Not much to see here, folks, move along…

The race didn’t quite go as planned for me. First, rewind a little bit. Back at the Spa City 6hr, I had some pain in the palm of my hand & forearm. It subsided within a day or two, and I thought nothing else of it. Then, over Spring Break, I did a lot of MTB riding in Arkansas. The pain came back. When it started to subside, I was left with weakness in my 3rd and pinky fingers. It was causing me to drop things & generally be uncoordinated with my right hand. This is consistent with compression of the Ulnar Nerve…

So, I’ve been avoiding the MTB. I think that the padding on my gloves (swapped from winter ones to summer ones) was putting pressure on the area, and I’ve been riding my road bike in the meantime. It didn’t seem to irritate the area as long as I paid attention to my hand position.

Back to the race…
I lined up with the B race (W1/2/3 and Cat 4 men). The start was generally mundane. Someone attacked from the start, and rather than chase like crazy, a few guys got up front and rode tempo to bring him back steadily. Early in the first lap, we hit the short gravel road section. Unlike Rouge, I was able to stay with the pack’s little bit of a surge. My legs were actually feeling good. A few of the guys up front (including Dale Sanford, who eventually won) briefly picked up the pace in order to shed the riders struggling with the terrain.

A mile or so later, the pace slacked up a bit. It was at that time that I noticed that my problematic fingers were totally numb. I’d had my hands down in the crook of my drops and hadn’t been paying any attention to keeping the pressure off of where it didn’t need to be. I tried shaking my hand out a bit and resting it in a more neutral position, but it felt horrible. In the interest of saving my “tough the pain out” day for next weekend’s Ouachita Challenge, I pulled out of the race. My first DNF ever. Crap.

I made the “ride of shame” back to the start/finish area and waited for Ryan to get back from his race. Oh, well. Live to fight another day.

The theme of the weekend was Luck.

The Weather.com forecast predicted rain (and possibly snow!) for most of the day on Friday. However, watching the radar, the precipitation seemed to dissipate as it reached the Hot Springs area. Matt and I didn’t get there in time to pre-ride, but talking to people milling around, it sounded like a pretty tame 10 mile loop. So, we set up our pit and headed back to town for dinner.

Saturday morning was chilly and gorgeous. I was feeling good while I was getting ready, and managed to squeeze in to a nice spot on the tri-style bike racks that were set up for the Le mans start (thank you Cyclocrunk for helping me to perfect my Le mans strategy!)

Lining up, I couldn’t tell who was entered in the Pro category and who was age group (aside from Rebecca Rusch, who was wearing kit with World Champ stripes). It was my first NRC Endurance race, and everyone looked fit and ready to kill it.

When the race started, it was business time. I got a nice position in the pack- not in the lead group where I’d blow myself up, but also not behind people that’d be bobbling switchbacks and/or granny-gearing the first climb. Within a few miles, I forced myself to settle into a sustainable pace. I didn’t know where I was in relation to my competition other than “behind Rebecca.” It was tempting to go hard, but I kept reminding myself that I had a long day ahead of me.

Laps 1-3 were prettymuch more of the same. I wrecked twice on lap 2- once was one of those mystery “wheel grabs” that belly-flopped me onto the ground, and the other was caused by hitting a slippery patch in a turn on a descent. That one could have been a lot worse, but somehow I managed to keep my wits about me during the fall process and, even though I fell into a ditch, I executed it with an Olympic-10 of a tuck and roll.

Lap 4 started to get hard. My back and arms started to hurt. I slowed down a little, but then a friend of mine along the trail told me that I was holding 2nd place. I gave myself a bit of a tough-love pep talk.

“You’re in 2nd place in your first NRC Endurance Race, and you’re slowing down? HTFU, take some Aspirin at the pit, and GTFO!”

The actual dialogue going on in my head included a lot more foul language, but you get the idea.

At the end of my 5th lap, I had the option of going out for another. I’d have to complete it in under 1hr, 17 min, which would have been tough. My inexperience was showing- I hurt all over, and I’d blown myself up a bit. I didn’t think I could make the lap, so I took a gamble and decided to not do it. Laureen Coffelt was almost 12 minutes behind me- if she made another lap, it’d knock me down to 3rd. While I was changing & having a snack, she rolled through the pit. She had 1 hour, 5 min to complete her lap.

Longest hour/five of my life. She missed it by 37 seconds.

I got lucky this time, but I have a feeling she’s going to have that 37 seconds in her head until the next time we meet up. I’m going to have to work harder between now & then to keep her from dragging/beating that 37 seconds out of me.

Today I feel like someone beat my legs/arms with a hose. I shouldn’t. It was “only” 50 miles/5:12 of riding. I’ve got harder races approaching and potential sponsors to woo. That type of effort should be more like a hard day of training than an effort that kills me for a few days. I should be able to go for the 6th lap and kill it.

Next stop- Rouge Roubaix. Take no prisoners.

Download here for $2.99: XXC Mag

First story is the Southern Cross coverage… including my race report! I’m in a magazine that’s got Rebecca Rusch on the cover! OMG!

Aside from that, it’s generally a great magazine. I’ve been readng it since the beginning, and I thoroughly enjoy every issue.

If you take a look at the links over to the right, you’ll notice I added a new category for sponsors. I’d like to thanks Travis at the new Daddymart online bike shop for helping me out with the build parts for the Jet9 (that won’t actually be here until almost May) He’s in the process of building up his inventory, so if you don’t see what you’re looking for on there, then just shoot him an email and he can usually get what you need. If you use the coupon code “brickhouse” when you order, you can get an additional 15% off of your total!

I’m still in the process of gathering sponsors to help with a somewhat ambitious moutain bike season. I’m planning on entering a couple of NRC Endurance races as well as 4-5 100milers in the NUE series. If you’re reading this, and you’re interested in helping, let me know (andrea@brickhouseracing.com)!

Even though the temps hovered in the 40s and clouds enveloped the upper elevations of the climbs on course, it was much, much nicer than it could have been if the race hadn’t been rescheduled from a couple of weeks ago when several inches of snow fell and temps hung in the low 20’s.

It’s not often that I get butterflies, but after losing last year to Carey Lowery in the last 100 meters of race course, I had more reason than payout to do well this year (unfortunately, Carey wasn’t able to make it this year because of a recent surgery). Before the race start, I rode around the CX loop that we’d circle before and after the 50something mile gravel route through the national forest. This loop was a lot easier than the Mulberry Gap loop from last year, so I wasn’t too worried.

When the race started, I tried to make the best use of the cross course to get ahead of the other women. My strategy worked well, and I ended up entering the gravel just a little behind the group of men’s race leaders. Once I got away from Camp Wahsega, I forced myself to settle into a sustainable tempo (I have a bad habit of starting out too fast). The first climb (Winding Stair) went by quickly, and soon enough, I passed the aid station, headed up a few more miles, then started the descent down to several miles of pavement.

I like descents… other than having to stop for a lost water bottle (damn crappy cage!), I hauled all sorts of ass. The way I see it, descents are free time if you can go faster than your competition without wrecking or having a mechanical. I set my brakes up especially for this- I can grab my drops and wrap a finger or two around the brake lever without rubbing the pad on the rim unless I squeeze it a little more.

The road section was where I knew I could make up time on the other women. With ladies like Emily Brock and Brenda Simril chasing you, playing up your strengths can be pivotal… I got in my drops and put my head down, maintaining the same strong tempo effort I’d hit on the way up the first climb. At one point, the Applegates passed me on their tandem. Sweet! They ended up going slightly slower than what I was originally aiming for, but the energy-saving benefit of sitting behind a 29er tandem when there’s a headwind is pretty awesome.

Once we were back on the gravel, the second climb started soonafter. The Applegates & I were back & fourth- they were generally faster on the flat/downhill streches and I was a little faster uphill. This was also where my legs started to ache. For a minute, I slowed down, but then I recalled the hours of trail and road riding in Mountain View that I’d put in during Winter Break. So, I gritted my teeth, cleared the whiney thoughts from my head, and pushed harder.

Miles later, I stopped at the last aid station to quickly get a little water and toss my vest, which had been bothering me since the zipper stuck halfway down a few miles back. At that point, the Applegates passed me again (I wasn’t really racing them, but they acted a little bit as a rabbit to chase to keep me going). A few miles later, the final descent began. At first, it was foggy and rocky. I was a little cautious for the first section since a wreck, flat, or broken equipment would be pretty disasterous. However, once it smoothed out, I went back to going all-out. A couple of times, I felt my rear wheel skidding precariously around the damp, sandy turns… it was both incredibly fun and incredibly terrifying all at once. (The Applegates left me in the dust- they not only had a heavy & very stable machine with fatter tires & front suspension, they also have the skill and cajones to take full advantage of it!)

Soon enough, I was back at Camp Wahsega. Eddie set up a killer run-up (everyone said it was worse than last year, but I didn’t think so) and a little singletrack to navigate before re-entering the CX loop. When I got to the base, I noticed that Ryan was about halfway up. Happy to be off my bike, I shouldered it and started to climb. Once I got to the top, I hopped back on and headed down some rooty trail, over a few trees, and around the last couple of bridges before re-entering the course (I also managed to pass Ryan somewhere along the way). As I entered the section of barriers, I caught back up to the Applegates. I thought about attacking & diving around them, but then figured it wasn’t really all that important, so I told them that I’d back off so we could all have good finishing photos (hopefully those will surface soon!)

So my hard work paid off… I finished ~20 minutes ahead of the 2nd place woman. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. I’ve got a lot more work to do before I’m 100% ready to conquer my first 100 miler in a few months.

HUGE thanks to Eddie and Namrita O’Dea for putting this race on. It’s always going to be one of my favorites, and I LOVE that they pay the women out the same as the men ($500 for 1st place!!!) You guys rock!

Photo from the first climb (courtesy of Chris Hines)