NB's Comments:
I don’t care who you are…30
degrees is cold…
I picked up brewer at his crib in
Austin about five in the afternoon after an uneventful
3-hour drive from Houston. brewer loaded his gear into
the my rig… now officially known as the Adventure Race
Transport Vehicle, or ARTV fo’ short… and we continued
blazing trails to the race site in Marble Falls, TX.
We arrived at the park and after
paying our camping fee, we found
Special Ed and
Richard, the official race photographers, drinking a
cold one and watching the world go by.
After unloading the majority of the
gear from the ARTV, brewer set up his tent while I
prepared the inside of the ARTV for me to sleep inside.
We took a few sunset pictures, prepared a little dinner,
and ended up helping a couple of other racers with their
truck tent. It wasn’t long after that I climbed inside
the ARTV and buried myself inside my sleeping bag for
the rest of the evening.
I awoke around 0600, opened the
door and realized it was significantly colder outside
than it was inside the ARTV. 30 degrees to be precise.
We walked down to the pre-race
meeting, got the skinny, and hauled our bikes and other
gear to the transition area (TA) and waited for the race
to begin at 0700.
“GO!”
And with that we began the first
leg of the race… the run. The run was 2.31 miles, and
it took us 21 minutes, 4 seconds… which is an average
pace of 9:06/mile. My alarm on my heart monitor told me
I was exceeding my maximum heart rate for my age—188
beats per minute—at some point during one of the up-hill
parts. “Whatever”… I kept on running. My average heart
rate for the run was 174, and the temperature of my toes
and fingers was about -50 degrees. I dislike cold
weather!
We had a great TA time, and with
helmets on our heads and Camelbaks strapped on torsos,
we began the mountain bike section.
For the most part, the mountain
bike section was easy. “Easy” in that it wasn’t too
technical, but the damned hills… I hate hills.
We were clipping along pretty good
when I heard brewer yell he had run off the trail. I
called back for him; he was OK, so we kept rolling
without getting passed by any other riders... until the
flat from brewer's off-the-trail adventure that is.
After emerging from one of the more
technical sections, brewer yelled he flatted. We pulled
off to the side and watched helplessly as team after
team rode by. It took us ten minutes to change the
flat…
We pressed on, and it wasn't long
before my mangina started acting up… I could feel myself
starting to bonk. I popped a Shotblok and prayed it
would help… it didn’t.
We were 10.15 miles in the mountain
bike section when we had to stop to climb a friggin
hill. My average heart rate for this part of the ride
was 168, and I maxed at 189. Our time for the 10.15
miles was 1 hour 34 minutes... 41 seconds.
The directions were clear… “Climb
up to the tower.” So off we went…
brewer was like a friggin gazelle.
Me? Well I was more like a 158-year old Giant
Tortoise. Mentally I wanted to run up the hill; it’s
just that my legs would not cooperate. Don’t get me
wrong, I made it… just a little slower than I wanted
to. At the top of the 20-story climb, brewer grabbed
the wine cork from the perky teenager, and we
about-faced and made our way back down to the bikes to
finish the ride. The run up to the tower on the top of
the hill and back was only 0.46 miles, and we climbed up
(and back down, obviously) 230 feet … took us 13
minutes, 50 seconds. My average heart rate for this
section was 152... maxed out at 171.
I reckon the Shotbloks and
reduced-heart rate gave me a burst of energy, because
for a good while of the next 2.91 miles I was moving
along pretty good… then came some hills and BONK! Damn
it. We stopped one time to help another team. They
flatted as well, but they didn’t have a tube or a pump.
I threw them a tube and a CO2 kit from my pouch so they
could finish the race.
The sun was warming things up
nicely, but I was still wearing three synthetic shirts,
running tights, triathlon shorts, and a face mask. I
stopped. I took off the face mask and the long-sleeved
shirt. It definitely didn’t help our time, but I felt
better. I wasn’t too happy to watch the two young guys
I had just given tire-changing stuff to pass us… damn
it.
The remaining mountain bike section
was 2.91 miles from the hill-climbing stop earlier to
the TA. Unfortunately it took us (though I really
should say it took ME) 16 minutes, 11 second.
My average heart rate was 167, and I maxed out at 181.
At the TA, we were told to run
“that way…” We did. The mystery event had those very
large wooden spools used to haul heavy gauge wire. You
typically see these on the back of semis (there’s
pictures below too). Anyway, our task was to jump over
one, go under one, jump over one, go under the next. I
don’t remember exactly how many there were… six maybe?
Who knows? Anyway, I killed this one. Being little and
strong does have some advantages. We ended up running
0.37 miles to the spools and back. It took us 4 minutes
and 24 seconds to complete this final section. My
average heart rate was 166… maxed at 173.
We arrived at the finish table… 2
hours, 34 minutes, 3 seconds. The total mileage of the
race was 16.23 miles. My average heart rate over this
two-and-a-half-plus hours was 167. We also had an
elevation change of 2,000 feet... in that we went up and
down 2,000 feet from the beginning to the end. This
doesn’t take into consideration all the ups and down in
the middle… it’s simply the delta between the highest
and lowest points along the course.
Now remember that 10 minutes we
lost changing the flat? Well, we finished 10th
at 2:34:03. Check out the 3rd and 4th
place times:
3rd - 2:18:04
4th - 2:25:09
Now I ain’t saying we would have
finished 4th… I’m just sayin’ I wish we had
that 10 minutes back. But in reality, the 10 minutes
was also a break… and who cares? It was a whole lot of
fun regardless!
Some things I learned this time:
-
Eat. No matter what, eat. I did not eat breakfast in
the morning prior to the run. Dumb. I think that’s
why I bonked so early—I simply ran out of fuel. Once
I started the Shotbloks, I was like a friggin sine
wave… go go go…
bonk! go go go… bonk.
-
Train more for hills. There are no hills in Houston,
but spend some time on the trainer… get hills
conquered.
-
Get endurance up. It’s hard to train for more than an
hour and a half… but that’s when I started bonking.
Put in the time!
On a positive note, I pushed myself
harder this time than previous races, and only once did
my left calf muscle talk to me. Just a little… but it
disappeared and never returned. I’ve been really REALLY
working calves in the gym… looks like it’s paying off!
If you're interested, the following
links will take you to the data from the race on
MotionBased.com:
And even more fun is the Google
Earth file. Download it
here.
I reckon that's it...
Next race, April 19th!
Until then…
Peace.
NB |
