After not getting into Leadville at the Austin Rattler, I was in a desperate state of affairs... I've had to ponder the meaning of life and consider what sort of alternatives I have available if I don't get in, I mean really what's left? How will life go on? OK so that's a dramatization of course, but I really do want into the race! As I mentioned in my last blog I am going to do the SilverRush50 but the odds won't be good, so my only other opportunity is to do the Barn Burner 104 in Flagstaff, AZ.
I couldn't figure out how to make flying out to it work, it was just going to be too expensive, so next option is to take some vacation, skip the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic in Durango (the weekend B4) and drive the 18 hours myself to Flagstaff... and that's just what I did!
It was a long drive, but other than just eating too much along the way, it went by pretty quick, I was listening to Book 3 of the Master & Commander series and that kept me well entertained! I rolled into Flagstaff around 1am, parked at a Walmart and slept in the car. Sleeping in the car is always a terrible option, but I'm too cheap to pay for a hotel, besides that it's supposed to be cool in the mountains and I have nothing to do all day Friday, so I'll just sleep and rest up for the race.
That was a great plan, but it turns out its HOT in the mountains, and even worse yet, it was super DUSTY, I set up my tent under some pine trees, and tried to rest, but it just wasn't possible. It was also a long drive on bad roads out to the race start/camp grounds that it hardly seemed worth it to drive back to Flagstaff for the afternoon, I knew it would cool down once the sun set, so now it was long day of suffering in the heat just to get the day over with.. Finally around 6 I decided I would get on the bike and loosen the legs up, it was still hot and I didn't feel like riding, but I figured I better. That went ok, and after that was the racer meeting and before I knew it the sun was down and it was cooling down fast. The cold night was awesome, I slept great and was ready to go in the morning!
The Lemans (running) start was kind of fun, I got some good advice from some other guys and got a pretty good start overall, the trick was to set up your bike way at the end of the bikes (avoid the crowd) and run around all the craziness at the start, hard to explain but it worked well and I was off in decent position.
It was dusty as expected and I really figured by lap 3 I would have a headache from it, but for lap 1 I kept telling myself: "Use the force Luke" I liked this movie quote because I could hardly see the trail it was so dusty and I was riding based on where I saw the guy in front of me last. It was kind of scary, but everytime I saw the guy in front of me he was still upright so I figured I would be ok too.
I'm not really sure if that proved to be true, because a couple miles into lap 2 my rear tire bubbled up and popped! It was just the outer skin, but it was loud enough I thought the whole tire was done. Amazingly the Stan's sealant seemed to be holding and I had to decide if I should turn around or just keep going, it was big risk to keep going, because I could be looking at 12 mile walk back and the end of my day... I couldn't stomach the idea of turning around so I kept moving forward, around 3/4 of the way through the lap the tire went flat! I stopped and filled it up with the pump, but it went flat again shortly after, so now I had to put a tube in it, the tube held and finished the lap. Many thanks to Landis Cyclery who was doing neutral support and had tires for sale! It took all the cash I had on me, which was only $48 to buy a new tire and they even installed it for me and I was on my way! Wow, I was back and timewise I was in great shape, I started lap 3 at 5 hours into the race.
What I didn't know was that my legs were going downhill fast. Lap 3 hurt and I wouldn't say I was truly "Digging Deep" but I was getting close. I was slowed down enough that any chance of a 9 hour finish (for the big belt buckle) was out, but that was ok I had plenty of time to just finish!
I really figured or maybe hoped that lap 4 would be about the same as lap 3 but not even, Lap 4 was nothing but pure survival and I was deep in the hurt locker! Barring some terrible mechanical failure I had plenty of time to finish and finally I rolled across the finish line around 10:20 and got my finisher medal and belt buckle! I was so glad to be off that course.
This race was so epic that finishing it in itself was a great accomplishment, not wanting to get my hopes up for the lottery, I decided that this 100 miler (which was actually around 106 miles) was epic enough for this summer if there were no more... That is until my name was drawn in the lottery! I was super excited! I got my entry "coin" from Ken and a letter for how to sign up. Thank goodness for the letter, it had a link in it to sign up and I didn't have to wait in line for an hour (or more) like the previous Qualifiers! This was a great improvement and allowed me to leisurely register on Sunday.
So I'm In! Now to just keep training and see how I feel for the rest of the week, because my plan is to swing through Moab, Fruita, Gunnison, and Crested Butte if I have the legs for it this week!
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