What's two days away? The Hermosa Creek Trail Bike Race. A 20 mile (for my class) mostly-uphill jam up a legendary local trail. I've ridden great distances before, I've been in contests on my bike, but this will be my first official race. I don't expect to be competitive. Actually, I just hope not to come in with the slowest time, though I fully do expect to come very close to that. I have done little to no official training for this race... none of that Rocky-drinking-an-egg-and-chasing-chickens crap for me. I do ride a lot, and I will be gearing "up" for the race - that is, making my single speed a tad easier to pedal.
Its really more of a whim kind of thing. I was just reminded about it on a message board, and decided hell, might as well - I've always wanted to ride that trail anyhow. A good excuse I guess. The real idea behind this is the coming back down after the race. If I can finish the uphill in under 3 or 3.5 hours, I'll be at the top by 1 or 2. Plenty of time to rest up, wait for the one or two people that would have been behind me (because of mechanical things I'm sure!) to come in, and then I can enjoy the 20 miles or so of that madness backwards - that is - downhill. Oh yes. But, that's assuming I make it to the top and don't blow up on the way.
Here's a little official info on the race:
I'll only be going up to the number 18. The loop that goes beyond that I've ridden before, but I'm just not up for it after 18-20 of grinding upwards...
And here's the race profile - but we start at the right go to the left (and go up up up up....)
Hermosa Creek trail racing is back! Come one, come all, to race on the high country trail that made Durango famous. There is a 38 mile course for Pro/Semi Men and Women and Singlespeed A, a choice of either the 38 or 20 mile courses for the Expert Men and Women (3-5 hours), 20 miles for other classes and Singlespeed B. Even better, there will be a post-race BBQ/Campout hosted Russell Zimmerman of the Durango Cyclery (Food, beverages and entertainment). Race sponsors have kicked in some great prizes – cash for the top 3 Pro Men and Women (from the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic and The Wilderness Society) and products from Sram, Boure, Continental, etc for the other classes! Proceeds go to the Fort Lewis College Cycling Team.
Organizers would like to notify racers and other trail users that the race course will start at the Lower Hermosa Trail Parking Lot and use the Hermosa Trail (TR 514) to the North. The extended loop will continue onto Hermosa Park Road (FR 578), Hotel Draw Road (FR 550), 1 mile of the Colorado Trail (TR 520) and the Corral Draw Trail (TR 521) before returning to the north Hermosa Trailhead for the finish. The camping areas at the North Trailhead are reserved for the event Friday 7/25 through Sunday 7/27.
and a more official map from map my ride:
So it is still two days away. Tonight (Thursday) I'll do a fairly big ride on the rigid single speed with the current "normal" gearing. When I get home, I'll switch to the easier gear and not ride again until the Race. Friday will be for rest and carbo loading :) I'm fairly nervous about the race, but really, I just want to not come in last, and have enough energy to ride back down when I'm done. Fingers are crossed. And when you get down to it, I've done longer rides before, just not under such a tight time constraint on the way out part....
THURSDAY NIGHT/FRIDAY AM:
Well, tonight I didn't get to ride after work, as it was storming in a pretty healthy manner. But I did change out the rear cog on the Sette, went from an 18 to 20 tooth cog. I hope this will make a noticeable difference on the climb. Also installed a new chain. I think I will bring two or three extra cogs and a chain just in case. I'd rather not be switching cogs and chains alongside the trail, but then, I'd rather have that option too.
SATURDAY NIGHT:
Well, I was originally going to title this journal entry "Following Inner Promptings Brings Quiet Accomplishments" - it was from a fortune cookie I got on Thursday. But, after uncurling myself from a whimpering lump in the corner, I'm considering just calling all of this "Just WTF was I thinking????"
I spent most of Friday night over-preparing for race day. Making sure all the appropriate (and some inappropriate) tools and accessories were accounted for. Extra tube, pump, extra chain, chain tool, extra cogs, multi too with chainbreaker, extra socks, waterproof rain shell, extra shirt, blah blah, you get the idea. I drank too much coffee, so getting to sleep was a chore, probably did not all asleep until 2 am or so. But I did sleep well - deep with no dreams that I can remember.
Friday morning comes up, and apparently it had rained all night. Streets outside were still wet (as opposed to the streets inside?), and the ground was fairly saturated. This was going to be interesting. But, weather in town and weather up high does not always match - and there's a good chance it didn't even rain up on the course. Terry, a friend I made through the Spokejunkies rides, picked me up promptly at 7:15, and we were off to the mountain.
These are sign-up tables. Entry fee included a one-day NORBA pass... Free doughnuts and cookies though, weee. Everybody was cheery, nice and polite, and quite helpful.
The parking lot was only sparsely populated when we arrived. People were zipping about and warming up and socializing, and there were seemingly hundreds of happy canines running amok, unleashed. There were a lot of single speeders there, and some pretty fancy bikes too.
Terry, with his new white Trek on the right, and a Search and Rescue dirt bike in the center.
Once we had our entry fees paid and twisty-tied our numbers to our bikes, there was not much else to do but rubberneck and wait. I'm noticing many of the single speed bikes are geared quite harder to pedal than mine. Which means basically, that I am out of "shape", relative to this racing/fitness crowd (I'd like to go back in time a good 15 years and give myself a good bitch-slap about the smoking thing) -- or, I just happened to show up at a race for Super-Humans. In hindsight, I do believe that was the case. The Super-Human thing, I mean.
Terry's fancy new ride. There might be something to all this
gear stuff... hmmmm.
After some time passed, and the crowd started to thin a bit in the parking area, we figured it might be a good idea to head towards the start/staging area. It would be embarrassing to show up after everybody had taken off.
More staging madness...
For a while, the staging area was fairly chaotic. I think the riders were all ready to get a move on, but the organizers had some last minute organizing to take care of, and finally, they sectioned everyone in the area off into their respective classes. Since my respective class was second to last to be let off, I just wandered about, taking mostly uninteresting snaphots ;)
The start line...
I dunno, this scene reminds me of one of those vintage Tour posters... I should distress it a bit and make it sepia... I believe this was the Pro group.
And they're off!
This was the Mens Expert/Single Speed A class.. I think...
One thing I didn't expect was the noise at the start of each class. I wasn't really paying attention to the marshal before the Mens Pro class took off, so when the blank gun went off, it totally caught me off guard and I jumped like a foot off the ground. Funny. Funnier was how when at the start of the Womens Expert class, the gun dry clicked - he was firing blanks, and was appropriately chastised for it.
Finally, it was time for my class to take off. In fear of further chastising, the starting guy had resigned to just saying "go!" to send us off. The staring line for my class was packed. On the inside line was me, flanked to my right by Terry. We tentatively rubbed elbows back and forth, each trying to jockey just a bit more forward than the other... no, really.. it was just he and I in the class. And since there was no gun to sound us off, to add excitement (for me)I began our race by doing a wheelie for first 100 yards or so.. then as the racers before us, we disappeared in to the forest.
(No photo available of our start.... ;))
After I set down the wheelie, we still had about a quarter mile of uphill gravel road before we reached the trail, then we ducked off in to a narrow gap in the trees, and the race was on. The intervals between groups was about 2 minutes. I think the group that went before us was the Women's Expert. I'll make note again, I was not in this to "race" anybody, to beat anybody or to prove some kind of macho race thing for my ego. I just wanted to ride Hermosa Creek trail. But a weird thing happens when you ride with a large group of people, and they make you tie a number to the front your bike. You get this competitive mindset going on in the background....
Which, is too bad for me, because I just don't have the lungs and legs that the rest of these riders do. And the single speed was a distinct disadvantage for me on this - which is fine, I can take my lumps, and besides, I'd be coming downhill later on, after the race, and gearing wouldn't matter so much (famous last words anyone?)
I would be happy to just keep my place in the order of release of riders - not get passed, and pretty much guaranteed not to pass anybody. Just fine with that.
If you peeped at the race profile above (remember, we are riding right now from right to left on that image), you'll notice this is largely an uphill battle. I'll try not to describe every twist and turn, just know that most of them were painful, and despite my easy gearing, I suffered pretty much the entire way. As the trail traveled due north, the climb was steady and easy to deal with. Every half mile or so, the trail would turn right/east, descend to creek or stream in a very fast/steep manner - border lining on rude in some places - and then it would hairpin back to a western direction, and climb - in quite a rude, steep fashion. Those were the parts of the trail I hated, the climbing just after the stream crossing. the other climbs were manageable, painful, but doable. Oh - the weather. yeah. Well, it never did end up pouring on us, but it was heavy overcast most of the way up the trail. The trail was moist and tacky, a little softer than I prefer, but since I run pretty high pressure in my tires, it didn't bog me down too much. It was nice. A fair amount of puddles, some a little deeper than one might expect. After a mile in to the ride, I knew I was not coming out anywhere near clean or even mildly dusty. This could easily turn in to a mud fest. Sweeeeet.
This one was shallow... but there were several I went through that were as deep as my cranks, and a few even had hidden rocks lurking in their depths...
Well, Terry and all his gears lost me after about a mile. But thats okay, I'd rather not have anyone else hearing me gasp for my life every other crank rotation. Besides, there's just something primal about cruising through a dense wet forest all by yourself. Despite the excruciating effort I had to put forth, I was really digging this. Ha, I was in a race! One place where I did excel on the trail was on the down parts. Even though I lacked the 4 or 5 inches of suspension that most other riders had on either the front, back or both, I was bombing the downs at breakneck speed, and was making time on them. Those were the highlights and adrenaline rushes of that upward journey for sure. At about mile 3 I had Terry in my sites, maybe a couple hundred yards ahead of me, and I could he was being held up by two riders that were in front. I saw him get past them, and I rode the next three down sections without using the brakes at all. !!! I caught the riders, and it took another half mile to pass them, just waiting for a clear spot on the trail where I could zoom by.
Damn - I actually passed two people... I had to remind msyelf, that I was not in this for the competition, and in reality, I was in the percentage of slow, not fast people. Another mile goes by, and I pass a spandex-clad racer on the side of the trail - fancy bike that couldn't have weighed 15 lbs... he had a flat, asked if I had a pump. I obliged, and took about 10 minutes off my ride time.. grrr.. and I'm thinking, this is an omen, I know it....
Miles of the trail pass by, and its beautiful... fur trees all over, and I bomb through some rocky technical things that I didn't think was possible (there's a lot to be said for just going fast and hanging on!). Aspen groves... and the smells of the forest are nearly overwhelming... think of the candle aisle at the grocery market, but in a good way, lol... I continue to climb through some twisty single track, and the forest spits me out in to a small meadow, Hermosa Creek bends right here and there's a small waterfall... everything is super-saturated green, like Fuji Velvia, with a blue-ish color cast... It was like riding in to a National Geographic photo... And then the serenity of the moment was crushed by the hissing rush of air from my front tire. Damn.
On a ride last week, I notice this nail/thorn thing sticking in my tire... I started to pull it out, and heard an immediate protest from the tube in which it was impailed. It was a self-sealing tube, so I pushed it back in, and all was good, the tire held the air just fine. And I forgot about it.
You can see, in the upper left, where the nail is embedded in to my tire... Shot last week, and forgot last week....
Well, one of those rocks I must have hit just right, because it drove that nail all the way in to my tire, and evacuated all the air in less than a couple seconds. Man, you have gotta be kiddin' me. I did bring an extra tube, good thing. Also had a patch kit, but... after pulling the tube out, I noticed I've already patched this self-sealing tube 3 times (something "they" say you can't do ONE time).
This is the current/new thing stuck in my tire...
The three above are three of the four patches already in place on the tube...
I even had tire levers with me, so getting the tire off - all the mechanical stuff here was easy as pie. But checking my tire for other protrusions or antagonists proved difficult, as the outer parts of the tire were caked with mud. I walked down to the creek and washed the tire off in rather icy flowing water. I came very close to having to ride the trail back without a front tire too - the water in creek was moving very very fast, and the current was strong - so strong that it almost pulled the tire from my hand and washed it down the mountain. Whew.
During my pit stop, the people I passed came by, and passed me back - but each stopped to ask if I was okay or needed anything. Nice.
This photo does not do the "riding in to a photo from National Geographic" description justice, but really.. it was beautiful. Old tube on the ground in front. Yes, I packed it out.
The sort of glistening sheen on the trail is water. It was actually flowing down the trail. What was odd, is that I pedaled up it as if it were dry - my tires did not sink in at all.
After replacing the tube, I was off in to the forest again, trying to make up "lost time"... well, I wasn't really trying. I knew I had about 6 miles to go out the 18 or 20, and I was really just trying to survive.
At about 4 miles to go, the forest dumps you out to the side of Hermosa Creek, and you follow a sort of double track that parallels the creek until pretty much the end. When most people thing "double track" you think like jeep road or something. Well, I'd give good money to see someone jeep this stuff. Its possible, I know, but it would be good entertainment. Some of this was pretty technical, some just tricky trail riding, and some areas where the creek came over the trail, and you had no choice but to continue across as if it were a stream crossing, which, technically it was, though you weren't really "crossing it". The steep climbs were over, finally, and the last 2 miles was just gradual grind up to the meadow/trail head. I came out of the creek area alone, and could see the finish area in the distance; cars, tents, bikes, riders, and cookout grills things billowing smoke signals in to the air. After one last blast across a lengthy stream crossing (I guess its just not proper to end a race without shoes full of water) - it was over, I finished. It was cool, I was probably in the last 10% of people to finish (which is fine, I was in the last 10% to start) but there was still a gaggle of folks at the stream crossing yelling and shouting for you to cross and finish, pretty neat. After I crossed the finish line, I found a nice grassy area to promptly collapse in and begin my recovery. :)
The last "obstacle" of the race - a lenghty water crossing. You can see, it's not that easy - check the lady in the background.
Special props - in my mind anyhow - she made it across clipped in. There were some hidden boulders, rocks, and gaps beneath the surface, for a water crossing it was fairly techy.
Bike rack at the finishing/fest area. Puff of smoke in the background is from the grilling brats and burgers. Some keen bikes too...
Another view of the feasting area...
One of these things - is not like the other - one of these things - does not belong.... can you see it? This is the bike shuttle back down the mountain.
Spent the next 30 minutes re hydrating myself. Over the 18 mile climb, I drank only 16oz. of fluids, and consumed only one of my Cliff power-gel things. Caught up with Terry, who must have finished at least a half hour ahead of me, considering I had to stop for my flat, and someone else's. Wandered the "pits" bit, and had a burger with a little mustard on it. Then the question of the day was posed:
"Do we ride back down the trail, or do we shuttle with the rest of the riders?"
One might think it's obvious - after 18 miles and over 2,000 feet of elevation gain, you take the shuttle back down. Well, that's the "smart" decision anyhow. Though the ride up was grueling and debilitating, I didn't feel totally crushed, and well, why ride all the way up and not go back down? That was really the plan for me at the outset anyhow. So, we agreed, time to take the trail in reverse - DOWN hill. We rested up a bit more, grabbed some more liquid, and we were off.
In hindsight, I'm glad I did it - rode back down after the race. The trail is magnificent in that direction... much faster for the most part, and some of the tricky sections were just marvelous - wet or not.
But, if you check the ride profile again, this time we're riding from left to right, you'll notice about 2/3 of the way down, there's a significant climb up... probably a good eight or nine-hundred feet up. On it's own, that's not a drastic climb. After 18 miles up, and another 12 miles down, and armed with only one gear - it was a killer. At this point on the way back, I became frustrated. Half way up that climb, frustration turned to anger, and then just below the crest of the climb, anger turned to insane rage and my just refuting the whole idea in my head, lol. After that it was downhill for a good ways, and I faded comfortably back in to frustration. That last 4 miles were probably the hardest riding I ever did in my life. Having no water, I ate a power gel, and let is swish around in my mouth and mix with saliva until it was more liquid that gel... kinda gross but it worked.
All said and done, I believe that's the farthest I've ever ridden off-road, ever at one time. I've done longer rides in one day, but nothing that matches the intensity and effort of this ride. I don't think any of the other racers came back down the trail besides us. In fact, we were so fast to leave from the finish area, that we missed the podium presentations, where Terry and I were awarded with First and Second Place in our class, lol. Which is fitting, since there were only two of us!
Terry, pedaling just after a tricky stream crossing - on the way home...
And me, #675 homeward bound...
Lessons learned on this ride... I dunno if I learned anything. It did confirm to me that I really need to "work" on my cardio, find a solution or way to increase it. Also, the single speed thing... I like the rebellious nose thumbing to geared riding and that whole idea of simplicity, but I don't really have the focus to devote myself in such a way that I could ride this or any trail competitively. NOT that I'd want to, but I would like to able to ride with a little less suffering. If I have to do it geared, that's fine. I found myself lagging behind Terry quite a bit, mostly due to climbing. Terry is an excellent rider - technically he's probably my equal, if not better, but I can keep up with him and almost anyone else in that regard. When the trail flattened out, I was kept back by my easy climbing gear. I'm not so concerned about keeping up with Terry, but I did want to go faster, the gear would not permit it. Same can be said for the climbs. I could have done much better, and maybe kept myself in only the frustrated to angry mode on the climbs, if I had been riding a set of gears. Gears are in my future, for sure. I want to do more high country stuff, and its just not conducive to single speeds.. not with this body and lungs anyhow.
Also need to remember to drink more (liquids in general, not alcohol). Really, I should have gone through all 100oz. of liquid I took with me on the way up. Turns out I only had 1/4 of that. Thats just dangerous really. I need to keep an eye on that.
I need a new portable pump, it's by will of the gods that I got mine to work when I needed it most. Probably a good idea to change out tubes with nails impailed in to them asap also...
Remember gloves next time. When we got back to the truck, I found mine sitting on the bed of the pick-up. But callouses are good, right?
And that's about it... its Sunday now. I'm not riding today at all, not even to the store. If I have to go outside, I'm walking. I don't know if I'll ever race again, I would like to do the Iron Horse next year, but we'll see. That's 70 miles with a lot more elevation gain through two mountain passes, but all on the road. It was a blast, glad I did it. now I can cross it off the Mountain Bike Action's top ten things you should do on your bike list...
Thanks for stopping in, :peace:
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