I had really high hopes when I signed up for Camino Real in October. I figured, it couldn't be any worse than last years ride. Last year my whole motivation was to finish before dark in the worst storm of the year and luckily, I accomplished that with a first place.
http://racedaytiming.com/results.php?event=35
This year was a different story. Usually, I like to train for these rides by riding 4-5 days and 200-300 miles a week for a couple months. This year, I rode my bike once a week for 5 months, then rode 5 100 mile rides in the last month and a half. I knew I was going into this ride unprepared. How am I going to ride 1 day a week, 50-100 miles a week for a 200 mile ride? The only things I had on my side was experience and not being human. I was really counting on the not being human part to pull me through. So here's the story...
The plan, wake up at 4:30am, eat, walk the dog, load the car and get to the start by 6am. The dog took a little longer to walk, since she's not used to walking at 5am. I'm behind schedule but I should still make it in time. As I'm driving there, I remember I forgot my number and ride directions on the kitchen table. After turning around and getting my stuff, I arrive right when everybody is leaving. By the time I get ready to check in to leave, the leaders are 5 minutes up the road and the stragglers are a couple minutes up the road. All hope is not lost, so I time trial for 9 miles at 25 miles an hour and catch the lead pack just as we start climbing Jamboree Rd. I quickly notice I've wasted a ton of energy and everybody else is fresh as can be. The next climb is San Joaquin Hills Rd. and this is when I notice who's going to be strong and who's not. Unfortunately, I'm on the not strong side because when I reach the top I'm 15 seconds behind 8 riders. After chasing again for several miles a tandem comes by with a bunch of riders and we eventually catch the lead pack in Laguna Beach. After 22 miles, I finally get to recover till we reach our first checkpoint at mile 55. We have a pack of 15 or so riders as we reach the checkpoint. I see a giant pack leaving and I have to gobble down a 1/3 of a PBJ sandwich. I'm in time trial mode again, 10 seconds behind this pack but I just can't seem to pull them back as they keep taking turns on the front. After a 12 mile time trial I get caught by the tandem and Burrito Bob in Oceanside. I'm done wasting energy, I still have 130 more miles to go, I'm going to kick back and take turns with Burrito. 5-10 miles later we see the lead pack on the side of the road fixing a flat. I tell Burrito, lets kick back and let them catch up so we don't have to waste anymore energy. They catch up 15 minutes later and we all ride to the lunch stop at mile 88. This time I'm keeping an eye on things, a few riders take off and I decide to leave with 3 other guys. After mile 95 we catch 3-4 riders and now have a group of 8. The guys are talking about some guy who is up the road and how good he is. These guys are obviously good because they're wearing Furnace Creek jersey's and Hoodoo jerseys. Furnace Creek is a legendary 508 mile race and Hoodoo is a brand new 500 mile race in Utah. As we are doing another climb at mile 98, I notice that I just don't have the power to keep up. My lower back is really hurting and I think it's from those hard time trials I had to do earlier in the day. My speed has severely dropped and there's no way I can take this pain for another 6 hours. Burrito catches me at mile 110 and I tell him I'm going to drop out. He tells me to get behind him and navigate. Burrito pulled all the way to the next water stop at mile 121. I tried to drop out and Burrito told me we are a team and we're going to stick together. I guess I have to because the SAG vehicle probably won't arrive for another 5 hours. Once again, Burrito did most of the pulling to checkpoint #3 at mile 136. I would've called my wife to pick me up, but she was in Wisconsin. I brought up the fact that I wanted to drop out, but noboby seemed to listen to me. One good thing about the checkpoint was that we hooked up with another rider. Burrito and this guy pulled me to the next checkpoint at mile 169. I'm not going to drop out with 30 miles to go. I did start feeling better towards the end of the ride and was able to contribute in the end. Two huge lessons learned, always train for a 200 mile bike ride and I guess I am human after all.
http://racedaytiming.com/r_results.php?event=49
10th place, 11 hours and 43 minutes total time.
10 hours 55 minutes riding time.
