way too big of a gear and by the Powederface Road I was pretty much done. Cramps, absolutely no power left in the legs, sore back, you name it and that was before I even hit Jumpingpound!!! I finnished but I added a hair over an hour to my last year's 6hours 20minutes. I hear you on Tom Snow....I hate that trail!
K© |
| Oops | Spike
Sep 9, 2002 8:48 AM | | Too bad about the too-fast starting effort. But you toughed it out and completed the course despite your suffering, so congrats to you too!
skogan mentioned the winning time was under 5 hours. I don't think that is humanly possible. Can you say Rosie Ruiz? Ha ha.
Spike |
| Dude, you FINISHED it....... | celly
Sep 9, 2002 10:21 AM | | I couldn't even imagine. Congrats on completing it. Nevermind your time you hammerhead. ;-) |
| bastid! | bones
Sep 9, 2002 9:51 AM | | yup, ya kicked my ass. One of the toughest races I've ever been in. My cousin was saying the total tally was 80km and over 3000 feet of climbing, less than 7 kms of which was fireroad. My knees are worked over as I tried in vain to climb cox hill on the singlespeed.
Good to see you and Skog out there, I didn't see Kenny(c) though.
you're right, Tom Snow dragged on forever man!
cheers,
b. |
| Over 3000'? | celly
Sep 9, 2002 10:25 AM | | I don't think so. There's gotta be a LOT more than that. My altimeter was showing around 3,700' of climbing on the Jumpingpound/Cox ride we did at the gathering, including the road spin to the trailhead at the beginning. Spike and I did Jewell/Skogan's last weekend and there was about 4,200' on that one over 50KM. With all those trails strung together there had to be more than 3000'. 3000 metres and I'd believe it.
I cannot believe you did that madness on a SS. Then again, I can't believe you ride a LOT of the stuff you do on a SS. Well done, dude.
bc |
| struck me funny as well... | bones
Sep 9, 2002 10:41 AM | | yeah, when he said that I though foresure, or at least it felt lik there was more than that but had nothing to argue with. I just may have to go to the bible and figure this out.
my knees are paying the price today though my friend.
I saw Kami very early in the race, he went by and I said "Mark! There's 77 left to go, take her easy!" He just kept hammering.
thanks.
b |
| Damn straight | Kenny©
Sep 9, 2002 11:53 AM | | You would have had to have been over 1 hour slower to have seen me at all yesterday. I did, however, ride behind your very speedy little girlfriend until she dropped my slow a$$ on the way up Jumpingpound/Cox. Damn she is fast....maybe trying to keep up to her is what wore me out on Sulphur/PrairieLink/Powderface!!!
K© (still in a lot of pain) |
| re: "Here comes the pain!" - <i>LONG</i> race recap | Kami
Sep 9, 2002 4:10 PM | | wow,that was a long ride,nice work.i raced also,it was my second bicycle race(did canmore 24hrs last year),i think i got 10th 25-35 and 5:21 time.
i know what you mean,that north tom snow is by far the hardest part of the race.do you live in calgary? we should ride some time.
ps:i've cleaned cox hill twice,from powderface trail to the top without stopping or putting a foot down.cheers. |
| Yep, I'm currently a Calgarian | Kami
Sep 9, 2002 6:45 PM | | Sure, let's ride! But could you use a different posting handle? E-mail me at mbass@NOSPAMalbertabiking.com if you wanna hook up.
Cheers |
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