First the cliff notes – Those that do not know about Lotoja, it is one of the longest single day race in the world, and the longest in America.  Goes from Logan Utah to Jackson Hole Wyoming.  206 miles through 3 States.  3 mountain passes and puts you just under 10,000 feet of climbing.  I felt stronger than ever before through the climbs and most of the race.  Although I came in  5 mins slower than last year it was overall a good race.  Geoff and I were together the whole time even sprinting to the finish.  10 hours 15 minutes.  The dumb part was on the back side of Salt we were flyin to catch 2 guys up ahead that were in the lead, then a tadem came by and 3 guys on our tail in our cat jumped on with them.  I hesitated cuz it was a Tandem, but then my buddy and I both were thinking, uh the other guys in our cat are leaving us.  So we barreled to catch them adding two other riders and 4 of us working but that whole group was within site but just out of reach all the way to Afton.  We ended up being 8 mins behind that group but first in the second group in.  Overall, good times.

Nice Stamp Tat!

After reading a few blogs about this years race I laugh a bit knowing that internally it is such a different experience for each individual.  For many it is a huge accomplishment to finish and to others are in it to win.  I on one hand am racing to win right, but for years I dreamed about one day doing this race.  Even before my brother did it I had it on my log of things to accomplish.  Last year was that for me, and this year I had a goal to beat.  Sub 10 hours.  This year was and is going very well.  I weigh less than I did in high school (my weight never really changes) by about 10 lbs, I feel good physically and psychologically it is quite the feeling when you push hard to the top of a mountain or canyon, then go to work.  You feel like you did something.  I have a great set of friends that I ride with and is fun to see us all improve over time.  Taking my improvement over last years training and adding it to 2x of this years training things gradually increasing.  I have not been much for being a climber so that is what I focus on.  Seem to handle the long rides and rolling hills good, so I keep my focus on the hills.  I saw this training come into action this past weekend during the climbs.  I was climbing better than I ever had.  Feeling really good.  This year we did Tour de Park City and came in 1st and 2nd place in our category and both getting prizes (thought that was cool) and 1000 Warriors Stage 4 of Tour of Utah which had a horrific accident but we still did our ride time in 5:40.  Felt like that was huge for me as that was all mountain hills.  So coming in to Lotoja for our second year we felt good.

This years adventure was a bit different for us.  Jenny and Taylor (my support crew) would bring along their support crew ages 5, 2, and 5 months.  We weren’t quite sure how this would go and when I didn’t see them at the Salt summit or at the Afton feed zone I worried they were having more difficulty than I.  I was grateful first of all that my wife was willing to come but that Taylor agreed to come help as well.

The race this year was so much warmer than last year and I was in my arm warmers and that’s it.  I dropped those in Preston.  Then we headed up Strawberry Canyon.  This is the longest climb of the day, not the speepest but the longest.  Things were going well, I was feeling good, and I could hear others breathing hard.  The guys just in front of me were doing fine so I tapped into their rhythm.  As we were cresting Geoff whipped his head around to see how far back I had fallen on the first summit and to his surprise I was right next to him.  I asked him if he was surprised to see me and he said yes.  I replied, “Good!”  Means we’re not going slow.  Geoff is a great climber and I find myself tagging him for a pace.  I dropped the hammer down the other side and the rest followed.  Eric flew in front of me and then the others.  We went back and forth all the way down then as we hit the flats we tried to get a good rotation going but a few of the guys didn’t want to do any pulling.  One of which ended up third in this race.  More later.  So we battled through the horrid crosswinds to Montpelier.  There my support was ready to go.  Jenny was a little more familiar this year and was all ready with gear in hand.  I tossed my old, grabbed the new and off I went.  Side note at this stop Jenny told me her proud moment.  There was a large cooler taking up lots of room and she politly asked the man that if she yelled my name if he might let her through.  He said he had been there longer and his riders should be coming through first.  Then another lady standing there asked her if it was her first time here.  Asking when I started.  She said, “7:07″ and she told her not to expect me as I had at least another 30-35 more minutes and just to sit back and chill.  Jenny said, no I think he should be… just then I rolled in.  So you can imagine the smile Jenny had walking back through the crowd as I came in even before their guys who started before me.  She said to me, “You rock!”  I do don’t I, in my own little world.

Out of Montpelier we head up to another summit.  Geneva.  Nothing to write home about but somehow we always seam to pass tons of riders.  Again this race is mentally challenging as well.  Dropping down the other side we were all together as a lead group heading to Salt River Pass.  I could see Eric inching his way up a head even before we started the last summit of the day.  I figured he would be pushing up and over on this one alone if he could.  This one climbs gradual for a while then kicks up.  I knew what to expect this time which was huge.  I was about 15th back when we started.  On this climb they do KOM or King of the Mountain.  They have a start at the bottom and a finish at the top.  Who ever is first gets the “Extra points”.  I sat back and watched as when it kicked I kicked it up a bit.  Passing all but three.  Eric was up a head, then Geoff, then me.  I was third in line on KOM.  That rocks!  And I was feeling great, like I still had lots more in me.  So as I crested and bombed it to catch Geoff.  I did and so did about 5 others.  I was pulling down with Geoff behind me heading to catch Eric, our lead guy.  Just then and tadem FLEW by us.  In my mind I didn’t think of jumping in his wake cuz it was a tadem right?  Well the guys in our group sitting with us did.  So while I was there thinking hmm… no that’s a tadem… hmmm, but the guys in our race cat just took off.  Um, Geoff, we need to catch them.  All this in the matter of a split second, but that split second cost us.  We pushed and pushed to catch them.  So close, and just right ahead of us but never catching them.  They caught Eric and another group and would eventually all go in to the finish together, us being the next group 8 mins behind.  With us exploiting all energy to catch them and yet to no avail.  Two other guys caught on with us and we worked and worked.  I remember passing a girl and she I guess jumped in with us but would not take a pull, nor really sit on the back.  She would get in the rotation then fall out.  I was pulling at one time when cuss words were flyin.  One guy was yelling at her to take a pull or get out.  Or sit on the back but don’t get in our rotation.  It was messing us up.  He was right, she could just sit on the back and we could care less.  Well, we arrived in Afton and were quite toasted.  I pulled in to my spot, where’s Jenny?  Um, where’s Jenny.  No Jenny!  Uh oh.  So I went to neutral support and filled up my bottle, and grabbed some oranges (story there for later) and off we went again.  I felt bad as I knew she would have been there if all was well.

From Afton to Alpine we sat back and spun.  We were tired and wanted to get a breather so we did.  I saw my support crew pass us with Adyson hanging out the window yelling “Go, Go, Go, Go Daddy!!!!!”  That was awesome.  Even more awesome that I wasn’t quite sure if she even saw me, as she was just looking out in the distance while yelling it.  I laughed and thought that was pretty cool.  They pulled over a few times and yelled as we went by.  That was also very cool.  Thanks Team!  Jenny wanted to stop just incase I was dying and needed something I would stop if I needed it.  I was ok and kept riding.

Alpine I grabbed more oranges and gel and perpetuem.  I was needing those things, maybe not the oranges.  From here to Jackson is the pretiest.  We saw several bald eagles, gorgeous river, pretty canyon.  It does have some hills but not bad.  We got in a pretty good group and usually the group you are in with here you stay with till the end.  Same case here.  There were 4 of us for quite a while but we started to grab others as we went.  This stretch is the most difficult mentally I think.  You are in it about 170 or so miles.  Long enough now that it is wearing, yet close enough you can start to smell the end, but yet still far enough away you can’t get excited yet.  I always seam to dig deep here mentally.  My feet were going numb and were sore.  I kept turning them to let blood flow, but after a while I was tweaking my knee and it started hurting so I just stabilized and kept pedaling.  Getting nutrition is also difficult.  You need it.  Burning 12,000 calories or so you need to replenish.  But by this time gagging and keeping it down is a delicate balance.  You don’t want any more gu or gel, no more bars, no more oranges, no more drink.  Body starts shutting down it seams like.  The tendency here is to not eat or drink.  That is worse so you just get it down somehow.

Finally we are rounding the corner to hit the finish line in the Tetons.  6 miles to go.  Our goal was to be sub 10 hrs.  I looked at the clock and it was off, but I was thinking we might just make it.  I told Geoff and we kicked it up several notches.  So did about 3 others.  We were pushing hard and moving fast.  I looked back and we had about 18 sandbaggers hanging on to our group.  I didn’t want to go back very far.  I felt I had a sprint coming :’).  Kinda like our own little version of a grand tour race.  The field getting stretched out and readying for  a sprint.  I was sitting in second position at about 5 kms out and other guy with Train with Eric jersey came up out of rotation and took a huge pull.  He became our lead out man, and did it well.  at about the 1km I could literally feel others coming up around me.  Geoff was one of them, so I jumped on with him and our “leadout” guy peeled off… now the sprint was underway!  I was holding on to Geoff and when he started to piddle out I thought, oh no you went too early!  Just then a guy on the right was coming up so I swung over to grab him and Geoff thought the same, pushing me out of line and out past the cones.  A little scuttle and he moved back, and I moved in between the two of them and hit the gas.  I ended up several bike lengths a head across the finish.  Geoff was right behind me. That was fun!

Then hanging out at the finish.  I started feeling soooo sick.  Finally chucked and within 60 seconds I felt back to myself.  It was All ORANGES!  I think I ate 6 or 7 of them in the second half.  Ooops.  Note to self, all things in moderation.

Too many Oranges

Summary:

Don’t eat that many oranges.  Geoff rode a huge improvement over last year.  Not surprising he has become quite strong, heavy on the hills but also on the endurance as well.  Kudo’s to him.  I do wish we could have done sub 10 hrs, or at least been contenders for Second and Third place if we would have jumped on with the tandem I think we could have been.  Too bad, but that is the way it rolls.  The day is a very hard one and very unpredictable.  And yes the next day we do have short term memories and are already planning next year.  We have some un-finished business to attend to as Eric put it.  I forget that years ago this goal was huge for me, and very glad to have done it.  Any one planning or having done it go for it, and or congrats.  It is a feat, and a very cool one!  So with that keep riding, and keep improving where ever you sit.

Click here for More pictures here.

Crossing the finish line

Flying down the first decent