The Second Half

Destination Gallup, NM

We rolled in at dusk on Friday, and it was just damn cold. When you really look at the vegetation that surrounds Gallup, you realize why it is a wasteland – I mean what can grow in a climate that has 40+ degree daily temperature fluctuations nearly 300 days a year? After a few greetings and jokes with some other Flagstaff riders, we crawled into our bags – inside the Subaru – for probably the coldest night I can remember car camping. The low was 12. I woke up at 6am cramped, sore, and excited about the fact that I was getting out of “bed”.

Quick change into the cycling costume, with layers of gear so I didn’t freeze. The gun went off at 7:00 sharp with a quick decent to a relatively easy uphill grade on a 5 mile road to spread everyone out. I was quickly off the lead group, and into the pack – slipping – slipping back until I could no longer see the leaders. I kind of settled into a groove of mediocrity that seemed to match both my mad skillz and numb and somewhat disinterested mental state for the day. Once we hit the singletrack, nobody was passing me, and I was passing those ultra-endurance big bottomed girls and slower dudes who went out a little too hard on the fire road – a bad warm up in these temps took its toll on a lot of riders.

I rode 26 miles at a steady effort, took a break for 10 minutes to shed to cold weather gear and get some breakfast down the hatch, then rode two more 13 mile loops and called it a day after about 4 laps totaling 5 hours and 15 minutes. My bottom bracket was clunking, but still working – but mentally I just wasn’t having a ton of fun on that bike. I was about an hour and 45 minutes faster than last year over the same distance. Last year was on a single speed and this year I brought the gears and full suspension. That was the difference, more so than a moderate improvement in fitness. I never felt great, and I didn’t feel like I really accomplished anything by riding less than 6 hours of a 12 hour event. Then again, all I really wanted was 52 miles at a good pace since that matches the distance of my next event in two weeks. D was waiting patiently at the camp supporting everyone from our team, and it was nice to take some time and hang with her in the afternoon as the rest of our teammates wrapped their races up at random times. Most finished with 5-6 laps taking anywhere from 6-9 hours to complete them. Our dynamic duo (Gary and Kristen) won the Co-Ed Duo category beating out THE Trek legend Travis Brown and his wife by a lap. Pretty damn impressive for the two fastest racers on our team.