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Snapshot
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:: Don Elkins
:: Program Manager
:: Mountain Biking, Road
:: Master
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2007 Results
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Race :: Result
Valentine's Challenge :: 7th
Capitol Forest MTB Revival :: 9th
Seatac Shuffle :: 5th
Whidbey Island Mudder :: Injured
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Seatac Shuffle
Seatac, WA
April 6, 2008
Mens XC
Bavarian Bike & Brews Fest
Leavenworth, WA
June 7th, 2008
Mens XC
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Settle down or pay the price
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June 22 '08
It was a beautiful day for racing - low 70s, dry, and clear. I barely made it to the start due to traffic, my warm up was the sprint to get my bib, throw on my clothes, jump on the bike, sprint up to the start line and BAM! We're off to the races.
We started fast on a very slight uphill, cut right through the trees, and we're on rolling single track... nothing technical, but the trail was bone dry and dusty so the corners were a bit sketchy. Everyone started to spread out and I tried to settle into a comfortable pace... well I thought it was a comfortable pace :)
Glancing down at my heart monitor I see that I'm at 177 bpm.... well, that's a little off of "comfortable." I can sustain that for a while, but not for 80 minutes. I didn't want to give up positions to anyone else, but about 30 minutes in I started to slip... I'd depleted my legs pretty substantially and my reserves were pretty well tapped.
I held on long enough to limit the damage (only lost two places, from 6th to 8th I believe), and beat off one guy from my group that wanted to pass me (it took me some time to crush his spirit - he wanted to pass me badly, so I forced him to stay on my wheel while I set a grueling pace up two hilly stretches midcourse, which forced him to stop and walk - that was the last I saw of him).
The last 20 minutes were less fun than the first 20, but I learned a lot on this course about what I need to work on and what I'm doing well. I have work to do before the next race - let's see if I can improve and apply what I've learned in the this race!
I did have one strange encounter... some guy with a bizarre accent started barking at me from behind on the sketchy switchback downhill section... I think he said something about "people with yellow bikes" and "think they can ride anywhere they want" mumble mumble mumble... I can't be sure, but I think he said "y'all sure do got a perdy mouth..." I let him pass... you don't want people like that (Craig guy) folllowing you around :)
I can't think of a better way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
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Bavarian Bike & Brew was fun... really
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Everyone had a blast today... The 4 mile hill climb was challenging (same as last year but 15 degrees cooler). Last year I was so overheated on this climb it was all I could do to finish - this year, that crown was passed to someone else, "random beginner vomiting at the summit." (sorry Clinton, no pics :) )
All of the 529'ers came in within 6 minutes of each other. J, Raman, Tina, then me.
Tina managed to get 2nd in her class - no small feat given that this year the women's age bracket is 19 and over.. Grats Tina!
I have to give props to Raman for his logo for the new blur... Masterfully done Raman. Thanks!
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Feel the burn
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Well, I missed the Whidbey Island Mudder (got some great pics of the team though), so this was my first race back after my pinky dislocation.
I was feeling good Saturday morning, the drive up with Paul and Sharon rocked ("Panda Style... you know what I'm talking about...), and was ready to tear up the course. I love hill climbs, so I was looking forward to this course - we'd start with a 4 mile hill climb and finish with a 4 mile downhill... FUN!
As we get to the starting line, the temperature crests 80, and the sun is beating down on us. Probably not a good day to wear all black, but I'm not worried at this point... where I started to get concerned was mile 2...
Mile 2 is where it hits me - we're barely into the hill climb and I start to overheat. This has always been a problem for me on the road, but I've always been able to drench my head, back of a little bit, and get my core temperature back in check... we were having none of that on Saturday.
By mile 3 I'm moving pretty slowly, I'm getting passed by the field, and the only thought running through my head is "be efficient - you have to finish, oh, and try not to vomit - you don't need to get more dehydrated"
I rode Raman's wheel for a bit on the climb somewhere around mile 3 - it gave me something to focus on and locked my pace - thanks for the draft Raman. That didn't last long, though, as Raman was feeling pretty spry and dropped me somewhere around 3.5 miles. That was the last I saw of any 529'ers.
The downhill was amazing... fast, twisty, fun little launches created by washouts... probably the longest, fastest, and certainly the most fun decent I've evern done. It was hot, but the wind helped me get my core temp down to a reasonable level, so by the time I reached the finish line I wasn't nearly as queasy.
I have no idea how I placed - the organizers suffered some sort of snafu with the classes, so they're trying to straighten that out now and get the results posted... I finished, which is saying something - I'm just hoping that I didn't come in DFL.
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One of these things is not like the other...
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Well, on our st. eds ride on Wednesday night I had a little accident.
This was my ride in the “trees ph33r me” t-shirt (a gift from Paul, along with the nickname "Lumberjack" for repeatedly removing trees from the ecosystem. In my opinion I'm doing nature a favor, as these were obviously weak trees).
Clinton warned me that my blatant disrespect for nature was a very bad idea, but I told him confidently that I wasn’t worried.
It was a beautiful night, huge group winding its way through the trees – what could be better? Hold on, that corner’s a lot tighter than I thought, I’d better bleed some speed… hold on, where’d my front tire go? Good thing I’ve got that tree in front of me to bleed all of that extra speed.
I got up quickly, checked to make sure that everything was still attached, then grabbed my handlebars to pick up my bike…OUCH! Pulled off the glove to check the damage… hmm… my finger’s not supposed to be pointing in that direction.
Props to Paul on his triage skills… “Is it swelling up like a summer sausage?” I held up the hand with the glove still on and that was pretty much all he needed to complete his assessment.
I was pretty sure that my finger was broken, but it turned out that it was just supremely dislocated.
The swelling has gone down, but the joint is pretty much unusable at the moment, which doesn't bode well for this weekend's race... guess we'll just have to see if it's tape-able at that point.
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'08 Sponsors
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'08 Endurance Team
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