Bryan McKenney raced 12-hour TT. 5 hours into race, he stopped and chatted as I got ready for 6-hour TT. He looked relaxed and pointed out the 2nd place a hundred yards behind. He had a few moments to spare. Must be nice to have this level of confidence.
_Low expectation
TTTT was my 2008 “D” event. Unrecovered from Montreal. A2A was 8 days away. If I have to pick an event to suck less, A2A wins. My IM CDA housemate Erik Bricker arrived late. He dashed in the registration when his competitors already lined up to start.
I reminded myself, “No risk. No digging” as the gun went off. 20-mile loop. I’d do 80 miles. 100 max.
_Crash
Drafting was allowed the first few miles. 1 guy took off like a rocket. Rest of us formed a nice pace line. The pace lifted, I let the pack go. This was a recon ride; I didn’t need to trust everyone in front of me. I saw the wreck 4 miles into the race. I rode slowly with another racer waiting for the pack. Erik caught us: 1 bike broke; pretty much everyone went down. Erik, hanging off back of the pack due to late arrival, was one of the few escaped. 1 girl was hurt bad. There was no cell phone signal. Some racers rode back to the start to alert medicals. All the sudden I was one of the leaders. I lost my resolve of not racing. 120 miles was the new goal, which seemed insufficient to surpass the lead guy, but this was cycling. Everyone was 1 mechanical issue away from stopping.
_Direction
The organizer made it clear “2 right turns only.”
The first turn was clear: green right turn arrow + manned intersection.
At next intersection, I saw black left turn paint on the ground. It didn’t occur to me black meant, “Erased.” I asked the cop at intersection by pointing left. He nodded. I follow the arrow. A few miles later I rolled to a boat ramp looking at the pretty lake. My race was over. The covered left turn was used for July Goatneck ride.
_Reconnaissance
I changed GPS to map mode and got back to the course. The 3-year old GPS locked up, which never happened before. Freaky day. I saw McKenney on the course and used him as a guide. He wouldn’t get lost after being on the course for 7 hours. Using cosmetic arguments, he convinced me to chase the 6-hour woman leader.
I lost motivation by end of 2nd lap. I’d seen the course and have no chance of a top finish. I took a long break at the car before 3rd lap. Legs got pretty tired of climbing. I was uncomfortable in aero position and had no reason to go hard. I finished the lap and called it the day.
At the award I got to pose with a trophy. The director promised I’d get one in the mail. I wanted to tell him my performance didn’t deserve a trophy but didn’t want to be disrespectful.
McKenney had the win in the bag before his rear tire self-destructed. The organizer announced his 2nd place qualified him as “rookie of the year.” He shrugged off the mechanical issue as “part of racing.” It turns out he really has a non-imaginary girl friend who’s not a hired actress. No actress could hammer out 500 miles under 36 hours.
#’s
4:06
official mile: 60
approx mile rode: 70
2551 cal
avg HR: 76%
crash: 0
off course count: 1
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