Rewind to Friday -
This was to be a big weekend for all....steamboat for WB and I, Leadville for Jekich and Douglass.
This weekend was our trip to steamboat for the Steamboat Stinger races. I was going to be doing the duo MTB with Marshall Miller on saturday and then WB and I were going to do the half marathon trail race on sunday.
http://www.honeystinger.com/steamboatstinger.html
Leading up to the race:
Friday - super nice day and our plans were to head up to steamboat as soon as we got things packed up. WB had to finish some charts so i took a quick spin up chimney with tom. As those of you who have ridden chimney there is only one way to ride chimney. 100%. Just no way to ride that sucker easily since its so technical and steep. This is why is has been named the "best trail on the front range" by none other than WB herself. Tom and I finish it out and i head home to just sit in the car for the next few hours to steamboat. 13 miles, 2000ft of climbing in.
Since WB needed to shake off the cob webs from doing charts all morning we planned to get a quick ride in in Steamboat when we arrived. Headed up to Howelsen hill to preride the half marathon course for a little recon. Very nice course, not quite as "fun" as chimney but very smooth with a great climb up and a super flowy decent. Another 13 miles and 1800ft of going up.
26 miles and 3800 ft of riding the day before a race is not unusual for me but i figured i am never guaranteed tomorrow, so I better make today count. Last weekend i rode part of the cougar slayer course at 30 miles and 3K of going up the day before a solid finish at xterra snow mtn ranch.
who can pass up sunshine and singletrack? Not exactly a taper plan but it has worked, even though it causes some more suffering the following day.
Saturday - Duo MTB race.
Marshall and I decide i should do the first 25mi lap since he wanted to ride in the extreme heat. Turns out it gets hot up in steamboat as the elevation is quite a bit lower than most other mountain towns. 8am start so i head over with my crew, WB and Bailey after some coffee and a danish.
End up in the back of the pack because i didnt feel it was necessary to get to the venue 1 hour before the gun for a front row start. Start off with a solid rocky climb right out of the gate and immediately drop a chain about a half mile in to the race. put her back on and am pedaling again. After a tight singletrack section which totally bottlenecks the field you empty out on a gravel road which i then proceed to pass about 100 people in a mile. Dump into the next singletrack section and then get stuck behind some slower folk that clearly got to the start finish at 5am to secure a front starting position. I sit back and relax as its too tight to try and pass. Once it opens up again i pass about 40 more people. Now im at about mile 8 or 9 and am riding in a group that is much more my pace, although i had to catch them by this point. Get to the first aid station at the top of the hill and See Dan and Adam from bikeparts/peak cycles jumping up and down in their kits yelling and passing off bottles and gels. Those dudes totally cracked me up but they were super enthusiastic which made me push a little on the next section. I settle in and crank away until i get stung, literally stung, by two bees. This is the honey stinger after all. Luckily im not allergic but am immediately fearful of Marshall who is and i debating telling the poor guy to not even go out on the lap. Luckily he told me he had brought two epi pens so that almost made me feel better. Everyone i talked to on the second half of the course mentioned how they had also gotten stung. This did not help regarding whether or not i was going to hold marshall and do a second lap myself or let him go out. while im thinking about all of this i go off course twice going too fast into corners. Eventually catch some of the pro women but they are doing the 50 mile race so i pass them even though i know they would be crushing me if they were only doing the 25 miler. I get to another aid station and they are giving out bacon and whiskey....of course im stopping at this one. Actually, never stopped but just rolled through grabbing a piece of bacon and 3 rapid fire shots of whiskey while pedaling. This is why i hate road biking.
Crush the last half of the course pretty easily but the decents were scary in spots with super tight sections and lots of switchbacks.
Starting to get real hot and am again thinking about telling marshal to not go out. Swing into the pits at 2:30 flat. I think that was good for something like 20 mins behind the 1st place guy and around 12th for the field for the duo category.
Pretty happy with this given my taper day the day before. Burned a few too many matches but once youre in race mode its tough to hold back for tomorrow. Find the beer tent and crush a few IPAs.
Immediately check in with the leadville crew. sign up for athlete tracking and let the cell phone blow up with splits for jekich and douglass. watch intently as the minutes tick by and find out they were almost riding together and both finished with some killer times. super pumped for them as i know how good that ones feels to check off your to-do list. cant wait to see those buckles fellas!
Sunday - 1/2 marathon trail race.
Ran this two years ago and pulled in an 8th overall and 3rd in AG but the field size was about a quarter of what it was today. Expected to hang in there and was hoping for a top 20 finish and to stay with WB as long as my legs would allow
Get there just a couple of minutes before the race starts and after a donut and coffee for breakfast. See Doug Melzer who is coming off the couch to rock a half marathon. He tells me hes moving to the back of the pack for the start as hes not expecting much. WB and I convince him to stay at the front with us so he does. Gun goes off and Melzer starts dropping 6min miles on the only flat section of the only course, hits the hills and continues to put a gap on WB and I and is running in 6th place. WB yells to me "what is melzer doing, sandbagger!" So we hit the hills and crank away. Melzer is crushing it. the dude hasnt run all summer and is about to keep pace with the lead pack of this half marathon. We keep climbing and now im suffering. Im only about 3 miles in and my legs feel like rubber. I knew i should have drank more beer to load up those glycogen stores. Keep hammering and WB and I trade off on the climbs, i am tempted to really fall back and just set cruise control but know id hate myself for it if i did. Get to the super steep top section Stairway to Heaven where the turn around is and only see 5 guys in front of me, no melzer!? Where did he go i think to myself....Only two things could have happened. 1. he got super ambitious and set off on the marathon course with those runners or he is in the woods inspecting the root systems. I crank the down the mountain in this super lush and flowy section. My legs, and lungs, start to come back to me but now we are really hammering downhill and im afraid my quads are going to explode. I know wb is only about 30 seconds behind me so i continue to crush it. Get to about mile 8 and my legs literally feel like they are about to fall off. This is certainly the farthest ive run all year since my last half marry in Pagosa last fall. I stay on the throttle though as i am intermittently catching the 5th place guy but he pulls away on me. I know doug and wb are right behind me too so i know i cant slack off much because they wont let me live that down. The last 2-3 miles on lupine feel like 12 and the wheels are starting to fall off. i keep looking back every 30 seconds or so expecting to see wb and melzer but i only hear them. i push it to the finish and finish 1:42; besting my 1:45 two years earlier. 6th place overall, 3rd in AG. DGBG takes 6th, 7th, 8th place overall. WB obviously takes 1st female finisher by 11 minutes, i was 9 minutes out of the race winner, and melzer comes off the couch to put a hurt on me and the rest of the worker bees in steamboat this weekend. incredible. Immediately head to the beer tent but they tell me they arent serving yet because its only 9am so i wait 15 minutes until they do.
Just as the usa pro cycling challenge gets to steamboat we get the heck out of there. loaded with boxes of stinger gummies, waterbottles, t shirts and some really really sore legs.
If anyone is interested this is a fantastic weekend in steamboat each year. We will certainly be coming back for a 3rd tour next year.
Never waste a day, as no one is guaranteed tomorrow. Boy the things you think about when youre suffering on the bike....
Up next: Durango to Moab via San Juan Huts
