PC50 or Park City 50, is the longest mountain bike race I have ever done! It was a great learning experience. Went like this:
-Tons of preparations, figuring out what to eat
-Decided on Carborocket 333 in my water bottle first 8 miles, no camelbak for less weight. I would pick it up at mile 8
-Started off with the whole huge pack
-Took it kinda easy, wished I had pushed more to the front
-Got stuck in huge jamup on Johns and the rocky stuff
-Someone (JERKS!) moved the flags, so we got to do a huge hike-a-bike(which I actually enjoyed, sorry gnomes. It stretched my calves out.)
-got back on course
-Stayed with Meghan Sheridan the whole first 8 miles
-Picked up water bottle with perpetuem and my Camelbak from Lance at mile 8
-was that a mistake? Watched Meghan take off since she didn't have to stop. Never saw her again.
-Camelbak felt so heavy and annoying.
-The girl who took first (Horner) passed me somewhere through the next section. She seemed to have tons of energy
-yo-yoed with a bunch of guys the whole time (from Bountiful Bicycles and some other guy)
-Mile 23 I stopped and ate a cookie, half a banana, and a redbull. Didn't grab any more food. Should have.
-Mile 30 my water bottle cage broke. I put the bottle in my jersey pocket (it had all my calories. In hindsight I should have dumped it into my camelbak, duh! But I was in a hurry! :)
-No food. My fault. Stupid mistake. No energy. Didn't stop at mile 40 either, what was I thinking? Subsisting on water.
-Last ten miles super bumpy. I felt pretty beat up.
-Last switchbacks in canyons, I wreck. Hit my knee super hard. Sat there. Saw a girl coming. ----Jumped on my bike. She was right behind me. I asked her what category she was in. Expert.
-I saw a flag to my left by a singletrack. I stopped. She flew by. I yelled, do we go this way? No. Shoot, I messed up everything.
-Watched her head to the finish. My heart sank.
-crossed the finish line.
-Tears. That wouldn't stop.
So that was that, in an instant I lost third place. I looked at my watch. I had finished under six hours, 5:53. Kinda shocked. But I still couldn't wrap my head around it. I felt so crushed that I had rode so hard for almost 6 hours straight, to lose by a few seconds. These last two days I have run it through my head over and over: if only I did switchbacks better, if only I had ridden faster through that part, if only I had tried to get out front in the beginning, if only I had more food, if only I'd preridden the finish so I would have gone the right way...but bottom line is that this is how races go. People can pass you in that last few seconds. It has happened to me before. It was just especially hard for me to swallow this time. We ate dinner and as I heard the podium finishers I just had to choke back the tears that just didn't seem to stop no matter how hard I tried. I felt so silly, I was pretty happy with my time. I was happy I had no mechanicals. I was happy I finished. But I just couldn't stop crying. I hate that feeling so much. Jed just keeps telling me to use it to train harder. That is what this sport is all about. You have to mentally conquer the voices in your head that tell you to stop, that you are not good enough...and so on. In the end it is just a race, and it is mountain biking. Which I really love and I can't forget that! It is such a great sport. It pushes me like no other. I am so grateful to be able to ride. Life is good! On to the next race...
6 comments:
Heather, you did awesome for your first endurance event. I tell people that anything can happen in a race, numeric results don't mean as much as internal results. In endurance racing that anything can happen grows exponentially. You can look back on your day and see several places where things did not go according to plan, however, you persevered and had an awesome result. Thant is THE result. Good job!!!
Thanks Bob. Thanks for the words of advice. I appreciate it. I think we can be too hard on ourselves sometimes, huh? once again though, thanks to you, Ty Shannon and Drew. Great great race, I even liked the hike a bike the gnomes gave us, it helped my calves stretch out like I said. :)
yay! i was so happy i got to hear all about it first hand! good job, Heather, you are amazing!
Ouch, that ending is very tough! Sorry it didn't go as well as it could have, but you still had a great finish time and came out still standing, er, riding.
In my limited experience with endurance racing, the crying is not only about something you wish had gone better, but also exhaustion and realization of the enormity of what you have just done. Emotions, good and bad, always run high after something like that, and some of us express that in tears that can be unstoppable no matter how hard we try. Don't think you are alone in that aspect of it.
Again, great job!
Wow! 50 miles!!?? You are amazing/crazy. I totally look up to you!! Way to go!!
We always learn more from our mistakes, so learn from the experience and enjoy the next time! You are amazing, Heather. So proud of you.
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