What's a water bottle cost? Not in monetary terms... but places. That's at least the measure if you're a horse in a camel race.....
Getting around to recaping the Chequamegon 40 ain't easy sometimes. Good race, bad race or whatever. I tossed around alot of spins on it I could blog about.
To start with a whole lotta congrats going out to many a racer & rider -- friends that I got to see & compete with. Many of whom had stellar races ... and some not so stellar. It was good to see the many of you, before, during and after. A great way to wind up a season.
For what it's worth, I had some big plans & aspirations at this years event. Physically I wasn't peaked, but convicted in my beliefs of how it could play out I was. So in that there's a silver lining or two in my Cheq40 story.
Starts out in the wee AM hours of that Saturday -- preping everything, tossing down a hot cereal, scrambled egg & sausage breakfast and hitting the road for a the hour drive from Ashland to Hayward. Got there in adequate time for the registration pickup and the seemingly on target 20 minute warmup. Ran into so many people, Michelle & Mike Flannagen-Hagg, Kyia Anderson. Rolling out on the bike caught up with Todd & Di McFadden on their warmup with the Adventure 212 mutant ninja turtles -- (what else can I say they're fast & their are four of 'em, it's not like there are 4 amigo's, stooges or musketeers.)
Main plan -- get to the preferred start early this year. I focused that as a priority which worked well for me at Ore to Shore and recalled Tim Swift's comments from the previous year of staying up front & getting into the moves when they are made. If nothing else I learned & developed this year was having power for the start of a race ain't a problem. I just have to remember to do it.
So thinking that arriving 20minutes before the start was adequate, I was wrong -- instead I had to settle in 6 or 7 rows back... Dangit, but not horrible. In the gates, I lined up next to Matt Myres on my left & was greeted by Adam Swank on the right. The wait wasn't as long as I thought it would feel like. Soon it was National Anthem time & the 4 wheelers were rolling us out. I worked my way out of the middle & to the right outside, amazing at my good fortune to work into the 1st/2nd row in short order. Very happy with that I settled in as we buzzed down the access road & stayed clear of trouble. When the hounds are released on hwy 77 it's game on! I love the challenge -- this year I was convinced riding the Gary Fisher SuperFly with a pair of skinnier than 2" tires there was no way if I arrived in good position I'd have any problems hanging in the front. Holy crap was I wrong -- the surges started & initially I stayed with them. Then a crash/slowup of sorts took out Darrin Braun early & caused a gap of sorts to occur. Somewhere in there a huge surge at the front started to pull away so I clicked down to the hardest gear... Todd McFadden just behind & on my left telling me I could pull in front. Todd -- dude, I was turning over the gears with everything I had. Was not spun out but I might as well have been. Could have been touching the 40mph range for all I know until we caught back onto the front. It's an amazing part of that race, when the front racers hit the gas, it's a wild time.
Road out the rest of 77 sticking to the right side, opting for the fighting any wind rather than counting on the draft of sure handed road skills of my MTB bretheran. Entering Rosie's field on the right, was less optimal as a mad amount of racers scooted along faster on the left -- in fact looking over to my left was like that of something out of a movie scene -- what looked like warriors scrambling by the dozens storming over the hill. It was pretty cool.
Feeling a bit of drain finally I did my best to hammer into a better position through Rosie's field. It would seem to be the place where reality & lactic acid start to bring alot of people back down to earth. Myself being no exception but I also knew recovery was only a few sections of the Birkie trail away. I can only guess but I assume close to 50 people were in front of me upon getting out of Rosie's field, Matt Hudson being one of them. I thought wow, my fellow Ashland guys are sure going strong early. The miles between the Birkie trail & the Misquito Brook 7 or 8 miles in are bit of blur. I remember trying to work in the bike "trains" that were forming but using my momentum on the up & down hills to leapfrog spots where I could.
Somewhere in there, occurred the lead up to my opening comment, as we rounded Misquito Brook I reached for my water bottle.... GONE. Now as I understand everyone's body composition is slightly different, some are camels... some are horses. I lean pretty heavy toward being a horse because there's never been a race whereby I could get by without a full 24 oz water bottle or more for every hour of racing. Some people might not think losing a bottle is that big of deal, but for others you've probably been there & know what I'm talking about.
Going into the race, I'd taken almost 2 weeks off or doing the most minimal of riding. Trying to undue the cumulation of fatigue that had built in me this season of racing & training. I felt iffy about how the race would go under those circumstances but now with a full water bottle that had ejected somewhere earlier on the course I was really starting to wonder. I knew what bad news it spelled out, but I knew there wasn't anything I could do about it. Just keep my head down, ride smart & keep praying that nothing short of a miracle would transpire.
For a pretty long time that actually happened. With 30 miles to go, Matt Muraski & a couple of us other riders were just off the back of a group of 10-15. I road up next to Matt, gave him some threatening encouragement that he had to get up there. He responded that "No, he was gassed" -- well, I don't recall if he got on my wheel or snapped out of his percieved inabilities to go any harder but the boy did hang on & didn't give up. I was real happy for him once he got on, because I believe he may have been the only other one that made the cut and it played out fantastic for him as he had a top 30 finish.... you owe me Matt!
I don't remember the name of the gravel road we get back out on after Birkie section past Misquito brook, but it was there I saw a big chance slipping out of our fingers. When we turned on a guy in a SkiHut jersey was in no man's land 20 yards behind another large group of maybe 15. This felt like the last train leaving the station and there was no way I was going to miss the kaboose -- I put my head down & closed down on the ski hut guy, initially thinking it was Todd M. it ended up being Jake Boyce. He was looking pretty spent & I didn't bother to look back to see if anyone else was going to make the final push, so I decided to dig real deep & close the gap myself and only a few others where able to latch onto my pull.
That's pretty much the excitement for the early part of the race, one big group road fast & hard. I road near Adam Swank for most of it. I didn't realize it until seeing the result later but at the "OO" crossing the collective group was almost 30 riders, positions 21 through 49. I was pretty psyched and still feeling good & riding a smart racing. Pushing when I needed to backing off when it was prudent. Kate & the kids had a great water handoff at Janet Rd which was fantastic but I was already behind in my hydration & still praying....
Well, after "OO" & Janet Road the casualities & attrition started to break down we'd lost 10 guys on a climb or two and prior to another long gravel road section I almost go dropped myself. At 25 miles in I could feel the signs of things starting to become unraveled, and there were now less than 20 of us in this group. We were all in the top 40. I was getting slow on the hill climbs and having to race the decents to catch back on. I would go between acceptance & exasperation -- having my best Cheq 40 race knowing it was just a matter of time before my body would quit on me with an empty tank. I figured the best plan was to do everything I had left to stay with this group & get pulled along even if it left me with nothing before the end.
Well, just short of the single track section & before the Fire Tower climb was went I finally broke. It was a relief at the same time. I stopped racing and went into the mode of enjoying the day for what it was. I was assuming people would be coming up on me right away but it felt like forever before Chad Sova, Nic Anikin, the Eppens, Trevor Olson, Scott Cole & some others would finally go by -- it didn't happen in groups but rather a single racer here & there or maybe a group of 1 to 3 racers.
I made a game of to count just how many places could a person riding in the top 30-40 lose in the final 10 miles of the Chequamegon? It wasn't too bad at first but kept getting worse & worse the finally tally by the time I hit the finish was something near 75 racers. Ouch!
I finally got caught by two the Ashland area riders Kelly McKnight got by with 6 miles to go & went on to ride a strong race. Which was great to see for a guy who only 6 weeks ago looked like his season was over with a broken shoulder blade -- how many other top 60 finishers can say they over came that with their training program this year? Impressive. Paul Belknap, finally latched on with about 2 miles to go, sounds like he had a hard solo type effort race. It's good for the ego & satisfaction but unless your Doug Swanson of a couple years back it's pretty hard to have a top end result. Even so Paul got a top 100 finish.
When mishap occurs that alters your race potential it's never a good thing, but you deal with the cards you have & make the best of it. For me, I'm still happy with a finish near the top 100 knowing I road the best race I could under the circumstances.
It was hotter than normal September day & I had some real bad dehydration going on so Kate soon rounded up me & the kids & we scooted home and called it a day. Despite having signed up for the Sunday Fun-day I opted out and worked on the trails here. Since then I've been off the bike trying to get my sleep patterns back in order and catching up on all the stuff that got left conveniently forgotten these past 6 or 7 months of biking.
October if I'm finally feeling recovered I'll get back on the bike, work in some fun rides & longer base miles again and find a Cross race when I can. It's been a fun year, and after a good break & some skiing I'll be itching for it again soon.
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