5-0, less 30

Well, its been a week since I did the 5-0, so I figured I'd better publish this post.

I've done this race twice before and both times its kicked my ass. Baldy and I drove up to Spearfish at 7am. We didn't get a chance to warm up much, but its a long race so I wasn't too worried. During the four wheeler leadout, I surfed my way to the front and had a great spot going into the climb to Tinton trail. I lost a little bit on the climb, but that was fine. I just wanted a good spot going into the singletrack (its better to get passed than have to do the passing I say). I hit Tinton and starting railing the singletrack. Its a sweet trail and I was really enjoying myself, but my heart rate wouldn't come down (was it the lack of a warmup?). Half an hour into the race and I'm still wheezing for air, so I stopped and took a quick breather. Ten minutes later, I'm still not recovering and really starting to bobble the trail on my rental bike, so I walked a little bit and had a Gu and got passed by a dozen racers. After riding for another ten minutes I stopped and blew some green stuff out my nose (which did really help the breathing); something wasn't right. Another ten minutes and I stopped and checked my blood sugar. 53.

Hmmmm. That explains a little. I stopped and ate a little and drank about a quart of sports drink and sat down for a bit. Once I felt a bit more human I limped into aid station 1 and ate a little bit of everything they had. I waited around a little and started to feel better so when Baldwin rolled up, I decided to keep going with him.

At this point I was over a half hour off my goal time with a little under 40 miles to go, so I decided to take it easy and enjoy the rest of the ride. I started feeling better after the first aid station. A little before the second aid station, I started going fast. I wasn't pushing myself so much as I was really getting in a good groove on the trail.

After the second aid station, Baldy and I descended down into this creek valley with some real quick and twisty trails along the side of a hill. I was having a real blast, punching it up each short roller and flying down the back. I guess I was going a little too fast. Over the top of one hill, I bumped my front wheel and did a sort of nose wheelie down the hill. At the bottom I was going way to fast and ran into a fallen tree. When I picked myself up I found my front was too bent to roll through the front rim brake. I decided to throw in the towel. Maybe I could have fixed the wheel with a lot of trouble, but after all my bad luck I figured I'd had enough.

I walked 20 minutes down to Iron Creek Lake and begged a ride back into town. At least I got my t shirt.
Baldy finished in a little over six hours. He hadn't been riding much this year, so it was quite a suffer fest for him. The winner was a ringer from CO on the Trek factory team. He obliterated the course record by 20 minutes. Kerkove finished first in his age category with a crazy HR profile. I don't know how its possible to hold over 170 bpm for 4 hours.

So the score so far is Dakota 50: 3, Karl: 0.

I could use a million different excuses. I had a head cold going into the race. I was riding a rental bike. I didn't bolus right the morning of. My training didn't come together right in August. Whatever it is, I just never seem to have it on Labor day in Spearfish. Maybe sometime I'll get it right.